I had originally intended to use my Never-Fail-To-Please Roasted Chicken recipe as the quintessential Boy Bait dinner; the recipe is as shockingly easy as it is effective in eliciting the appropriate approbations, and it is one of my favorite tricks to whip out in the courtship stage of a relationship.
However, on a recent Sunday night dinner with my boyfriend, who had already experienced the heady affects of the NFTP Roasted Chicken, I made The Joy of Cooking’s Braised Short Ribs, served with some simple sautéed garlic spinach, and he hasn’t stopped crowing about them since. For the last two weeks, any mention of ribs has turned my otherwise practical and persnickety darling into a drooling, glaze-eyed heap of gratefulness and adoration. It must be said, that for less than an hour’s real work, this is a most pleasant and surprising outcome.
Braising requires that you have ample time to prep before serving, as they’ll need more than 1.5 hours in the oven, but, aside from that, this recipe is tremendously simple and forgiving. The fattiness of the cut of meat means that the final dish will have heaps of flavor without much additional effort, and that over-cooking is much less of a concern.
Warning: This is not the recipe for dieters or vegetarians – though it may do a bang up job of convincing someone on the carnivore/herbivore fence to remain an insidious, but happy meat-eater.
Click here for a printable version of the recipe
Braised Short Ribs & Horseradish Cream Sauce, Serves 2
Adapted from The Joy of Cooking
Ingredients:
3lbs. Beef Short Ribs (about 4 ribs)
2 Tsp. Salt
2 ½ Tsp. Pepper
1 Tsp. Dried Thyme
2 Tbls. Bacon Fat (or substitute vegetable oil
2 Cups Chopped Onions
½ Cup Celery
½ Cup Carrot
¼ Cup Chopped Shallots
6 Cloves Chopped Garlic
1 ½ Cup Chicken Stock (preferably homemade)
¾ Cup Crème Fraiche
2 Tbls. Horseradish (be careful not to get the sauce, but plain horseradish
Prep your vegetables, but note that they needn’t look pretty, as they won’t actually make it into the final presentation. Prep the ribs by trimming any excess fat, though not too much. Season to cover all ribs on both sides with equal amounts salt, pepper, and dried thyme (approximately 1 tsp. each). Preheat the oven to 350°.
In a large, heavy skillet, heat the bacon fat over medium-high heat until hot. Place two ribs at a time in the skillet, and brown each side for 30 seconds. Remove the ribs from the pan, turn the stove top down to medium, and dispense of all but 2 tbls. of the remaining fatty liquid.
Return the pan to the stove top, and to it add the onions, celery, carrot, shallots, and garlic, 1 ½ tsp of black pepper, and pinch of salt and dried thyme, cooking for about 10 minutes. At this point, the kitchen will be exquisitely fragrant, and your boy bait is officially set.
Once the 10 minutes are up, add the chicken stock, bring to a boil, and add the browned ribs to the pan. Cover and place in the oven for 1 hour 45 minutes.
Once done, remove the ribs from the pan to a plate and cover with tin foil – they will cool very quickly if not covered. Strain the remaining liquid in the pan to remove all of the vegetable detritus. Pour the liquid into a fat separator, and, once the fat has separated, carefully pour as much of the de-fatted liquid back into the pan and cook over medium-high heat. Boil the liquid until it has reached a syrupy consistency. Set aside.
To make the horseradish cream sauce, simply mix the crème fraiche and horseradish in a bowl and season with salt and pepper to taste.
To serve, plate the ribs and pour the syrupy pan sauce over them. Add a heaping of the horseradish cream sauce for dipping, pile your sides plentifully around, and prepare for an onslaught of obsequious admiration.
So we made these Saturday Night. Ok, truth be told, my wife made them, but I watched very intently! We passed on the bacon fat though (even though we both adore bacon) for the simple reason that we didn’t want the vegtables to be covered in it, since we planned on consuming them as well. The ribs cooked up beautifully, with the meat almost falling apart, mmmmm. I sprang for the Creme Fraiche, $5 at our local Hannafords, to make the horseradish sauce, its not bad, tasted like a less intrusive sour cream. You are correct, once the colorful dish was together on the stove, it smelled very good and the “boy bait” was set.
Oh, so glad you enjoyed it…. and that you made the daring move to try creme fraiche 😉