Friday, February 25, 2011

FFwD - Short Ribs in Red Wine and Port



French Friday with Dorie this week required us to make the most scrumptious beef short ribs in red wine and port.  My photo at the top of this post, with the ribs on a bed of mash and pancetta green beans on the side, doesn't do it justice.  It was devine.

The recipe calls for 9lb (4kg) beef short ribs.   Hmm, for one person, no can do.  My butcher has sold me the wrong cut, and these 4 pieces cost me $16:



I can guarantee you that there was no more than a kilo there.  However, when I went to Queen Vic markets a week later, I saw what looked like the right cut (sold as spare ribs) for ~$10/kilo.  Oh well, no matter, I had beef from the rib area and that would do.

Here are all the chopped up veges:




You may ask - what hapened to the veges - I can't see them in the photo?  Well, that is a good question - all the veges are used merely to flavour the sauce, and are strained out of the end product.  

The sauce involves a whole bottle (750ml) of red wine, so I bought a $5.50 rough red.  It also uses a cup and a half of port.  However, the gelatinous meat, slow cooked with the alcohol and the veges, ends up like this:




You can see why Dorie's book only has a photo of the raw ingredients with a sliver of meat on the side.  This photo doesn't look attractive, but believe me, the rich, rich sauce created tastes out of this world with the melt-off-the-bone meat on a bed of mash.  Yes, this dish was way too pricey to be on a regular rotation in my house, but boy it tasted good.

To see what the other FFwD members thought of this dish, visit this week's LYL section at the FFwD website.

14 comments:

Brenda said...

Oh...my....lordy!! That looks divine! I'm typing up my post now and it's a ribs recipe too : )Your's look amazing!!!

Gloria Baker said...

This look delicious cakelaw!! gloria

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous short ribs dish. Gotta love DG recipe.

Cher Rockwell said...

It wasn't the prettiest dish, was it? I thought the sauce from reducing it was rather tasty (after all that wine, it ought to have been!).

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

OMG short ribs! I love these, especially with loads of rich sauce :D

Liz That Skinny Chick Can Bake said...

Yeah, my photos certainly don't reflect the deliciousness of this dish! It was a winner :)

Elaine said...

Your ribs and sauce look wonderful! I agree - the meat looked unappealing, so much that I had a difficult time photographing it unless it was shredded. They tasted good though.

Anonymous said...

I agree, the ribs in the pot were difficult for me to photo, so I left that out. I love your plating of the ribs, mashed potatoes and beans!

Candy said...

I loved this one too! Great job!

Sarah said...

It was a little expensive, but I thought it was perfect for dinner guests! I thought this was absolutely delicious!

Unknown said...

I looooooooove short ribs, though I rarely eat them. This looks so succulent and delicious, I wish i could reach into my screen and gobble these up.
Have a wonderful weekend.
*kisses* HH

Welcome to our crazy blessed life said...

I love your photos of your ribs! Bummer that you were sold the wrong ribs it looks like it worked out anyway! :)

Anonymous said...

The sauce was wonderful and the meat was so tender. It looks like your meal didn't suffer from the cut of meat you used. I so liked the braising liquid that I'm going to try it with a less fatty (and less expensive) cut of meat some time.

Kayte said...

Although you don't like your photo that much, I have to say, it looks wonderful from here and I can almost taste the goodness just from looking at your photo! Nice job on all of it!