D is for Dinner Short Ribs

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Serves: 4

Protein

• 3-4 lbs short ribs - flanken cut or along the bone

Braising liquid

• 1 large onion
• 2 large carrots
• 1 celery stalk
• 3-5 garlic cloves
• 4 tbsp flour
• 1/3 small can tomato paste
• 200ml red wine for deglazing
• 1 tomato, large
• 1½ beef stock
• ½ tsp mustard powder, optional
• ½ tsp chili powder or cayenne (for a more smokey flavour, use chipotle), optional
• 1 Jalapeno pepper

Bouquet Garni

• 10 black peppercorns
• 6 thyme stems
• 6 parsley stems
• 3 bay leaves

To finish

• Callebaut dark chocolate chips, to taste

Garniture

• 2 large carrots, sliced
• 10 pearl onions, peeled
• 4 large potatoes

Ribs and sauce

• Cut carrots, onions, celery in large pieces and cut garlic cloves in half.
• Season (salt and white pepper) the ribs.
• Using some oil, sear the ribs in a dutch oven on top of the stove. Heat the oil and then add the ribs. Sear all sides of the ribs. Reserve.
• To the pot, add onions, carrots, celery and garlic and sauté until soft.
• Add flour: Move the vegetables to the side, add flour directly on bottom and about 30 seconds later mix vegetables with flour. The flour will cook slightly and give nicer flavour; it will also thicken the sauce while the ribs cook. There will be some of the flour sticking to the bottom; that's expected. Deglazing the pan (below) will fix that.
• Add tomato paste: Same process as for the flour.
• Deglaze with good red wine making sure to clean the bottom of the pot with a scraper/spatula. The wine should cover the bottom of the pot to ¼ to ½ inch.
• Add fresh tomato if desired. Chop tomato in large pieces and add to pot.
• Place ribs in pot. Try to avoid placing the ribs directly on the bottom as they may burn.
• Add beef stock to cover. This liquid will be the sauce later. Depending on the size of the pot more than 1½L may be needed to cover.
• Add bouquet garni items and other spices including jalapeno pepper. Do not add the chocolate at this point; it's for when the sauce is complete.
• Bring liquid to a boil, cover and place in 225°F oven. Cook until rib meat is falling from the bone - about 3 hours.

While the ribs are cooking, prepare the extra vegetables as the ones being cooked with the ribs will be thoroughly soggy and have all their flavour removed into the sauce.

Making the sauce and finishing

• When the meat is done remove the rib meat carefully to another plate, reserve under aluminium foil. The bones can be discarded. It's usually easiest to do this by spooning out the solid items with a slotted spoon and picking out the meat from that.
• Strain liquid into bowl/pot, removing any meat missed in the step above - this will form the basis of the sauce. The vegetables can be discarded.
• Wipe cocotte clean as it will be used to finish the sauce.
• Strain sauce back into cocotte.
• Reduce sauce until fairly thick (a la nappe) and check seasoning. If the sauce is too thick, add water or beef stock to thin.
• Add the chocolate over low heat (or even off heat if the cocotte has enough heat in it). Melt the chocolate into the sauce. Check seasoning.
• When sauce is at the right consistency and has the right seasoning place the ribs back in the cocotte and fully coat. Heat in the oven at 350°F for a few minutes to reheat the ribs.
• Serve with the new vegetables.