Some of you know that this guy likes to chef it up. I grew up in the kitchen with my mother, probably because my fat ass was looking for some scraps, namely “beef tartare” (when moms was making meatballs, meatloaf, etc). This truly turned out to be a blessing because it meant that if I wanted to roast a chicken, make marinara sauce from scratch or wanted to whip up a cheesecake, I could do it without looking at a recipe (well maybe I would need one for the cheesecake). My mom is a really great cook and eating her food is really a treat.

Fast forward to 2006 and Danielle and I are registering for all of the crap that married couples “need” for their journey into the great unknown. Danielle’s friend Megan, aka Meg (crazy, huh?), works at Williams Sonoma and gave us the “must” items we needed to register for. One of them was a 5 1/2 quart Le Creuset dutch oven. I am not sure if any of you have one of these or have priced one, but they are not cheap. They go for about $200. I love to buy crap like this that you use once a year and are glad you have it…one day out of 365.

Well, tonight I decided to make a “braise”. I was in the store yesterday and saw some beef shortribs when I was browsing the beef aisle at Safeway. Now, being that I am already an accomplished chef, in my own mind, I purchased a ridiculously expensive “cook book” a few years back. It is called The Professional Chef. It was like $80 then, looks like you can grab one for $35 used right now at Amazon (no aff link). This is THE BIBLE for cooking. It is the soup to nuts book for cooking. So, after I bought a couple of packs of beef short ribs, I pulled out the Professional Chef and went to the braising section. Sure enough, there was a simple recipe for beef short ribs. Being the dork that I am, I got pretty pumped.

To make a long story short, this was the best meal I have made in my entire life…and one of the easiest. The Le Creuset dutch oven was worth every penny…even though I did not buy it…thanks Cuz and Bert. No knife necessary and that was the least of the excitement. After browning the meat, sauteing the mirepoix and tomato paste, I threw the meat back in and chucked it into the oven at 350 for almost 2 hours. When I put it in, the mixture was quite bitter. When I pulled it out, I thought I was Michael Chiarello. I no longer feel like the Le Creuset stuff is overpriced French poop. Not that I don’t think someone can do the same with a much cheaper setup, it is simply that the Le Creuset did everything like a champ…and cleanup was a joke.

If you are a kitchen geek or just a dork like me and you are thinking about buying one of these…get it. You will be very happy you did.

PS Sorry there are no pics. Like the bottle of Rosso di Montepulciano from Avignonesi, there is nothing left. Yo mama.

tags: braise, cook, cookbook, le creuset, review