Recipe - Roasted Beef Short Ribs

I know that is extremely middle class of me but the majority of my shopping is done either at Waitrose or via Ocado. This is something that probably could spawn endless hours of discussion if people so wanted so I'll just skip the reasons behind it for now. One thing I'll do say though is that Waitrose recently have started to have more and more interesting and previously ignored cuts of meat in their shops.

One of the re-introduced cuts are the Beef Short Rib, which I've started to try and learn how to cook. Low and slow seems to be the correct way for them so far.

My first attempt was to make a stew that I served when we had a couple of friends over for dinner. Even if I say so myself, it turned out really nice. 3 hours cooking at around 160c did the trick that time.

This attempt was a different approach though. Instead of braising I went for a lower temperature and roasting instead. Still low and slow but with dry heat instead of a nice warming bath for the meat. This method worked rather nicely as well.

As always, freestyle your dry-rub to suit you and your taste. What I used and specify in the ingredient list is just what I like and what I thought would work. You might want to add or remove ingredients to suit you and your own taste. Not that my version isn't damned good as it is. ;-)

I served ours with a home-made coleslaw and some oven roasted sweet potato wedges. A nice creamy mash and some gravy would have worked just as well. I can think of some other sides but that will have to wait until next time.

As you can see from the recipe I recommend that you leave them in the fridge over night but that's just if you got the time and/or space. It will turn out nicer if you can do it this way, but if you can't it will still be good. I know that some people can be a bit reluctant as to leaving uncovered meat in their fridge, but so far I haven't killed anyone by doing just that.

If you can't find Beef Short Ribs in your local shop - do make your local butcher happy and ask him or her if she can source some for you. They're a very worthy addition to your cookery arsenal. The meaty punch they come packed with is quite something.

Since I've now talked them up, let's have a look at how I cooked them.

Ingredients
Dry-rub
Soft brown sugar
Smoked paprika
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne Pepper

Beef Short Ribs

Method
The day before
Trim the ribs and remove all silverskin and excessive surface fat. Mix together the ingredients for the dry-rub and work it in evenly on all the ribs. Put the ribs on a rack in a roasting tin and put in the fridge, uncovered, over night.

On the day
Remove the ribs from the fridge and let them come to room temperature. In the meantime pre-heat the oven to 120c.

Pop the roasting tray with the ribs into the oven and let them roast for three hours.

Remove from the oven and let them rest covered with tin foil for 15 - 20 minutes or so.

Enjoy!