Amor y Familia: Short Ribs Braised in Red Wine Sauce

While we usually eat Latino food at home, another exception we make is when I try to copy something incredible we ate at a restaurant. My husband took me to Daniel in New York City a few years ago to celebrate and we had Daniel Boulud's delicious short ribs!!!! I found the recipe on the web and hopefully these step by step instructions will take some of the intimidation out of French cooking because the broth can be adapted and simplified based on whatever vegetables or amount of wine you have in the house. The meat literally falls off the bone and the tender beef and rich wine sauce is wonderful over creamy mashed potatoes!!!

Ribs:
Approx 3 lbs of Short Ribs
Vegetable Oil to sear ribs
Flour to dredge ribs
Salt and Pepper to taste

Sauce:
3 Bottles of Red Wine (3 is ideal but you can make a delicious dish with 1 1/2 bottles)
10 Cloves of Garlic, peeled
8 Shallots, peeled and cut in half (a large Onion can be used as a substitute)
2 Carrots, peeled and chopped
2 Stalks Celery, peeled and chopped
1 leek, white and light green parts chopped (Additional onion can be used as a substitute)
Fresh Italian Parsley and Thyme ideal, if not sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of dried
2 Bay Leaves
2 tablespoons Tomato Paste
3 quarts Beef Broth
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove ribs from refrigerator to get to room temperature. In a large stockpot, heat red wine over medium high heat. Allow to boil until it cooks down by half. As I said, this will create Daniel's ideal sauce but if time and/or money are an issue, I have made it with one to one and half bottles of wine that I poured into sauce later in the cooking process when adding beef broth and the meal was still delicious! The sauce just has less of an intense red wine taste and more of a balanced beef/vegetable broth taste that is enhanced by the wine. The great thing about this dish is that once you do it, you can make your own adjustments to the sauce and vegetables to create your family's version.

But back to the recipe...while wine is heating, season ribs with salt and pepper and lightly flour ribs. Heat vegetable oil over medium high heat and sear all sides of the short ribs. I only flour one side because in order too get the ribs golden brown on all sides, I tend to burn some excess flour that falls off while browning. So minimal flour is needed.

Take time during this step and brown all 6 sides of the short ribs. Not only will the ribs be better but the sauce will be formed around those caramelized bits.

While browning the beef, cut your vegetables into equal size chunks. They can be on the large side as you will remove before serving.

Continue browning in batches.

Until all ribs deep brown on all sides but not burnt.

Remove all but a tablespoon or so of fat from pan and lower heat to medium. Caramelize vegetables and add seasonings.

The add tomato paste and cook an additional 1-2 minutes.

Now add back the ribs and the wine and beef broth and bring to a boil. Cover pot and cook in 350 degree oven for 2 1/2 hours until meat is literally falling off its bones...At this point you can stop and allow dish to cool and place in refrigerator overnight if you have the time, not to mention the space in your refrigerator. This allows the fat to rise and harden at the top which is very easy to remove and produces a less greasy sauce ultimately. Once you remove fat, gently heat pot on stove over medium heat and continue with the following steps.