Cooking with Booze: Wine-Braised Short Ribs Recipe – Salty

Short ribs are one of our favorite go-to winter dishes. They cook slow and low all day long, and very few cuts of beef can become as tender and succulent with such little effort. All this recipe takes is meat, veggies, some patience and an entire bottle of red wine (and a few other things, but who’s counting?).

There’s a reason people have been cooking and serving red meat with red wine for centuries: red meat and red wine love each other like Kanye loves Kanye. Pick out a decent red blend that you won’t mind drinking with dinner and put two bottles in your shopping cart. Or three. Or four.

This is a recipe worthy of a trip to the butcher shop. You want really thick short ribs with alternating layers of fat and meat—the more marbling, the better. That fat will render down and baste the meat as it cooks, and help ensure that you get a moist, tender, fall-off-the-bone final product.

Wine-Braised Short Ribs
3-5 pounds short ribs, cut crosswise
1 ½ tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
½ tablespoon paprika
½ tablespoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, sliced
3 celery stalks, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 750 mL bottle red wine
1 bunch fresh thyme
1 bunch fresh oregano
1 head of garlic, cut in half
Beef stock, approximately 2 cups but it will vary

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Season the short ribs generously with salt, pepper, paprika and garlic powder. Warm a Dutch oven over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Sear all sides of the ribs in the oil until they become browned, working in two shifts so you don’t overcrowd the pan.

Remove the ribs from pan and add the onion, celery and carrots. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the veggies have softened a bit but still possess some of their firmness. Add the flour and the tomato paste to the veggies and stir for a few minutes. You’ll smell the flour and the tomato browning and you will see it turn a deep crimson color. Add the wine and increase the temperature to high while still stirring. When the liquid comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and allow the liquid to reduce for about 15 minutes. Add the ribs back to the liquid. Add the herbs and the garlic. Add enough stock to almost cover the ribs. Bring the liquid to a boil once more, then place the lid on the Dutch oven and transfer it to the preheated oven.

Allow to cook for 2 to 2 ½ hours, until the ribs are tender and falling off the bone. Serve with red wine and some orzo pasta.

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