Bison Shortribs Dorie's Way

We love Dorie Greenspan, and the short ribs recipe from her book Around My French Table can not be matched. That's why after we purchased a few pounds of bison short ribs from Creamery Brook Bison in Brooklyn, Connecticut (read about our visit here), we took out her book, found the right page, and got straight to work.

As a general rule, we prefer not to copy recipes from cookbooks into our blog, and we won't do that today. Around My French Table really is a treasure trove of amazing recipes, photos and stories, and we encourage you to buy it (makes a great holiday gift for you or your fellow foodie!). Nonetheless, in the interest of sharing, we have taken step-by-step photographs (with captions!) of how we made the short ribs and we think you can get the gist of it from those. So here goes.

Lay the short ribs out onto a foil-lined cookie sheet, pat them dry and ....

...broil them until they are browned on both sides.

Then turn the oven to 350.

Prepare some herbs (rosemary, parsley, celery leaves, bay leaves, thyme, star anise)...

...and wrap them in dampened cheesecloth.

Cut up some vegetables (parsnips, celery, onion, carrots, leeks, ginger, garlic)...

...and place them in a pan. Season with salt and pepper and toss with a mild oil.

Turn on the heat and start to soften them (about ten minutes).

Then add some tomato paste. 

Keep stirring and cooking until it looks something like this.

Then add about a bottle's worth of red wine such as this shiraz, and a cup of port if you've got it.

Put in the bouquet of herbs.

Bring the whole thing to a boil over high heat until the liquid reduces by about 1/3.

Put the browned short ribs in the pan (bone side up) and cover them with beef broth.

Cover with foil, stick a tight lid on it, and put in the oven at 350 for two hours. No peeking!

Remove the foil, put the lid on loosely, and continue to cook for another hour.

While the meat cooks, make your side dishes and set your table.

When the meat's done, remove it from the pan and let it rest.

Strain out the vegetables from the sauce and reduce the sauce by half.

Serve the sauce over the shortribs; it will still be thin but it's really

tasty from all the herbs and vegetables.

The results? Stellar. Talk about amazing. Falling off the bone. Fork-tender. Not one bit gamey. Slightly sweet yet savory from that wonderfully flavorful sauce. With buttermilk mashed potatoes? You gotta try it! It's a whole lotta love. Enjoy!

Red Wine Short Ribs and Linguine

Amy writes: Chris is not a fan of short ribs, something which I just can't understand. What is there not to love about braised meat that is so tender and succulent that it falls right off the bone? Cooked in the right braising liquid, and these cheap cuts of meat become flavorfully restaurant-worthy. After our day on the Connecticut Wine Trail, I wanted short ribs braised in red wine. Chris would just have to deal.

I turned to Around My French Table, by the French food guru Dorie Greenspan (we've met!) for guidance. That book is my current end-all. If you don't have it yet, you should definitely buy it. And then join French Fridays with Dorie. But I digress...  Dorie (we've met, so I can call her by her first name, right?) has a recipe in that book called "Short Ribs in Red Wine and Port." Yeah, I thought, that's what I want.

Saute onions, carrots, celery, garlic and ginger in olive oil 

Once vegetables start to soften, add tomato paste

Stir and simmer until it looks like this

I followed her recipe as closely as I could, since I had way fewer short ribs (1 1/2 pounds versus the recipe's nine!), and I was missing a couple of ingredients (port, for example). Plus, I played with the measurements and left off the gremolata. We did follow Dorie's advice and made these one night ahead, leaving them refrigerated in the braising liquid overnight. I think that's a pretty important step. I had bought this great red wine pasta by Rossi Pasta a while back and thought that would go perfectly with this. So, on Sunday night, we had Red Wine Short Ribs and Linguine.

Get your herbs together -

parsley, thyme, bay leaves, rosemary, and star anise

Open some French wine and have a glass

Then put the herbs and some wine into the pot

We shared a bit with our neighbor, B. First she heard our foodie-like description, then she looked at it and said, "We call this beef and noodles in our house." But after she tasted it, she thought it was pretty schmancy. Chris took one bite and said, "I never knew short ribs could be so good." Yeah, Dorie Greenspan rocks.

Add short ribs (that you already browned)

Close the lid tightly, put it in the oven and leave it alone.

No peeking for two hours.

Then uncover it and cook it another hour, still undisturbed.

Let the whole thing cool then put it in the fridge for a day.

Make your side dish, strain and reduce the sauce, warm the short ribs, and...

I could give you the recipe, but that would be against the rules of French Fridays with Dorie, and although this post is not an official FFwD post, I'd rather you go buy the book. It's worth it, I promise. And no, I don't get anything for saying that.

...voila! Red Wine Short Ribs and Linguine!