Weather turning cool  just the way I like it. I love this time of the year. I wish we can have Spring and Autumn all year long. I am not a fan of the heat. I know, I know, I grew up in the tropics with 100% humidity and therefore I should be accustom to the heat, right? Not! Well anyway, cool weather makes me crave comfort food. I felt like having some short ribs lately. Since I had some in the freezer, I decided to do some experimenting. I can just picture Steve sighing, rolling his eyes, and going “not again”. He hates being made a guinea pig and food critic.

So as I was saying, I had some beef short ribs and quite a bit of produce left in my refrigerator. My pantry was brimming with odds and ends that needed to be utilize. I had some dried porcini mushrooms and a bunch of herbs and spices. I thought I would grind up some of the porcini mushroom along with the spices to make a rub. I had half a bottle of Merlot, some veal demi glace and cartons of beef and chicken broth. Hmm.. perfect for making the sauce along with some fresh herbs. I had tons of root vegetables in the fridge; butternut squash, rutabaga, parsnips, carrots, and some other funky looking vege that needs to be tossed. I used these vegetables to make a root vegetable puree to compliment the ribs. I started out by making a rub for the ribs. I then brown the meaty ribs. I gathered some aromatics such as onions, leeks, garlic, carrots to add to the sauce for more depth of flavors. I simmered two cups of Merlot on the stove until rendered to about 1 1/4 cups just enough to concentrate it a little bit.  Once I got everything seared and sauteed, I braised the rib mixture in the oven for about 4 hours. Final results, fall off the bone, tender and juicy ribs.

 Beef Short Ribs with Red Wine Sauce

Beef Rub

2 ounces dried porcini mushrooms

1 teaspoon smoked paprika      

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon each salt, pepper, and sugar.

1/3 cup all purpose flour

Place ingredients except all purpose flour in coffee grinder and pulse until fine. Mix flour and grounded spices together.  Reserve 1 tablespoon of spice mixture. Massage the rest of the mixture onto ribs.

8-12 pieces beef short ribs

1 1/2 cups chopped onions

1 whole leek, outer layer removed, rinsed and thinly sliced

5 cloves garlic, minced

3 medium carrots, pared, cut in 2-inch pieces

4 celery stalks, cut in 2-inch pieces

2 cups whole mushrooms, quartered

1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley

3-4 sprigs fresh thyme

1 1/4 cup rendered red wine such as Merlot

2 cups beef broth

1 tablespoon veal demi glace

2 tablespoon tomato paste

2/3 cup pomegranate juice

1 tablespoon spice mixture

 Ingredients for beef short ribs  demi glace

 Porcini mushroom and smoked paprika

Method

Brown seasoned ribs in large dutch oven on high heat with 2 tablespoon olive oil. Remove ribs. In same pot, saute mushrooms until lightly golden brown and all liquid has evaoprated; remove. Next saute onions, garlic, leeks until soft, about 5 minutes on medium high heat. Add carrots and celery and continue to saute for another 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, parsley, thyme and 1 tablespoon reserved spice blend. Add in the rendered wine, beef broth, demi glace, and pomegranate juice. Bring liquid to boil and return meat to pot.

 Brown meat    Vegetables and spice mix added   add meat back into pot 

 Bring sauce back up to a boil and turn heat off. Cover pot and place dutch oven in preheated 325 degree F oven for 4 hours or until ribs are fork tender and sauce is slightly thicken.

  Place pot in oven for 4 hours

 Remove all meat and vegetables from dutch oven. Place pot on stove and simmer sauce for another ten minutes to thicken sauce further. Arrange meat and vegetables on platter and pour sauce over.  Serve with root vegetable puree.

Makes 4 servings

Root Vegetable Puree

1/2 of medium butternut squash

1 whole medium rutabaga

2 medium parsnips

1 medium sweet potato

2 garlic cloves, crushed

salt and pepper to taste

3 tablespoon butter, room temperature

1/2 cup chicken stock

4 fresh thyme sprigs, remove leaves from stem, roughly chopped

Method

Pare butternut squash with a vegetable peeler. Cut squash into 1-inch cubes. Prep the rest of the vegetables in similar fashion. Place root vegetables and smashed garlic in large sauce pan with water, , and season with salt. Bring vegetables to boil and simmer for 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Drain liquid. Place vegetables back on stove to dry residual liquid.

Place the root vegetables in a food processor along with the thyme and salt and pepper to taste. Process vegetables until smooth. If puree is too thick, add a little chicken stock to thin out. Place puree in a bowl and stir in butter. Serve.

Makes 3-4 servings.