Wine-Braised Short Ribs





Wine-Braised Short Ribs



Tonight is Halloween!  Nights like this don't we all need to get dinner on the table fast? 

Yesterday I threw tonight's dinner in the crockpot to heat up in a hurry tonight.  Then, tonight all I had to do was butter some noodles to pile the ribs and sauce onto and add a quick green salad.  Easy.  And, we finished dinner, cleaned up and were at the door to see all the kids in costume and pass out the candy with time to spare!

• 3 lbs. meaty, bone-in short ribs
• salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• canola oil
• 1 C. red wine, use whatever you like to drink...besides, you probably already have it in the house!
• 1 C. brewed coffee
• 1 1/2 large onions, chopped roughly
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 C. chopped carrots
• 3 sprigs fresh oregano
• 3 bay leaves
• 1-2 T. tomato paste
• 1 T. honey

Sprinkle the ribs very liberally with salt and pepper.  Heat the oil in a large skillet until it is very hot, but not smoking.  Add the ribs and get a good crusty sear on them, turning to sear every side.  Remove the ribs from the skillet and move them to a crockpot.


Turn down the heat, add the onion, garlic and carrots to the skillet and stir until slightly softened.  Make a sauce by adding the red wine, coffee, tomato paste and honey to the skillet and scrape up all the good browned bits from the bottom. 


Pour the sauce over the ribs in the crockpot, nestle the oregano and bay leaves down between the ribs, cover the crockpot and cook on high for 4 1/2 hours.  Remove lid and cook an additional hour. 


You can serve this right away over buttered noodles (I use gluten-free, of course), but I like to refrigerate it and serve it the next day...only makes the flavors better!  It also allows you to take the solidified fat off the top to save yourself those extra calories!


Note:  My favorite gluten-free noodle is by Schar.  You cannot tell the difference between the Schar brand and a regular egg noodle! Print this post