BRAISED BEEF SHORT RIBS

It’s been a while since I last posted a recipe and, while I am but an infant in such matters compared to others in the UK blogging community, I do get a decent response when I bother to write about the things I cook at home.

Today, I was at a bit of a loose end. Sybil was out for the day and I had just about finished all the work I had planned. So, I pottered up to the local market where I noticed they had a special offer on these rather meaty beef short ribs. It is not a cut you see terribly regularly in the U.K. However, it is a great favourite of mine and perfect when braised with red wine or a dark beer.

Pushing aside the ultra hoppy IPA’s that seem to be all the rage here right now, I grabbed some bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale and stuck them in my basket alongside a handful of vegetables and headed home eager to start preparing my supper.

The smells in the flat as I began cooking were a good indication that I was doing something right and the end result was everything I had been hoping for. The meat fell off the bones as I pulled at it with a fork and the sauce was deeply savoury, dark and rich, glistening as it coated the ribs.

I am sure most people reading this know how to braise a bit of meat, but just in case anyone is interested, here’s my recipe

Let me know if you try it


BRAISED SHORT RIBS (Serves Four People)
INGREDIENTS
8 Beef Short Ribs
1 Large White Onion (diced)
3 Large Carrots (diced)
2 Sticks Celery (diced)
2 Cloves Garlic (peeled & sliced)
3 Stalks Fresh Rosemary
1 12oz Bottle Newcastle Brown Ale
1 Pint Water/Beef Stock
Salt & Pepper to taste.

METHOD
Sear the short ribs in a hot pan until all sides are completely browned.
Remove and drain of excess fat.
Add the diced onion, carrot, celery and garlic to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook for around five minutes until they begin to soften.
Add the Newcastle Brown Ale and use to deglaze the bottom of the pan.
Add the rosemary stalks and return the short ribs to the pan.
Add the beef stock or water.
Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat until the liquid is at a gentle simmer.
Cover the pan and cook gently for 1 ½ hours until the meat is beginning to fall from the bones.
Remove the short ribs and keep warm.
Strain the remaining contents of the pan discarding the vegetables and retaining the cooking liquid.
Remove as much of the excess fat from the liquid as possible (with a spoon, a strainer or by dragging a piece of kitchen towel over the surface of the liquid)
Return the cooking liquid to the pan, bring to the boil and cook until reduced to a thick, rich sauce.
Season to taste.
Plate the short ribs (two per person) and spoon a little sauce over each to give a glaze, retaining the rest to serve at the table.
Serve with mashed potatoes and green vegetables like broccoli.

DOS HERMANOS: BANK HOLIDAY BEEF

So I found myself at the counter of the Jack O’Shea concession in Selfridges on Saturday, gabbing with the man himself about meat in general and Beef in particular, when he asked me what I fancied. I scanned the display cabinet.

There were Veal Kidneys encased in a thick coat of creamy fat, to be roasted whole; a Popeseye, a cylindrical cut seamed out of the Rump, deep coloured and etched with a fine lines of fat; or my favourite the Ribeye on the bone – what the French call a Cote de Boeuf – beautifully marbled and crying out to be slapped onto a searingly-hot ridged grill, rested and served with a pile of matchstick frites and a tangy béarnaise. Decisions, decisions. In the end I went for the cut right in front of me.

Short Ribs (aka Jacob’s Ladder) are a mainstay of menus throughout the US. Sort of an equivalent to the British Lamb Shank. They’re also very common on Korean menus. It’s difficult to find them in the UK because, sad to say, British butchers are becoming rather thin on the ground. Finding a decent one is even harder. Finding one who knows what short ribs are , well, now you’re talking about something on the level of the P v NP problem.

Short Ribs can be braised or barbecued but after talking to Jack decided to slow roast them. The Ribs were brought to room temperature and sprinkled with some rock salt. They were put into an oven at 100C and left to cook untouched for several hours.

While the ribs were in the oven I cooked up some Razor Clams I’d also bought. Preparation is as for other shellfish like clams or mussels i.e. discard those that don’t close when handled and those that are still closed after cooking. There is a dark intestinal sac that can be removed beforehand.

Cook some chopped garlic in Olive Oil then throw in the clams and cook them until they open. Chucked on some chopped parsley and give them a squeeze of lemon juice. Done. Some bread to mop up the juices would be handy too.

