Ingredients

• 10 lbs mixed red meat on the bone, ideally including: beef shank (sliced like osso bucco), lamb shoulder arm chops, ox tail, veal shank or tail, and if you feel like it, maybe some lamb neck bones or beef short ribs – whatever you can find!)
• Safflower or other neutral oil
• 3 heads garlic (yes, HEADS, not cloves)
• 3/8-1/2 C coarsely ground black pepper (no, that’s not a typo)
• 2-3 bottles red wine (ideally a young Chianti, supposedly, though we’ve used all sorts of inexpensive reds to good result)
• Salt to taste

Directions

1. Salt the meat a bit. Possibly the day before. You can always add more salt later, of course, but it’s nice to start early.

2. Get a big pan (or two at once, is what I do) nice and hot, grease it up a bit with safflower or some other neutral oil, and brown your meat nice and good, tossing each piece into a big bowl once it’s good and dark on all sides.

3. For this much meat, I use three heavy-bottomed pots to cook a batch of peposo – a nice big cazuela (a Spanish clay pot), the bottom of my tagine (a Moroccan clay pot), and a big cast iron pan. Use whatever you’ve got, this is just what happens to be in my kitchen. Relax, it’ll all work out in the end.

4. Lay out your meat in a single layer, tightly packed into the pots or pans you’re using to cook it. (Note: If you use short ribs, I find that they come out better when packed on their side, rather than bone up or bone down.)

5. Take the garlic heads apart, discarding the outer skin but not peeling the individual cloves. Tuck the garlic cloves in the various crevices between the meats.

6. Sprinkle the black pepper over everything, then pour in enough wine to mostly (but not completely!) cover the meat. This usually turns out to be the first 2 bottles, for me.

7. Cover the pots with tin foil (I don’t actually have lids that fit the pots I tend to use for this dish – your mileage may vary, just make sure they’re covered!) and put them on your stove at its lowest possible setting. If your stove is super intense, you may want to use a diffuser.

8. Now you just have to be patient. Some cuts start feeling tender and wonderful and done after about 3 hours, while others take closer to 4 or 5. After about two hours, if you got that 3rd bottle of wine, you can check in and pour some more in to make up for whatever may have cooked off. If not, don’t worry, it’ll still be delicious.

9. Start checking the meat after about 3 hours. Poke every piece with a fork, and take out whichever ones feel done. I like to shred the meat off the bone and connective tissue while the rest of the meat cooks further, then do another check, and so on.

10. As the meat comes off the bone, make sure to push the marrow out of the bones and into a small bowl you’ve set aside for that purpose. As each pot finishes up, take out the garlic cloves and squish them from their skins into that same little bowl. Discard the garlic skins, emptied bones, and [if you’re picky like me] bits of connective tissue. Stir the marrow and garlic together with a fork until it’s a nice squishy tasty mess.

11. Once everything is out of the remaining braising wine, stir the garlic/marrow into the wine to create the sauce. Turn the heat back on and reduce the sauce until it’s nice and thick – it doesn’t have to be super dense, but you want it thick enough to really coat every bite and stick to it.

12. That’s it. Stir the meat back into the sauce, and salt to taste. Eat approximately forever, with enough bread to sop up the sauce and something green and vivid and crunchy on the side to contrast with the deep rich ultimate winy meatiness of the peposo.

Notes

Adapted from Piano, Piano, Pieno by Susan McKenna Grant.

Yes, this recipe makes tons. Feel free to scale it down. We like making a lot and freezing some, though.

Ingredients

• 2 – 2 1/4 lbs lean, meaty spare ribs, cut into 1-2″ nuggets (your butcher will do this for you)
• 2 tbsp corn oil
• 1 dried facing heaven chili, seeds removed, crushed
• 4 tbsp thinly sliced scallions
• 3 1/2 tbsp fermented black beans, lightly rinsed and coarsely chopped
• 6 large cloves of garlic, stem end (and any inner green bits) removed, peeled and lightly smashed
• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tsp granulated sugar
• 1 C water

Directions

1. Divide the rack into individual ribs by slicing the meat between the bones. You want separate ribs, small.

2. Heat up your wok until it is just starting to steam, then swirl enough oil in to coat the bottom and partially up the sides.

