Braised Short Ribs

Instructions

1. Prep work first. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Chop your onions and carrots before you do anything else—once you start searing meat, things move fast and you don't want to be chopping vegetables while your fond burns. Get everything measured and within reach.
2. Season the ribs. Pat the short ribs dry with paper towels (wet meat doesn't sear, it steams). Season generously on all sides with salt and pepper. Don't be shy—there's a lot of meat here and you need the seasoning to penetrate.
3. Get the Dutch oven hot. And yes, it needs to be a Dutch oven. This is not negotiable. You need something that can go from stovetop to oven, hold five pounds of meat, and maintain heat while searing. Add enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom and heat over medium-high until the oil is shimmering and almost smoking.
4. Sear the ribs in batches. Don't crowd the pot—if you add all the ribs at once, the temperature drops and you'll steam the meat instead of searing it. Work in batches, searing each rib for 3-4 minutes per side until you get a deep brown crust. This is where the flavor lives. Don't rush it. Transfer seared ribs to a plate and repeat until they're all done.
5. Keep the drippings. Do NOT dump out the oil and drippings. I know it looks messy. I know there's probably some burned bits stuck to the bottom. That's flavor. That's fond. That's the foundation of your sauce. Leave it.
6. Cook the vegetables. Add the onions and carrots to the pot. Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until they start to soften and pick up some color. The moisture from the vegetables will start to lift some of those stuck bits from the bottom. Good.
7. Add the tomato paste and flour. Add the tomato paste and stir it in, cooking for about a minute until it darkens slightly. Then add the flour and stir vigorously to coat the vegetables. This is building your roux, which will thicken the sauce later.
8. Deglaze with wine. By now, you've probably burned some shit to the bottom of the pot. That's okay. That's what the wine is for. But first—take a swig from the bottle. This step is mandatory. Then pour in the entire bottle of wine. I'm pretty sure "deglaze" is French for "clean the bottom of the pan with wine." Use a wooden spoon to scrape up all those browned bits. They're dissolving into your sauce now. This is the magic.
9. Reduce the wine. Turn the heat down to medium so you don't boil off all the wine before it has a chance to do its job. Add the thyme, rosemary, oregano, and bay leaves. Add a bit more salt and pepper. Add the short ribs back to the pot, nestling them into the liquid. Let the wine reduce by about half—this concentrates the flavor and cooks off some of the alcohol. Takes about 10-15 minutes.
10. Add the beef stock. Pour in the quart of beef stock. The liquid should come about two-thirds of the way up the ribs—you're braising, not drowning. If it's too high, that's okay. If it seems too low, add a splash more stock or water.
11. Braise in the oven. Cover the Dutch oven with its lid and transfer to your preheated oven. Now walk away. Go watch a movie. Take a nap. Do literally anything else for 2 hours. The oven does all the work from here. The collagen in the meat slowly breaks down, the sauce reduces and intensifies, and everything becomes impossibly tender.
12. Check for doneness. After 2 hours, check the ribs. The meat should be fall-off-the-bone tender—you should be able to easily slide a fork into it with no resistance. If it's not there yet, cover it back up and give it another 30 minutes. Every oven is different. Every batch of ribs is different. Use your judgment.
13. Serve and accept praise. Serve the ribs over mashed potatoes, polenta, or whatever starch will soak up that incredible sauce. Spoon plenty of sauce and vegetables over the top. Try to act humble when people ask if you went to culinary school. You didn't. You just followed directions and let time do the work.