It’s my favorite holiday of the year, Christmas! And to celebrate this beautiful and joyous time of the year I wanted to prepare a very special meal-braised beef short ribs with red wine.

This is one of those meals where your home is infused with the aromatic smell of beef cooking in the oven for hours. It provides a homey feeling, one where you may remember from your childhood. It is quickly seared on the stove to lock in all of that yummy goodness and then slowly cooked in the oven for hours to produce a fall-off-the-bones tender meat. The sauce created from the red wine is ever so lovely served over a bed of mashed potatoes. Serve this with a nice light red wine such as Pinot Noir, put on some Christmas music and enjoy with family and friends! Happy Holidays!!

Briased Beef Short Ribs with Red Wine

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

6 pounds, bone in beef short ribs

Kosher salt & Freshly ground black pepper

2 large garlic heads, halved crosswise

1 medium onion, chopped

4 celery stalks, chopped

2 medium carrots, chopped

3 tablespoons tomato paste

2 cups dry red wine ( I used a red Zinfandel)

4 cups beef or bone broth

4 sprigs fresh thyme

1 cup fresh pasley, chopped coarsely

1/4 cup chives, finely chopped

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 275 degrees fahrenheit

Season ribs with salt and pepper. Place the vegetable oil in a very large dutch oven suitable for an oven.

The reason for this is that you will be placing this pot into the oven from the stove.

Working in batches, sear ribs on all sides in pot. Transfer into a very large bowl as you cook and remove seared ribs.

Turn off the stove. Remove any ribs left into the bowl and carefully pour out all of the oil from the pot into a medium bowl. Do not scape out the pot, you want all of the browned bits in the pot. Place pot back on stove and add in 2 tablespoons of the poured out oil. Turn the stove back on to a medium heat. Add in the halved garlic, cut side down and allow to cook undisturbed for 2 minutes. Add in your onion, carrots and celery. Using either a wooden or silicone spoon gently move the vegetables to evenly cook, about 6 minutes. Add in the tomato paste and stir to coat the vegetables. Cook about 3 minutes. Add in the wine and using your spoon scrape up the bits on the bottom of pan. (That has great flavor) Cook for about 5 minutes. Add in 2 cups of the beef or bone stock and thyme sprigs. Nestle in the ribs and all of the juices in the bowl, meat side down. Add in more broth to cover the ribs as needed. Bring to a simmer and then turn off the heat. Cover and place in preheated oven. Cook, undisturbed, until fall off the bone tender about 4 hours.

Usings tongs, carefully remove the ribs. Transfer to a large rimmed plate. Strain the liquid into a large bowl. Discard the vegetables. Add some of the liquid over the ribs and scatter your fresh herbs over the ribs. Enjoy!