3. Add the scallions and crushed chili and stir-fry for just a moment, until fragrant.

4. Add the ribs and just brown them on all sides before removing them to a bowl to set a side. Work in batches if necessary (with a typical home kitchen sized wok, it will be).

5. Pour a bit of the water into the wok and scrape up any tasty browned bits that have stuck to the bottom, then mix that in with the ribs and all the other seasonings.

6. Put everything in a good braising pot. I’ve used anything from a clay sand pot to the instant pot, whatevs.

7. Simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until the ribs are tender and done. This should take about 3-5 hours. (Tropp says 45 minutes. This is bullshit - braising to true tenderness takes hours. Cookbooks always lie about how long it takes for onions to brown or meat to braise.)

Notes

Adapted, with only tiny changes, from The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking by Barbara Tropp.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs chicken wings (split into wingettes/drumettes)
• 1 tbsp baking POWDER
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• oil
• hot sauce / butter

Directions

1. Preheat convection oven or air fryer to 450 F.

2. Set up a baking sheet covered in foil with a cooling rack on top of it.

3. Oil the cooling rack, just to grease it up a bit.

4. Pat the chicken wings dry, then toss with baking powder and salt.

5. Put the wings on the cooling rack, with at least a bit of space between them.

6. Lower the oven to 425 F (convection).

7. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until golden and crispy and done.

8. Eat with hot sauce mixed with melted butter, and perhaps a nice crunchy salad.

Ingredients

• 2 C coarsely chopped onion (about 3 medium onions)
• safflower or other neutral oil for frying
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp grated fresh peeled ginger
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 3/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground clove
• 1/8 tsp cayenne
• 2 tomatoes, diced into 1/2″ cubes
• 1 sweet potato (approximately 2 C diced), diced into 1/2″ cubes
• 2 C pork stock (or some other intense flavorful stock, whatevs)
• 1/2 C water
• 1 lb frozen green peas

Directions

1. Saute the onions in a splash of oil over medium heat in a medium pot, until they just turn translucent.

2. Stir in the spices, salt, ginger, and garlic and saute for another minute or two, until very fragrant.

3. Stir in the diced tomatoes and sweet potato until coated with spices, then immediately stir in the pork stock and water to dissolve the spices and deglaze the pot.

4. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the sweet potato chunks are tender (about 20 minutes).

5. Partially puree. I like lots of chunks, so I just use an immersion blender to puree just enough to thicken the soup some.

6. Stir in the frozen peas and simmer just until everything is nice and hot again.

7. Adjust seasonings to taste, and serve.

Notes

Adapted from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant: Ethnic and Regional Recipes from the Cooks at the Legendary Restaurant by the Moosewood Collective.

(I like to have extra meatiness and protein in my soups, so I use pork stock instead of water. Less liquid, too – I like my soups thick and hearty, not too watery – more like stews than soups, perhaps. I’m also opposed to puree soups, so I did a minimal immersion blender partial puree of this one before adding the peas, to retain some texture.)

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1” ginger, finely minced
• 3-4 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 2 tbsp chili flakes (ideally chinese facing heaven chilis)
• 1/2 tbsp shaoxing
• 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
• cornstarch
• 4 scallions, sliced
• neutral oil (about 1/3 cup?)

Directions

1. Hard-boil the eggs, then cut into 1/2” slices.

2. Dust egg slices with cornstarch, on one side only. Basically just to hold them together a bit during the initial frying. Not necessary on slices without yolk.

3. Get oil hot in a pan (or wok, or whatevs). Basically you want a lot of oil in there. Little bubbles level of hot.

4. Carefully slide in the egg slices and fry for 3-4 minutes, until slightly golden brown and the oil is getting frothy.

5. Once the oil starts getting really frothy, add chili flakes. Lower heat to medium low and stir.

6. Stir in garlic and ginger for 15ish seconds, until fragrant.

7. Stir in shaoxing and then light soy sauce.

8. Stir in scallions, fry for 10ish seconds.

Notes

This recipe totally comes from mthmchris on reddit, I just copied it here to keep all my commonly-used recipes in one place and in case that post is ever deleted.