Recipe: Wine-braised Short Ribs

Listen, when I write a recipe, and especially while I’m cooking, I wing it, I don’t measure everything. I eyeball it. Most of the time, following everything to a T on a recipe isn’t required to produce a nutritious and tasty meal. Take this ingredients list as a guide. Guess what, I’m not going to tell you a long story before I give you the recipe either.

Ingredients Needed

1. Bone-in beef short ribs (several)

2. Cooking fat (couple tablespoons most likely)

3. Onions (1-2 onions - add more if you like - they’ll get sweet as they cook)

4. Carrots (optional)

5. Celery (optional)

6. Tomato paste (only need a couple tablespoons)

7. Flour (a small handful)

8. Red wine (a 750ml bottle or less - you should probably drink a glass, too)

9. Beef stock (a couple cups most likely)

10. Herbs (rosemary, thyme, and bay leaves will add the most flavor)

11. Garlic (Whole head sliced in half if you got it)

Kitchen Tools Needed

1. Dutch Oven (giant oven-proof pot with oven-proof lid)

2. Tongs (to remove things without burning your fingertips)

3. Stirring spoon (I’m a fan of wood)

4. Strainer / Sieve (to strain out the whole herbs, veggies, and rib bones after everything cooks down to a delicious gravy)

The Road Map

This is how the beef short ribs are going to start as frozen and end deliciously braised.

1. Thaw the ribs (it won’t take long) and cut into chunks

2. Brown the ribs in cooking fat in the dutch oven

3. Remove the browned ribs to any bowl or plate

4. Cook the onions (and carrots and celery if you add them) in the dutch oven

5. Add tomato paste and flour and stir it all up until it browns a little (it’ll get clumpy)

6. Add red wine to the hot, steamy, veggie, tomato paste, flour mixture (this is called deglazing)

7. Add beef stock to the now very red-in-color, hot, steamy, veggie, wine mixture

8. Add the browned short ribs back to pot, bring to boil, then cover

9. Add in herbs and garlic head whole (they’ll be strained out at the end)

10. Place dutch oven in 350F preheated over and cook for 2-3 hours

11. After fully cooked and tender, beef short ribs are removed to a plate, and the resulting gravy is strained to remove whole herbs and vegetables.

12. Serve wine-braised beef short ribs over mashed potatoes or rice, and cover in gravy.