In keeping with the theme of all that is stewy, saucey, and fall-off-the-bone tender I attempted to make braised short ribs. I found a nice recipe by Tyler Florence for "Bistro-Style Short Ribs."
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 pounds short ribs, in 1 long piece or at least in pairs
- Kosher salt and freshly ground
black pepper - 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 1 large tomato, quartered
- 3 ribs celery
- 1/2 head garlic, peeled
- 1/4 bunch fresh thyme
- 1 1/2 cups dry red wine
- 2 cups low-sodium, organic beef stock
- 4 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
I pretty much followed the recipe to the tee which is unusual when I do western food because it always calls for something I'm missing, but I had all of the above. I just substituted the beef stock with chicken stock. I don't know why, but I just never use beef stock. Even when my mom makes pho, she doesn't use beef stock. You'd think that for beef noodle soup you'd want to use beef stock. Anyways, because of her I'll probably never use beef stock unless someone can give me a good reason to use it. As for the "dry red wine," I just used a wine that I probably wasn't going to drink anymore. I know, I know, I know, "never cook with a wine you wouldn't drink." But what am I supposed to do, go out and spend some more green, while I got some perfectly decent red at home? I think not.
Anyways, the recipe called for a dutch oven and motherf*er do you know how much those things cost?? Plus my dinky kitchen cannot fit anything else. So I wasn't gonna go out and get one especially since this recipe didn't call for some stove-top to oven action. So after some googling, it seemed like a big pot with a heavy lid would suffice. Who knows, maybe things woulda tasted heartier had it cooked in a dutch oven. I didn't have a grill big enough the brown the meat, so why not just brown it in the pot I'm gonna cook it in? So that's what I did.
Next step called for pureeing tomatoes, carrots, celery, onions, and garlic. This part was sort of a hassle since my food processor is miniature. I had to puree, dump some things out, add more ingredients, and repeat it all till it was all pureed and well mixed. I probably overdid it with the carrots since I have a whole darn bag probably 10 or more carrot stick and the recipe only called for 2 so I fudged it a bit and put in 3.
So here's my cheap wine and chicken stock. At least its organic and low sodium =).
A starch that would absorb all the sauce of the short ribs would have been ideal. Maybe mashed potatoes, polenta, risotto, but I had been itching to try something new with roasted potatoes. I really love the potatoes at CCC, all those caramelized onions...mmm. They turned out well except on the salty side because I have this new coarse sea salt I'm trying to use. It's a much milder salt so I'm just getting used to the difference in proportions.
So the finished product, TADAH!
I tried to be a little difference and make brocollini instead of the usual brocolli. It was good, slightly undercooked but that always makes it better for the next day. A side of steamed (more like popped in the microwave) sweet white corn made a delicious accompaniment.
The meat was falling off the bone, literally the pot just had a bunch of empty bones in it. I think it'll prob taste better tomorrow too. Goood stuff overall, I'll keep this recipe in my box for another day.
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