- What are you making, bud?
- Short ribs.
I didn't realize I have done
so many short rib recipes.
- 'Cause they're awesome.
- They're amazing,
but I haven't done a
braised short rib recipe--
- That's what you're doing here?
- This is what I'm doing here, yeah.
- [Brad] These are beautiful.
- [Andy] Yeah, they're really nice.
- So what do we got, a few hours?
- We got a few hours.
- All right, I'll be back.
- Bye.
[relaxed music]
- So I've had a lot of short rib recipes,
I've done ones where it's like,
you go hot and fast with
a boneless short rib,
and you treat it kind of like a steak,
I have that with a little bit of chili oil
and vinegar that I love.
I've done one that's like
a Korean style short rib,
the flank and cut, where
it's cut really thinly
and you do a really quick sear,
and I have that with pickled daikon.
This is different,
these are short ribs cut
cross-wise into nice square pieces,
you see these have a
lot of fat and collagen,
so I'm going to season
them really really well,
I'm gonna go high, ideally you
would season this overnight,
but even if it just hangs out for an hour
it's gonna benefit if you
season just that much ahead.
But you wanna get all sides,
it can take it, all that salt,
just because there is so
much fat on these ribs,
these are really nice and well marbled.
Okay, so while our meat is hanging out,
we are using some dried
chiles, these are guajillo.
Don't wanna go for a
medium spice level chili,
don't wanna go too too hot.
We're going to de-seed the chiles.
So I'm placing the chiles in a blender,
'cause eventually we're gonna puree it.
This is five cups hot water,
and we're just gonna let the
chiles soak in the water,
and we're gonna let this go
for about five, ten minutes
until the chiles feel soft.
We have our broiler on,
we're gonna broil five cloves of garlic,
I'm leaving the peel on just so
they act as a protective barrier,
some kind of armor to the flesh.
The onions, gonna trim the hairs.
[chopping]
You do want most of the onion exposed,
that's why I cut them into rounds,
and then I kind of just cut
a little bit of the side,
like that, just so the onion's stable.
No oil, just dried,
and just place the onions on
the baking sheet like this.
I'm gonna pop them on
the rack just like that,
but while that's going, I'm
gonna do two things at once.
I'm going to start browning our meat.
Pot's been preheating,
this is just two
tablespoons of neutral oil,
grapeseed, sunflower or vegetable.
Okay, I'm gonna brown these in batches,
not all at once, 'cause we
don't want them to overcrowd,
'cause then they're gonna
steam and not brown properly.
[sizzling]
I'll press these down a bit,
just so they have a direct
contact with the pot.
You'll see around the edges
once they start to brown
and then you'll check,
but I wouldn't check before
the three minute mark,
and then turn and then brown all over,
probably gonna take about
10 to 12 minutes per batch.
You see how the garlic
has charred in spots,
you wanna just turn them over.
This is looking pretty good.
The onions have almost
puffed and unraveled a bit,
or unfurled, but I'm gonna let
them go a little bit longer
just so these pieces get dark.
I'm going for this, this
could even get touch darker.
Okay, so it's been about three minutes
and I'm gonna give
these a flip, [sizzling]
we're gonna let that go,
that's definitely rendered some fat.
You're gonna think I've taken it too far,
and I'm not gonna agree with you.
You want the top to be so dark,
and so you have this contrast
between the very top
part giving this smoky,
slightly bitter flavor,
and then underneath,
which hasn't really
gotten any caramelization,
and it has softened a little bit
and is still quite blond and sweet.
Our chiles have definitely
softened by now,
but to this, which is gonna
be our braising liquid,
we have the dried chiles, the onions,
I'm gonna add one teaspoon
red pepper flakes,
so that's why it's gonna
get additional heat,
that's why you don't need your
dried chiles to be too spicy.
Teaspoon ground coriander,
a teaspoon ground cumin,
and then I love this, a half
a teaspoon of ground cinnamon,
which just that sweetness from
the cinnamon makes a big difference.
All warm spices, minus the chili flakes.
Before I puree that, I'm
gonna check on the short ribs.
[sizzling] They look nice.
I'm just turning them,
you can see how they're
rendering a lot of fat,
and again, we're on medium-high
but I'm kind of going back and forth
between medium, medium-high,
just to really control the heat
so they brown nice and evenly all over.
We're gonna flip them a
few more times after this,
on the shorter sides it's
not gonna take as long,
it might take two-three minutes.
I'm gonna pop these cloves out,
they're really quite soft.
They got a little bit dark,
which I think will be fine.
They kind of get jammy and molasses-like.
We'll puree this up.
Since there's a lot of liquid,
you don't wanna go high immediately.
[blender humming]
And you just want the onions, chiles,
garlic to be all pureed.
[blender whirring]
Not gonna be perfectly smooth,
it's gonna be a little bit
speckled from the onions,
which is what you want.
I feel pretty comfortable at this point
since these pieces have shrunk up,
I'm comfortable adding
these last two pieces.
[ribs sizzling]
Now two things here, again,
just to to go back on the browning,
we're obviously browning the
meat just so we get that nice,
deep, dark flavor around
all over the meat,
and you have the brown bits on the bottom
of the pan that are gonna add
a lot of flavor to the stew.
