Braised Beef Short Ribs

Beef short ribs are relatively a cheap cut of meat and with some tender loving care they are fall off the bone delicious. My cut which I bought at Costco were boneless. The best thing about braising these low and slow is the aromatherapy it produces.  You will call in sick just to stay home, whiff this all day while wiping the drool off your chin! I have other recipes that will follow in the next coming days that accompanied my short ribs.

My menu started off with wedge lettuce salad with homemade blue cheese dressing topped off with  crispy shallots and turkey bacon bits. Main dish was of course the  braised short ribs served over a bed of creamy polenta, and collard greens. For dessert I made a rustic skillet apple pie.

I hope you enjoy my journey through these recipes this week.

Ingredients:

• beef short ribs
• 3 pieces of bacon (I use turkey bacon)
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 2 celery stalks chopped up
• 2 carrots diced
• 2 garlic cloves minced fine
• flour for dusting your ribs
• generous sprinkles of kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• 2 heaping tbls of tomato paste
• 1 tsp of soy sauce
• 1 tsp of worcestershire sauce
• 2 cups of dry  wine
• 2 cups of beef broth
• fresh herb bouquet( I used thyme and rosemary)

Tip:

If you have a small hand-held grinder/blender it works great for grinding pepper. I don’t have the patience to hand grind a ton of black pepper on my food, so I always keep a bit ground up in my magic bullet container.

Directions:

First off, we are going to GENEROUSLY sprinkle our meat with the kosher salt and fresh black cracked pepper.

Don’t be shy with the seasoning honestly this is a lot of meat and the salt helps tenderize the meat and adds flavor to the braising liquids. If you are using regular salt vs kosher salt then DON’T use as much salt because it will be way too salty. 1 tsp of kosher salt is equal to 1/2 tsp of regular table salt.

Let your meat rest for a half hour and come to room temperature while we do some prep work. We will dice up our bacon, onion, celery and carrots.

Now we can dust our meat in the flour:

So my thought process with the bacon was to add another depth of flavor and smokiness. Sort of like what you do with beef bourguignon. So we are going to fry up our bacon I used a bit of vegetable oil because turkey bacon is very trim and no fat is really rendered.

Once your bacon is cooked and crispy, scoop it out of your dutch oven and set aside (I used half of the cooked bacon to top off my blue cheese wedge salad:) the rest will go back in our pot later)

Now take your beef short ribs and brown them really good in batches. Once browned on both sides set aside to rest.

Ok a word about how to add extra beefiness and compliment the flavors of beef: tomato paste, soy sauce, and  worcesteshire sauce. These 3 ingredients are a great key to adding boatloads of rich beefy flavor.

So we want to cook our tomato paste in the pot for a few minutes. I add a small handful of onions to get some moisture in the pot to help along the tomato solids. You will immediately smell a difference in the once weak tomato paste as well as the deep rich color it turns as it is cooking. The smell intensifies and sweet meets full-bodied tomato! Caramelizing the tomato solids like this will provide much complex yummy flavors to our braising sauce.

So after a few minutes of stirring the tomato paste you will add the tri-vegetables you chopped up. By the way a lot of stews start off with a combination of these 3 vegetables. They are powerful flavor enhancers. I love onions! When I was a little girl I asked my mom to make me onion sandwiches for my lunch! No wonder I wasn’t popular lol.

Ok as you can see we cook this till the vegetables become translucent and soft (it will be quite thick due to the tomato paste in there.)  At the very end we throw our chopped up garlic and cook for 2 more minutes.  Now onto deglazing the pan with some red wine. Choose a dry wine that you would also drink. Remember if it tastes horrible to drink, it won’t taste any better cooked!

I love the name of this wine. Although covered in flour(I’m a horribly messy cook) and smelling like beef stew I don’t think is too sexy. Right? Well I was sipping on this fabulous wine while cooking and please take special note of the paper towel close to my burner in the picture above.

All of a sudden I  felt much more intense heat and thought “WOW I am having a hot flash already” (as I do when I drink alcohol, do all women in menopause get that? Or is it just me?) Any how, some flames caught the corner of my eye and for a second I thought I have to take a picture of this! and I proceeded to try to “blow out the paper towel” which of course fueled the flame more and like any logical person would do while I was looking over the mountains of mess in my kitchen I was trying to find my camera I was trying to find something to smoother the flame 🙂

End result

Ok back to cooking! Alright once the wine has reduced a bit after 5 minutes or so we add the 2 cups of beef broth

To this we will add our bouquet of herbs (thyme and rosemary).  Then add your meat and cooked bacon bits.  Put your lid back on the dutch oven. We are ready for the oven!

