After this wierd, overly warm fall we’re finally into winter, which means stews and braising. I’ve always liked braised short ribs but i’m asian and always like the one my mom made for me. This recipe is from David Chang of the NYC Momofuku Empire. It’s a lot of asian flavors with a twist on a french braised short rib.
A great thing about this recipe is that the vegetables are cooked separate from the braising of the meat, so you can control the texture of the veggies. This is great because sometimes the meat needs a long time to get soft (this time i braised it in the oven for 4 hours) and the vegetables will get mushy. This also makes it better for reheating for lunch when i pack the rice and fixings in the same container.
Recipe can be found at the New York Times site (second page of article). Some notes about the ingredient list mirin is also called Sweet Rice Cooking Wine, use a cheap sake because the strong flavors will overpower anything expensive anyway. The pear juice i find at latino grocery stores (or one serving a lot latino customers), i’ve made it with apple juice as well and i prefer the pear juice.
I braise the meat the day before i plan on serving it, storing the meat in the strained broth (step 4) in the refrigerator overnite. There is so much gelatin and rendered fat in this dish that it will solidfy fairly solid. In the recipe he tells you to saute the carrots and potatoes in butter, but i think it has so much fat already that i skim the solidifed fat from the meat/broth and use that as my saute oil. I then place the potatoes and carrots into a high heat oven and roast them to a golden brown. When those are at a desired doneness i add the meat and sauce to the vegetables. If the sauce is a little thin you can add a little butter to thicken it up. This is not a low fat dish. Surprisingly, it’s not that salty, or overly sweet. I want to heat up some right now after writing this post! 🙂
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