{45 by 45} braised short ribs

for tonight's dinner i kinda broke my own rules.. yes it had all kinds of ingredients.. yes it took along time.. but i figured once in awhile isn't that bad.. especially with this kind of result.. what i had to do was do the lions share of the cooking on sunday.. and left only about an hour or so for tonight.. so when i got home i put it in the oven while i went to the gym and came home to wonderful meal... jake and sam came over and jake declared it another meal he would pay $15.00 for (only if it had mashed potatoes he doesn't care for the celery root puree)..  i was inpsired for this recipe by anne burrell's braised short ribs and pioneer women's braised short ribs.. and here are some tips on braising..

braised short ribs

prep time: 25 minutes

cooking time: 4 hours
servings: 6 (with left overs but not much after pete and jake had 2nds)

ingredients

10 bone in short ribs
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
1 large sweet onion, roughly chopped
2 ribs of celery, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 carrots, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 cloves of garlic
1 can tomato paste
1 (28oz) can of crushed tomatoes
1 cup red wine
2 cups beef broth
1 bunch fresh thyme, tied with kitchen string
2 bay leaves

season each short rib generously with salt and pepper. coat a large heavy bottom dutch oven one that is big enough to accommodate all the meat and veggies (i had to use my camping dutch oven i had so much meat) with olive oil (2 -3 swirls around the pan) and bring to a high heat.  add the short ribs to the pan and brown well, about 2-3 minutes per side.. don't over crowd the pan do in batches.  pre heat oven to 275 (f).. while the short ribs are browning, chop the vegetables and garlic in the food processor (not to big but not into a paste either).. when the short ribs are brown on all sides, remove from pan and drain fat.. coat the same pan again with fresh olive oil.. 2 swirls around and add the veggies.  season the veggies with salt and pepper cook for approx. 5-7 minutes.. add tomato paste.. brown the paste for about 4 minutes.. add wine and scrap bottom of pan to get the tasty brown bits.. lower the heat and reduce wine by half.. return short ribs to pot and add beef broth..add thyme bundle and bay leaves.. cover and put pot in a pre heated oven for 3 hours.. then crank the heat up to 325 and cook another hour.. check periodically during the cooking time and add more broth if needed.. turn ribs over about 1/2 way through.. remove the lid the last 20 -30 minutes of cooking and let every thing get nice and brown.. the meat should be falling off the bone tender when your done..ladle off the fat that will be at the top and discard.. then remove thyme bundle and bay leaf and serve.. now according to jake over mashed potatoes would be amazing but i made celery root puree.. which went very nice with it.. and he had 2 helpings of it but still complained.. :) (so what I had to do is cook it for 3 hours.. and then remove the ribs from the pot and allow to cool.. i wrapped them tightly and refrigerated.. i put the pot in the fridge too.. then when i got home today before putting everything back in the oven i removed the hardened fat/grease from the top and discarded.. returned the ribs to the pot then cooked at 325 for another hour.. meat this way the next or even the next is always better anyway)