Braised Beef Short Ribs with Horseradish Cream (Page 445)

RECIPE #963

• Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2009 -- 7pm
• Location: Bloomington, IN
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companions: Mike M, Teresa, Andrew, Lars, and Matty
• Recipe Rating: A-
  

This recipe came off the list generated by the random number generator. To make this recipe I started by searing the short ribs, then arranging them in a roasting pan. In the skillet where I had browned the ribs, I cooked chopped onions, carrots, celery and garlic in an entire bottle of red wine along with a bouquet garni of black peppercorns, thyme, and bay leaf. I boiled for 20 minutes, then added some of my precious homemade veal stock. I poured the mixture over the ribs, covered the roasting pan tightly, and braised for two and a half hours. I reduced the braising liquid to form one sauce. To make a second sauce I stirred together creme fraiche, horseradish, celery leaves, and salt and heated until just hot. I served the ribs with the two sauces, accompanied by some noodles. While I was making this dish, my special gentleman watched me pour in an entire bottle of wine and 4 cups of my precious veal stock, and he commented, "This better be good!" Indeed, the use of such fine ingredients was warranted. These short ribs were delicious! The meat was falling-0ff-the-bone tender, and the flavors of both sauces were very nice. The horseradish sauce was unnecessary really, as the reduced braising liquid made for a delicious sauce to accompany the meat. I didn't feel the need to have a second sauce! I do love braised beef and this was a lovely braised beef dish. The dish was simple to make, and came out lovely.

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The workshop I attended this past week had 35 participants: 30 men and 5 women. That type of ratio is not at all uncommon for a math conference, and I am certainly quite accustomed to being one of only a few women in a large group of men. What was unusual about this situation, though, was that a large percentage of these people were people I had never met before. Typically I go to conferences in my own field, where I know most of the people and they know me. This workshop, however, was meant to introduce people from a variety of areas to a specific topic. So, there were a number of people I didn't know. It was the first time in several years that I have been to a conference and have felt like my gender was at all an issue. Certainly I didn't feel discriminated against, and no one was mean to me in any way, but somehow I was very aware of being one of small number of women present, whereas typically I wouldn't think at all about that.

It occurred to me, late in the week, that maybe the men at the conference hadn't been thinking about gender at all. Perhaps if I had asked they wouldn't have even been able to tell me how many women were at the workshop. Perhaps, I thought, it's just in my head. I lost confidence in that theory, though, when a friend who hadn't come to the workshop instant messaged me asking, "How's the workshop? Any hot babes there?"

It's hard to ignore gender when there is such a discrepancy I suppose. One women in a group with ten men is always going to stand out by virtue of being the only one. There is nothing wrong with standing out, of course, but in a room full of new people, occasionally I do have moments when I wish it was a little easier to blend in!