Once upon a time, beef short ribs were dirt cheap. Nobody knew what to do with them. They are extremely fatty, and short cooking leaves them tough and practically inedible. Then, according to Bill Buford in his book
Heat (a great work and a quick read), one chef in New York City decided to braise some and sell them. Suddenly, New York City was swept up in a short rib craze, and every fine dining establishment adapted their own version. As is often the case, it took a few years for the sensation to reach the rest of us. It's mostly great that we've learned about short ribs, but it's also terrible because the rise in popularity has caused the price to skyrocket. People, we have a short rib CRAZE on our hands.
In other short rib news, apparently the First Lady of these United States likes the occasional short rib dinner. I'm not going to get too political here, but
eating short ribs does NOT make her a fat hypocrite. Can't we all occasionally enjoy some delicious braised short ribs? (Not you, vegetarians.) Especially on a pile of creamy celery root puree and braised kale, with a generous helping of sauce. Which is how I served mine. They were delicious. And I am not obese.
Anyway, one thing about this particular recipe which was a total revelation was the use of the broiler for searing the ribs. In the past, recipes I followed advised me to sear the ribs in batches, which is time consuming and really messy. Dorie, in her infinite wisdom, had us use the broiler to render off some fat and get a tasty sear on the meat. Some people would argue that this would leave you without the fond in your cooking pot, which would be a missed opportunity to enhance the flavor. Seriously, I doubt that you could tell the difference. These are so amazing!
Even though I can't give you Dorie's recipe, if you want to make short ribs check out
this slideshow from Bon Appetit.
Yum! I thought the broiler trick was cool too!
ReplyDeleteOh you are the devil.
ReplyDeleteThese look fantastic. I love Kale also, and I'll bet it was a great
ReplyDeletecombination. I love your photos. Using the broiler to complete
the dish was a good idea even though Tricia thought I was
burning them. The inside was very tender and we had no
complaints.
I need to try that celery root puree!
ReplyDeleteExcellent - and the celery root puree & the kale sound like the perfect sides.
ReplyDeleteYour ribs turned out great! And I agree, the price is ridiculous for this meat, but once in awhile I please the men around here and they all loved all the meat and can't wait for more.
ReplyDeleteI grumbled about the price, too, and said pretty much the same thing you did in my post. We are paying the price of popularity and trendy food. Too bad, because some of these ingredient were used for centuries to sustain the poor, and now they are becoming too pricey for them.
ReplyDeleteEnough ranting:)
I did not notice any difference between broiled and seared ribs, neither. It was an interesting change in methods.
I love the idea of celery mash. Did you combine celery root and potatoes for it?
I just regret completely forgetting the gremolata, even though I prepared it. Next time:)
Thanks for all the nice comments!
ReplyDeleteThe celery root puree is mostly celery root, but there is a bit of potato in there. It's in AMFT on page 354. I've made it twice already. The first time was with the beef daube we made. It is divine.
Plus, the checkout people at the grocery store are always perplexed at what you're buying, and have to look up the PLU code in their books. Celery root, people! It's delicious!