Braised beef short rib

 I don’t often get the chance to eat meat. Mrs mecookfood is a vegetarian so its easier to cook vegetarian most of the time. However, when she isn’t home I take full advantage of her absence and cook the recipes that I can’t cook when she’s at home.

I bought quite a large quantity of beef short rib when it was offer at the local supermarket. It’s always nice to have a good supply in the freezer as I think its one of the best pieces of meat available, although it does take an awfully long time to prepare. 

Planning ahead, I knew that she wasn’t going to be home so I took 4 pieces out of the freezer and left them to defrost for 24 hours. In the meantime I got to thinking about what I could do with it.

I love to get them on the barbecue. Don’t get me wrong, smoked short rib is probably the best piece of meat out there, but I thought that I’d try something different. I know that short rib needs to be cooked slow and low so that you get the beautiful texture that just falls apart. So I decided that I would try braising it.

When you are braising a piece of meat you don’t need to add a lot to the braising liquid as you get an incredible amount of flavour from the meat itself. So I added a few simple ingredients and ended up with the most delicious and tender piece of meat that I think that I’ve ever eaten.

The recipe is enough for 4 people, and I would recommend serving it with creamy, buttery mashed potato. It was just so delicious!

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg beef short rib
• 2 onions, roughly chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• a few sprigs of thyme
• 750ml beef stock
• 2 tbsp. worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil

1. Firstly, you need to make sure that the shortrib is cut into four pieces each weighing roughly 300g. Leave it on the bone as this is where you get a lot of your flavour from.
2. Preheat the oven to around 160° C.  Place a large casserole dish with a little olive oil onto a medium heat. Firstly you need to season the meat with salt and pepper. Once seasoned, place the ribs into the pan and sear on each side. Remove from the pan and set aside.
3. Add the onions to the pan and cook until softened, usually around 5 minutes. At this point add the garlic and fry for another minute or so.
4. Add the thyme, beef stock, worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar and seasoning to the pan followed by the pieces of short rib. Cover the pan with a lid and place into the oven for 2 hours.
5. After 2 hours, remove from the oven and remove the lid to see how much liquid is remaining. If the liquid is low, add a little more water as you need to use this as a sauce. Place the lid back onto the pan and place back into the oven for another hour.
6. When the cooking time is up, remove from the oven, remove the thyme sprigs and serve with creamy, buttery mashed potatoes.