What autumn tastes like

For the sake of full disclosure, I must admit that we actually made this recipe months ago. You will notice this by the gorgeous fresh carrots from the farmer's market. But alas, I am terrible at updating this poor blog and as I sifted through prior recipes to finally post an update, I decided that this delicious recipe is the perfect choice given the cold front rolling into town tonight!

Braised Short Ribs (adapted from Cooking Light, August 2002)

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
~4 pounds of beef short ribs
Sea salt
Black pepper
1 large red onion, finely chopped
10-12 cloves minced garlic
2 cups beef broth
1 cup dry red wine
3/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup brown sugar (packed)
2 cups chopped tomatoes

Preparation:

We served the short ribs with pan-roasted carrots and horseradish mashed potatoes.

Here are the carrots in all of their glory. Mmmmm.



Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. In a large oven-safe dish (we used our enamaled cast iron dutch oven), heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Coat the short ribs in salt and pepper, adding around half of the ribs at a time to the pan to brown. Cook 2 or so minutes on each side until browned, removing from the pan and repeating with remaining ribs until all are browned.

They won't be cooked at this point, just nicely browned so that the meat has a good sear and the pan has beefy goodness stuck to the bottom.

Add the onion to the pan (with a little more olive oil if needed) and cook until they are softened and lightly browned.

Add the garlic and cook for another minute - not too long so that the garlic doesn't burn and turn bitter. While you're stirring the onions and garlic use your spoon to scrape up some of the brown bits at the bottom.

Add the ribs back into the pan, then add the broth, wine, vinegar, sugar and tomato.

Bring the ingredients to a simmer on the stovetop. Cover the pot and bake in the oven for 1 1/2 hours at 300 degrees.

Allow the ribs to cool slightly and then re-cover, and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. I know I know, it smells delicious and you want to eat it now - but trust me. You will be glad you refrigerate when you see the next picture.

The refrigeration process allows all the fat to float to the top and harden. When you take it back out of the refrigerator, be prepared for this. Use a spoon to break this top layer, skimming the fat from the broth below.

Reheat the short ribs over medium heat for approximately 30 minutes, add additional salt and pepper to taste.

The potatoes are easy to put together - mash your potatoes with milk, sour cream, a tablespoon or two of prepared horseradish (depending on your heat tolerance), salt and pepper.

The memories of this dish are coming rushing back...I'll have to get it back on the menu ASAP!