Braised Short Ribs

Ever since I bought my Le Cruset Oval Casserole pot I knew exactly what I wanted to make with it – braised short ribs. The trick for any braising is to have good quality meat in the first place which is not lean. It’s important that there is some fat in the meat as this will help break it down, I find with very lean meat the meat comes out fairly dry after the long cook and needs fat added to keep it succulent. What’s the point of adding a shed load of butter when you can use natural fat from other cuts?

I know the quality of these ribs are good as they are from the same batch that I used to make my BBQ beef ribs, recipe here.  Also having tried them in a different recipe helps with the amount of seasoning and to decide what sauce will best compliment its flavour. When braising something like lamb or sweeter cut of beef, I would like to go with a tomato based sauce. For these hearty cuts, they only need a really good gravy, ie beef stock and red wine to make your mouth water.

The ribs do take some time to cook, about 3 hours is enough to get them to slide easily off the bone and then shred the meat with a couple of forks into juicy beef strands. Aside from the cooking time, there’s not this recipe is very very easy to make. You literally shove stuff into a pot and go watch a movie or clean the house and hey presto dinner is ready. The most complicated part of it is skimming the fat off and that is the downside of using a cut as fatty as short ribs.

To do this, I removed the ribs from the pan so I was left with only the sauce, and then used a ladle to skim the fat. Dip an edge of the ladle a centimetre or two into the sauce and watch as the fat seeps into it. If you do it slowly enough, you’ll capture the fat with little gravy. An alternative method of skimming the fat if you can wait is to let the pot cool, store it in the fridge over night and then remove the fat. The fat would have solidified into a creamy layer over the top of the sauce and is much easier to remove. Of course I can’t wait, so I skim!

Of course you can serve the meat on the bone, but I like everything I eat that includes gravy to be SWIMMING in gravy. By shredding the meat off the bone and returning it to the pan, you’re ensuring that every piece gets coated with the gravy and it helps a lot with portion control as I find that 2/3 of a rib is enough per person.

I served this simply with mashed sweet potatoes because really it doesn’t need anything else. And it was amazing. I mentioned 2/3 of rib per person above but we had 2^nd and 3^rd helpings this time to the point where my boyfriend and I couldn’t move from the sofa because of our protruding bellies and yet we still smacked our lips at the thought of eating more. 

Ingredients

4 short Ribs

2 tbsp plain Flour

3 strips streaky Bacon, diced

Cooking Oil

1 Onion, diced

2 Carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks

1 cup red Wine

Beef stock

1 tbsp dried Thyme

1 tbsp dried Rosemary

Salt and Pepper

Recipe

Firstly cut the ribs into single pieces if you got a rack, this helps with the dredging and to make them fit in the pot! Grab a sealable sandwich bag and fill with the flour, and some salt and pepper. Toss each rib into the bag and shake it about to dredg the ribs.

Next heat your casserole dish and cook the bacon over medium heat. Remove from the pan and set aside. Top up with a bit more oil if needed and brown the ribs on all sides. Remove from the pan and ser aside with the bacon. Now add the carrots and onions and cook until the onions turn soft. Pour wine and turn the heat up to boiling point. Scrape the bits off the bottom of the pan and leave to reduce for 2 minutes.

Add the stock, salt and pepper. Add ribs and bacon to the liquid with the dried herbs and top up with water or stock if necessary. The liquid should just cover the ribs. Put a lid on and place in the oven, cook at 180 for 2 hours and then reduce to 170 for 45 minutes.

Put the pot on the stove on a medium heat and remove the ribs. Taste the sauce and season if necessary, it should have thickened to nice brown shiny gravy now. Skim the fat off the top of the sauce and discard. Remove the bones from the ribs and shred with a fork, then return the meat back to the skimmed sauce. Cook on a low heat for another 15-20 minutes while you make your accompaniment of mash, pasta or whatever you feel like!

Ladle into bowls with mash and enjoy! J