Place in a preheated 300 degree oven and braise those baby’s for approximately 3.5 hours. You can check on them halfway through the cooking process and flip them in the braising sauce. They will be fork tender when done and basically falling apart if you stare at them too hard. 😉

Bon Appetit!

Braised Beef Short Ribs

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 4hrs
• Difficulty: medium
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Ingredients:

• 2 lbs beef short ribs
• 3 pieces of bacon (I use turkey bacon)
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 2 celery stalks chopped up
• 2 carrots diced
• 2 garlic cloves minced fine
• flour for dusting your ribs
• generous sprinkles of kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• 2 heaping tbls of tomato paste
• 1 tsp of soy sauce
• 1 tsp of worcestershire sauce
• 2 cups of dry  wine
• 2 cups of beef broth
• fresh herb bouquet( I used thyme and rosemary)

Directions:

First off, generously sprinkle your meat with kosher salt and fresh black cracked pepper.

Let your meat rest for a half hour and come to room temperature while you do some prep work.  Dice up your bacon, onion, celery and carrots and mince your garlic.

Dust your meat in some flour. Fry up your bacon in a frying pan and once your bacon is cooked and crispy, scoop it out of your dutch oven and set aside.

Now take your beef short ribs and brown them really good in batches. Once browned on both sides set aside to rest.

Cook your tomato paste in the pot for a few minutes with a small handful of onions to get some moisture in the pot to help along the tomato solids. Caramelizing the tomato solids like this will provide much complex yummy flavors to your braising sauce.

After a few minutes of stirring the tomato paste you will add the rest of the vegetables you chopped up.

Cook this until the vegetables become translucent and soft (it will be quite thick due to the tomato paste in there.)  At the very end  throw your chopped up garlic and cook for 2 more minutes.

Deglaze your pan with the red wine. Choose a dry wine that you would also drink. Remember if it tastes horrible to drink, it won’t taste any better cooked!

Once the wine has reduced a bit after 5 minutes or so,  add the 2 cups of beef broth.

To this add your bouquet of herbs (thyme and rosemary).  Then add your meat and cooked bacon bits.  Put your lid back on the dutch oven. We are ready for the oven!

Place in a preheated 300 degree oven and braise those baby’s for approximately 3.5 hours. You can check on them halfway through the cooking process and flip them in the braising sauce. They will be fork tender when done and basically falling apart if you stare at them too hard. 😉

Remove from oven discard the herb bouquet and serve.

Chicken Stew and Dumplings

One Pot Comfort Food

Stew Ingredients:

• 1 cup of celery
• 2 small yellow onions
• 2 cups of carrots
• 5 potatoes
• 1 box of chicken stock
• water and 1 heaping tbsp of cornstarch
• 1 tbs of fresh thyme
• 1 tbs of fresh rosemary
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut across the grain is small chunks
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 tbs of vegetable oil

Directions:

In a large dutch oven add your 2 tbs of vegetable oil and turn your stove on  high. Once the oil is very hot add the chunks of chicken in batches.

Do not crowd the chicken in the pot we do not want to steam them we want to produce a golden brown exterior on each chicken morsel. This is where you are going to get your surge of flavor. Once all pieces of chicken are cooked I let them cool on a plate while we start on the vegetables.

You should now have beautiful brown bits(fond) in the bottom of your dutch oven. Add 1 tbsp of veg oil and add all your veggies to saute them. Apply some elbow grease and as the veggies let off steam  scrape all those yummy bits of the bottom of your pot.

Once your veggies have softened deglase your pan with 2 cups of chicken stock and add your chicken pieces back to the pot.

Last time I made stew I had a lot of base and chicken so I froze some. Sorry I didn’t have pics of previous steps.

Cut your potatoes up in bite size pieces and add to your pot along with the fresh herbs. Let boil and wait for your potatoes to cook.

The starches in the potatoes will naturally thicken your stew a little bit. Now take a little bit of water with your cornstarch and stir together. Add this mixture to the pot and let boil. Once boiled turn your stew to simmer now we make the dumplings 🙂

Dumpling Ingredients:

• 2 cup of flour
• 2 tsp of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbs of butter
• 1 cup of milk

Whisk together your dry ingredients, then add your butter and incorporate through the flour.

