French Fridays with Dorie - Red Wine and Port Braised Short Ribs

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe is the ultimate, cozy French supper for a group of friends.

You'll want a group of friends around your farmhouse table because the recipe calls for nine pounds of short ribs, an entire bottle of flavorful, fruity California Syrah, and a half bottle of Tawny Port. The ribs are seared, and layered snugly in your largest Dutch oven atop a sauteed, aromatic bed of carrots, onions, celery, garlic and ginger. In goes the wine, port, beef stock, and a bouquet garni of parsley, celery leaves, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, and star anise. After three hours of slow-braising, the tantalizingly tender ribs are lifted from their luscious sauce while the sauce is strained and reduced. An added bonus to the finished ribs is the gremolata of chopped Italian parsley, finely grated tangerine or orange peel, and minced garlic.

We served our short ribs on a mound of creamy Celery Root and Potato Puree, accompanied by steamed baby carrots, and roasted kale. Dessert was this month's Daring Baker's Challenge, Meyer Lemon and Basil Panna Cotta with Blackberry Puree, and Italian Florentine Lace Cookies.

Although French Fridays with Dorie members are prohibited from posting the recipe in their blog posts, I did find a slightly adapted version of the recipe published by the Bon Appetit, here.

Newf Notes:

In San Diego, short ribs will set you back a little over $5/lb.  In other words, making the entire recipe with 9 pounds of ribs, wine, and port, can get expensive - you should invite only your closest friends and family...kidding. It's not that bad when you consider the recipe feeds 6-8 people and short ribs at a gourmet restaurant are $20-$30.  However, the recipe can easily be halved, as it was in Bon Appetit's version.

Dorie suggests broiling the short ribs first, but I seared the ribs (in batches) in the dutch oven I used for the braising, and sauteed the vegetables in all that goodness left from the searing. I forgot to buy ginger, but the star anise added nice flavor. There is so much braising liquid at the end, so I chose to transfer about half to another pan and reduced that down for the sauce. The gremolata is a must.

These short ribs are hearty, comforting, and layered with magnificent flavor. I highly recommend preparing the entire batch and rounding up your friends.

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