Friday, December 23, 2016

Stout Short Ribs

The Big Day is almost here. Relatives are arriving from all corners of the country, if not the globe. If you’re lucky your holiday tree is decorated and your holiday letters are in the mail. If not? Well, your friends and relatives will understand. They love you.

If you've got to feed a bunch of people in the middle of this, what you need is a simple tasty recipe that doesn’t require lots of preparation or watching—and I have one! Our intrepid foodie crew at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen will stop at nothing in our unending search for new and interesting recipes, and this one comes from the woman behind the counter at my local liquor store.

That’s not as odd as it sounds. In fact, she has taught high-end cooking classes locally, and is helping our town-owned farm set up their new catering kitchen, so she knows her stuff. When I stop in, we talk about Irish whiskey. This time I was there to pick up some Guinness for the recent Porter Cake recipe, and she said, “why not make short ribs?” Since I don’t recall ever making short ribs in my life, I asked “How?” She told me. And voila—dinner.

The recipe’s about as simple as it gets, once you’ve got short ribs (we will skip over the part when I was standing in front of the meat cases at our supermarket and asked my husband, “what the heck am I looking for?”).

Of course, I didn’t get all the fine details for the recipe, just the list of ingredients, so I kind of improvised, but it all worked out fine. And it was easy!


Stout Short Ribs
A slow cooker/crock pot (I have my mother’s)

Ingredients:



short ribs (I found two packages which totaled 2-1/2 pounds in weight. Eyeballing them, I figured that much should feed my husband and me with plenty left over. (There were eight pieces.) If you’re serving a lot of people, just multiple the recipe.)



salt and pepper
1 bottle Guinness
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup chicken stock
1 heaping tsp good prepared mustard 


Instructions:

Sprinkle the ribs with salt and pepper and toss to cover. Place the pieces in the bottom of the crock pot.

Everything in the (crock) pot
Blend together the other ingredients. Pour over the ribs in the crock pot.

Cover. Plug in the crock pot, set it for whatever your pot thinks is a very low simmer (mine says it should be in the narrow “red zone”) and cook for as long as you like. Six hours, twelve hours, overnight, whatever. By the time you’re planning to eat it, the meat should be falling off the bones. Thicken the juices if you want. Serve with mashed potatoes, and maybe something green.



Dig in!

See? Easy! And tasty. Now go enjoy your company and all the pretty lights.

Have a wonderful holiday!

Irish style!



5 comments:

  1. These look delicious! I've never made short ribs either although I think my mother did. This is a perfect dish for a crowd or if you want to have plenty of leftovers in the freezer for another meal!

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  2. I love short ribs! They are so flavorful.

    A cup of sugar?! That seems like a lot.

    You suggest serving with mashed potatoes, but the picture looks suspiciously like boiled ones. (Which could cook with the meat in the pot.)

    I think Cleo's roasted cabbage would be a good side with this.

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    Replies
    1. I was on the fence about the about of sugar, and you could easily cut it back. But the salt kind of offsets it. As for the potatoes, I felt too lazy to mash the things. Either way would work. And Cleo's cabbage sounds like a great addition!

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  3. I probably shouldn't admit it but I've
    never eaten short ribs. Your ingredients do look good though!

    Pat D

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  4. looks so easy and yummy. may just have to try this one. i love anything i can make in my crockpot! thanks and have a wonderful and Merry Christmas

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