Saturday, October 24, 2015

Beef short rib ragu


The furnace has been running lately. So has the living room fireplace.

It's braising season.

Not a lot of things are better for braising than short ribs. They're terrific served whole, of course, but I was in the mood for a hearty ragu the other evening, and so that's the direction I went in.

Nobody complained.


I started out with 3 pounds of beef short ribs. After liberally seasoning the ribs with kosher salt and black pepper I dredged them in all-purpose flour and then tossed them into a dutch oven with plenty of olive oil.


After the ribs have browned on all sides, remove and set aside.


Add one large chopped carrot, two celery stalks, one medium onion, one leek, four garlic cloves, and some thyme. Saute until the vegetables have softened.


Return the ribs to the dutch oven and add one quart of stock (beef here), 2 cups of red wine, and one can of tomatoes. Let the liquid come to a boil, then cover the pot and place in an oven preheated to 375 degrees F.


After around two hours check that the meat is tender. If it isn't tender continue to cook until it is. Once tender remove from the oven and allow things to cool.


Once cool enough to handle, remove the ribs from the sauce and pick away all the meat from the bones.


All that's left to do now is add the meat back into the sauce, reheat and serve.


As you can see by the picture up top I served the ragu over polenta the first night. The next night I went with cavatelli.

It feels like winter tonight. I only wish there was still some of the stuff left.

4 comments:

Fred said...

Yum. Looks like something that would work with oxtails too.

Sketchy 1 said...

Greetings, love all your posts and this makes me drool but, I can't help but wonder why you would use "kosher salt"

seeing there is no slaughter involved in salt according to Jewish Talmudic law which makes "kosher salt" an oxymoron.

Why not use good sea salt,or Himalayan salt, or plain old salt which is just as good if not better?

Mister Meatball said...

Kosher salt isn't about the salt being kosher; it's referred to as such because of its use in MAKING foods that are kosher. As for why I use it, I use lots of different salts, in different dishes.

Tee said...

that looks delicious!