- [Narrator] This episode is
sponsored by The Botanist gin. The Botanist is from the island of Islay off the coast of Scotland. It is distilled from a unique
combination of 22 botanicals that are all hand foraged
locally and sustainably on the island, so you could
say it's Islay in a bottle. The complex flavors in the gin and the distinctive method
in which it is distilled make for a truly balanced
and versatile spirit which works well in almost any cocktail. This week I'm feeling like
a Negroni, but with a twist. So I'm making a Negroni Bianco to sip on while I show you the basics of braising. Let's get down to Basics. (fast-moving, cheerful music) So to make braised short ribs we're going to need some short ribs. I've got a whole rack of short
ribs here with three bones. You want to figure about
one bone per person. You want to look for that
nice bright red color and a whole lot of marbling. The more fat the better it's
going to be able to stand up to the braise. Now, whole racks like this
are something of a rarity. More likely than not you're
going to find them cut like this into English-style short ribs, which, just like pretty much any meat destined for the Dutch oven, we're going to start
by seasoning generously with kosher salt and
freshly ground black pepper. Make sure you season them on all six sides and you can season the final side by rubbing them into the table to pick up any excess
salt and pepper spilt during the seasoning process. Now that everybody's nice and seasoned we're headed on over the stove top where, Oh, nevermind, I forgot
to show you that you need to remove the excess layer
of silver skin and fat atop the rib. Brazed pure fat is pretty gross and no matter how long you cook it the silver skin will never break
down into something tender. Now that those are all good to go, we still need to prep
our aromatic vegetables. Simply peel about half a pound of carrots and chop them in half. Cut the head off a few stalks of celery and likewise chop in half. And we're going to cut
in half, peel and slice two large onions, so basically a big old chunky mirepoix. Okay, now we're ready to
head over to the stove top where we're going to heat a
tablespoon of vegetable oil over medium high flame
until wisps of smoke emerge from its surface, at which point it is ready to receive our short ribs. Make sure that you don't overcrowd them and we're going to brown
them on all sides in batches. This is both going to give
them a beautiful crust and develop some beautiful fond on the bottom of the pot. To prevent the fund from burning you want to try to
place the ribs back down exactly where they were. Now if you're like me and
you browned five short ribs to begin with and then
all you have left are two, how are you going to brown
them without burning the fond? And the answer is onions. If you have exposed fond during
your final batch of searing you can throw some onions
in there to protect them and prevent our lovely brown stuff from turning into charcoal. Once all the ribs are seared, we're gonna add the rest
of the onions to the pot and saute them in the fat. Once they're soft and lightly browned we're gonna add our aromatic vegetables. Then we're going to realize
that not only is this pointless but we forgot the tomato paste, one of the essential parts of this recipe. So we're going to dig out those vegetables and dump about a half a
can or three tablespoons of tomato paste into the onions and saute for an additional
two to three minutes until just starting to darken. Then we're going to add our
much more manageably-sized aromatic vegetables, saute for just a little
bit to warm them up, add five or so cloves of garlic and here you could add two
cups of a nice dry red wine, like a Cabernet Sauvignon. But I'm going with two
cups of an amber ale, nothing too hoppy or fruity. Two cups of chicken stock,
a little splash of soy sauce and the surprise ingredient,
a half a cup of prune juice. That's right, it isn't just
for keeping you regular in your twilight years, it
can also add a whole lot of depth of flavor to our eventual sauce, as will a few sprigs of fresh herbs, parsley and thyme, wild thyme
if you want to bring out your inner botanist. Once those are in, it's time
to nestle in our short ribs. Make sure they're just
peekin' above the liquid and try to face their
least-brown side upward because, even though
tightly covered with lid, whatever is not submerged under the liquid is gonna pick up a lot
of color in the oven, a 275 degree Fahrenheit oven where these guys are going
to slowly bubble away for four to five hours. Check on 'em first after
about three and a half hours and give 'em a good stab
with a pairing knife. If they show no resistance to
