Red Wine-Braised Short Ribs

I am a Williams-Sonoma addict.  It's one of those stores that is made for browsing.  You're bound to find something that you have to have.  lately, I've been ogle-ing their spices and according to the helpful store associate last Sunday - they're expanding!

I also love that their catalogs have recipes, and when I found this recipe for use in a tagine, I of course had to make it.  Especially because, unlike most of my tagine recipes, this one is a bit more country-style comfort food not Moroccan.  Its nice to change things up. 

Red Wine-Braised Short Ribs

adapted from Williams-Sonoma

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 Ib. bone-in beef short ribs (original recipe calls for 3 3/4 lb.)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 celery stalks, cut into 1/4-inch dice (original recipe calls for 1 stalk)
• 4 carrots, cut into 1/4-inch dice (original recipe calls for 2 carrots)
• 3/4 cup finely diced shallot(I used 2 medium shallots)
• 1 Tbs. minced garlic
• 3 Tbs. tomato paste
• 3/4 tsp. crushed Aleppo chili
• 1 bay leaf  This was left out of my catalog recipe
• 1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
• 1/2 cup beef broth
• 3/4 cup red wine
• 1 Tbs. finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley as was this

It was cold on Sunday and I was not in the mood to hike all over town on my normal grocery shopping circuit of Whole Foods, Trader Joes and Shaws, so I skipped the WF thinking that the ribs there would be more than I wanted to pay anyways, and instead headed right to Joes, grabbed what I needed and then hit Shaws.  They were out of ribs.  Luckily a nice man behind the seafood counter found a guy in the back to cut me some special :)  Ditto at Williams-Sonoma - I figured the easiest way to get the Aleppo Chili that I needed was to just stop in, but it was nowhere to be found and I had to again wait for the nice salesman to run and find it in the back.   He also helped me out by mentioning that the pizza cutter I've been eyeing is catalog only.  (blah).  Anywho, eventually I had all I needed and I headed home. 

I got right to work, flouring the ribs and browning them on all sides.

 To make things easier, I added salt and pepper right into the flour and made sure the ribs were coated before transferring them to the pan. 

Each batch took about 10 minutes to brown all sides.

Once the meat is seared, set aside and start chopping!

Heat the tagine over medium-low and add the olive oil, chopped celery, shallots and carrots.  

Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for about a minute. Guess what, I was out of tomato paste! Annoying but that did seem to be the style of the day. I went ahead and added the Aleppo chili, thyme, salt pepper, broth and wine and had the hubby monitor things while I ran to the corner store and bought a can of tomato paste.  

So this is everything minus the paste, but you get the idea.  Once this starts to simmer, add the meat. 

Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 4 1/2 to 5 hours, or until the meat is tender. Stir often - it likes to stick!

Mine at about an hour. 

Close to three hours. 

After about 4 hours and 45 minutes I called it done. 

Serve with mashed potatoes, and some sort of warm bread.  I heated up some of Trader Joes peasant bread and it was wonderful, very molasses-y. Next time I make this I'll also make some spinach or another green veggie.  All said and done, it was worth all the trouble.  Definitely a keeper. 

p.s.  Williams-Sonoma's tagine is back in stock and soo cute!