Braised Beef Short Ribs Atop Creamy Polenta

All I have to offer is a recipe I created for tonight's dinner of  beef short ribs.   Very simple, very delicious.  I served them over polenta. I love polenta.   I use Bob's Red Mill Coarse Stone Ground Corn Meal for my polenta.  It's the best. 

 

Braised Short Ribs

 In a heavy dutch oven or any pan that can go from stove to oven,salt and pepper ribs and thoroughly brown ribs on all sides in a small amount of oil.  Remove ribs, drain all but a bit of the oil.

 Make a sofrito. Sofrito (Spanish) or Mirepoix(French) is basically just celery, carrots, garlic and onion cooked down in oil or butter.  I cook my sofrito as a paste by first tossing it all in the food processsor and then sautee'ing it in a small bit of oil.  I put the carrots and celery on the bottom and onions and garlic on top to prevent the onion from becoming onion water.

In the pan in which you browned the ribs add a bit more oil and cook the sofrito for about 10 minutes, often scraping up the bottom browned layer.  After this I added a bottle of cabernet savignon, 3 bay leaves, a bunch of thyme, 2 cups of beef broth, salt and pepper and I let in all cook down until it was reduced by half.  Once reduced I added 2 heaping tablespoons of brown sugar. 

Add the ribs back in, cover and bake at 300 degrees for three hours or so.  More time will not hurt it.

The polenta is easy...6 cups salted water brought to a boil.  slowly add 2 cups corn meal stirring all the time.  Reduce heat and cook, stirring frequently until thick and creamy.  Remove from heat and add a big ol' glob of butter and some grated parmesean or romano.