Excerpted from Somebody Feed Phil the Book: Untold Stories, Behind-the-Scenes Photos, and Favorite Recipes: A Cookbook. Copyright © 2022 By Phil Rosenthal and Jenn Garbee. Photography Copyright © 2022 By Ed Anderson. Reproduced By Permission of Simon Element, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster. All Rights Reserved.
Ed Anderson
Ingredients
Kosher salt: 3/4 cup Diamond Crystal or 1/2 cup (105g) Morton kosher salt
Dark brown sugar: 1/2 cup (110g) light or dark brown sugar, packed
Prague powder #1: 1 tablespoon
Coriander seeds: 2 tablespoons
Black peppercorns: 1 tablespoon
Red pepper flakes: 1 tablespoon
Mustard seeds: 2 teaspoons
Cloves: 1 teaspoon
Anise: 1
Cinnamon: 1 cinnamon stick
Beef: 1 5- to 6-pound (2.3 to 2.7kg) whole beef plate bone-in short ribs
Learn how to prepare chef Tomás Kalika’s pastrami ribs at home, a delicious recipe from the cookbook Somebody Feed Phil the Book
"We serve two kinds of pastrami at Mishiguene. A grano de pecho (under the neck of the cow), that we serve with a very special pasta my grandmother Olga used to make. The other, this one, is very Argentinian, with the whole rib that we serve with a homemade spaetzle. You get two very different
flavours." —Tomás Kalika
If you’re like us, you’ve salivated over the dishes Phil Rosenthal devours on his hit Netflix show, Somebody Feed Phil. And like us, you’ve probably asked how to find the recipes from these master chefs around the world.
Lucky for everybody, Rosenthal has written a cookbook (well, he wrote the funny parts). The cookbook, Somebody Feed Phil the Book, compiles masterful recipes from the show’s first four seasons. That means you’ll find golden nuggets from chefs like Massimo Bottura, Yotam Ottolenghi, Dan Barber, and dozens more.
One of the most memorable dishes Rosenthal ate along the way was the pastrami ribs at Tomás Kalika’s stellar Buenos Aires restaurant, Mishiguene. And now, you can make them at home. Buy Rosenthal’s book for all the other world-famous dishes and try making Kalika’s ribs right now.
Method
01.
In a medium saucepan, combine the salt, brown sugar, Prague powder, and 1 quart (950ml) of water. Bring to a boil, stir to dissolve the sugar and salt, and remove the pot from the heat.
02.
In a small bowl, mix together the coriander seeds, black peppercorns, red pepper, mustard seeds, cloves, and star anise. Heat a small skillet over medium heat, add the spices, and toast, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the spices and cinnamon stick to the pot with the salt cure and let the brine cool completely.
03.
Fill a turkey brining bag or a large, deep roasting pan with 2 quarts (about 2L) of water. Add the cooled salt cure and submerge the ribs in the brine. Remove the air and seal the bag, or place a pot lid or other weight on top of the ribs in the pan before covering the pan. Refrigerate the ribs for 6 days.
04.
Put a colander in the sink (to prevent the spices from clogging the drain), pour off the brining liquid, and brush the excess spices off the meat. (Discard the spices.) If you aren’t smoking the ribs immediately, wrap them in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.
05.
Set up a smoker to smoke at 250º to 275ºF (120º to 135ºC) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Or, prepare a charcoal grill for indirect cooking over medium to medium-low heat and add enough charcoal to smoke or grill the ribs for up to 6 hours. Put the ribs in the smoker or on the grill, fat side up. Close the lid and smoke until blackened on the outside and the meat is tender and has shrunk back from the ends of the bones by about 2 inches (5cm), 5 to 6 hours.
06.
Use tongs to transfer the ribs to a sheet pan, tent the ribs loosely with foil, and let rest at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes. Slice the rack into individual bones and trim off and chop any meat alongside the ribs so each rib is easy to pick up and eat. Arrange the ribs and chopped beef on a large platter and serve.
Tips
- Here, more widely available plate short ribs (uncut slabs with 3 to 4 roughly 12-inch [30cm] long bones), stand in for the full rack the restaurant smokes.
- When curing the meat, you can double the recipe and freeze the extra cured rack of ribs (drain the brine first) for up to 3 months.
- Prague powder #1, also called pink curing salt #1 or Insta Cure #1, is available at many spice shops. It is a sodium nitrate and salt-based curing mix that gives cured meat its pinkish hue and inhibits bacteria growth during the long brining process. (Do not substitute regular pink, or Himalayan, table salt.)
