Desperation In the Kitchen: Braised Short Ribs

I had some short ribs languishing in the back of my freezer. Upon packing up the old house, I saw them and thought "Huh. Short Ribs. I've never cooked these before. I'm going to have to cook them." (Because I have massive kitchen OCD and they would have driven me insane. Just knowing that they were in my freezer. Mocking me.)

I found this awesome recipe and modified it some (I added mushrooms, because: hello, mushrooms, and I had to bake it in a casserole and not a Dutch Oven because I don't have a Dutch Oven...YET) and it.was.incredible.

So, here goes. Braised Short Ribs.

Here's what you need:

*Bacon. The original recipe called for pancetta, but ya'll, I live in the boonies. And apparently we don't have pancetta here
*Carrots
*An Onion
*A shallot
*Mushrooms
*Short ribs
*Salt
*Pepper
*Garlic Powder
*Flour
*Olive Oil (not pictured, sigh)
*Cooking Wine (or just plain ole wine. Red and white both work...as long as they are not too sweet. I used red cooking wine)
*Rosemary

Mashed potatoes (with lots of dill) to serve over


Here's what you do:

*Crisp up your bacon. Like really, crisp it up. We're looking for it to render out fat. No, this is not a health conscious meal. It's a fancy meal.

*Prep Your Veggies

*Season your short ribs and dredge them in flour

*Remove the bacon from the pot/pan/whatever (certainly not a dutch oven because I don't have one)

*Drizzle some olive oil in the pot and sear your short ribs

*Remove those to a bowl/plate

*Throw your veggies into your oil/bacon fat, cook a few minutes until tender and add your wine/cooking wine. Let that cook, then boil, then add your beef broth

*Put your short ribs in a casserole dish, then pour the sauce over them. Top with the crisped up bacon.

*Bake at 350 for an hour and a half, then reduce the temperature to 325 for another half an hour.
*Serve over mashed potatoes

The meat should be falling off the bone. Yuuuum.

*Watch it disappear. Seriously, these bones are all that was left within a few minutes.

Delish! And now I know what to do with short ribs! No more Kitchen OCD!