Food Mave: How to Make Braised Beef Short Ribs

I put my foot in it.

I decided to go on a triple date with two other couples, only I decided to in-house the whole operation. The menu:

Appetizers: Shrimp cocktail and spinach artichoke dip (not made by me but by the lady)

Main Courses: Bone-in and boneless short ribs, mac-n-cheese, sweet potato casserole (not made by me), baked potatoes, and sauteed spinach. This post will be primarily about the ribs.

Went to Whole Foods and copped 6 lbs. of bone-in ribs

Ingredients (serves about 10):

- 6 lbs. bone-in short ribs (make sure you have the butcher cut the ribs)

- 6 pieces of boneless short ribs

- 10 oz pack of cut baby bella mushrooms

- 1 pack of shiitake mushrooms

- 2 cups of red wine

- 2 whole onions roughly cut

- 2 garlic cloves roughly cut

- 1-2 quarts of beef broth

- Whatever spices you have you in your cupboard: Goya Adobo, kosher salt, pepper, oregano, basil, Lawry's

- Fresh rosemary and thyme (from the veggie section, not the one in the shaker, but that will do if you have no access to fresh rosemary and thyme)

- half a stick of salted butter

- olive oil

- all-purpose flour

- 2 quart crock pot

Step 1: Season meat generously on each side until coated. If you can, do this the night before and seal in tupperware in fridge over night.

Step 2: (Next Day) Take meat out and spank in all-purpose flour. Really beat that flour into the ribs (Ying Yang's "Wait" song comes to mind) like so:

Step 3: Turn stove up to high heat and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a cooking pan. Once you start to see smoke rising from the olive oil, sear ribs on each side until brown. You'll start to see the blood start to rise out.

Step 4: Take shiitake mushrooms out and slice em up.

Step 5: Combine the shiitake and 1/3-1/2 of baby bella mushrooms in a pan on medium heat and add a half inch of butter. Saute for about 4-5 minutes and then add in 1 roughly cut onion and garlic clove to the pan. Saute until onions brown

Step 6: Add quart of beef broth into the mix and stir occasionally until beef broth starts to simmer.

Step 7: Add ribs to the crock pot and add about 3/8 oz each of fresh rosemary and thyme. Add broth mixture and cover. Cook for about seven hours on high heat.

Since I only had one crock pot, I had to cook the boneless ribs in the oven. I pre-heated the oven to 275 degrees (Shout out to HCP for the assist on the oven technique) and repeated steps 1-5 for the 6 pieces of boneless short ribs and used about half (2 cups) of the second quart of beef broth. Cook for about 4-5 hours.

Now the most important part of cooking is tasting as often as possible. You want to be tasting often starting after the third hour. First, start by tasting the broth, as it is sure to need more salt and more seasoning than you used to season the ribs. I had to add much more kosher salt and healthy doses of Lawry's Seasoning Salt multiple times before it started to taste right. Salt to taste is key. It definitely helps to have someone else taste your meals, too. after about the fifth hour, start tasting the beef.

Now I forgot to take a picture of the final bone-in rib but you get the point from the top picture. Here's what them boneless ribs looked like:

Threw some baked potatoes in there, as well.

Ribs were a hit and people took home leftovers. So that's how you make boneless and bone-in ribs in either a crock pot or in the oven! I will say that I've never made short ribs before, but it was great to get solicited confirmation from Helga CP after starting the process. I used this video as a baseline: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBAugCvw7pk

The mac-n-cheese (post coming up later):