I don’t know about you, but I’ve always loved short ribs. My mother used to prepare them with some frequency, because our family all liked them. I don’t remember now how my mother prepared them. Over the years I’ve made them in numerous ways myself, but this recipe (new to me, but probably an old rendition) is so awesome. So perfect for this cut of meat.
Over the last few days I’ve mentioned a cooking class I attended last week about comfort food. Well, this recipe is the all-star winner in that category. The chef who prepared this, Deb Buzar, credited her mother-in-law for this recipe. As a professional chef, Deb said she tried countless versions of short ribs, but every time she kept going back to her mother-in-law’s recipe, and finally decided this is her favorite. She no longer even looks at other recipes. She said the sauce “made” the dish, and I wholeheartedly agree. You do want to serve this with a carb that will take the sauce, though – like mashed potatoes – she served it with the Mashed Potatoes with Caramelized Shallots and Truffle Oil that I posted recently. You could use rice, but mashed potatoes are just the perfect side for these.
The chef started off the class by laughing, saying “bet you thought I was crazy to choose short ribs to make for a 2+ hour cooking class.” Then she slid a pressure cooker over for us to see. She’d brought her own – a 10-quart Fagor she uses annually for canning and in between for lots of other things too. She loves her pressure cooker and uses it very often.
The cooked short ribs set aside while I whizzed up the sauce.
I don’t own one anymore. I was given one back in the 1960’s as a wedding gift. I did use it for some years until I burned the bottom of it when I dashed outside for some reason and left artichokes cooking away in it. An hour later the artichokes of course, were burned to a crisp inside and the pan had bowed such that it was no longer usable. I felt very guilty about that and kept the darned pan for years hoping somebody could figure out how to fix it. Nope. Nada. Finally tossed it out about 15 years ago. Meanwhile, some cookware manufacturers have come out with new versions. They work infinitely better than the older variety with the rocking gadget on the top. Now there are electric models too, but from reading reviews about them I’d say the stovetop ones appear to have more control. At least for now they do. The chef and the store owner both recommended the Fagor brand (made in Spain) as the best. Later note: I’ve since bought a pressure cooker, and use it frequently!
All the sauce gets whizzed up – if you have time, chill the stuff overnight and remove the fat – otherwise it gets homogenized into the sauce.
The sauce is so very easy – chopped celery and onion (raw) combined with water, white vinegar, ketchup, sugar, salt, Worcestershire sauce and dry mustard. You brown the chunks of boneless short ribs (silverskin removed and cut into large 2-inch pieces) on two sides, then combine the sauce and meat. If you have a pressure cooker, it takes 28 minutes to process. If you bake it in a 350 F. oven, it takes about 2 hours, maybe 2 ¼ hours. It can also be done in a crock pot for about 8-10 hours too.
The calories and fat on this recipe are outrageous. I’d forgotten how bad this meat is for us. Short ribs are just riddled with fat. They used to be a cheap cut of meat. Not so much anymore. I purchased the boneless ones at Costco. The chef recommended this be made a day or two ahead, refrigerated, then you can remove the fat from the top of the sauce. It’s so gosh-darned good. And yes, more comfort food at its finest. Technically this should serve 8 people. But if they’re hungry and they like this, well, 4 pounds of meat won’t feed more than 6.
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Barbecued Short Ribs
Recipe By: Deb Buzar, professional chef
Serving Size: 8
4 pounds short ribs [boneless, if possible]
2 medium onions — diced
1 cup water
1/2 cup vinegar
2 cups ketchup
1 cup celery — diced
4 tablespoons sugar [optional, but is in the original recipe]
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1. Dice the onions and celery into approximately similar size quarter-inch pieces. Set aside in a large bowl.
2. Measure water, vinegar, ketchup, sugar, salt, Worcestershire sauce and dry mustard and add to bowl. Stir until well mixed. Set aside.
3. Trim meat of all silverskin. Cut ribs between the bones or in 2-inch pieces if using boneless. If using bone-in ribs, tie around meat with kitchen twine (each piece). Season with salt and pepper. In a large roasting pan pour a small amount of olive oil and sear ribs on top and bottom only, just long enough to brown nicely, then remove to a plate. Do not crowd meat. Continue browning meat until all pieces are finished. Do not burn the meat as you’ll have to discard the nice fond on the bottom of the pan and clean it well in order to continue.
4. Pour sauce into the pot, then add the ribs. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to a very low simmer and bake at 350 for 2 hours or until fork tender. Transfer meat to a hot platter. Puree remaining sauce in blender (don’t overfill or it will blow the lid off). Serve meat with sauce. May be made up to several days ahead and reheated. After cooling the sauce, you may easily remove any hardened fat from the sauce and discard before reheating.
Sid Khullar
said on May 15th, 2008:
Hello there,
You have a fan 🙂 Check out her comment at:
http://food.sidkhullar.com/posts/blog-discovery.html
BTW: Love those ribs!
Sid