Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/078e4152-5206-11e1-a30c-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1mpzzN6X5
February 10, 2012 10:05 pm
Rib-stickers’ delight
For years I have read about “short ribs”. I have seen them, somewhat wistfully, on menus from the US and – with braised short ribs and polenta at Panisse, braised short ribs with marrow bone and beef fillet at Boulud, and Mario Batali’s short ribs with Barolo and gremolata – these bones obviously kept good company. For some reason we don’t – or didn’t – associate with them over here.
In Britain, we have always tended to keep the short ribs for brisket, a cut we salted more often as not and then boiled. It is a very fine piece of meat to those of us who still have a taste for boiled beef. Very occasionally, the brisket was broken down while still on the bone and a cut called a “Jacob’s ladder” was produced: once separated, you have short ribs. The point about these short ribs, as you will see from the picture, is that they are not spare ribs: they are very unspare, having a great deal of very succulent – once it is properly cooked, that is – meat about them.
I discovered some in an American-owned food store – you may know the one I mean – and they looked tempting. And cheap. Were I to embark on a dish like this and could not get my short ribs – and I daresay a lot of very worthy butchers might be a little foxed unless you showed them this picture – I would not despair. I would ask for some beef cheeks, a bit more gelatinous but terrific, or some oxtail, a bit more bony but also and likewise excellent. In the ribs’ favour, it must be said that they do not take quite as long to cook as those other worthy contenders.
Having got my short ribs, I could have taken a number of routes. I could, of course, have boiled them, pot-au-feu style, but then that would be brisket really and I knew what that was like. I could have done a sort of Bourguignonne, but that would have required a bit more work and I was feeling lazy. I could have taken an Asian line (Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s ginger-glazed ribs looked tempting), but in the end I kept it rather simple. I had some of these extraordinary paccheri – huge tubes of properly hard pasta – that were looking for a home. Ribs and paccheri bonded the moment they met. This will not be the last time I will cook short ribs.
Rowley Leigh is the chef at Le Café Anglais
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Braised short ribs with paccheri (or rigatoni)
Rowley’s drinking choice
A full-bodied red is required here – a Châteauneuf du Pape, of course, but robust reds from southern Italy made from Aglianico, Negroamaro, Nero d’Avola, Primitivo and the like might be even more appropriate and affordable.
Ingredients
Paccheri are even fatter than rigatoni. It is alleged they were invented because they housed four cloves of garlic and were used to smuggle the garlic into Austria and Prussia. You may give this story as much credence as you see fit. Serves six.
2 onions
2 large carrots
6 celery stalks
6 cloves garlic
2kg beef short ribs
1 bottle red wine
300g peeled and chopped tomatoes
3 strips orange peel
Big sprig of thyme or rosemary
3 bay leaves
500g paccheri or rigatoni
● Peel the onions and carrots, wash the celery and cut them all into neat 3mm dice. Heat a heavy casserole with three tablespoons of olive oil and add the chopped vegetables, letting them stew and soften on a moderate heat. Peel the garlic and chop it finely, then add to the vegetables.
● Heat another two tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan. Season the short ribs very well, fry them on a lively heat and colour them well on all sides. Pour them out of the pan into a colander, discarding the oil. Put the pan back on the heat and pour in the red wine. Scrape up any juices from the pan and bring the wine to the boil. Add the meat to the vegetables in the casserole, add the tomatoes, orange peel and herbs and then pour in the wine. Add cold water to cover and bring to a simmer.
● After 15 minutes, skim off any fat that has risen to the surface. Make sure the stew is on the lightest possible simmer, cover and leave to cook, checking periodically, for at least two hours. Test the meat for doneness: a knife should slide through very easily and it should be possible to detach the meat from the bone with little force. Skim off any more fat from the surface and check the stew for seasoning.
● Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and cook the paccheri until al dente. Serve the two alongside, the pasta rolled in a little olive oil and the stew with some chopped flat parsley.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012.
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