Mmm… Short Ribs
So, yesterday, I did in fact use the accidental tomato soup as braising liquid to finish my ‘boiling beef’ short ribs.
One of the big pains of serving short ribs on the bone is that the diner is then forced to navigate massive amounts of fat and bone to discover the tender and flavorful meat encased therein. That’s part of why I went for a 2-day cooking process on these particular ribs. Day 1, I seasoned, seared, and then put the ribs, covered, into a cool (250F) oven for about 4 hours so that they could slowly steam and their connective tissues could start to loosen up and melt. I refrigerated the ribs overnight.
Day 2, I began by picking the meat off of the bones so that I could serve the good parts unencumbered by the scraps. This is a long process, about an hour to get the meat from four ribs. But it’s worth it, because while the ribs are cold, they can be handled easily and as a result, I could get a higher yield from each as opposed to searching for morsels with a fork and knife at the dinner table.
It’s also a messy process: a combination of tearing meat from fat with both hands and using a sharp knife to cut through thick chunks of fat to get at the meat encased therein. Therefore, it’s absolutely essential to the overall success of the mission that the chef in charge of the operation maintains a healthy fear of the knife blade as s/he is using it: greasy hands on the knife handle have a tendency to slip. The other option would be to wear a path in the floor between the sink and the work surface washing your hands before each time you pick up the knife blade. Come to think of it, that may be the safer way to go about this operation.
Anyhoo, meat stripped from the bones, I put it into an oven-safe stockpot and added the quart of accidental soup that remained from the night before. As it came to a boil, I added potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, and a bit more of my coffee steak rub. Then, seeing that the vegetables weren’t quite immersed in the cooking liquid, I added red wine to make up the difference.
I put the lid on the container and slotted it into a 250F oven for a couple of hours. No need to look after it while it’s in the oven simmering. the low heat surrounding the pan makes certain that there aren’t any hot spots and the food won’t scorch. It just does its thing—and assuming you’ve put proper care into the initial steps leading up to that simmer time, you can take care of whatever else you might need to get done and know that you’ve got a gourmet dinner awaiting you.