Birthdays and Short Ribs
Birthdays and Short Ribs
In light , of all the serious news of the day, and a year
that seems to be full of changes for everyone, I thought I would share
something near and dear to my heart as yesterday was Frank’s birthday
To celebrate we had a few friends over, for beef short
ribs.
I have heard others say how hard they are to make, and honest they are quite easy, and so I thought I would take you all through my adventure of making them on Thursday.
First, we start with the recipe, from Bon Appetite, at http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/short-rib-lasagna
. I ended up not making the lasagna but
I stand by the recipe for cooking the ribs.
Shopping
As all good kitchen cooks know, success starts with
the best quality ingredients.
Whole Foods or Fresh Market will, but for special occasions and
recipes, only a real butcher will do if you have one nearby. Especially if you
are cooking a special cut of meat, like short ribs and briskets, you need the
best quality and advice. Also, the “markets”,
tend to trim all the fat off of meats and when you cook beef short ribs and
briskets, as an example, you need the fat for flavor and to support the slow
cooing they require.
So, I started at Smitty’s,
our local butcher, for the best short ribs, and advice on quantity as short
ribs must be only meat that seems to shrink more than a brisket.
We had dinner for six good eaters and ended up with 8 lbs of
ribs. In this case, they ended up being
12 ribs and by the end of the cooking and dinner we had three left. So, think about your eaters and don’t skimp. The butcher at Smitty’s also recommended not
cutting the ribs up any smaller as they would just shrink more quickly.
Prep Time
So, the next step to me is the most important, I do as much
of the cutting and prepping as I can before the cooking starts.
There is nothing more frustrating than having forgot to
prepare garlic or cut a carrot when your hands are all messy. You can check the recipe above, but there
are carrots, celery onions… and porcini mushrooms that must be reconstituted
and chopped.
My Assistant
As you may note, I don’t have an assistant so being prepared
each step is key as DaisyBelle was no help at all.Time to Start Cooking!
The next step, after dredging the seasoned ribs in flour is to brown the ribs on each side, the recipe
says medium high heat, and you want to make sure to brown each side of the
ribs. For me was about 2 minutes for the
meatier sides and 1 minute for the rest of the ribs.
The rest of this goes quickly … there is cooking of the veggies in the pot.
The addition of the porcini mushrooms, extra flour, and
tomato paste.
The addition port wine, reduced as the recipe explains and
then added Zinfandel, then the broth, garlic and herbs (bouquet garni) according
to the recipe.
Make sure when you are cooking with wine to give it time for
the alcohol to boil off, as you really want the wine flavor and alcohol will
make the sauce somewhat bitter. Also,
give the time as the recipe recommends for the sauce to reduce at each stage so
that the flavors are enhanced.
Tasted the broth at this point, and reminded myself that the
ribs have a generous amount of salt and pepper on them and that will flavor the
broth as they slow cook in the oven.
Into the slow cooking oven!
So, as home cooks do, I varied the recipe at this
stage. I have the luxury of an oven with
a slow cook feature so instead of cooking at 325 as the recipe recommends I did
some research and most slow cook recipes for short ribs say to cook on low for
6-8 hours on low. These ended up 8 hours
on slow at low.
Where is my ASSISTANT?
8 Hours Later and Falling off the Bone!
And 8 hours later… Notice the shrinkage..
I put them in the fridge overnight, for serving the next
day. The fat that disappeared in cooking,
is not gone but in the sauce itself. Overnight it congeals on the top so you
can spoon that off. Won’t make this a
healthy dish but certainly more so and not as greasy.
We reheated them and served them over pasta, with roasted
asparagus (fresh asparagus, with olive oil, garlic, thyme, and some lemon juice
roasted at 425 for about 10 – 15 minutes), bread from Fresh Market and was
enjoyed by all.
Some Observations and Recommendations
We have made the short ribs a number of ways, but I think
this was my favorite recipe.
The wine
adds a complexity to the ribs and the sauce, without taking away from the
actual flavor of the ribs. You could use
them in a lasagna or some other dish (we have done Eggs Benedict in the past)
just consider that when buying the ribs as you may want to add to the quantity.
Yes, they take some prep time.. I would say it was about 90
minutes to get the ribs in the oven but they are well worth the effort. Also, by making them the day before it really
takes pressure off on the day of the meal.
Epilogue
Finally, it was Frank’s birthday. I surprised him with a
cake that I have to say was another reason I don’t take up baking. It was an Oreo cake from We Take the Cake (they ship by the way and
were an Oprah Favorite thing one year), the icing was flavored like the filling
of an Oreo cookie and the cake like the cookie.
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