Andy Makes Braised Short Ribs with Squash

What are you making, bud?

Short ribs.

I didn't realize I have done so many short rib recipes.

'Cause they're awesome.

They're amazing,

but I haven't done a braised short rib recipe--

That's what you're doing here?

This is what I'm doing here, yeah.

[Brad] These are beautiful.

[Andy] Yeah, they're really nice.

So what do we got, a few hours?

We got a few hours.

All right, I'll be back. Bye.

[relaxed music]

So I've had a lot of short rib recipes,

I've done ones where it's like,

you go hot and fast with a boneless short rib,

and you treat it kind of like a steak,

I have that with a little bit of chili oil

and vinegar that I love.

I've done one that's like a Korean style short rib,

the flank and cut, where it's cut really thinly

and you do a really quick sear,

and I have that with pickled daikon.

This is different,

these are short ribs cut cross-wise into nice square pieces,

you see these have a lot of fat and collagen,

so I'm going to season them really really well,

I'm gonna go high, ideally you would season this overnight,

but even if it just hangs out for an hour

it's gonna benefit if you season just that much ahead.

But you wanna get all sides,

it can take it, all that salt,

just because there is so much fat on these ribs,

these are really nice and well marbled.

Okay, so while our meat is hanging out,

we are using some dried chiles, these are guajillo.

Don't wanna go for a medium spice level chili,

don't wanna go too too hot.

We're going to de-seed the chiles.

So I'm placing the chiles in a blender,

'cause eventually we're gonna puree it.

This is five cups hot water,

and we're just gonna let the chiles soak in the water,

and we're gonna let this go for about five, ten minutes

until the chiles feel soft.

We have our broiler on,

we're gonna broil five cloves of garlic,

I'm leaving the peel on just so

they act as a protective barrier,

some kind of armor to the flesh.

The onions, gonna trim the hairs.

[chopping]

You do want most of the onion exposed,

that's why I cut them into rounds,

and then I kind of just cut a little bit of the side,

like that, just so the onion's stable.

No oil, just dried,

and just place the onions on the baking sheet like this.

I'm gonna pop them on the rack just like that,

but while that's going, I'm gonna do two things at once.

I'm going to start browning our meat.

Pot's been preheating,

this is just two tablespoons of neutral oil,

grapeseed, sunflower or vegetable.

Okay, I'm gonna brown these in batches,

not all at once, 'cause we don't want them to overcrowd,

'cause then they're gonna steam and not brown properly.

[sizzling]

I'll press these down a bit,

just so they have a direct contact with the pot.

You'll see around the edges once they start to brown

and then you'll check,

but I wouldn't check before the three minute mark,

and then turn and then brown all over,

probably gonna take about 10 to 12 minutes per batch.

You see how the garlic has charred in spots,

you wanna just turn them over.

This is looking pretty good.

The onions have almost puffed and unraveled a bit,

or unfurled, but I'm gonna let them go a little bit longer

just so these pieces get dark.

I'm going for this, this could even get touch darker.

Okay, so it's been about three minutes

and I'm gonna give these a flip, [sizzling]

we're gonna let that go,

that's definitely rendered some fat.

You're gonna think I've taken it too far,

and I'm not gonna agree with you.

You want the top to be so dark,

and so you have this contrast

between the very top part giving this smoky,

slightly bitter flavor,

and then underneath,

which hasn't really gotten any caramelization,

and it has softened a little bit

and is still quite blond and sweet.

Our chiles have definitely softened by now,

but to this, which is gonna be our braising liquid,

we have the dried chiles, the onions,

I'm gonna add one teaspoon red pepper flakes,

so that's why it's gonna get additional heat,

that's why you don't need your dried chiles to be too spicy.

Teaspoon ground coriander, a teaspoon ground cumin,

and then I love this, a half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon,

which just that sweetness from

the cinnamon makes a big difference.

All warm spices, minus the chili flakes.

Before I puree that, I'm gonna check on the short ribs.

[sizzling] They look nice.

I'm just turning them,

you can see how they're rendering a lot of fat,

and again, we're on medium-high

but I'm kind of going back and forth

between medium, medium-high,

just to really control the heat

so they brown nice and evenly all over.

We're gonna flip them a few more times after this,

on the shorter sides it's not gonna take as long,

it might take two-three minutes.

I'm gonna pop these cloves out,

they're really quite soft.

They got a little bit dark, which I think will be fine.

They kind of get jammy and molasses-like.

We'll puree this up.

Since there's a lot of liquid,

you don't wanna go high immediately.

[blender humming]

And you just want the onions, chiles,

garlic to be all pureed.

[blender whirring]

Not gonna be perfectly smooth,

it's gonna be a little bit speckled from the onions,

which is what you want.

I feel pretty comfortable at this point

since these pieces have shrunk up,

I'm comfortable adding these last two pieces.

[ribs sizzling]

Now two things here, again,

just to to go back on the browning,

we're obviously browning the meat just so we get that nice,

deep, dark flavor around all over the meat,

and you have the brown bits on the bottom

of the pan that are gonna add a lot of flavor to the stew.

