rustic – Kimchi is my gateway drug

Now that my wedding is done and over with I can hopefully find more time to keep my blog up to date. It’s hard out to try and juggle work, wedding and passion but I will try to be a little more due diligent in the future. A month or so ago my now amazing husband gifted me with a meat grinder after I won a bet of not cutting or coloring my hair for a year. Anyone who even slightly has an inkling of who I am knows that in and of itself is a challenge considering I change my hair color pretty much twice a month so going au natural for 12 months was a sort of sick and morbid type of torture. You add not cutting or shaving it and I’m pretty sure that violates UN torture laws. But I did it and I relished the diabolic joy of fastidiously going through different options for my spoils (insert diabolical laugh). Now this post has nothing to do with actually using said meat grinder but hey spoilers for future posts maybe?

In the meantime while I waited for my package to arrive I set my eyes on a pack of meaty beef short ribs I had purchased on a whim at one of our chain grocery stores. I hadn’t really worked much with beef short ribs but a burger recipe I had been oogling used ground beef short ribs and I didn’t want it to go to waste so I went through my pantry to find out exactly what did I have that could possibly go with beef short ribs. And viola. Found beef broth, garlic, tomato paste as well as a bottle of Cabernet on my wine rack and a little fresh thyme still on my plant outside. Might as well do a little braising. Hallelujah!!!!

One thing I love the most about this recipe is that it literally only uses 1 pan. There isn’t any need to dirty multiple pans and spoons and bowls. I love recipes like that, Kyle loves recipes like that and my dishwasher definitely loves recipes like that. Another is that it’s not an expensive dish. You can easily find beef short ribs on the bone for around $5.00 a pack and even cheaper if you go to a butcher shop. You don’t need expensive wine and can easily grab a $10 bottle off the shelf and most everyone has beef stock, tomato paste and garlic in their house already so this is an easy meal to make for under $20.00

So braising. What exactly is braising? Braising is a two part cooking method in which you first brown the meat and or vegetables (yes you can braise vegetables) in a fat (searing and creating the Maillard reaction before cooking them low and slow for a long period of time in a minimal amount of liquid. It is meant to help break down tough pieces of meat or fibrous vegetables to make them more tender and succulent. It differs from stewing in the fact that you don’t completely submerge your item in liquid and it can be done with quite large pieces of meat as opposed to small pieces like stew meat. And it can be done either on the stove or in the oven. I prefer the oven in the off chance I have other things that need to occupy my stove top space.

The first step always is to make sure you have a clean work space. We are going to be temporarily working with raw meat and you want to reduce the risk of any possible cross contamination because lets face it, food poisoning is a horrid horrid thing and I really don’t like the idea of anyone getting sick off of my cooking. You will want to place a roasting pan on your stove and heat over a medium high heat. This allows us to be able to brown our meat prior to transferring it to a hot oven for the braising portion of the recipe. While your pan is heating up take this opportunity to premix your salt & pepper that will be added to the beef short ribs prior to going into the pan. This again helps reduce the chance of cross contamination as you can simply throw the rest away after using it. Add a fair amount of olive oil to the roasting pan and heat until it starts to smoke. We aren’t talking roaring clouds of Chernobyl, but just little whisps of smoke. Generously season all sides of your beef spare ribs and place meaty side down in the pan (there is a bone in these hence the meaty side down comment). You will want to essentially fry these until well browned on all sides for around 10-15 minutes. This gives you plenty of time to wipe down your work station and prep the rest of your ingredients. Take your bulbs of garlic (yes whole bulbs) and slice across the equator. If you have a large elephant bulb of garlic 1 should do ya but if you’re like me I only had the little ones so I ended up using about 4, plus I am a huge fan of garlic so I always use a little extra. More isn’t always a bad thing.

Once you’ve browned all sides of your short ribs, place the garlic cut side down pressing it into the pan. Take 2 oz of tomato paste and also place into the pan, be mindful that it may splatter and you want to just cook it out for a minute or two to start the caramelization process, pressing the paste into the bottom of the pan. I always love the smell of tomato paste as it starts to cook out. It goes from being this tart acidic smell to a rich roasty smell. I know so scientific right? It just smells good dammit!

You will want to de-glaze the pan and scrape up all the little bits of fond that got stuck to the bottom. That is the flavor right there and you want to incorporate it into your braising liquid. What? We aren’t even braising yet? Nope still in the prep stage but its worth it. Put your trust in me I shan’t steer you in the wrong direction. And what shall we de-glaze the pan with? Why an entire bottle of dry red wine. No…I’m not joking, a whole bottle. All 750 ml into the pan. We gonna do this we gonna do this right..Make sure you get a wine that you’ll enjoy drinking because those make the best to cook with. Pour the whole bottle in (don’t cry you should have another to drink while you wait) and scrape up the bits on the bottom. Return to a boil and reduce liquid by half which can take about 10-20 minutes depending on how big your pan is. Once reduced, add your beef stock and fill till it almost covers the short ribs, bring back to a boil and gently baste your ribs before transferring to the stove. Congrats ya’ll. You’ve successfully created your braising liquid. Now it’s time to braise. BRAISE THE LORD!!!!!

Carefully take aluminum foil and wrap your roasting pan prior to transferring to the oven. Carefully place inside the oven, get a buddy to help you if the pan is hot and heavy and let it cook for 3-4 hours, basting every 30 minutes until the meat is tender and falling off the bone. That’s it. That’s the braising process. Complicated huh? During the cook time you can do some laundry, watch a few episodes of Shameless, torture your cats by putting them in Halloween costumes….What? I’d never do…..oh..okay so like once…..or um okay twice..Okay three times..I swear they love it though!

When the ribs are done and you’ve applied Bactine to all your cat scratches remove carefully from the oven and transfer the ribs to a separate place. All that beautiful meaty rich liquid does not go to waste. If you throw it away and I find out I’ll hunt you down and slap you silly. That is a gorgeous demi-glace and should be enjoyed. Remove the garlic and place in a fine mesh sieve and press out all the braised roasted garlic pulp, and then in the same sieve strain the braising liquid. You can at this point reduce it down if it is a little thin after incorporating the garlic paste or if its the right consistency place in a separate bowl for your guests. I personally saute up some mushrooms and shallot and more garlic and add the demi-glace to the pan prior to plating and then drizzle over my short ribs. You can pair this with anything. A lovely polenta with the rib nestled on top would be lovely. Some egg noodles and go a little more rustic always a winner or even eating it by itself with a lovely vibrant salad. Its all up to you. I hope you enjoy!