Did you hear us moaning the other night? Like, moaning-moaning, the sound your body makes involuntarily when experiencing something so good it shakes you to your core? No, not sex—get your mind out of the gutter! Food. In this case, these incredible short ribs, braised in a sauce of red wine, soy sauce, and ketchup. Could not be easier. And could not be tastier.
The meat was so tender I couldn’t even get it out of the slow cooker with bone attached, so I pulled it into large shreds and made a sauce out of it. Served over fresh pappardelle from Savino’s, this was the most delicious meal I’ve made all year. Possibly in my entire life.
One note: Short ribs are exceptionally fatty little buggers, so if at all possible make this one day ahead and refrigerate the sauce separately—you’ll wind up with a layer of fat so thick you’ll be mildly nauseated just looking at it, but your body will thank you for hacking it off and throwing it away.
One other note: I hocked my engagement ring and bought my ribs at The Meat Hook, the new butcher shop inside the Brookyn Kitchen Labs. They were unbelievably delicious, but I couldn’t swear that they wouldn’t be just as delicious with a much, much cheaper package of ribs. There’s so much waste, thanks to the large bones and all that fat, that this wound up costing $7.50 per serving for the meat alone—and short ribs are supposed to be a cheap cut. Next time I’ll try it with some unpedigreed beef, and report back if it’s any less fabulous.
Red Wine Braised Short Ribs of Beef
From Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook
Serves 4
1 cup red wine [I used an Italian table wine]
2/3 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 pounds beef short ribs
2 medium-sized yellow onions, chopped
Combine first six ingredients (through black pepper) in the slow cooker and stir. Add the ribs, submerging them in the sauce. [In my oval, this required cutting the ribs into one-bone widths, then dunking each end in the sauce. I cooked them with the bones positioned upright.] Scatter the onions over the ribs, cover, and cook until the meat starts to separate from the bone, 7 to 9 hours on LOW or 4 to 5 hours on HIGH.
If you can, refrigerate the ribs and sauce separately overnight. Not only will the flavor improve, but you’ll also be able to discard a shocking amount of congealed fat. If you must serve right away, I suggest pouring the sauce into a fat separator