Text 13709, 180 rader
Skriven 2008-09-14 08:12:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av BILL SWISHER
Ärende: banking 908
===================
 BS> I've discovered that repeatedly punching the "0" button often gets you
 BS> to an operator.  And it's therapeutic.

The nastier companies have installed telephone tree mechanisms that
will get you a dial tone if you do this. I've discovered this the
hard way: at one 800 number, which one I forget, the 0 trick gets a
fairly nasty-toned "goodbye" and click, mmmmmmmmm.

Another tip for the frustrated: gethuman.com!

Serious Ragu Bolognese
cat: fxcuisine, Italian, sauce
yield: 8 c

2 Tb butter
2 Tb oil
50 g pancetta or parma ham or quality dried bacon
500 g ground chuck beef
- or half beef and half pork shoulder
500 g pureed and skinned tomatoes (passata)
1 md onion
1 md carrot
1 celery stick
2 chicken livers
60 mL dry white wine
240 mL full fat milk
240 mL chicken stock
Salt, pepper
1 pn nutmeg

Bolognese is one of the most famous dishes in Italy, but
where outside Bologna can one eat a proper ragu these days?
Right in your kitchen if you follow my recipe.

To most people outside Italy, Bolognese is lowly refectoire
fare, most often bought from the supermarket when not eaten
straight off the can. But in Bologna, one of Italy's most
prestigious cities for food, ragu bolognese is a legendary
dish that is not only part, but defines the city's identity.
Tackling such a legend would undoubtedly trigger a torrent
of indignant emails from concerned Bolognese readers. How
dare you call this ragu Bolognese, they would say, you are
not from our beloved red city. Well, I have an ace up my
chef blouse, one that trumps them all. Two legendary Bologna
home chefs, sisters Margherita and Valeria Simili, have
become the most respected authority on all things related to
Bolognese pasta. In their book 'Sfida al Matterello', a
manual in Italian to teach the principles of homemade pasta,
la sfoglia bolognese, there is a whole chapter about making
ragu. It is called 'His Majesty the Ragu'. Here is how they
do it.

The Simili twins call for pancetta or Parma ham, which you
need to finely dice. As you'll see later, I used half
prosciutto and half Valaisian petit lard, a local flavorsome
bacon.

Prepare the aromatic garniture. Peel your carrot and onions
and garlic clove if using. Trim and wash a celery stick.

Cut the carrot lengthwise into thin slices, then
perpendicular to that cut to make long sticks and finally
perpendicular to the two former cuts to make an orange sea
of tiny carrot cubes.

Proceed with the celery stick. Be thorough, roughly cut
cubes will show in the final product. Finely dicing these
vegetables is a way to show respect to the recipe, the
produce and your guests. Reserve in a small bowl.

If you think chicken liver is best left to the dogs, I won't
blame you. But in ragu bolognese, it is an essential
ingredient. The liver taste melts and disappears into the
whole, bringing a slight hit-me-back taste. Nobody will be
any the wiser unless they are from Bologna. If you are
doubtful, please try with a little piece, for Daddy, and
you'll see. Wash carefully the livers to remove the
slightest trace of the greenish bile, then crush the livers
under a flat knife and chop them.

Place your widest frying pan on a very hot burner and add 2
Tb oil with 2 Tb butter. Why a wide pan, and why mix oil
with butter? We will soon saute the meat to develop its
taste through browning - Maillard reaction. If we place too
much meat in too small a pan, the meat will render its
juices and that will prevent any browning. You'll be boiling
your meat in its own juice. If you have a small pan or a
weak flame, you'll need to brown the meat in several
batches. There is no point in doing this unless you can get
your meat to turn brown, so if you'd rather ignore this
recommendation (which comes directly from the Simili twins),
you could ignore the meat sauteing altogether, whith a much
less tasty end product of course. We mix the butter with oil
so as to increase the temperature beyond which the butter
will burn. Add the onions and fry until the onions are soft
and their water has evaporated. You do not need to wait
until they are brown.

Next stop - carrots and celery. Drop them into the onions
and cook over high heat until they start to brown. Chop
the pancetta and mix in. Saute it for a few minutes. 

Push everything on the side. Add the liver and turn
frequently as it coagulates. Use a wooden paddle to
break it into tiny pieces.

Place the part of the pan that is free directly on the
burner and add part of the ground meat. How much should you
use? Not more than what can cover the pan's bottom evenly.
You need to keep that pan hot! If you put too much meat, the
pan's temperature will be absorbed by the cold meat and you
won't manage to brown it. Flatten the meat with your spatula
and flip constantly until the meat is evenly browned.

Push aside. See how the relatively large quantity of food on
the relatively cold far side of the pan makes the meat
render its juice? That's what would have happened had you
not heeded my warning about putting too much cold meat on
your pan. But now the meat is browned and it does not matter
any more.

Continue with the rest of the meat, browning it as before
until you run out of meat. If you run out of space on your
pan, just remove the browned meat to the same dish where
you moved the aromatic garnish.

Move the meat and aromatic garnish back to the center of the
pan (or back into the pan if you had put it in a separate
dish), keeping the temperature on high. Pour the glass of
wine into the meat and let it evaporate. What we want here is
to dissolve the delicious bits of burnt meat that stuck to the
pan. Chefs call this deglazing and you must certainly have seen
your Mum do it! The Simili sisters say that the wine is hot
enough when you can no longer smell it. Basically you can
let it evaporate almost entirely.

Now we move to the last stage - you will soon rest! Take a
large oven-resistant pot with a tight lid, for instance a
Dutch Oven. Empty everything we've been cooking so far into
the pot.

Place your head above the pot and smell. Isn't life
wonderful?

Pour the warm milk into the ragu like a white waterfall.

Mix and bring to a boil.

Add the tomatoes - here I used San Marzano canned tomatoes
from the Vesuvio, approved by the Slow-Food Gods. I can't
help but wonder if the Gods have recently checked the state
of the countryside in Campania.

Then another can and mix. If nobody from Bologna is around,
you can discreetly secrete a few herbs into the pot. If I
had my way I'd gladly add a stick of cinammon and one of my
beloved dried Serrano chilies, but then it would no longer
be an orthodox ragu bolognese but a ragu d'autore, a
personal rendering of the traditional dish. Maybe next time.

Add the chicken stock, cover and simmer for 3 to 4 hours. If
you have an electric oven you can set it on 120C/250F and
place the tightly covered pot inside. There is no need for
further attention and you can take a well-deserved pause.

Use an immersion blender to reduce some of the meat to a
finer consistency. Don't overdo it, we don't want soup; some
texture is desirable! Place the pot back on the burner with
the lid off and boil off any excess liquid.

There we are - your ragu is finished. Congratulations! You
can freeze it or use immediately on any flat pasta. Italians
just don't eat meat sauces with spaghetti. Spagbol is more
of a British invention best left on this island, methink.

fxcuisine.com

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