Eat, Drink, and Go!

Been a while, I know, but I had to upgrade my site to get some more storage so I could post more pics. And oh boy do I have a lot to share!! Great big vacay to Atlantis, Bahamas is coming soon to my blog!! So stay tuned!!

But first a little taste of last night’s yummy dinner and a how-to for it! Braising takes a little while, but you taste the love that goes into it, so it’s worth the wait!

I had a nice pack of beef short ribs, bone in, that I was ready to put to good use.

To get started, I sprinkled them with some herbes de Provence (a blend of basil, oregano, fennel, lavender, parsley, tarragon, rosemary, sage, and thyme). It doesn’t have to be this blend in particular, any little herb combo will be fine. I’ve done it with just some salt and pepper before, so that’s good too. Then I got a pot going with some smoked olive oil to sear in the flavors.

You want to get a nice browning on each side of the meat.

Then remove them from the pot and let rest.

I chose a braising liquid of a nice porter beer (stout would be fine too, just something rich) and some bbq sauce. I used a bbq sauce by Meat Mitch – it’s on the spicy side of bbq, so it gives a nice kick. Chopped up a nice big shallot to start the base.

I sautéed the shallots in the oil til they sweated a bit, then got the hunks of beef back in.

Time to add the liquids! Get the ribs nice and drunk in that whole bottle of beer.

Then add about 4 tablespoons of the bbq sauce.

I also tossed in a spring of fresh rosemary and some brown sugar for a sweetness. Cover and braise on a low light, you want the liquid to come almost to the top of the meat. Turn and stir every half hour or so. It takes about 2 hours to “break” the meat in these small sized portions. When it got to be about 45 minutes left on the braise, I got my accompaniments going. Sweet potato chips! I cut up a sweet potato into about 1/4 inch slices.

Spread them out on a baking sheet and drizzled some smoked EVOO by L.O.V.E. and some smoked sea salt by SaltWorks. I love this Smokey combo.

I baked at 375 for about 30 minutes til the edges got browned. I added two big hunks of broccoli in for the last 20 minutes. I’m on a roasting broccoli kick these days.

Roasting broccoli makes it really sweet! I don’t even need to put anything on it. The meat needs testing to make sure it’s done – braised beef is done when it’s fork tender and easily separates from the bone. You’ll need taste test periodically during the braise and also taste the liquid – be careful, very hot!! This is the type of cooking when I’m most likely to burn my mouth, so be warned.

Once it’s ready, remove the meat and take out the bones. Leave the liquid in the pot and turn up the heat to let it reduce to a sauce.

I added a little more brown sugar to help it reduce and sweeten. In a bowl, pull apart the meat with two forks.

Look how tender!! The braising liquid will continue reducing while you get this part done.

Once it’s bubbling and has thickened up a bit, it’ll be perfect to add back to the meat. Pour over the shredded beef into the bowl and mix up.

Now get the sweet potato chips ready for the piling!

Add the short ribs and sauce on top of the chips and viola!!

I kept adding the meat and sauce on the broccoli too!

This was delicious and rich and melted in my mouth! I paired it with a bottle of Bourbon Barrel aged Merlot by Urban Winery.

This was a great pairing, but you could also pair with a good dark beer. I was just feeling like wine last night!! Mmm, I’m salivating just thinking back to how good this dinner was!!