But you also are rendering the fat,

you're breaking down the collagen,

so that is something why we're doing that here

rather than just adding the meat and everything together

and just simmering it.

I feel comfortable pulling these pieces out now.

Whew, it already looks pretty damn good,

but it's so tough,

you're not gonna wanna eat this right now.

They need to go low and slow,

low and slow.

We have our short ribs browned, ready to go.

We have our oil here, I'm going to just dump it,

it's not too hot.

Yeah, see how dark that is?

I don't need that in my braise.

We have two tablespoons tomato paste,

I add just a touch, it adds a little bit of acidity,

it adds a little bit of umami.

Right now the oil's getting hot.

I'm just gonna cook the tomato paste,

at least three minutes I find.

You really wanna fry it out until it slightly darkens

and it begins to split like this.

Afterwards, I'm gonna add my liquid.

[sauce sizzling]

Add a little bit, and then pour the remaining liquid.

Before I put my beef in,

I'm gonna season the liquid just with a touch of salt,

'cause there is no salt in our puree.

It needs a bit of salt,

thank you Tommy.

You just want it to have some salt,

it doesn't need too much.

It's gonna reduce, it's gonna thicken,

and as it reduces, that salt is gonna concentrate.

So I'll just snuggle these in

like you would with your best friends.

And I bring this to a gentle simmer

over medium-high.

See around the edges it's starting to bubble,

once it's happening, you are going to reduce it,

I take it down to just medium-low heat,

and then just slightly ajar like this.

You want some steam to escape, this is essential.

You don't want all the liquid to evaporate,

but you need some of it to evaporate

because you want it to thicken.

I would let this go again on medium-low.

If you see that it's bubbling rapidly even on medium-low

just go all the way to low heat.

Again, this is a really slow braise

because the short ribs are a dense, tough cut of meat,

you really want that meat to soften,

that collagen to break down and get really nice and shreddy.

We'll check back around the three hour mark

and then see where our liquid is,

see how our meat's doing,

and then add a few other things.

We're gonna check, it's been going for quite some time now.

You can see how the bones have popped out from the meat,

it feels really nice,

not quite shreddy yet but almost there.

This can go for a little bit longer,

but some of these are actually pretty ready to go.

You're gonna see a good amount of fat

rising to the top as it's braising,

try to skim not all, but a good amount of fat,

because the short ribs are so fatty

you don't need too much fat on the surface.

So at this point I would say

the short ribs are pretty much there,

they probably need another twenty minutes,

they feel pretty tender.

I'm gonna give them one more check.

I just wanna do a paring knife.

Again, a little bit of resistance, but almost there

I don't think it needs too much time.

I'm gonna add some squash to this,

winter squash, today we have acorn squash,

they're cut into one-inch wedges,

but I'm just gonna add the squash.

If your liquid has reduced by a lot,

you could just add another half cup, cup of water.

I'm just gonna make sure the squash is submerged.

We'll let this go,

I would check after 15 minutes,

could take another 20 minutes depending

on how you just want the squash

to be really tender and creamy and the meat to be shreddy,

so I'll let that go again over low heat,

and then I'll check back in a few.

Okay, so the squash is here,

I'm gonna check on the braise.

It's bubbling, okay.

You can see the sauce has definitely reduced,

I kind of like it in a stage where it's at right now

where it's brothy, like almost saucy.

I'll just test the squash out,

squash feels tender, meat is definitely tender.

I just wanna taste the liquid

because I seasoned it lightly,

and I know the meat has salt,

but it might need a touch more salt.

That's nice, I do think it needs a touch more salt,

it has good heat, so much flavor going on.

Oh yeah.

[spoon scraping]

I have some Greek yogurt here, whole milk, whole fat always.

I think it works really well here,

you want that tang and acidity

to cut the fattiness from the braise.

I like cilantro, mint would work really well,

but any kind of tender herb I would say

works really well for this, dill, basil,

and then I kinda want a touch more acidity

so I add some lime, but you don't have to do that.

This is on the thick side,

you could thin it out with a little bit of water,

add some salt,

I'm just kind of going for a dollop over here.

A little bit of cilantro.

Hey Sohla, can I borrow some flaky?

I'm gonna add a touch of flaky salt.

It's pretty straightforward I would say,

this braise, I think it just requires patience

like any good braise.

I think charring the onions and garlic is key,

putting them under the broiler,

it adds so much flavor.

Okay, I'm gonna take a bite.

It's so good, it's so rich, it feels like a...

I haven't had lunch yet, or a proper lunch.

The thing is, it's definitely meaty,

but it's not heavy because I think

the tomato paste adds a bit of acidity

and the lime and the cilantro kind of cut through it.

Yeah.

[utensils clattering]

[chewing]

The short ribs are so fatty and delicious.

I hope you guys make it throughout the fall and winter,

and I hope you guys enjoy it, thanks for watching.

How do you know that's in the frame or not in the frame?

It's not in the frame, the mic's not in the frame,

they know, they just communicate.

They work together They're that in sync.

It looks so close to my head.

It's not in the frame!

We're not, I dunno.

I guess we're not using any of this.

That's true, okay.