I recently was looking something to make on a Saturday that was easy and affordable. One pot and roast slowly while you go about your day.

I ran across some short ribs on sale at the store. I decided to braise them up in the oven for the afternoon. These were the English cut short ribs made for slow cooking. Usually around here, we see the flanken cut ones made for Kalbi BBQ. This was a nice surprise. Even better was that they are the cheapest cut per pound to buy. This is a prefect recipe for a cheap cut of meat. The ones cut the other direction were over twice as expensive… all because of the recipe used.

It had been a long while since I made this. I hadn’t made any slow cooked braise thing, so it seemed to fit the moment. I recalled my mom making these in the oven in a tomato sauce. I decided to change things up.

I have recently seen one that was braised in red wine. I also saw one by Gordon Ramsay. It used some stock and was topped with a nice crispy pancetta lardon and mushroom topping. I decided to do all and use tomato, wine and stock. I definitely wanted to add the mushroom and lardon topping Mr. Ramsay did. That seemed just right.

The process took about 45 minutes to make and then 4 hours of just letting them go in the oven.

The result was a tender short rib that fell off the bone. The smell of the whole house was amazing. It smelled so good, I dreamed of finding a braised short rib candle someday! The sauce was packed with the flavor of savory goodness and was to die for. Perfecto!

Here’s how I made it.

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

BRAISED SHORT RIBS

• 6 English Cut short ribs
• 1 small can tomato paste
• 1 bottle red wine. A wine good enough to drink with dinner.
• 1 quart beef broth (32 oz)
• 1 head of garlic, either separated or halved.
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

TOPPING FOR SHORT RIBS

• 1 lb button mushrooms, either whole or halved so all are uniform sized
• 8 oz pancetta cut in cubes or a few slices of bacon
• salt to taste

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Place a roasting pan on the stove. Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Heat it on medium-high. Place short ribs in pan and cook on all sides until nicely browned. That should take about 10 minutes or so.

Add the tomato paste to the pan and cook for a minute. Then add the garlic and pour the whole bottle of wine in the pan. Bring up to a full boil. Let it go for about 10 more minutes or until the wine is reduced by about half or more.

Add the stock until the liquid is almost half way up the ribs. I used 32 ounces. Bring back up to a solid bubble.

Cover the pan with foil and place in preheated oven. Then you wait for about 4 hours.

When almost ready, fry up the pancetta or bacon in a pan until crisp. Add mushrooms to the pan and cook until the mushrooms are just cooked. That should take about 5 minutes.

At this point, the meat should be falling of the bone. Carefully remove the ribs and place on a plate. Strain sauce into a sauce pan. Spoon off most of the fat on top of the cooking liquid. Bring that pan up to a boil to reduce to sauce to a consistency of your liking. I reduced mine for about 5 minutes.

To serve, plate up a short rib. Add a big spoon or two of the fabulous sauce. Then, top it all with some of the mushrooms and bacon.

This is mainly a full main dish. You really do not need much in the terms of sides. Mashed potatoes and a nice glass of red wine would be nice. A salad on the side would be perfect.

I am sure you can substitute the beef ribs with nice meaty pork pieces for a change up.

OPA!