Litchfield Short Ribs

Description

We began the day Saturday with a trip to the Litchfield indoor winter farmer's market where Chion, Patrick, and I met up with Emily Brooks who helped us plan an evenng meal and shop for it, relying on local ingredients.

As the day wore on, I cooked beef short ribs from Laurel Ridge Farm with red wine, broth, organic garlic and red-skinned "dragon carrots" from Starlight Gardens, celery root and onions.  I also made crostini from Wave Hill Bread and a spread of black beans, shallots, garlic and cilantro. Emily made a dazzling assortment of salads and two different mini-casseroles of turnip. We (all of the above plus Linda Piotrowicz) assembled in my kitchen to taste and toast and eat like kings, as we recorded an audio segment on making a nutritious locavore meal. Part of the project was to see if we could get Chion to expand her limited repertoire of fruits and vegetables.

Summary

Yield4
Prep Time4 hours

Ingredients

  • 7 lb short ribs (from laurel ridge!)
  • 6 c beef or vegetable broth
  • 4 c red wine
  • 3 clv garlic, minced
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 c baby carrots, chopped
  • 1 bulb of celery root, diced
  • 1⁄4 c olive oil
  • 1 T thyme leaves
  • 1 T rosemary

Instructions

In the olive oil, saute the garlic, onion, carrot and celery root in a big stew pot. An enameled cast iron pot is best. (You can actually toss in any other vegetables you have around that strike you as suitable.) Saute gently for 20 minutes. You're almost making a flourless roux. Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 450, put the short ribs on a baking sheet (you may want to salt and pepper them), pop them in the oven, turn the heat down to 300 and brown them (turn them once).

Place the short ribs over the roux of sauteed veggies. Add the broth and wine. Raise the temperature so that the liquid bubbled and then cook, covered, gently simmering, for about three hours.

Take the ribs out and let them sit on a platter while you crank up the heat and reduce that stock. You may want to add a little more red wine toward the end because you will have boiled away some of its pleasant qualities. If you can skim any of the fat, do so. Spoon the hot liquid and veggie solids over the ribs and serve.

Notes

Beef short ribs are kind of weird. We got them because the farmer had sold other cuts we probably would have preferred.

But if you cook them a long time, gently, and don't mind poking around in them to find their goodness, they can be rewarding.