I needed to cook some short ribs. No really. I’ve looking at the damn things at my butchers, Los Paisanos in Brooklyn, for months, just waiting for a point in my life when I had the time. I looked up recipes, which in the end, I ignored. (Including a video of Mark Bittman, NY Times food columnist, practically having a orgasm after cooking them.) I had a jones I needed to get over.
So the initial idea was to braise in beer, dark beer. But I just never got around to getting any. Since our most gracious friends let us use their house while they are in Ireland for a year and are between renters, I made the most of a real kitchen. Ya know, counter tops, a stove that throws real heat, and an oven that you can set to a temperature and it stays at said temperature. I brought over my magic pot and since I had a bottle of wine hanging around the apartment, I figured I would just use that. Not that I really, really wanted to. I had my heart set on beer. I wanted that deep malty flavor along with the beef. But, it was all I had and I was too lazy to stop at the store, and actually too cheap to spring for it.
I separated the ribs at home into their individual meat laden selves, and headed over to our friends place. God Bless them and their kitchen. I got the magic pot nice and hot, added a little oil and set to giving them a nice browning on all sides. I was still unsure of how I wanted to braise them, and went to raid their cupboards. I needed a drink first though. Upon opening there liquor cabinet there it was. Hell, if I couldn’t have beer, I’d have Bourbon as a braising liquid. Ah just so damn perfect. I just couldn’t use it straight. I had to cut it with something and it was back to the cupboards. Bless the house owners little vegetarian heart. She had one of those little 4 packs of vegetable stock, ya know in those annoying cardboard containers. Ok, so it was a little out of date, those things really don’t go bad though right? I finished browning the ribs, took them out, and caramelized some onions and celery. Poured in the two little containers of veg. stock, I smelled it first of course, and poured in about three glugs bourbon and let it come to a hard simmer to boil some of the alcohol off. It had a very strong bourbon smell that worried me a bit. But, I couldn’t do much about it now. So in went the short ribs, put the cover on and set my baby in the oven at 300 degrees.
It simmered a little too hard, so I dropped the oven to 250, then 200. For about 4 hours they hung out there, braising away, disturbed only a few times for a turn. I roasted some potatoes along side the last hour and a half. I let the ribs rest while a skimmed the braising liquid of most of the fat, and boiled it down a bit. To my amazement, the strong bourbon scent that it had when it went in was almost gone, with just a hint of the bourbon sweetness, and ended up with a very rich and mellow pan sauce.
And the short ribs, holy crap, man I can’t believe it took my 43 years to have these beautiful pieces of heaven. What an ass.
Oh, there will be a new bottle of bourbon waiting for you when you get home.
I separated the ribs at home into their individual meat laden selves, and headed over to our friends place. God Bless them and their kitchen. I got the magic pot nice and hot, added a little oil and set to giving them a nice browning on all sides. I was still unsure of how I wanted to braise them, and went to raid their cupboards. I needed a drink first though. Upon opening there liquor cabinet there it was. Hell, if I couldn’t have beer, I’d have Bourbon as a braising liquid. Ah just so damn perfect. I just couldn’t use it straight. I had to cut it with something and it was back to the cupboards. Bless the house owners little vegetarian heart. She had one of those little 4 packs of vegetable stock, ya know in those annoying cardboard containers. Ok, so it was a little out of date, those things really don’t go bad though right? I finished browning the ribs, took them out, and caramelized some onions and celery. Poured in the two little containers of veg. stock, I smelled it first of course, and poured in about three glugs bourbon and let it come to a hard simmer to boil some of the alcohol off. It had a very strong bourbon smell that worried me a bit. But, I couldn’t do much about it now. So in went the short ribs, put the cover on and set my baby in the oven at 300 degrees.
It simmered a little too hard, so I dropped the oven to 250, then 200. For about 4 hours they hung out there, braising away, disturbed only a few times for a turn. I roasted some potatoes along side the last hour and a half. I let the ribs rest while a skimmed the braising liquid of most of the fat, and boiled it down a bit. To my amazement, the strong bourbon scent that it had when it went in was almost gone, with just a hint of the bourbon sweetness, and ended up with a very rich and mellow pan sauce.
And the short ribs, holy crap, man I can’t believe it took my 43 years to have these beautiful pieces of heaven. What an ass.
Oh, there will be a new bottle of bourbon waiting for you when you get home.
1 comment:
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Sounds delish, maybe I should make those with my stout!
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