Step two of Chef Keller’s Beef Stroganoff is braising the short ribs. I picked some ribs up at West Side Market, but as I hadn’t planned ahead properly I managed to get the wrong thing. Rather than getting a whole boneless short rib, as Chef Keller calls for, I was stuck with individual bone-in ribs, but I decided to go ahead and just braise them anyway. It’s braised beef, how bad could it be?
The mise for this one is pretty simple. You chop some leeks, onions, carrots, shallots, and mushrooms, and toss in some parsley, thyme, garlic, and peppercorns.
Put that all in a Dutch oven with a bottle of red wine (I used a cabernet) and simmer for 45 minutes to make a glaze.
While that’s reducing, coat the short ribs in flour, season with salt and pepper and brown in a sauté pan.
While the beef browns, chop up yet more onions, carrots, and leeks. When the reduction is ready, stir them in. Then you make a nest with some cheesecloth to place the meat on. I was running a bit low on cheesecloth so I couldn’t double it up, but close enough.
Cover with a parchment lid and toss in the oven for a couple hours and here’s what you get:
At this point the recipe continues a little if you’re serving the short ribs, but I was making them for the stroganoff. So at that point I simply put the meat in a bowl and strained the braising liquid over it.
And that’s it. I let the meat to stew in the braising liquid overnight. It was tough not to eat it all immediately because it was so tasty, but being as I had much less than I wanted for the stroganoff (on account of the bones) I forced myself to let it go. In the next post I’ll tell you if it was worth it.
