Succulent Short Ribs - Braised in Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon - THE BEST

Greetings friends!

I'm entertaining my in-laws for a few weeks and they always go out of their way to cook me some amazing meals when I visit them. It was a postcard-beautiful Saturday in California and I found myself with a good chunk of time so I thought I'd return the favor and try to one-up them. It took nearly all day between the prep, cook, and clean-up, but truly, this dish is hard to beat. 100% worth it! I'm usually the only one that will eat red meat in my household, so having visitors that share my joy for fine dining is a real treat that offers an excellent excuse to indulge.

I decided I'd make wine-braised beef short ribs with a mashed potato and Yucca (Cassava) blend and add in a few extras I'll mention later in this post. If you're trying to impress a beef lover, this is the one to make!

You'll need a dutch oven, the bigger the better. I describe mine in an earlier post here: https://steemit.com/food/@nofiat/the-best-lentil-soup-ever-delicious, but with 9 short ribs, I did feel a bit crowded. In any case, we start with the basics - carrots, celery, onions. I also threw in some fresh fennel, and later in the process, tomatoes and smashed garlic.

Chop that up as finely as you can if you intend to blend it together later on, as I did. You may also leave it coarse if you prefer it. All roads here lead to delicious city; you can't really go wrong:

those portabella (portobello?) caps in the background were sauteed separately with onions, butter and a bit of garlic, and added to the final plate as shown above

Ideally, the best time to chop up the veggies is while your're browning the meat. Before doing so, you must liberally season ALL SIDES of the ribs with coarse salt and fresh cracked pepper corns.

EACH SIDE must be browned. Yes, the bone side also. Especially here, texture = flavor. You'll want little burnt bits and a pot you'll be eager to de-glaze with the upcoming vegetables. It takes time and it sucks. But it will pay-off, I promise! (notice I didn't put them all in at once - it is always bad to crowd your meat at this stage)

They should look more or less like this when complete . Set aside and let them rest.

SIDE DISH

I LOVE Yucca root (cassava), but I usually prepare it differently. This was more of an experiment today and while delicious, I'll admit I like my go-to preparation much more. Next time around I'm likely to keep it simple and go with traditional mashed potatoes.

If you have never tried Yucca root you should be aware it is extremely starchy. It also has a rather thick "bark" on it that must be peeled off in advance and once cooked, there is a fibrous inner "vein" that should be removed before serving. Do not over-work it lest you end up with a massive chewy lump.

Now its all ready for a hot, salty bubble bath. You may want to start thinking about timing at this point. The beef will need at least 3 hours to cook, so time accordingly. I started the roots about an hour ahead of my assumed serving time and gave the yucca a 12 minute head start to the potatoes.

BACK TO THE POT

Drop those veggies in the hot pot and use a wooden spoon to slowly scrape up all the yummy goodness while the juices are flowing:

Be patient...

Mash up some fresh garlic cloves and dice up some tomatoes. I like to add these fast-cooking items after some delay, but feel free to do as you wish.

used about 3.5 regular cloves

I cooked it down until it looked like this:

Once you're comfortable with the state of your quasi-mirepoix, taste your wine 🍸 and consider the flavor it will impart on your meat. If you can't tolerate the wine, use something else. I've used beer(s), broths, even water, in the past. Experimenting in the kitchen is half the fun!

Place your ribs carefully back into the dutch oven, bone up, so that the meat is spending as much time in liquid as possible.

I got this at an event a few years ago - 8 yrs old, not bad!

Dump the entire bottle in. I like to do it boldly and make a bit of a spectacle 😉 of myself just because.

You'll want to make sure at least 95% of your short ribs are covered in liquid. Feel free to supplement with broth if you happened to drink a little too much of the wine or your chunks are extra tall.

Bring this to a boil and then simmer it down for a while. The goal is to let the alcohol evaporate away. I judge when I've boiled enough away by smelling the fumes as it goes. When I no longer smell alcohol, we're ready to...

...add some herbs and aromatics. It is easy to convince yourself this is unnecessary. You are wrong! I added a pinch of thyme, some oregano, more parsley, another pinch of salt & cracked pepper, and the all-important bay leafs. Rosemary is optional - I omitted it.

Cook that a few more minutes, put the lid on, and set it into a preheated 350 degree oven. Forget about it and enjoy the smells throughout your home for the next 3 hours. Don't be surprised if neighbors come knocking!

After about 2 hours, start some salty water boiling in preparation for the roots. When ready, drain and mash it up while adding warmed milk, butter, etc - normal mashed potato stuff. I'd made some compound roasted garlic parsley butter the day before, so I used that as well:

compound butter and crusty bread

Remember though, you won't get the picture above unless you first take out the fiber before mashing:

Around 3 hours time, take out the pot, open the lid and smell the greatness!

Remove from the dutch oven and place the ribs into some kind of serving dish.

Next thing I did was bring out my immersion blender and puree all the leftover YUM in the dutch oven after adding a bit of tomato paste and a little extra water. This became a simple gravy for us. After we were done eating, I added a trusted tomato sauce and now have the most amazing meat sauce for tomorrow's spaghetti! Even the non red-meat eaters in my home WILL eat this meat sauce, its that good!

I had some garlic plantain chips laying around and thought they'd accompany this dish well. Indeed they did! After a few mouthfuls, here's what's left of the final product before remembering I should take a picture:

I absolutely LOVE this meal and hope you will as well. May this post inspire you to spend more time in the kitchen and enjoy the labor of love that is cooking, with an abundance of friends and family! If you appreciate this post, please provide a 100% upvote as a friendly "Thank you" and also as a way to let me know I should continue with the food posts!

May God bless your families and keep you healthy!