Anne Burrell’s Main Event “Seconds” :

Big Brown Braised Short Ribs with Horseradish

               

               Hate to admit it, when I saw the time 3 ½ hours I was a little overwhelmed and nervous. I mean I work until 5pm, I have not prepped yet, and we are looking at a 9pm or later finishing time. Eeek! But what the heck? They look so delicious and I need another recipe under the belt, plus this was my first meat course and my first major entree of Chef Burrell’s. The great thing about making these short ribs is that once you get it prepared and into the oven... you’re time is done. So, you can relax, pop open your bottle of wine, and turn the T.V. on the “The Bachelor” like I did. It was perfect since I had a friend come over and she made it at about 7pm. So the ribs had a little bit of time to go, but I wasn’t fussing in the kitchen and could actually focus on her... which of course was full of gossip and laughter!

                I was a little concerned about making these... I felt like “Man, 3 ½ hours if I don’t do it right these are going to be bad and there’s no other alternative but to warm up some crappy canned soup for dinner!” But again Chef Anne makes the ingredients easy to use. First you brown your short ribs bone in (I did make these with the bone out as well because my local store was having a sale on them and I couldn’t remember bone in or out when I was there- they were just as fantastic either way) over EVOO on high heat. Browning any meat seems to be essential to getting that delicious taste and it always makes my mouth water.

While browning, Chef Anne has you puree your onions, carrots, celery ribs, mushrooms, and garlic; this was a fun step as carrots were shooting out of the top of my blender as I forgot to put the top on (rookie mistake? Or maybe it was my nerves from trying to get this in the oven in due time!).  

                After browning  and removing the short ribs, you add fresh EVOO and add the puree of deliciousness into the pan on the stove top and let this baby cook. Once it becomes a bit brown, you add tomato paste and horseradish and let it cook for a couple minutes. I am usually not a huge horseradish fan, especially on red meat, but dang this was so good!

Next you dump in some red wine(great part about cooking with wine... you are still going to be “drinking” it whether it is in your wine glass or on your food!) You return the ribs to the pan add a bit of water, thyme, and bay leaves,  cover it with aluminium foil (especially the handle, it will melt. Thank you Brandy for that tip!) and you cook this baby for 2 ½ hours checking every 45 minutes.

Oh this meat just fell right off the bone... one of the best meats I’ve ever had in my life and I was able to enjoy it with a good friend and actually spend time with her while this beauty cooked.... another recipe down in the name of cooking like a rock star!