But you also are rendering the fat,
you're breaking down the collagen,
so that is something why
we're doing that here
rather than just adding the
meat and everything together
and just simmering it.
I feel comfortable pulling
these pieces out now.
Whew, it already looks pretty damn good,
but it's so tough,
you're not gonna wanna eat this right now.
They need to go low and slow,
low and slow.
We have our short ribs
browned, ready to go.
We have our oil here, I'm
going to just dump it,
it's not too hot.
Yeah, see how dark that is?
I don't need that in my braise.
We have two tablespoons tomato paste,
I add just a touch, it adds
a little bit of acidity,
it adds a little bit of umami.
Right now the oil's getting hot.
I'm just gonna cook the tomato paste,
at least three minutes I find.
You really wanna fry it out
until it slightly darkens
and it begins to split like this.
Afterwards, I'm gonna add my liquid.
[sauce sizzling]
Add a little bit, and then
pour the remaining liquid.
Before I put my beef in,
I'm gonna season the liquid
just with a touch of salt,
'cause there is no salt in our puree.
It needs a bit of salt,
thank you Tommy.
You just want it to have some salt,
it doesn't need too much.
It's gonna reduce, it's gonna thicken,
and as it reduces, that
salt is gonna concentrate.
So I'll just snuggle these in
like you would with your best friends.
And I bring this to a gentle simmer
over medium-high.
See around the edges
it's starting to bubble,
once it's happening, you
are going to reduce it,
I take it down to just medium-low heat,
and then just slightly ajar like this.
You want some steam to
escape, this is essential.
You don't want all the
liquid to evaporate,
but you need some of it to evaporate
because you want it to thicken.
I would let this go again on medium-low.
If you see that it's bubbling
rapidly even on medium-low
just go all the way to low heat.
Again, this is a really slow braise
because the short ribs are
a dense, tough cut of meat,
you really want that meat to soften,
that collagen to break down and
get really nice and shreddy.
We'll check back around
the three hour mark
and then see where our liquid is,
see how our meat's doing,
and then add a few other things.
We're gonna check, it's been
going for quite some time now.
You can see how the bones
have popped out from the meat,
it feels really nice,
not quite shreddy yet but almost there.
This can go for a little bit longer,
but some of these are
actually pretty ready to go.
You're gonna see a good amount of fat
rising to the top as it's braising,
try to skim not all, but
a good amount of fat,
because the short ribs are so fatty
you don't need too much
fat on the surface.
So at this point I would say
the short ribs are pretty much there,
they probably need another twenty minutes,
they feel pretty tender.
I'm gonna give them one more check.
I just wanna do a paring knife.
Again, a little bit of
resistance, but almost there
I don't think it needs too much time.
I'm gonna add some squash to this,
winter squash, today we have acorn squash,
they're cut into one-inch wedges,
but I'm just gonna add the squash.
If your liquid has reduced by a lot,
you could just add another
half cup, cup of water.
I'm just gonna make sure
the squash is submerged.
We'll let this go,
I would check after 15 minutes,
could take another 20 minutes depending
on how you just want the squash
to be really tender and creamy
and the meat to be shreddy,
so I'll let that go again over low heat,
and then I'll check back in a few.
Okay, so the squash is here,
I'm gonna check on the braise.
It's bubbling, okay.
You can see the sauce
has definitely reduced,
I kind of like it in a stage
where it's at right now
where it's brothy, like almost saucy.
I'll just test the squash out,
squash feels tender, meat
is definitely tender.
I just wanna taste the liquid
because I seasoned it lightly,
and I know the meat has salt,
but it might need a touch more salt.
That's nice, I do think it
needs a touch more salt,
it has good heat, so much flavor going on.
Oh yeah.
[spoon scraping]
I have some Greek yogurt here,
whole milk, whole fat always.
I think it works really well here,
you want that tang and acidity
to cut the fattiness from the braise.
I like cilantro, mint
would work really well,
but any kind of tender herb I would say
works really well for this, dill, basil,
and then I kinda want a touch more acidity
so I add some lime, but
you don't have to do that.
This is on the thick side,
you could thin it out with
a little bit of water,
add some salt,
I'm just kind of going
for a dollop over here.
A little bit of cilantro.
Hey Sohla, can I borrow some flaky?
I'm gonna add a touch of flaky salt.
It's pretty straightforward I would say,
this braise, I think it
just requires patience
like any good braise.
I think charring the
onions and garlic is key,
putting them under the broiler,
it adds so much flavor.
Okay, I'm gonna take a bite.
It's so good, it's so
rich, it feels like a...
I haven't had lunch
yet, or a proper lunch.
The thing is, it's definitely meaty,
but it's not heavy because I think
the tomato paste adds a bit of acidity
and the lime and the cilantro
kind of cut through it.
Yeah.
[utensils clattering]
[chewing]
The short ribs are so fatty and delicious.
I hope you guys make it
throughout the fall and winter,
and I hope you guys enjoy
it, thanks for watching.
- How do you know that's in
the frame or not in the frame?
- It's not in the frame,
the mic's not in the frame,
they know, they just communicate.
They work together
- They're that in sync.
It looks so close to my head.
It's not in the frame!
- We're not, I dunno.
- I guess we're not using any of this.
- That's true, okay.
