Short Ribs (Dan Barber’s Braised Short Ribs)

Source: Food52

Ingredients

• 5 lbs. short ribs
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1 celery rib, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, skin left on
• 2 tbsps light brown sugar
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 tbsp tamarind concentrate or paste
• 2 fresh or dry bay leaves
• ½ cup Madeira Wine
• 1 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 to 3 cups chicken broth

Method

1. Heat the oven to 225 degrees. Season the ribs with salt and pepper. Heat a large heavy Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the oil, then the short ribs (add them in batches if necessary) and brown on all sides. Transfer the ribs to a plate as they finish browning. Pour off all but 1 tbsp fat.

2. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic to the pot, reduce the heat to medium, and cook until the vegetables are soft and all the browned bits in the base of the pot have been loosened. Put the short ribs (and any juices that have collected on the plate) back in the pot.

3. Add the light brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, tamarind paste, and bay leaves. Pour in the Madeira and red wine. Add enough chicken broth to just cover the ribs. Bring the liquid to a boil, then cover the pot and transfer to the oven.

4. Braise the short ribs until they are very tender when pierced with a fork, about 4 hours (longer if the short ribs are big). Using a slotted spoon, transfer the short ribs to a plate. Let the cooking liquid settle; spoon off as much fat as possible (ideally, you’d do this over the course of two days and would, at this point, put the liquid in the fridge overnight and peel off the layer of fat in the morning). Set the pot on the stove over medium high heat. Bring the cooking liquid to a boil and reduce to a syrupy consistency.

5. Lay a short rib or two in each of 4 wide shallow bowls. Spoon over a little sauce.

Notes

Frank served this over polenta. Perfect! See The Splendid Table’s recipe for Double-boiler polenta, the kind you don’t have to stand over and stir.

Good to make the day before you serve it.

We bought about 4 lbs of short ribs from Whole Foods. They were big and had a lot of meat on each rib so 4 lbs was enough. Short ribs at the other stores we went to didn’t have nearly the amount of meat and would, therefore, probably require the 5 lbs.