Beef Short Ribs

My obsession with ribs probably stems from the sticky short ribs my mother used to make.  My parents would buy or trade hay for beef with my uncle.  Meat and potatoes were a constant in the weekly menu.  Every so often we were lucky to enjoy the rare portion of short ribs included in the quarter of a steer kept in the deep freezer.

After I moved to Texas and was dating my Hubby, he took me to the BBQ restaurant in the area, one of the landmarks for foodies to visit, the Salt Lick *.  I was amazed at the soft smoky meat easily pulling off the bones.  Guess it had been a while since wolfing down mom’s version, these were so good.  Hubby laughed at me because I thought they were beef ribs.  I didn’t know pork could taste like that!  To me, pork was the chop. Tough as a sneaker and dry as the Badlands.  We didn’t… um… BBQ much in Canada when I was young.  The closest we ever came to grilling was a camp fire and Coleman stove at Sylvan Lake *.

When asked what I wanted for Valentine’s Day by my endearing hubby, I replied with “sushi and a show”.  Two things I love and hardly get a chance to really enjoy with him.  What was I going to do for hubby in return?  Cook an awesome dinner of course!  Beef is the most expensive item in our shopping cart these days so I have tended to reserve it for special occasions.  This would be the first short ribs ever, and hopefully well received by mi corazón.

So here goes my attempt at real ribs.  The beef kind.

Pre-heat the oven to 325ºF.

Season the meaty parts of the ribs and remove hard fat and silver skin.  Brown the short ribs in a Dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot suited for the oven.

Add the remaining ingredients to a bowl. Mix and pour over the short ribs in the roaster.  There should be enough liquid to come half way up the ribs.  Add more stock or apple juice to make up any shortfall.

Cover and bake for  2 hours. 

Uncover for last 20 mins of roasting.  

Remove the ribs and hold them while reducing the liquid to a thick sauce, spoon off the fat as you go. I like to add a slurry of cornstarch (1 tsp or so) to get a super sticky coating for the ribs, make sure the sauce comes to a full boil.  Finally,  turn off the heat and plunk the ribs into the hot saucy bath. 

Be sure to apply a generous amount of love to these ribs and serve them to your sweetheart on a bed of piping hot rice.