Braised Shortribs.

I love braised dishes, and this is a favorite of mine. It takes an especially long time to cook, but it keeps well and is very easy to reheat. 

Ingredients.

9 ~2 inch cuts of shortribs, on the bone

2 yellow onions, large dice

4 carrots, ends discarded, washed and sliced

2 leeks, tops removed, washed, halved and sliced

6-8 cloves of garlic, peeled but whole

~4 scallions, ends removed, lightly crushed

1/2 bottle of red wine, preferably rioja or temperanillo

1 bay leaf

3-4 juniper berries

a few sprigs of thyme

unsalted butter, as needed

salt and pepper, as needed

Method.

Heat your oven to about 250 degrees.

I recommend working in a rondeau or similarly wide and shallow pan. 

Salt your shortribs.

Get your pan quite hot, with a neutral oil (vegetable, grapeseed, canola, etc.) and add the shortribs, just searing them on two sides. You want to get a good deep brown on the outside, indicating that you have begun to carmelize the fats and sugars on the outside of the meat. Your goal is not to cook them all the way through, but to put a hard sear on the outside. Make sure your oil is very hot before adding them.

Set the ribs aside and reduce your heat.

In the same pan, add onions, carrots, leeks, scallions and garlic. The liquid from these vegetables should loosen any meat still stuck to the pan, but if it continues to stick add a small amount of water and deglaze to keep it from burning. Sautee the vegetables until they begin to turn soft; about ten minutes. 

Once your vegetables have become soft, deglaze with red wine and return the ribs to the pan. Add the herbs and juniper berries as well. The ribs should be almost completely submerged. If you don't have enough liquid with the wine alone, feel free to add a bit of water. Don't worry about salting the liquid at this point; it will reduce quite a bit and become saltier in the process. If you added enough salt to the ribs and seared them properly it shouldn't be an issue.

Bring the wine to just below a simmer. Once you see bubbles coming to the surface, put a vented lid on top of the pan and put the whole thing in the oven.

Depending on how your oven cooks, there could be a wide variance in how long this part actually takes. 3-4 hours is a pretty good estimate for most ovens, but the real indicator will be that the meat can be easily shredded with your fingers.

Once the beef is finished cooking, remove it from the pan and set it aside. At this point I usually turn the oven off and put the ribs in to keep them warm. Drain the liquid into a separate container and discard the vegetables. 

If you want to have extra sauce for leftovers, use only as much of the liquid as you need and set the rest aside now. 

In a small saucepan, bring the liquid to a boil. Allow it to reduce until it completely coats a spoon that's been dipped into it. Remove the liquid from heat and whisk butter into it until it's thickened. This is essentially a bordelaise sauce.

Serve the ribs with sauce over them. I recommend serving it with gremolata, mashed potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts, but these ribs are pretty much great no matter what you serve them with. 

Enjoy.