Slow Cooked Beef Short Ribs

By Booper-2

Ingredients

• Serves 2
• INGREDIENTS
• Olive oil for frying
• 6 thick-cut meaty beef short ribs
• 1 large head of garlic, cut in half horizontally
• 1 heaped tbsp tomato puree
• 1 x 750ml bottle red wine Half a bottle will usually do.
• 1 L beef stock
• 150 g pancetta lardons
• 250 g small chestnut mushrooms, trimmed and halved
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Chopped flat leaf parsley, to garnish.

Details

Servings 2
Adapted from s-vick.blogspot.ca

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 170C.

Heat a deep-sided roasting tray on the stove-top and add a glug of olive oil. Season the short ribs thoroughly, then fry for 10-15 minutes to brown really well on all sides.

If you do not have a deep roasting tray that can go on the stove, do steps 2 and 3 in a skillet and then add it to a roasting tray that's been heated in the oven.

Add the halved garlic head, cut side down, pushing it to the bottom of the pan. Add the tomato puree and heat for a minute or two to cook it out. Pour in the wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up the bits at the bottom. Bring to a boil and cook for 10-15 minutes until the liquid is reduced by half, then add the stock to nearly cover the ribs (you'll need less stock if your roasting tray isn't very large). Bring to a boil again, basting the ribs with the juices.

Cover the roasting tray with foil and cook in the preheated oven for 3-4hours, basting now and then until the meat is tender and falling away from the bone.

About 10 minutes before the short ribs are ready to come out, fry the pancetta for 2-3 minutes until crisp and golden. Add the mushrooms and cook for 4-5 minutes until tender. Drain off any excess fat.

Adding a splash of the previously used red wine is a nice addition.

When the short ribs are ready, remove from the oven and transfer to a serving dish. Squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skins and pass through a sieve. Spoon off any excess fat form the beef cooking liquid, then strain it through the sieve and mix with the garlic (reduce if needed)

Serve the short ribs topped with the hot pancetta and mushrooms and the sauce poured around.

If you want this dish to be more of a main, add roasted aspargus and celery root puree to the plate for a fantastic meal.