Today’s Kitchen: Tis The Seasoning: A Warm Meal To Beat The Winter Blues
NBC ID: AR6ZOYSLO4 | Media Type: Aired Show | Air Date(s): 01/03/2014 | Event Date(s): 01/03/2014Transcript
Event Date(s): 01/03/2014 | Event Location(s): New York City, New York | Description: INT TODAY SHOW STUDIO, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK ERICA HILL: This morning on TODAY's Kitchen, it is the perfect dish for a cold snowy day like this. Eric Gabrynowicz is the chef and partner at Restaurant North at Armonk, New York, just a little north of New York City. Great to have you here. And, my, you have excellent timing. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ (Chef & Partner, Restaurant North): Thank you. Great to be here. ERICA HILL: We are making today a pork osso bucco. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Pork osso bucco. ERICA HILL: So tell me a little bit about the dish because it-- it smells and looks wonderful and people maybe familiar with it. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Osso bucco is just a-- a simple braise that it's just-- it’s the-- the calf. It’s below the knee, above the foot. It’s a braising cut that gets soft and beautiful and delicious and it's an easy, easy winter braise for a cold day like today. ERICA HILL: For someone, though, who has never braised before-- ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Okay. ERICA HILL: --walk us through it. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: It's the chef version of what a Crock-Pot does. ERICA HILL: Perfect. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: So you’re pretty much taking a-- a cut that has a lot of gelatin in it and cooking it for a long amount of time in liquid. ERICA HILL: So it could be a different cut if you want it? ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Yeah, could be different cut, could be brisket, could be pork belly, could be cheeks. I know that’s a little out there but it's something we do. ERICA HILL: It’s all right. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: So a little quick sear on the pork osso bucco, get a nice golden brown and then the two main ingredients in a braise other than the meat are just aromatics which, in this case, is a little bit of onion and garlic. ERICA HILL: And garlic. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: And then a liquid, a braising liquid, a little acidity. A little sweetness is always great. So we add apple cider as our base liquid. ERICA HILL: Apple cider, wow. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Straight apple cider and then half and half with a little bit of chicken broth. ERICA HILL: Okay. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: And then this goes in the oven and you can pretty much forget about it for a while. ERICA HILL: I like the “forget about it.” ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Yeah. ERICA HILL: So you have-- you have a good hour or so at least? ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Two. ERICA HILL: Maybe two hours? ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Yeah. We do this in the oven covered for about-- at about three twenty-five for good, two hours, two and a half hours. ERICA HILL: While your house smells amazing-- ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Absolutely. ERICA HILL: --so you go outside, you play in the snow a little bit, you come back. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: That's it. And then you have this, this beautiful braise-- ERICA HILL: Oh, wow. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: --tender, falling off the bone, quote unquote. ERICA HILL: It really is falling off the bone. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Yeah. And in the braising liquid which doesn't look all that appetizing but you take the shanks out at this point-- ERICA HILL: Okay. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: --reduce the liquid down and you get this beautiful, beautiful glaze. ERICA HILL: Move on to pot number three. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Yeah, absolutely. ERICA HILL: Oh, wow, look at that. That is gorgeous. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: So basically the apple cider, what it does is, has a lot of residual sugar. It caramelizes down. You get this syrupy beautiful liquid-- ERICA HILL: Hm-Mm. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: --that now glaze those shanks there. ERICA HILL: And we’re going to serve it on top of polenta-- ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Absolutely. ERICA HILL: --which you’ve made here. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Yeah. It’s a little bit of a creamy polenta. I like soft polenta. It’s kind of-- ERICA HILL: Wow. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: It’s a-- ooh, here we go. Six to one ratio of-- ERICA HILL: Jumping out of the pot. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: --of liquid to cornmeal. We use a local grain, a local cornmeal-- ERICA HILL: For you polenta. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: --for our polenta. ERICA HILL: That is beautiful. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: It’s-- it's a super hardy dish. It’s a little bit heavy, so we like to lighten it up with a-- a gremolata. ERICA HILL: I'm going to let you really quickly tell me what’s in this before we let you go. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Sure. ERICA HILL: So you have apples-- ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Horseradish, apples, parsley, a little bit of any kind of green you like, lemon juice. ERICA HILL: Little pepper. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: A little pepper. Mix it up. Nice, nice. ERICA HILL: And then you throw that right on top? ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Yeah. This kind of freshens it up. It makes it nice and light. ERICA HILL: And it gives it some nice color. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Gives it a little bit of color and-- ERICA HILL: This is beautiful. ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: That’s the dish. ERICA HILL: Great. What time is dinner? ERIC GABRYNOWICZ: Right now.