Clean hands work for me:)

Now add your milk and stir only till incorporated. Over stirring will = tough dumplings! Don’t do it!! Now turn your stew back up to med high and drop chunks of the dough into your hot pot. Put the lid on immediately and now wait for 7 minutes WITHOUT PEEKING.

I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture of the dough or dropping them in the pot! Sorry next time I will and then add the pics HERE

After 7 minutes it should look like this:

Notice the dumplings expand so much you can’t even see the stew under all that yummy tender fluff.

Turn stove off and wait till stew cools a bit or you will BURN your tongue.

Voila and Bon Appetite

PS: I made a pear salad with arugula to go with dinner. I sliced the pear thinly added to bed of arugula, I toasted some walnuts on the stove top with a few tsp of sugar to get them nice and crunchy, I also threw in some parmesan cheese. I served it with Trader Joe’s Cranberry Blue cheese vinaigrette dressing.

 

Chicken Stew and Dumplings

• Servings: 8
• Time: 1 1/2hrs
• Difficulty: medium
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Stew Ingredients:

• 1 cup of celery
• 2 small yellow onions
• 2 cups of carrots
• 5 potatoes
• 1 box of chicken stock
• water and 1 heaping tbsp of cornstarch
• 1 tbs of fresh thyme
• 1 tbs of fresh rosemary
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut across the grain is small chunks
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 tbs of vegetable oil

Directions:

In a large dutch oven add your 2 tbs of vegetable oil and turn your stove on  high. Once the oil is very hot add the chunks of chicken in batches.

Do not crowd the chicken in the pot we do not want to steam them we want to produce a golden brown exterior on each chicken morsel. This is where you are going to get your surge of flavor. Once all pieces of chicken are cooked I let them cool on a plate while we start on the vegetables.

You should now have beautiful brown bits(fond) in the bottom of your dutch oven. Add 1 tbsp of veg oil and add all your veggies to saute them. Apply some elbow grease and as the veggies let off steam  scrape all those yummy bits off the bottom of your pot.

Once your veggies have softened deglase your pan with the box of chicken stock and add your chicken pieces back to the pot.

Cut your potatoes up in bite size pieces and add to your pot along with the fresh herbs. Let boil and wait for your potatoes to cook.

The starches in the potatoes will naturally thicken your stew a little bit. Now take a little bit of water with your cornstarch and stir together. Add this mixture to the pot and let boil. Once boiled turn your stew to simmer now we make the dumplings 🙂

Dumpling Ingredients:

• 2 cup of flour
• 2 tsp of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbs of butter
• 1 cup of milk

Whisk together your dry ingredients, then add your butter and incorporate through the flour.

After 7 minutes the dumplings will be full and fluffy. Remove pot from heat, and serve.

 

Beef Leftover’s Barley Soup

I love soup!!!!

OK first off this recipe kind of requires the leftovers from my Crockpot roast beef  recipe.
So please take a look at that recipe post first.

Ingredients:

• left over gravy from the crock pot roast
• left over roast beef
• carrots (1 /2 cups)
• celery (if I had some I would have used 2-3 stalks)
• 1 med sized cooking onion
• 8 cups of water
• 1 can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2/3 cup of barley
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

First take your left over gravy from the pot roast and add to a large soup pot, fill with 8 cups of water. Whisk this with salt and pepper to your liking. I use 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of pepper (approximately). Add your soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce. These are added to enhance the beefy-ness of the stock. These two items are great to pull out more intense beef flavors when working with beef.

Ok now I take whatever vegetables I have in the fridge to add to my soup. I added 1 yellow onion chopped small.

1/2 bag of baby carrots chopped small.

Cut up whatever roast you have remaining to add to the soup. Now keep in mind my roast was not that big(maybe 2.5-3 lbs) so I had maybe 3/4 cup of chopped up meat. If you have a huge ass roast obviously you aren’t going to chop up and add 4 cups of meat or you will need a bigger pot and more water 😉

Alright now let that boil away like Grizelda’s cauldron  and cackle at your accomplishment so far 🙂 Any Canadian’s who grew up with the Hilarious House of Frankenstein will know I was trying to take a stab at funny there 🙂 🙂

Welllll, as Grizelda would say!! Now that your vegetables are tender and the stock has reduced a bit we have managed to concentrate those flavors!

Go ahead and add your 1 can of crushed tomatoes and 2/3 cup of barley to the soup

Your soup will have a great body to it from the starches in the barley. Stir occasionally and the last ingredient I add is the parsley flakes just before the soup is done to brighten the flavor a bit.

