Beef Short Ribs

Keeping It Short



So far we’ve had an unseasonably warm and dry fall and I'm getting fed up with it. There are soups and stews and casseroles and roasts to make that can't really be enjoyed properly when it's a bright, clear sunny 78F outside. I find myself envying the flooding in New Hampshire and the snow storms in Colorado. The weather may be bad but the food makes up for it.

Nevertheless, when I was at the farmers' market last week Valley Farms (a local farm) had beef short ribs on special so I bought some despite the mild weather. Monday night I braised them.

I decided against adding any herbs or seasonings beyond the aromatics I'd browned and salt and pepper

The ribs were pretty fatty so I trimmed off most of the fat (which still left a lot) then I pulled out my Le Crueset dutch oven. This is the pot I bought last spring and have barely used so far. It weighs about 150 pounds and holds around six gallons -- at least it seems so. Though it hasn't seen much use to date, that's because it's a pot for stews and braises and soups and summer is not its season. Now it can make up for lost time.

I started by cooking about three strips of thick smoked bacon. Setting the bacon aside, I generously seasoned the ribs, browned them in the bacon fat, and put them aside. A couple of sliced onions several carrots and celery stalks went into the pot next to brown.

In thinking about the ribs I'd gone back and forth about the braising liquid — wine or beer. Dr. Biggles recommended ale and I decided to take his advice and picked up a bottle of Brown Sheep ale (an English ale). The ale went into the pot to deglaze it, then the ribs went back in along with some homemade beef stock. I decided against adding any herbs or seasonings beyond the aromatics I'd browned and salt and pepper.

With all the ingredients in place, I brought the pot to a simmer and then put it in a 300F oven for three hours.

Obviously I needed something starchy to soak up and complement the broth and I settled on polenta. To round out the meal, I cooked up a mess (that's the proper Southern term for "a bunch of") of collards seasons with curry powder. I learned in South Carolina that curry really complements collards.

Even though the weather refused to cooperate and remained warm and pleasant, the meal was delicious and the grass-fed beef had a wonderful meaty flavor. I was right to keep the ingredients simple.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | beef | short ribs | braise | main dish