Long Island Foodie

I know that it’s like 80 degrees out there, and braising beef for hours on end makes more sense in the winter than it does in the summer…but I wanted them, and now they are mine, all mine.  Well, I obviously have to share with my better half, but mine is hers anyway, so it looks like we’ll be eating good tonight.

I picked up two packages of short ribs from Forest Pork Store the other day, along with some bacon and a bottle of Hefewisen.  The game plan was that I would get home yesterday at around 6:00pm and start searing off the short ribs in bacon fat, giving me enough time to pop them in the oven for a three hour braise.  That way I could pull them out of the oven and let them cool before packing them into the fridge until dinner on Tuesday.

So we start off chopping up the bacon and rendering out the fat into a dutch oven.  As you can see, we’re using our new Jenn Air cooktop along with the dutch oven Mr. and Mrs. Nelkin bought us (owners of the Garden City Hotel) for our wedding.

Once the bacon fat is rendered into the pan, remove the crispy bacon bits and reserve for later use in a salad, or as a snack for the chef while cooking (which is what I did).

Once the bacon bits have been removed, sear the crap out of your short ribs on all sides (don’t forget to season).  This is the most important step in making brasised short ribs and if you skimp on the sear, you’ll pay in the end with less than spectacular short ribs.

Once the ribs have been fulled seared, remove them to a plate and add your mirepoix to the pan, sweat it in bacon fat and short rib drippings.  Add some salt and pepper and cook until translucent.  I then added four crushed garlic cloves.  I didn’t want to add these too early because I was afraid it would burn and add a burnt flavor to the short ribs which would be tragic.  Also into the pot went some tomato paste which I stirred in until carmelized.

Once the tomato paste was carmelized and the veggies looked good to go, I deglazed the pan using the hefeweizen.

To this I added beef stock, worchester sauce and the short ribs.  Once it came up to a simmer, I popped it into a preheated 300 degree oven for three hours.

And after three hours, I had this lovely creation to show for it all:

Now, short ribs are always better the next day, so I packed these guys up for a day in the fridge so that when I get home tonight I can peel off the layer of fat that will have coagulated on the surface, bring the entire product up to a simmer and will be ready to serve with a side of polenta.

I’ll keep you posted as to how this meal worked out.  The recipe I’m including below is an approximation of what I did, because we don’t need no stinkin recipes ’round these parts (did you notice that beautiful GE Profile double oven setup?  Don’t hate the player, hate the game).

Braised Short Ribs

1/4 pound of bacon, chopped
8 small short ribs
1 medium onion, chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 pint of hefeweizen
1 32 oz. box of organic beef broth
5 dashes of worchester sauce
salt and pepper for seasoning

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Sweat bacon in dutch oven over medium heat.
3. Sear all sides of short ribs in bacon fat. Remove short ribs to plate.
4. Sweat celery, onion and carrots in pan until translucent.
5. Add crushed garlic cloves and tomato paste.
6. Stir in tomato paste and carmelize.
7. Deglaze pan with hefeweizen.
8. Place short ribs back in pan and cover with beef broth. Shake in worchester sauce.
9. Place in preheated oven for three hours.
10. Remove short ribs and separate ribs from sauce to cool (better to cool overnight in the fridge).
11. When ready to serve, remove layer of fat from sauce and combine with short ribs in a saucepan over medium low heat, just enough to heat up sauce and meet to a simmer.
12. Serve and enjoy!