after having dinner made for me on consecutive days (tuesday, bread pudding at 44, and wednesday, really excellent thin fettuccine with a roasted tomato and sausage sauce, at 24), i made dinner for 24 and 44. i wanted to do something fairly involved, so i did a chard tart from the joy that sonia had made a few months back – kind of like a quiche with much less egg and a whole lot of parmesan; braised pork ribs with sage and coriander seeds; arborio rice with onions and sage; roasted skinny asparagus; and a ginger cake with pears in a cognac-caramel sauce.

anyway, this was a totally unhealthy (ok, not that unhealthy, but it wasn’t great for you either, what with the massive amount of parmesan and the ginger cake’s caramel sauce) dinner, but it was really excellent – the coriander seeds and sage are a really excellent combination. after having made braised ribs more than a few times, they turned out especially well this time. and i think this was due to the cooking time, which was close to three hours. this is my favorite pork dish because it requires so few ingredients, and always tastes good, no matter what you do to it. this is essentially due to the cut of meat being pork that’s bone-in – that’s where all the flavor comes from. it’s also a cheap dish to cook, as ribs often go on sale in all seasons, and are a cheap cut even when not on sale. add the onions and some herbs, and it’s pretty sublime. (more…)