Short Rib Success!

I made short ribs once before---don’t quite recall the recipe---but I wasn’t crazy about them.  They tasted a little too….mmmm....unctuous….for me.  However, the other day I was at Old Time Meat and Deli AND in one of those buying kind of moods so I bought about 2 pounds of beef short ribs.  Then of course I spent an hour or so online looking through various recipes.  I ended up doing my own simplified version of umpteen recipes.  I didn’t flour the short ribs or do anything fancy…it was really simple.

Braised Short Ribs with Port and Vegetables

2 lbs beef short ribs (4 ribs)

Celery, about a cup chopped

Carrots, about a cup chopped

Onion, about a cup shopped

Garlic, about 3-4 cloves roughly chopped

28 oz can of San Marzano tomatoes

2 cups good port

2 cups or more chicken stock

herbs to taste---I think I used bay leaves, dried thyme and who knows what else

I put a little olive oil in a pan and browned the hell out of the short ribs.  I took them out of the pan and threw in the onions, celery and carrots and garlic.  I cooked it down and let it brown a bit.  Then I put the short ribs in a dutch oven, added the vegetables from the pan and the tomatoes.  I deglazed the pan with some of the port and then threw the rest of the ingredients into the dutch oven.  I covered it and let it bake at 325 for about two and a half hours.  Then I took the short ribs out…almost falling apart….and put them in a plastic container.  I strained the vegetables and poured the resulting liquid over the short ribs.  A lot of recipes called for cooking down the braising liquid more but mine was already thick enough.  I let it cool overnight and then was able to easily take the fat off.  I planned to have them on Halloween but somehow after trick or treating it didn’t seem right.  Last night served them leftover mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach.  It was absolutely AMAZING.  We both wanted to just lick the plate. 

I think I liked the short ribs so much better this time because A)  I cooked them longer, B) I let them sit a day or two, which improved the flavor of the sauce and allowed me to get a lot of fat off them, and C) the port….with the tomatoes and vegetables….totally ROCKED!

I forgot to take a picture.  Here’s the empty pan after we’d scraped out every bit of sauce…..