This is one of my favorite recipes that I discovered after I finally got myself a good enameled cast iron dutch oven. There’s a little bit of work at the beginning and end that will need your attention, but most of the cooking time here is low-and-slow in the oven so you can leave it unattended.

If you can’t find boneless short-ribs, you can buy bone-in as well and de-bone them yourself, or just use them bone-in and remove the bones near the end (be warned the sauce will have a LOT more fat in it needing to be removed). My advice is to ask your butcher — any good one will gladly de-bone them for you.

The resulting ribs will be exceptionally tender, and in my experience kids and adults both like this a lot. I like to make mine and have over egg noodles, but you can use any pasta, rice, potatoes… whatever you want.

Anyhow, moving on…

Braised Short-Ribs

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 to 4 pounds boneless short ribs
• Kosher salt and ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 large onions, peeled and sliced thin (about 4 cups)
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 6 medium garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 cups red wine
• 1 cup beef broth
• 4 large carrots , peeled and cut crosswise into 2-inch pieces (feel free to use more if you love your veggies).
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1/2 teaspoon unflavored powdered gelatin

Instructions:

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Pat beef dry with paper towels (very important for a good sear) and season with salt and pepper.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large heavy-bottomed Dutch oven over medium-high heat until slightly smoking. Add about half of beef and cook either fat side down, without moving, until well browned, 4 to 6 minutes. Turn beef and continue to cook on second fat side until well browned, 4 to 6 minutes longer, reducing heat if fat begins to smoke. Transfer meat to a bowl or platter.
4. Repeat with remaining tablespoon of oil and meat.
5. Reduce heat to medium, add onions, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to brown, 12 to 15 minutes. (If onions begin to darken too quickly, add 1 to 2 tablespoons water to pan.)
6. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly, until it browns on sides and bottom of pan, about 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook until aromatic, about 30 seconds. Increase heat to medium-high, add wine and simmer, scraping bottom of pan with wooden spoon to loosen browned bits, until reduced by half, 8 to 10 minutes.
7. Add carrots, thyme, bay leaf and beef broth to pot.
8. Add browned beef and any accumulated juices to pot; cover and bring to simmer.
9. Transfer pot to 300 degree oven for 2 – 2 1/2 hours.
10. Use tongs to turn meat a couple of times during cooking.
11. When fork slips easily in and out of meat, you’re done.
12. Place water in small bowl and sprinkle gelatin on top; let stand at least 5 minutes.
13. Using tongs, transfer meat and carrots to serving platter and tent with foil.
14. Strain cooking liquid through strainer into fat separator, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible; discard solids (OR just remove bay leaf and thyme stems if you really want to eat the solids with the meat). Allow liquid to settle about 5 minutes and strain off fat. Return cooking liquid to Dutch oven and cook over medium heat until reduced to 1 cup, 5 to 10 minutes.
15. Remove sauce from heat and stir in gelatin mixture; season with salt and pepper.
16. Pour sauce over meat and serve over egg noodles, rice, mashed potatoes, or roasted potatoes… whatever. We like egg noodles (just cook them according to the instructions on the package).
17. OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!