I am really pleased with how this came out. It's delicious. It's easy. Everyone loved it. And, as an added bonus, it used up all the braising ribs that'd been languishing in our freezer. Don't be alarmed by the uncovered cooking, it gives the meat a chance to brown without having to do a separate searing step.

Served over polenta with roasted carrots and parsnips.

Wine-Braised Short Ribs

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country February/March 2018

Ingredients

• 2.25kg bone-in "English-style" short ribs¹
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 tsp. flour
• 2 c. dry white wine
• 3 c. vegetable broth
• 4-6 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1/2 Tbsp. dried thyme
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1 tsp. cornstarch

Directions

1. Sprinkle ribs with salt and pepper and set aside.
2. Heat oil over medium heat.
3. Add onion and cook until lightly browned (4-6 minutes).
4. Add tomato paste and flour and cook, stirring constantly, until slightly darkened (~1 minute).
5. Add wine and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
6. Cook until mixture is slightly thickened (~3 minutes).
7. Add broth, garlic, thyme, and bay leaves.
8. Nestle ribs into braising liquid, bone-side-up.
9. Bring to a simmer, then transfer pot to oven and bake, covered², at 160°C (325°F) for 1.5 hours.
10. Remove pot from oven, flip the ribs meat-side-up and return to oven.
11. Cook, uncovered, for another 1.5 hours.
12. Transfer ribs to serving platter.
13. Spoon a few tablespoons of the broth into a small bowl and whisk in cornstarch.
14. Pour cornstarch mixture into sauce and bring to a boil over medium high heat.
15. Cook until thickened.
16. Serve ribs over substrate of choice (mashed potatoes or polenta work well), topped with gravy.

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1 They recommend "English-style short ribs 4-5 inches long with 1-1.5 inches of meat on top of bone". I had a bunch of braising ribs on hand already, so I just used those. They had about the right amount of meat on top of the bone, but were cut much shorter. Probably only ~1" (2.5cm). They were a little trickier to manipulate and get to stand up the right way, but other than that they seem to have worked just fine. ^Back
2 The original recipe has you leave the pot uncovered for the entire cook time. I cooked it covered for the first half and uncovered it for the last part of cooking. I didn't get quite as much browning this way, but it did leave me with a bit more sauce. I'm okay with this trade-off. ^Back