this poking, they are done. Go ahead and give the sauce a taste. It should taste pretty good,
but it's got a long way to go. First, we gotta fish
out all the short ribs trying to keep the bones attached if desired for presentation. But as you can see, this is so tender, most of them are falling off. Look, some meat even fell into my mouth. Ow, hot, hot, hot, hot. Up next up we are straining all the solids out of the braising liquid. Then from this point, you
could let the liquid settle and carefully skim the fat off the top of the braising liquid, but, if you're making this ahead of time it's much easier to let this
guy chill out in the fridge. We're gonna start by
rapidly cooling it off by adding a couple of big old ice cubes, giving him 15 or 20 minutes to cool off and then wrapping tightly in plastic wrap and parking in the fridge
at least four hours and up to overnight. This is both going to
deepen our sauce's flavor and give us a conveniently
solid layer of fat floating atop it, which we
can easily just pop right out as though we were a giant
peeling ice off of frozen lake. Once we've got all your fat removed it's time to boil the sauce
down to a syrupy consistency. So in something nice and shallow and wide, like this high walled skillet which is going to help
maximize evaporation, we are bringing this to a boil and letting it reduce by as much as 80%. This could take anywhere
from one to two hours. But your patients will be rewarded with what is essentially a
purified meat and beer extract. Once it's thick enough to
coat the back of a tiny spoon, out of the fridge come our ribs and into the bubbling
cauldron of sauce they go, both to reheat and to help all the flavors become reacquainted. Give them a little based with the sauce and then we're gonna cover this up so it doesn't reduce any further. We're gonna let this
go for about 20 minutes or until heated through. And then when ready to serve, we're going to plate up a
pillow of palm puree or polenta and plop our picture-perfect pork on top. I know it's not pork, I just wanted to continue
the alliteration. Top with plenty o' sauce,
garnish with fresh parsley, and you're ready to serve. As you can see the butter
knife I'm using here is used more for meat
stabilization than cutting because this is so damn tender. It is complex and flavorful and just about the meatiest
meat that was ever meeted by meatkind. There's only one thing that I can imagine that would improve this spectacular dish and that is of course,
a delicious cocktail. I'm thinking a Negroni Bianco with some thyme-infused vermouth. I love the classic
version of this cocktail, but a Negroni Bianco is a great way to try something different. The Botanist contains several
different aromatic botanicals including wild thyme, so
to draw out its flavor I'm infusing my vermouth with the herb. It's a great way to put a
nice end of summer twist on the Negroni, if you have the thyme. Uuh, sorry. To make our Negroni Bianco
we are combining equal parts Botanist gin, thyme-infused vermouth, and a bitter bianco or
clear Italian bitter. We're stirring in a mixing glass with ice until the glass becomes frosty
and serving in a rocks glass with a beautifully clear ice cube. Double strain into the glass,
garnish with a sprig of thyme and there you have it, the
perfect cocktail to enjoy with and during the
preparation of our beef. Thank you again to The Botanist gin for sponsoring today's episode. As you've seen over the past few weeks, I've paired Botanist cocktails
with seasonal recipes, like simple one-pot meals, lamb chops, and braised short rib. I try to cook with fresh
and local ingredients and being able to blend that
with a unique combination of botanicals in The Botanist
has been really enjoyable. I appreciate The Botanist
for giving me the opportunity to try some delicious cocktails
while making these meals. Try the flavors and essence
of wild Islay yourself. Order a bottle of The Botanist on Drizly, the link is in the video description. Cheers. (groovy music)
You can do the actual braise in the oven in a cast iron, but when you transfer it to a pan to reduce the sauce, you should put it into another pan. This is because the tomato paste in the braising liquid will possibly damage the seasoning of your cast iron, and likely make the dish taste a little like iron. This would be even more pronounced if you used red wine instead of ale for the braise. As a general rule, acidic ingredients don’t play well with cast iron.
Can anyone let me know if you can cook this in a cast iron pot and get similar results?
Why remove the fat from the sauce? Wouldn’t leaving the fat in make the sauce much thicker and richer?