After about four and half hours I lost patience and got the ribs out. All the fat had been rendered but the ribs were still moist. They had a little bit of a chew to them but were good and beefy. They needed little more than some peppery Watercress, Horseradish sauce and a bottle of red from the Monsant region in Spain that belied its six quid price.

SUNDAY LUNCH: A SLAB OF WELSH BEEF

Although we have posted many Sunday lunches on DOS HERMANOS and a good chunk of them have been in honour of the cow, my return from Wales with a 1.5kg slab of 45 day aged Welsh longhorn rib from N.R. James, purveyors of fine faggots to the cognoscenti, gave particular cause for celebration.

I am pretty certain I saw a tear in HP’s eye and we took it in turns to stroke the glistening and slightly yellow fat and murmur words of lust normally reserved for the honeymoon suite. There may even have been a little dance involved.

I placed its preparation in the hands of HP whose skills with such things should never be doubted and he spent a good chunk of Saturday night preparing stock for the gravy, with roasted beef bones from a previous meal, and the batter for the obligatory mound of Yorkshire puddings.

This morning, before a brisk post gym walk to work up an appetite, he removed the royal rib from the fridge and allowed it to come up to room temperature and, while we waited for it to cook, a half bottle of Mazanilla, some olives and a mound of excellent pork scratchings kept me from clawing at the oven door.

As the beef was removed (fat stripped to be returned to the oven alongside the puddings for extra crispness, of course) I was pretty sure it would be worth the wait while it rested.

Well of course it was worth the wait, with a bowl of fiery, fresh horseradish and some perfunctory greens the beef was allowed to shine through in all its aged glory. The primary taste was clean with none of the whiff of stale fat you get from lesser meat and HP’s expert cooking left enough bite to the perfectly rare flesh to put up some toothsome resistance and to combat an equally meaty bottle of Bierzo from Castilla Y Leon.

HP was disappointed with the Yorkshire puddings, but I was not, preferring mine slightly doughy to soak up the juices, particularly when said gravy has been made, as it was, with a good, generous splosh of Madeira.

To keep the booze quotient suitably high, HP finished his afternoon’s entertainment with a large glass of Patxaran while I cracked the stopper from a bottle of Penderyn, Wales’ only single malt whisky, in this case the version aged in Oloroso barrels and really not bad at all.

With me back out on the road on Tuesday, it is going to be a while until we get chance to do this Sunday lunch thing again, but I shall take with me a happy memory of a classic HP meat fest.

DOS HERMANOS SUNDAY EDITION: PICANHA PEQUENA

While the rest of Britain shivered London sweltered (no, really) under an unrelenting sun. Well, that’s what it felt like in our south-facing living room. What with the heat and Brazilians doing so well in the EPL it seemed apposite to go Brazilian…food and drink-wise that is.

First up Caipirinha. Scrunch up lots of lime segments with some sugar in a thick glass until the sugar dissolves and the lime has given up it’s precious and rare oils. Fill the glass with ice then pour in a suitable amount of Cachacha. Stir around and drink while soaking up the sun and listening to some Tropicália on the stereo.

Next up a cut of Beef I’ve never tried before. Picanha is the Brazilian name for what we know over here as Rump Cap (aka Tapa de Cuadril in Argentina). My piece of meat was about 1.5 kg and came from the estimable Jack O’Shea. I was thinking of making some Empanadas for starters but settled for one of J’OS’s Sausage Rolls.

I forgot to give the roll an egg wash but after forty-odd minutes in the oven the pastry was nice and flaky and the meat well-seasoned , meaty and dense.

The Picanha went into a oven set at a fearsomely high heat for about 20 minutes. The oven was turned down for the remainder of the cooking time (about thirty minutes). This gave produced a joint that was mostly medium rare. I prefer it a bit rarer so if you’re a like-minded soul reduce the temperature for the second phase. You also need to rest the joint after cooking.

Compared to our usual Beef Rib the Picanha was quite different. You can cut big slabs of tender meat that have (obviously) a great taste – a combination of properly hung beef with nice layer of fat – but it does become a bit samey if you’re eating a lot.

