Short Rib Tacos

Another rather extravagant recipe from America's Test Kitchen - totally worth the weekly email, followed by a password reset to get into their website...  This one came from a Mexican-themed set of recipes:

Recipe

Beef

1 1/2 c beer
1/2 c cider vinegar
2 oz dried ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded & torn into 1" pieces
6 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 bay leaves
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
salt & pepper
1 large onion, sliced into 1/2" rounds
3 lb boneless beef short ribs, cut into 2" cubes

Slaw

1/2 c cider vinegar
1/2 c water
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 head cabbage, cored and sliced thin
1 onion, sliced thin
1 carrot, grated
1 jalapeno, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
1 c cilantro, chopped

tortillas
queso fresco
avocado
lime

Start with the slaw a day ahead of time.  Whisk together the vinegar, water, sugar, and salt.  Add the cabbage, onion, carrot, jalapeno, and oregano, and toss together.  Cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.  Drain and add the cilantro before serving.

So now it's a day later and you're hungry for meat (but not too hungry, still a couple hours to go).  Heat oven to 325.  Combine the beer, vinegar, chiles, garlic, tomato paste, and spices in a dutch oven.  Lay out a later of onion rounds, then place the meat on top.  Cover and cook 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

Now it's 2 1/2 to 3 hours later and you're really hungry!  Once the meat is browned and tender, remove the dutch oven from the, um, regular oven.  Move the meat to a bowl.  Here, ATK recommends you strain out the liquid, discard the onion and bay leaves, add water so you have 1 cup of liquid, blend the solids back in, simmer, and stir in the shredded beef.  I didn't have the patience or a blender, so I shredded the beef, mashed the broth, and scooped a few cups in until the beef had a nice flavory sauce.

Serve the tacos with beef, slaw, crumbled queso fresco, avocado (my addition), and lime wedges.

Notes

It's a pretty long list of ingredients, but somehow the effort required doesn't seem to be proportional.  It helps that you can take care of the slaw in advance, but even the next day, most of the ingredients just get mixed into the pot before adding onion and beef.

The final product is amazing.  As promised, the onions keep the beef mostly out of the liquid so it browns nicely.  The cubes were soft and almost bouncy when I pulled them out at the end!  The slaw is super tasty, and the queso adds a nice salty flavor (I didn't know exactly what to expect from either element, but the first nibble of each made me grin).  It's definitely different from what you think of for beef tacos - ground meat, lettuce, salsa, etc.  But in a good way!

Sjomansbiff

I assume that translates from the Norwegian roughly to "sea-man's beef"; according to the newly-inherited 70's-vintage Scandinavian cookbook, it's Norwegian sailor's stew.

Recipe

1 1/2 lb round steak, cut into 8 thin slices
3 tbsp butter
3 medium onions, sliced
6-8 medium potatoes, sliced
1 pint light ale
salt & pepper

Heat a skillet with the butter and brown the steak slices.  Remove, then saute the onions, sprinkling with some salt and pepper.  In a larger saucepan, layer the meat, onions, and potatoes.  Pour over any pan drippings and the ale.  Cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about an hour and a half.

Notes

From skimming through the Scandinavian recipes, I conclude that (perhaps outside of fish, which I didn't check as closely at first) the cuisine is less about distinctive seasonings and flavors, and more about hearty, Viking-approved meat and potato-type meals.

This one fits right into that category.  Beef, onions, potatoes, ale, and butter - not even playing around with any veggies.  In a way, it's a little frustrating to have the meat and onions close to done, and then put it all in a pot to sit for over an hour.  I'd recommend a tasty ale, since the potatoes especially pick up the flavor.  Not sure the exact way to slice the meat either - a slanted cut would make thinner slices but take up more space to brown...  I'll definitely play around with more of these recipes - and get a little more adventurous - but for now a simple start.