Brasato Al Barolo Braised Short Ribs Recipes

BRASATO AL BAROLO - BRAISED CHUCK ROAST IN RED WINE

Steps:

• Place chuck roast, onion, carrots, celery, peppercorns, cloves, garlic, cinnamon stick, rosemary, and bay leaves together in a stockpot. Pour wine over meat and vegetable mixture to cover entirely. Cover stockpot and marinate for 6 hours in the refrigerator. Turn meat in marinade to make sure it is completely covered; return to refrigerator to finish marinating, about 6 hours more.
• Transfer chuck roast from marinade to a plate to rest; pat dry thoroughly with paper towels. Pour marinade through a strainer and into a bowl to separate vegetable mixture from wine, reserving both vegetable mixture and wine.
• Heat olive oil in the stockpot over medium-high heat. Brown chuck roast on all sides, 4 to 6 minutes per side. Reduce heat to medium. Add strained vegetable mixture to stockpot; cook with the chuck roast until fragrant, adding more oil as necessary to prevent burning, about 8 minutes.
• Pour reserved wine back into stockpot; add salt. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer without removing cover for 2 hours. Remove cover, stir, and cook until meat easily shreds with a fork, 10 minutes to 1 hour longer. Transfer meat from cooking liquid to serving platter; tent with foil to keep warm.
• Return cooking liquid to a boil over medium-high heat; simmer until reduced to sauce consistency, 20 to 30 minutes. Discard cinnamon stick, rosemary, and bay leaves. Season with salt; puree mixture with a handheld immersion blender until smooth. Pour sauce over meat to serve.

BRASATO AL BAROLO WITH POLENTA AND HORSERADISH GREMOLATA

Steps:

• Place the short ribs in a nonreactive baking dish or a large bowl and season them with salt and pepper on all sides, using approximately 1 teaspoon of salt per pound of meat. Cover the dish or bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to overnight.
• Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a Dutch oven or large high-sided sauté pan over medium-high heat until the oil is smoking and slides easily in the pan, 2 to 3 minutes. Place the short ribs in the pan to sear on all three sides (it's not necessary to sear the bone side), until the meat is deep brown, about 5 minutes per side. If you can't squeeze all of the short ribs in the skillet at one time, sear them in two batches, adding more oil to the pan to sear the second batch if it's dry. Remove the short ribs to a plate.
• Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Reduce the heat to medium, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and heat it until almost smoking. Add the onion, carrot, and celery and sauté, stirring often, until the vegetables are soft and the onion is tender and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute, stirring constantly to prevent it from browning. Move the vegetables to create a bare spot in the pan, add the tomato paste to that spot, and cook for 1 minute, stirring, to caramelize the tomato paste slightly. Add the wine, increase the heat to high, and boil the wine for about 20 minutes, until it is thick and jammy. Add the tomatoes and their juice and sauté for about 2 minutes to meld the flavors.
• Return the short ribs bone side down to the pan. Add any juices that may have collected on the plate they were resting on and enough stock to come just to the top edge of the short ribs. Nestle the thyme, oregano, and rosemary sprigs in the liquid around the meat. Wrap the porcini in a doubled piece of cheesecloth, pull the corners toward the center, and tie it into a bouquet with a piece of cooking twine. Tuck the bouquet between the ribs, making sure the mushrooms are submerged in the liquid. If you have commercial-grade plastic wrap, which won't melt in the oven, cover the pan with plastic wrap. In either case, cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and place the lid on it if it has one. Place the short ribs in the oven and cook until the meat is fork-tender and falling off the bones, about 3 hours. Remove the short ribs from the oven and remove the foil and plastic from the pan if you used it, being careful not to burn yourself with the steam that will rise from the pan. Set aside to allow the short ribs to cool in the braising liquid for at least 30 minutes.
• Remove the short ribs from the braising liquid to a plate. Pour the contents of the pan, including the vegetables and the bouquet, through a fine-mesh strainer into a medium saucepan (or bowl if you are not serving the short ribs now). Press down on the vegetables and the bouquet to extract as much juice as you can from them. Discard the contents of the strainer. Remove the porcini from the cheesecloth, discard the cheesecloth, and add the mushrooms to the braising liquid. Gently pull each short rib off the bone and remove the sinewy tissue that connects the meat to the bone. Pick any meat left on the bone or from the connective tissue and reserve to make the Francobolli di Brasato al Barolo (page 177). You can prepare the short ribs to this point up to five days in advance. Cover the pot with plastic wrap or transfer the meat with the braising liquid to an airtight container and refrigerate until you are ready to serve it. (You will proceed slightly differently.)
• If the short ribs are still warm from the braising liquid, bring the liquid to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat, and simmer until the liquid is the consistency of a thick glaze or thin gravy, stirring occasionally to prevent it from sticking to the pan; it will be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
• If you have prepared the short ribs in advance and are rewarming them, preheat the oven to 350°F. If the short ribs have been in the refrigerator, remove and discard the fat from the liquid. Pour the liquid into a Dutch oven or stovetop-safe baking dish and warm it over medium heat, then place the short ribs bone side down in the dish. Place the dish in the oven for about 30 minutes, basting the meat with the sauce occasionally, until the meat is warmed through. Put the dish on the stovetop, and cook as directed above to thicken.
• To make the garnish, combine the parsley leaves, celery leaves, and lemon zest in a medium bowl. Drizzle the leaves with the finishing-quality olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt, and toss gently to coat the leaves with the seasonings. Use a microplane or another fine grater to grate about 60 strokes of horseradish over the salad and toss gently.
• Spoon 1/2 cup of the polenta in the center of each of six plates. Place one short rib on top of the polenta and ladle a generous 1/2 cup of the sauce over each short rib. Divide the porcini evenly among the servings and serve any remaining sauce on the side. Pile the garnish on top of the short ribs, dividing it evenly, and grate a few additional strokes of horseradish over each serving, and serve.
• Barolo (Piedmont)

