Easter Dinner: Braised Beef Short Ribs, Stone-Ground Cheesy White Grits and Orange Gremolata

It's Easter weekend 🥚 🐰 and also my son's birthday 🎂, so this marks a special occasion.  We are expecting guests as well.  I've blogged short ribs before, but only the finished product.  I wanted to do it again with all the steps involved.  I find any Anson Mills product extremely special so serving grits as the base seemed appropriate.  When my son was little he loved Dairy Queen frozen cakes for his birthday parties, so this is what I got him for dessert tonight - probably haven't done this for twenty years or so now.  For the ribs:

• 5 lbs beef short ribs
• Organic extra-virgin olive oil, as needed
• 1 lb frozen pearl onions
• 1 bottle (750 ml) Cabernet Sauvignon
• 1 tablespoon "Better than Bouillon" vegetable stock
• 1/2 cup of water
• 28 oz can of organic, no salt diced tomatoes
• 1 lb baby carrots
• 3 stalks celery, sliced with leaves
• 1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, halved and sliced thinly
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• Dash of red wine vinegar, for finishing
• 2 bay leaves
• 5 thyme sprigs & Italian parsley, tied in twine
• 1/2 cup of dried gourmet wild mushrooms, blended till powder
• Handful of Italian parsley, chopped (for gremolata)
• 1 navel orange, zested (for gremolata)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced through garlic press (one clove for gremolata)
• Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste

I roasted the pearl onions and the garlic the day before.  I wanted the onions caramelized and roasting in the oven seemed an easy way to do this.  I tossed with S&P, extra-virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of organic coconut sugar.  These went into a 425°F oven for about an hour, just over before I said "good enough".  At least they weren't wet anymore, nor were they "mushy" when I tasted a couple.  I started them from frozen.  I stirred them a few times while baking.  I finished with a tablespoon of butter and I have to say how wonderful they smelled while cooking... I have no idea how much longer it would have taken to caramelize them fully, but I was done. 😪

I also made the ribs at that time too.  Past experience told me that this would be the best way to remove all the fat from the sauce/gravy.  There is a LOT of fat when you make short ribs... Also, when you let anything like "stew" sit overnight, it improves in flavor...

I heated some oil over medium heat in a dutch oven.  I patted the ribs dry with paper towels and seasoned well with S&P.  I had a roasting pan ready to put them in as they were finished browning.  I seared the two long sides and moved them to pan. I poured the fat off and then deglazed it with all the wine, water and soup base.  I used a whisk to make sure I got up all the brown bits.  Brown bits = flavor!  I added the dried mushrooms in too and boiled it down for about 5 minutes.  Below is the all the seared ribs.

Then it was "everyone into the pool" minus the gremolata ingredients and vinegar.  I seasoned with S&P and covered. This went into a preheated 300°F oven for 3 & 1/2 hours. I turned it to 325°F after an hour and a half as I still couldn't smell them and I was worried about time.  I put them in at 8pm so wanted to make sure they were tender when the oven dinged ready...

With an hour and a half left, I checked temperature and moved the ribs on top of the veg and gravy and put them back in.  They only needed a half hour more.  You can see how much they shrink as the fat dissolves/renders and makes the meat unctuous and flavor delicious.  What looked like not enough liquid is now plentiful because of the melted fat. 

When the timer went off, I checked to make sure the ribs were done right.  I wanted them fork tender and almost fall off the bone.  They were and the house smelled beefy euphoric.  I did get a steam burn at the end of my nose, so do be careful when removing the lid!  I'm not kidding, I needed "Polysporin" to help the injury. 

We tried one...Mmmm.  The seasoning needed some attention but I would worry about that tomorrow.  I moved them to a dutch oven and let them cool, covered on the counter.  I poured the veggies and fatty sauce into another dutch oven and also covered it and let cool.  I removed the bay leaves and herbs first though.  Both went into the fridge overnight and I went to bed! 

The next day, I took the veggies/gravy out and as you can see below, a LOT of fat came off. 

After I removed it all, I heated it up to make the gravy thick.  I added in a flour/water slurry and stirred until thickened.  I checked the seasoning.  Wow, it was delicious!  There was a nice note of sweetness from the pearl onions too. 

Such great flavor and again I have to say "beefy".  Gravy was a major score. 

I poured this pot back over the ribs and I was ready to go.  All I had to do was simmer this on very, very low when company arrived until dinner time. 

For the gremolata, I just chopped the parley finely, pressed a clove of garlic and zested an orange.  I mixed this all together and covered and left in fridge till time to garnish. 

Dinner was good.  I find that when I'm entertaining and have company, I don't usually enjoy my meal, which was true today.  I'll have another sit down with it tomorrow and see how that goes.  I think everyone liked theirs, as I saw empty plates everywhere.

That cake makes me feel old...