That is about it people. Turn off your stove and you can taste and adjust with any further salt or pepper.

ENJOY!!!!!

Left-over Beef Barley Soup

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 1hr
• Difficulty: easy
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ingredients:

• left over gravy from the crock pot roast
• left over roast beef
• carrots (1 /2 cups)
• celery (if I had some I would have used 2-3 stalks)
• 1 med sized cooking onion
• 8 cups of water
• 1 can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2/3 cup of barley
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

First take your left over gravy from the pot roast and add to a large soup pot, fill with 8 cups of water. Whisk this with salt and pepper to your liking. I use 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of pepper (approximately). Add your soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce. These are added to enhance the beefy-ness of the stock. These two items are great to pull out more intense beef flavors when working with beef.

Ok now I take whatever vegetables I have in the fridge to add to my soup. I added 1 yellow onion chopped small and 1/2 bag of baby carrots chopped small.

Cut up whatever roast you have remaining to add to the soup. (I had 3/4 cup)

Let the soup boil and the vegetables cook. Now that your vegetables are tender and the stock has reduced a bit we have managed to concentrate those flavors!

Go ahead and add your 1 can of crushed tomatoes and 2/3 cup of barley to the soup

Your soup will have great body to it from the starches in the barley. Stir occasionally and the last ingredient to add is the parsley flakes.

Turn off your stove and you can taste and adjust with any further salt or pepper.

Enjoy

Crockpot Roast

Crock Pot Roast Ingredients:

• beef roast (I use sirloin tip or eye round, bottom round, top round)
• bag of baby carrots
• package of onion soup mix
• water
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Place your uncooked beef roast in the bottom of the crock pot and add a bag of baby carrots, one package of onion soup mix, about 1/2 cup water and salt and pepper to taste.

Put your slow cooker on low and let cook all day. Half way through cooking I flip my roast to get it very tender on the other side. At the end of the cooking time your roast will be so moist it will be falling apart and smell fantastic!!

Alright after a whole day of smelling the pot roast it’s time to eat!!

After 8 hours of cooking you have a super tender beef roast with carrots and au jus for dipping. You can serve this as is with a starch or  sandwiches,  sky’s the limit!

This is what I do from here. I take out my roast and carrots to rest and put tinfoil over to keep warm. I take the au jus and put in small sauce pan in order to thicken it for gravy purposes.

I take about 2 heaping tbs of cornstarch and mix with a bit of water

Once you add your cornstarch mixture to the au jus and turn your stove on high it will start to boil. Once it boils it has reached its full thickening power so if you are happy with the consistency of the gravy turn off the stove and you are all set to go.  If  you aren’t happy then you can  either add more cornstarch mixture or water. DO NOT ADD CORNSTARCH WITHOUT FIRST MIXING WITH WATER!! YOU WILL GET NASTY CLUMPY GRAVY

It should look something like this when done:

I usually serve this meal with mashed potatoes ummm!

Oh also yorkshire puddings!! Perfect little wells in these bad boys to ladle your au jus “gravy”

Please check out the Yorkshire pudding recipe too!

Also I just wanted to say I know this recipe is super simplistic and not gourmet-ish at all! I have tried fancier versions of pot roast. I have made it beef burginion style with fresh herbs and much more steps and elbow grease. I have dusted my roasts in flour and first browned it in a frying pan so that I seal in the juices to make it really tender, and add flavor from the caramelization process of frying the outer roast (it made no real big difference for the amount of effort and mess) I have used fresh onions, fried onions, garlic etc, etc,etc, etc, etc.

This recipe in my opinion is absolutely delicious with minimal effort so why try to change a good thing? I asked my self that after trying various versions of a good pot roast and always come back to this 🙂

crockpot Roast Beef

• Servings: 8
• Time: 6-8hrs
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

• beef roast (I use sirloin tip or eye round, bottom round, top round)
• bag of baby carrots
• package of onion soup mix
• water
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Place your uncooked beef roast in the bottom of the crock pot and add a bag of baby carrots, one package of onion soup mix, about 1/2 cup water and salt and pepper to taste.

Put your slow cooker on low and let cook all day. Half way through cooking I flip my roast to get it very tender on the other side. At the end of the cooking time your roast will be so moist it will be falling apart and smell fantastic!! (6-8hrs)

Serve with the au jus from the roast. (can use a sleurry of cornstarch and water and thicken the au jus to make gravy…where is the mashed potatoes 🙂