braised short ribs

I’m alive! I’m alive! No, really, I didn’t want you all to think I’ve become an incessant nester, was stuck under 23 loads of laundry, catching up on Mad Men or anything serious. Apparently no one can really grasp the concept of no longer having time for (insert: self, husband, friends, life in general) until parenthood is on the horizon. Suddenly I’ve been struck with a zombie like daze as I walk around moaning “I need a nap” after begrudgingly rolling out of bed fifteen minutes prior, and feverishly poke my right hip because someone decided to wedge their head in there.

Luckily for you (and me, and my husband, and family, and pretty much the entire world) the pregnancy talk will soon come to an end and new talk of spit up and burp schedules will replace it and I frantically ask you all how in the world you did it?! Not that I’m panicking here, I’m just amazed that in April I felt like I had a million months before worrying about essential things like cribs (that woops, also need things like a mattress and sheets) or a car seat since the hospital seems to think this packaging option absolutely necessary before you can take your little gift home.

So that is where I have been, trying to fit in the things I have known about for the last seven months yet never got around to and it has left me little time for cooked meals. Frankly I have been aching to get back into my old routine (even I am laughing at the absurdity of that last statement, but I have a few more weeks to at least try, right?) and this week I was fortunate enough to make short ribs for an actual dinner, where we ate at a table and used things like silverware, because I could shove it into an oven while taking my fifth nap. I know this is all sounding a bit redundant as I basically complained about this two weeks ago, but people, why do I procrastinate get distracted with finding holiday candy recipes that I won’t even have time for this year?!

Even so, in the recipe scouring spare time I was able to find I flipped through my Balthazar cookbook (you remember the mushroom soup and the goat cheese tarts?) and then took a look at my staub and immediately sent my husband out for short ribs as I prepared a bubbling cauldron of cabernet soaked meats for dinner. It was also my first unintentional time making baby food meat, as this is so tender I pulled off the lid to see a pile of bones and figured I had done something wrong when alas I tasted and immediately felt better about my nap and dinner and time spent on candy.

P.S. Whole Foods has this season’s pre-season Egg Nog, and it makes me happy. Oh so happy!

One Year Ago: Crunchy Baked Porkchops and Balthazar’s Mushroom Soup

Braised Short Ribs
Adapted barely from The Balthazar Cookbook

Serves 6

8 beef short ribs, about 5 to 7 pounds
2 sprigs rosemary
10 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
1 celery stalk, halved
3 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
4 shallots, peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick
5 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
3 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup ruby port
4 (ish) cups of full-bodied red wine, such as Cabernet Sauvignon*
6 cups veal stock**

Preheat oven to 325-degrees.

Bind each rib with cotton kitchen twine. Place the rosemary, thyme, and bay leaf between the two celery halves and bind with kitchen twine.

Season te short ribs with 2 teaspoons kosher salt and black pepper. Heat the oil in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat until it smokes. In two batches, brown the short ribs well on both sides (make sure you get that crusty caramelized brown sear on all sides of the ribs, it creates a ton of flavor and causes a thick fond to cover the bottom of your pot). Remove ribs and set on plate to rest when done.

Lower heat to medium, and add the carrots, onion, shallots and garlic to the pot. Saute for 5 minutes, until the onion is soft and light brown. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes. Add the flour and stir well to combine. Add the port, red wine*, and the celery-herb-bundle. Raise the heat to high and cook until the liquid is reduced by a third, about 20 minutes.

Return the ribs and any juices that have collected to the pot (they will need to be stacked in two layers). Add the stock and the remaining 1 teaspoon of kosher salt; if the stock doesn’t cover the ribs by at least 1-inch, add water up to that level*. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover, transfer to the pre-heated oven and cook for 3 hours. Visit the pot occasionally and stir the ribs, bringing the ones on the bottom up to the top. They’re done when the meat is fork tender and falling off the bone.

Transfer the ribs to a large platter and remove the strings. Skim any fat from the surface of the sauce, and then strain through a sieve back into the dutch oven. Discard the solids. Over medium heat, bring the sauce to a strong simmer and reduce the liquid until slightly less than half (4 cups) remains, about 1 hour.

Return ribs to pot, simmer for 10 minutes to reheat. Serve over egg noodles or mashed potatoes to sop up all the boozy sauce.

*I say 4-ish because I pour straight out of the bottle. I’m a firm believer in never measuring booze or cheese in recipes and so this might have been closer to 5-ish cups as I rather have a higher concentrated wine taste than something that could possibly be watered down.

**If you don’t have veal stock on hand it can be substituted with beef broth.