Braised Ribs with Mushrooms

This dish was tasty and delicious, but it was one of the most challenging I have ever made because the recipe from the Food Network Magazine (where I got this) was not very well-written. I had to make some major tweaking and adjustments to make it simpler, but the pay-off was terrific.


What you need:

• 1 1/4 pounds chuck short ribs
• 1/2 of a large Vidalia onion
• 11 cloves garlic
• 6 slices of bacon
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1/2 cup white grape/cherry juice
• 1 1/2 cup red cooking wine + 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 8 oz baby bella mushrooms
• 8 oz white mushrooms
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 300°F.

In a food processor, pulse the tomato paste, onions, and 10 cloves garlic to make a paste. Set aside. Cook the bacon until crisp then drain on a cooling rack. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the bacon drippings for use later.

Put the tomato paste mixture in a pot over medium-high heat and cook for about 6 minutes, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to medium and add the white grape/cherry juice. Sprinkle in the flour and cook, stirring, about 5 more minutes. Gradually stir in the cooking wine/water until smooth. Add the baby bella mushrooms, thyme, bay leaves, and 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt.

Meanwhile, season the ribs with salt and pepper, place in the pot and add water to cover. Trim a piece of parchment paper so that it rests on top of the meat. This is to seal the moisture in while braising. Cover the pot with the lid and transfer to the oven. Cook until the meat is fork-tender, about 3 hours.

Remove the meat from the sauce and transfer to a plate. Set the sauce aside, about 10 minutes, then skim off the fat. Discard the bay leaves and season the sauce with salt and pepper. Return the ribs to the sauce and keep warm over low heat.

Chop the remaining 1 clove garlic and set aside. Heat the reserved bacon drippings in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the white mushrooms and cook until brown, about 8 minutes. Toss in the chopped garlic and add 1/2 teaspoon salt. Enjoy!


Tips, Tricks and Tweaks:
1. Use pancetta instead of bacon for more flavor.
2. I substituted a lot of alcohol in this dish, the original recipe calls for cognac (I used white grapes/cherry juice) and red wine (I used red cooking wine). Still turned out pretty good.
3. You can use other types of mushrooms like porcini, oyster, or cremini. I used baby bella and white due to unavailability of other mushrooms in our local grocery store.
4. Add 1/4 cup chopped parsley with the 1 clove of garlic when cooking the white mushrooms.