BEEF BRAISED IN BAROLO

Steps:

• Heat the oven, with a rack in the center, to 250°F.
• Season all surfaces of the roast with 1 teaspoon salt. Pour the olive oil into the big pan, and set over medium-high heat. Lay the roast in, and brown it on each side for a minute or two, without moving, until caramelized all over. Remove to a platter.
• Still over medium-high heat, drop in the cut vegetables and garlic cloves, toss to coat with oil, and spread out in the pan. Drop in the rosemary, sage leaves, grated nutmeg, peppercorns, dried porcini, and remaining teaspoon salt, and toss all together. Cook for 3 or 4 minutes, stirring frequently and scraping up the browned meat bits on the pan bottom, just until the vegetables soften, then lower the heat.
• Push the vegetables to the sides, and return the roast to the pan, laying flat on the bottom. Pour in the three bottles of wine and any meat juices that collected on the platter. The roast should be at least half submerged-add beef stock as needed.
• Cover the pot, and heat until the wine is steaming but not boiling. Uncover the pan, and place it in the oven. After 30 minutes, rotate the roast so the exposed meat is submerged in the braising liquid. Braise this way, turning the meat in the pan every 30 minutes, for about 3 hours, until fork-tender. The liquid should not boil&151;if it does, pour in some cold water to stop the bubbling, and lower the oven temperature.
• After 4 1/2 hours or so, check the beef with a meat thermometer. When its internal temperature reaches 180°F-it should be easily pierced with a fork-take the pan from the oven. Remove the meat to a platter, with intact carrot and celery pieces to serve as a garnish.
• Skim any fat from the braising juices, heat to a boil, and reduce to a saucy consistency that coats the back of a spoon. Pour through a sieve set over a clean container. Press in the juices from the strained herbs and vegetable pieces. Pour in any juices from the meat platter, and season the sauce to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. (If you are not going to serve right away, put the meat and reserved vegetables in the sauce to rest and cool, for a couple of hours or overnight.)
• To serve, slice the meat crosswise (easier when it is cool). Pour a shallow layer of sauce in a wide skillet, and lay the slices in, overlapping. Heat the sauce to bubbling, spooning it over the beef, so the slices are lightly coated. Lift them with a broad spatula, and slide onto a warm platter, fanned out. Heat the carrots and celery in the sauce too, if you've saved them, and arrange on the platter. Serve, passing more heated sauce at the table.

BRASATO AL BAROLO (BRAISED SHORT RIBS)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
• In a large, heavy-bottomed skillet or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over high heat until smoking. Season the ribs with salt and pepper and cook them over high heat until deep brown all on sides, about 15 minutes total.
• Remove the short ribs to a plate and set aside. Add the carrots, onion, celery and garlic to the pan and cook over high heat until browned and softened, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the red wine, tomatoes and juices, chicken stock and herbs, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to dislodge the brown bits. Brin the mixture to a boil and return the short ribs to the pan. Cover with aluminum foil and place in the oven. Cook for 2 hours, or until the mat in very tender and literally falling off the bones.
• To make the gremolata:.
• I n a small bowl, combine the parsley, lemon zest and horseradish and toss loosely by hand.
• Place one short rib in each bowl, top with a little of the pan juices and a handful of the gremolata, and serve immediately.