1 Red Wine Braised Short Ribs

This is such a treat, and wonderful for a cold evening's dinner.  It warms the house as you're cooking it during the day and makes the house smell totally divine.


boneless beef chuck short ribs (1 per person)
2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs butter
30-50 pearl onions, peeled
1 bottle red wine
4-5 whole cloves garlic, crushed
bouquet garni (thyme, sage, bay)
salt & pepper


First you need to peel all your pearl onions.  This is such a pain and takes forever, but totally worth it when the melt in your mouth at the end.  I picked up this bag of red, yellow and white pearls, and while you don't have to use rainbow varieties, I think it gives extra depth and complexity to the ribs with different levels of sweetness.  The best way to peel them is to have a sharp paring knife, lop off both ends and take off the entire outer layer.  

The carnage.

The beautiful result.

Now for the star of the show.  The ribs.  I buy these at Costco, and they are really thick and meaty, nicely marbled.  Pat them totally dry with paper towels.

Butterfly each rib, then salt and pepper both sides.   I butterfly them so that when they open up, the fattiest side can lay totally flat (make sense?)

Heat your largest deep pan with olive oil and butter, and sear ribs on all sides, about 2-3 minutes each side.  I start with the fatty side down first.  Hmm, butter.

Now the other side.  See how beautifully brown it is?

Add your pearl onions and crushed garlic on top of and around beef in the pan.

Brown the onions and garlic until they start to brown and caramelize like so.

In the meantime, make your bouquet garni.  Stuff the herbs in a coffee filter and tie it closed - 2 tbs sage, 1 tbs thyme, 2 bay leaves.

As you can see, I misplaced my twine and am using a twist tie.  Normally I don't care for plastic in my food, but the bouquet floats and the twist tie stays out of the braising liquid.

Now it's time for the wine.  Add the wine slowly to deglaze pan and cover meat (about 1/2 a bottle or more depending on how many ribs you have/how big your pan is.  I used an entire bottle.)  

As for the type of wine, I like a Cabernet Sauvignon, and the bottle I used just happened to be bottled by my aunt & uncle's own Virginia vineyard.  We all got our very own bottles as wedding favors at their middle son's wedding in September, lucky us!

Add bouquet garni.  See how it floats?  

Bring to boil, then cover, simmer 3-4 hours, turning the meat about once a hour. 

I like to move the bouquet garni around each time I turn the ribs.  

The meat should just fall apart when it's finished.  In fact, you know it's done when it starts falling apart when you're turning it.   When serving, finish with a dollop of butter on top and let it melt in.  I served this with Trader Joe's herbed potato medley, and the melted pearl onions and garlic in braising liquid on the side.