Braised Short Ribs And Root Vegetables

Every couple of years we have this dish in the fall when we find some good short ribs and after a couple of years, I have some. You may recall from a couple of days ago, the shot of the raw ones I had – I washed and used my hacksaw to cut the two long ones in half.

The recipe we used comes from Emeril and as you can see has lots of ingredients - I think this is the third time we've made it. I had 7 ½ pounds of short ribs so I made a full recipe in pot one and a half recipe in pot two. We have a large and a medium Le Creuset enameled cast iron pot and they worked great for this dish.

BRAISED BEEF SHORT RIBS AND ROOT VEGETABLES
Emeril

Makes 4 servings

2 racks beef short ribs (4 to 5 pounds), cut into individual ribs
2 tbsp Emeril’s Essence (I used a higher heat version I had made up)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions
1 stalk celery, trimmed and chopped
1 ea carrot, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 tbsp minced garlic
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (I omitted due to the higher heat Essence)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 ea bay leaves
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary leaves
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 cup ruby port
2 cups dry red wine (I used merlot)
4 cups veal or beef stock
1 pound butternut or acorn squash, peeled, fibers removed, and cubed
2 ea parsnips, peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
2 ea carrots, peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 large sweet potato, peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
12 ounces egg noodles, cooked al dente, accompaniment
1/4 cup chopped green onions, garnish
1/4 cup chopped parsley, garnish

· Season the ribs with the Essence on all sides.
· In a Dutch oven or large, heavy covered pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
· Add the ribs in batches to prevent crowding and sear on all sides. Remove with tongs to a plate.
· Add the onions, celery and carrots to the fat remaining in the pan, and cook, stirring, until soft and starting to caramelize, about 7 minutes.
· Add the garlic, salt, red pepper, and black pepper, and cook for 30 seconds.
· Add the tomato paste, bay leaves, rosemary, and thyme, and cook for 2 minutes.
· Add the Port and red wine, bring to a boil, stirring to deglaze the pan and cook until reduced by 1/2.
· Add the ribs and stock and return to a boil.
· Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, cover, and simmer until the meat is tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. (During cooking, make sure that there is at least 1-inch of liquid in the pot; add more stock or water as necessary to cover.)
· Add the root vegetables and cook until they are tender and the meat easily falls from the bones, another 40 minutes to 1 hour.
· Remove from the heat. Transfer the ribs and meat to a large bowl and cover to keep warm.
· Skim any fat from the surface.
· Bring the sauce to a boil and cook until thickened, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and discard the bay leaves.
· To serve, arrange the egg noodles in the middle of a large platter.
· Place the ribs on top and spoon the sauce over the meat. Garnish with green onions and parsley and serve immediately.

From start to on the table, it took us about 5 hours for the meal and this is a dish you want to have everything but the root veggies ready to add before you start cooking. I first browned the meat and since I’m still learning to use Bev’s camera, the shot of it came out blurry. After the meat was browned, I cooked the Mirepoix.

Here it is reducing after the wine addition.

Here are the root veggies ready to go in – left pile is full recipe and right pile is half recipe.

This is just after adding the veggies to the pot – the meat had been cooking for 2 hours at this point and it may require more based on the size of your rib pieces.

And here it is headed for the table.

Five hours sounds like a lot of cooking time, but there's nothing to do while the meat and then the veggies are cooking until time to cook the noodles. The meat and veggies were outstanding and we consider this a definite company quality meal – we actually served it to company this time. One heads up is the port wine and veggies make it a little sweet. The one negative was our first time use of frozen egg noodles, as they would not progress beyond very doughy – won’t make that mistake again. Fortunately they played a small role in this dish and could just be ignored. This is an ideal dish for this time of year and I encourage you to try it if you can find some nice meaty beef short ribs.

We had plenty of leftovers and just dumped the noodles in with the meat and veggies to store.  When we reheated them the next night, the noodles had come a long way but I still prefer the dry ones. Finally, the ruby port is pretty good after-dinner sipping wine.
 
Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry