Braised Beef Short Ribs with Polenta

This one was made a couple weeks back when the weather was decidedly cooler and lent itself to more hearty fare. With Utah's unpredictable spring temperatures being what they are, I've decided to throw it up here anyway.

When I see short ribs on a restaurant menu I almost always order them. They usually come served on a bed of soft polenta or mashed potatoes. They're not like a typical "rib" that you would see at a barbecue joint, they're more similar to a lamb shank or maybe even a mini-version of a good pot roast where the meat just shreds with a fork. The bone-in short rib is a great cut that at first glance looks like it won't yield much meat. In the package at the grocery store it appears to be mostly bone and a lot of fat, but with slow-braising, the fat melts away resulting in a very tender cut of meat. If you have the time and a little patience you can easily make this dish at home and for a lot less money than you would pay going out.

What you will need

For the Ribs:

2 cups Good red wine (Something you wouldn't mind drinking). A lot of times you can easily substitute cooking stock for wine, but in this case the beef braising in the wine is where a lot of the sweet flavor comes from and the acid in the wine helps to break down that connective tissue in the meat.

1 cup Chicken stock - helps to thin out the sauce, and balances out the flavor of the wine which would be too overpowering if it was the single liquid component in the dish.

1 Medium Onion Chopped

1-2 Carrots Chopped

2 Ribs celery chopped

2 Tbs Tomato Paste

2 Tbs flour for thickening

1 tsp chopped garlic (2 cloves)

1 Bay Leaf

A couple sprigs fresh tyhme (Optional, I just had some on hand).

For the Polenta:

1 tube of pre-cooked polenta (I've seen this at just about every grocery store) Or the box of instant polenta. Just follow the directions on the package.

This is one you could certainly make from scratch, but it involves a lot of babysitting and constant stirring, which after trying the pre-cooked varieties, I don't see the need.

The works.

Olive oil in your pan - a couple tablespoons for browning the meat.

Salt and pepper your ribs.

Keep the vegetable pieces pretty big, similar to what you would serve around a Sunday roast. That sounds pretencious for some reason.

Brown your short ribs on all sides. This will require a good set of tongs.

Once browned, remove from pan.

Also remove about two thirds of the fat. The ribs will continue to release a lot of fat while they braise in the oven.

Add your veggies and garlic and saute a few minutes.

Make some room for the tomato paste and let it cook in the pan for a minute.

Add the flour and let it coat the veggies. It will start to get a bit mucky in the pot at this point without any liquid. DON'T WORRY! You want those brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Also, allowing the flour a couple minutes of cooking time will help cook out some of that raw flour taste.

Deglaze the pan with the 2 cups of wine, vigorously scraping up the browned bits off the bottom of the pan.

The sauce will thicken up quickly at this point. You can add more wine if necessary, but allow it to cook down a bit if you can, if it's getting too thick and starting to stick that's when you add your chicken stock.

At this point, add your fresh herbs.

Place the short ribs back in the pot. Add salt and pepper to taste and throw it in a 300 degree oven for approximately 2 hours. Check every 30 minutes to skim excess fat off the top.

Whisking up my polenta. You can add chicken stock to this, or just water. I sometimes use a little bit of cream if I have it and a pat of butter. Freshly grated parm is good in here too.

Is that the most beautiful Goddamn thing you've ever seen? Don't you want to just live in here? I could seriously spend the rest of my life inside this pot.

This is the man's version of the Tiffany blue box. Ladies, learn to make this for your husbands. If you do, I promise he will do unspeakable things to you. At the very least he'll sit through an entire episode of Glee without complaining.

Are you kidding me with this? Seriously, look at that thing! You can see where I got crazy with the bread-sopping on the plate before taking this picture. I'm not embarrassed by that in the least.