I’d have to say I prefer the visceral pleasure of the Rib where you have a wider variety of bits to try and, of course, there’s a big bone or two to gnaw on. That said, it would be perfect if you were cooking it for a number of people as it’s easy to carve and there’s no waste.

For an accompaniment I made some Chimichuuri. Recipes abound on the internet so taking a bit from each my version was a mixture of the following: Olive Oil, Red Wine Vinegar, Oregano, Flat Leaf Parsley, Paprika, Spring Onion, Tomato, Garlic, Red Pepper and Chilli (dried and fresh). I made it a couple of days earlier and it was very tasty (I’m still eating it with the leftovers of the beef).

A bottle of Marques de Riscal Gran Reserva ’96 I had knocking around still had legs and brought everything together nicely.

Saúde !

BEEF: HOW MILK, MEAT & MUSCLE SHAPED THE WORLD (UK EDITION)

In the middle of 2008, I posted about a splendid book I had been asked to blurb. BEEF: HOW MILK, MEAT & MUSCLE SHAPED THE WORLD

A well researched and hugely readable book on matters cattle related, it is filled with lots of worthwhile information for anyone who likes a good steak (obviously not MPW based on HP's recent visit) and I was particularly taken with the excellent chapter on Spain

Now, it is available in the UK (click link above for Amazon) and is definitely one to put in your basket.

WHAM BAM SWEET RENDANG

Supper tonight, courtesy of a recipe from my good chum and food writer, William Leigh, for Beef Rendang, that staple of Malaysian home cooking with its unique mix of Indian and South East Asian influences.

It takes time to prepare and time to cook and the last few moments, as the sauce begins to split to release the coconut oil in which the meat fries to a perfect brown, are a little on the hairy side. But, hold your nerve and the end result is spectacularly worthwhile, with layers of flavour from the coconut milk, lime leaves, chilli and a last flavouring with fish sauce releasing on the tongue one after the other.

William has been kind enough to let me share his recipe, which I tweaked a little for my own tastes

BEEF RENDANG

INGREDIENTS
FOR THE PASTE:
6-10 Thai Chillis depending on how hot you like it
1 inch ginger
1 inch galangal
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp brown sugar

1kg stewing beef ( cut in 2in cubes)

2 tins coconut milk
1 tins worth of water
Stalk lemongrass
Lime leaves
1 bay leaf
2tbs fish sauce
Juice of a lime


Whizz the paste ingredients with a little water to a smooth paste.

Add to a large pan or wok with the lime leaves, bashed lemongrass stalk, bay leaf and coconut milk.

Add the beef to this and let it bubble slowly for an hour and a half.

Turn the heat up and cook until all the coconut milk has almost gone. This will take a while, maybe 45 mins to 1 hour, and it will look strange while it's doing it. Eventually it will start to colour and the oil will come out of the coconut milk completely.

The beef will fry in this oil and turn quite dark brown and rather flaky - then you're done

Turn off the heat and stir though the fish sauce and lime juice.

I served with chapatti and a salad of red onion, cucumber and tomato dressed with lime juice and zest.

BEEF: THE UNTOLD STORY OF HOW MILK, MEAT AND MUSCLE SHAPED THE WORLD

As you may have noticed, things have been a bit quiet on the blog lately.

HP, who has been performing sterling work eating for the two of us, has started a new job and I, as those of you have been following along will know, am in Spain finishing work on my book.

I am back next week and already have a selection of places to visit as I try and catch up. So, watch this space.

In the meantime, apropos of HP’s exemplary short series on STEAK, I thought I would recommend the splendid book above to you all.

I first became aware of BEEF when the publishers got in touch and asked me to provide a cover blurb for it. They whizzed a copy across continents and it plopped through my door a few weeks ago as I was enjoying a chilled manzanilla on the balcony.

Although I had plenty of other things on my mind, one glance and I was hooked by Andrew Rimas and Evan Fraser's enjoyable writing style and finished the book in a couple of sessions.

It brings together genuine enthusiasm for all things bovine, from the steakhouses of the USA to Japanese Kobe beef and is supported by superb research and lots of anecdotal history from Spanish bullrings to rural Africa with which you can bore your foodie friends

A terrific read and well worth picking up a copy when it is published later this year by William Morrow.

As I said in my blurb, above all, it just makes you want to go out and eat a huge steak and there can be no higher compliment than that as I am sure HP would agree.