Braised Beef Short Ribs with Red Wine Sauce – The Cook’s Digest

Beef short ribs are a deliciously rich and flavoursome cut of meat, one of our favourites to cook any time of the year. Smoked over cherry wood and then braised for a few hours in a red wine sauce to enhance the deep flavours and you’re on the way to create a winning dish to impress friends and family alike.

---

What are beef short ribs? Where can I buy them?

Short ribs come from the rib sections of a cow. They are a cut piece of rib overlain with meat of varying thickness. They are rich in flavour, and work well in dishes with complimentary deep, sometimes aromatic flavours. Due to high connective tissue in the meat, short ribs lend themselves to low and slow cooking techniques that break down the tissues and make the meat tender. Short ribs are popular in Chinese and Korean cooking.

It’s rare to find short ribs in supermarkets, however they are readily available from online butchers such as Turner and George. I source ours from our local butcher, we’ve been going there for so long we’ve struck up a good relationship with them and they are happy to cut meat how we’d like it.

Equipment

You’ll need a casserole dish with a lid. I used a Le Crueset 30cm shallow casserole dish, this had the capacity to handle the short ribs and sauce. I cooked this in our Big Green Egg, it’s perfectly safe to use Le Crueset in one. In addition you’ll need:

Ingredients

• 4-6 beef short ribs
• 750ml red wine (see below)
• 250ml ruby port
• 750ml chicken stock
• Apple cider vinegar
• 2 bay leaves
• Dizzy Pig Redeye Express rub (optional)
• Cherry smoking chunk (optional)

The choice of red wine can be important, depending on your tastes. I have found the best results from a 50:50 mix of Argentinian Malbec and Spanish Rioja. I added ruby port into the mix to enhance the richness of the sauce.

Method

I cooked this in our large Big Green Egg as I wanted to add in some cherry smoke aromatics to enhance the flavour.

Smoking and Browning

1. Pre-heat the Big Green Egg (direct setup) to 125°C/250°F. Wait for the temperature to stabilise and coals to glow, then toss on the smoking chunks, and wait for the thin blue line of smoke.
2. Whilst the Egg is coming to temperature, trim excess fat off the short ribs, leaving a thin layer on top. Dust with Dizzy Pig Redeye Express rub (or salt and pepper). Using the hand held sprayer, spritz the ribs with a 50:50 mix of water and apple cider vinegar.
3. When the Egg is at temperature, place the short ribs on the stainless steel grid. Smoke over cherry for 3 hours. Spritz again after 90 mins and turn the ribs over with tongs.
4. Just before the 3 hours is up, mix the red wine, port and chicken stock together in the low casserole dish. Add in the bay leaves and 2 tbsp of Dizzy Pig Redeye Express rub. Combine all of the ingredients with a whisk.
5. At the 3 hour mark, remove the short ribs from the Egg and place them into the casserole dish, immersing them in the sauce. Put the lid on the casserole dish.

Braising

At this point the smoking is done, so you could finish the cook in an oven at 150°C/300°F. I continue with the Egg because it’s already running and I like cooking outside.

1. Using heat resistant gloves, remove the stainless steel grid from the Egg. Add in the platesetter and return the stainless steel grid. Raise the temperature of the Egg to 150°C/300°F.
2. When the Egg has reached temperature again, place the casserole dish onto the grid and cook for a further 3 hours. After this time, the ribs may be ready, they should be fall apart and tender. If they aren’t keep going. This could take another hour or so.

The Finish

1. When the ribs are ready, remove them from the casserole dish and set aside. Shut the Egg down by closing the top and bottom vents (or turn off the oven).
2. Decant the sauce from the casserole dish into a saucepan, removing the bay leaves. Place the ribs back into the casserole dish, put the lid back on and place back in the Egg/oven to keep the ribs warm.
3. Place the saucepan over medium heat on a stove and reduce for up to 20 mins. Use some cornflour and water mixed together if the sauce is too runny. Then pour the sauce into a fat separator to remove excess fat.
4. Serve with creamy mash potatoes and broccoli.

Hints and Tips

1. When raising the Egg up to 150°C to do the braise step, open the vents up fully to begin with. The ceramic platesetter is a heat sink, so will absorb a lot of the heat energy in the Egg.  Once the dome temp has reached the desired 150°C reset the vents so that the temperature stabilises.