Feeling Carniverous?

If you took a look and thought to yourself, “I’m looking at 30 pounds of short ribs,” then you would be correct. I have my first catering job coming up Wednesday and asked my dad to go to Ottomanelli’s to pick up some short ribs for me. Along the way we had a little miscommunication and we wound up with 30 pounds.


What did I do? First I focused on prepping the short ribs for my catering job on Wednesday night. Then I cancelled my dinner reservation at AOC Bedford, called my friend Allegra over (we were celebrating her birthday) and opened up a 1967 Proddutori Del Barbaresco to go with the other short ribs that I cooked. When all was said and done I cooked about 20 of the 30 pounds of ribs.

After dinner I worked on perfecting my mini chocolate cakes and finished on some fine herbs and gruyere gnocchi. I think next Sunday comes the short ribs and red wine tasting with the other 10 pounds that are now resting nicely in my freezer.

Go to the Greenmarket!!!

If you are someone that doesn’t go to the Union Square Greenmarket on a regular basis, I am urging you to make a trip there this week. Despite the unseasonable heat, fall is starting and the variety of produce offered at the Greenmarket is starting to turn over. What makes this week especially fun is the fact that is has been so warm recently. This means that the farmers are still bringing in some of their summer crops that might not usually be available at this time of year. Even if you don’t cook, it’s worth going to Union Square. I guarantee there will be something you like in a close to pristine form.


On my visit I got very excited and a little overwhelmed. Here is a delicious short rib dish (Sunday dinner and probably also lunch throughout the week) with a few alterations based on what looked good. It involves braised short ribs, purple cauliflower and sunchoke puree, caramelized Cippolini onions, roasted baby carrots, heirloom tomatoes, roasted white beets, radish greens, and celery leaf, all topped off with some of the braising liquid.

Short Ribs

(This post has lots of pictures of short ribs)











I love short ribs. I’ve served them at my last couple of dinner parties and my mom has been making them for me for years (She finally conceded yesterday that my short ribs are the best.) The only problem with short ribs is that they are an ugly cheap cut of meat. The cheap part isn’t a problem because short ribs are meant to be braised for hours and hours so they fall off the bone and melt when you bite into them. The ugly part is difficult for someone like me—a person with no culinary training who likes to try to make food look good.

For those of you who don’t know how to prepare short ribs, they’re easy. Here’s a quick briefing:

Season short ribs with salt and pepper and brown on both sides in a heavy stock pot

Sauté vegetables, I use celery carrots onions and garlic in the juices of the short ribs

Add fluids for braising. These will largely determine the nuances in the flavor of the short ribs. I use red wine, balsamic vinegar, and a stock I made from marrow bones and pig’s feet (any stock will do as long as it’s not cheap and bad)

Add other spices and aromatics and anything else you want. I use rosemary thyme and plum tomatoes

Add the seared short ribs

Bring the pot to a boil and place in a 250-300 degree oven and forget about the ribs for 4-8 hours. They will come out tasting fantastic.

As for serving short ribs…They are fairly unsightly pieces of meat. They taste great but are really not nearly as nice to look at as say, a charred steak. I’ve served short ribs on a plate over risotto with its own braising liquids and what I got was a big unshapely piece of brown meat surrounded by a brown viscous liquid. Not the aesthetic I was looking for.

The next time I served short ribs at a party they were over a puree of basil peas and potatoes but looked weird again. Something about the colors brown and green didn’t quite click (I probably should've had that one figured out ahead of time.)

Which brings me to my reason for posting today—I think I’ve finally found a way to serve short ribs so that they look AND taste good.

Here are short ribs with a beet potato puree, roasted carrots, chive flowers, pink beauty radishes, icicle radishes, pea greens and purple (I don’t remember the vegetable) greens.



I also recently received the suggestion to serve the short ribs in a bowl surrounded by their juices and whatever else I might add, (it’s a shame to waste the juices) one that I’ll have to try out some time. Just another excuse to eat delicious short ribs.