Italian wine and pepper stew

I've been going through this phase lately: less is more. The less ingredients in a dish the better (salt, pepper, and butter don't count). The above is a dish I've made for years (ever since reading about it in Heat).

1-2 beef shank (can use lamb if you want, but the beef is just so unctous in comparison)
one bottle red wine
copious amounts of cracked pepper
leftover parsley or onion

Put the shank in a pot. Cover it with wine. Crack pepper till your arm fat can jiggle no more. Bake for as long as you can stand to smell it and not take it out (I've gone anywhere from 6-10 hours). Garnish with onion or parsely or leave plain. Serve with bread.

Be sure to eat the marrow from the shank.

Takashi Offal - the dynamic duo reunited

Scott Dahlie enjoys some fresh veg before the offal

Rib eye beef tartar? Yes please.

Natto with Japanese mountain yam and chuck flap. Not again.

Practice makes progress

Two types of stomach, sweetbreads, liver, and heart. All spectacular. I mean, who knew that offal could taste so good.

Sizzle stomach sizzle!

Heart on the left and beef liver on the right. Liver was a silky metal explosion of the grill and the heart was like a just the tiniest bit chewy. Wish I had pictures of the beef belly we ordered for dessert. This place is highly recommended.

Homemade udon miso

Is udon miso allowable? I always feel a bit overwhelmed when trying to cook Japanese at home. It seems that the rules are so strict and that certain things shouldn't go with other things - like udon and miso. But in reality, I imagine just like anywhere, whatever you want to put together that perks the tate buds is fine.

Above is my udon miso with purple potatoes, yukon golds leeks, spring onions, thai chiles and cilantro. I threw some dried shrip in at the end for my bowl, leaving Kathleen's deviod, of course. For her we put in some smoked jalepeno firm tofu from a local place in the East bay - better than the shrimp.

I parboiled the potatoes before hand, heated the miso up and then threw everything in to steep for 10 minutes. Start to finish, 20 minutes.