I’m a super big fan of short ribs. I like to buy them when they are on sale in the bargain bin at the grocery store and put them in the freezer for when I have a serious craving. Sometimes I make Texas-style chili with them. Sometimes I cook them down Mexican style and make braised beef tacos. But my favorite way to make them is braised in a red wine.
This dish doesn’t require a lot of cooking skill just lots of patience because it it comes out better the longer you cook it. I always use my enameled cast iron pan for making these. It works great and makes for easy transfer between stove top and oven. The only downside is that the over is a bear to clean.
This week’s batch ended up being a riff on a recipe from bonappetit.
Red Wine Braised Short Ribs
- 5 pounds of bone-in short ribs
- flour, salt and pepper to coat ribs
- 2 carrots, peeled and diced
- 4 celery stalks, diced
- 1 medium onion diced
- 4 shallots diced
- 1 can tomato paste
- 3 tbsp flour
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 bottle red wine (Merlot)
- 4 cups beef broth
- 1 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- Coat ribs with flour, salt and pepper.
- Heat oil in large Dutch oven. Working in batches, brown ribs on all sides. Transfer ribs to a plate. Remove all but 3 tbsp of drippings from pot.
- Add onions, carrots, celery, garlic and shallots to pot. Saute until onions are browned, about 4 minutes.
- Add flour, tomato paste and cook stirring constantly until sauce turns a deep red, 2-3 minutes.
- Add wine and short ribs. Bring to a boil and lower heat so simmers until wine is reduced by half, about 30 minutes.
- Add bay leaves, rosemary, oregano and thyme. Add beef broth. Bring to a boil.
- Transfer to 350 degree oven and cook for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
- Remove ribs to a platter.
- Skim fat from surface of sauce and discard.
- Serve ribs and sauce over starch of your choice.
The hardest part about this recipe is skimming off the extra fat when everything is done cooking. It can be both difficult and tedious. It is worth it though so your sauce doesn’t come out too greasy. How I do it is to remove all the meat from the pan. Then use a large spoon to skim the fat. I make sure to have a bowl in hand to dump the spoonfuls of grease into. It is okay to get a little of the sauce while you’re skimmy the fat. This will happen. Do your best to get rid of as much of the fat as possible. Next I remove the bones and extra fat from the meat and shred the meat. I put everything back together in the pot and bring to a boil to thicken a little.
You want to serve the final product over some starch. Mash potatoes, or spaetzel are good possibilities. Tonight I served mine over egg noodles. I also made sauteed swiss chard and garlic as the side vegetable. It tasted awesome and filled my craving. Plus there were some leftovers which I’m guessing will be lunch tastiness tomorrow.