Short Ribs Are Where It’s At

Finally, gloriously, at long last, FALL has arrived in Texas. It officially arrived September 21st but I think it was around 112 that day so who noticed? But, now we have settled into what is known in the south as that time of year when you may still break a sweat around noon but by evening there’s a hint of chill in the air. The porches have started to fill up with pumpkins and mums, the tree’s are starting to drop their leaves and the lawn mowers have slowly stopped being the constant background noise of my life.

One of my very favorite things to make this time of year is hoisin short ribs. I love them. But I understand why some people shy away from this particular cut of meat.  I’ve tried to purchase short ribs from various grocery stores and specialty shops and it’s a tricky business – if you don’t do it right you’ll end up with nothing but a fatty piece of rib meat. There can be a lot of shrinkage as well,  I’ve cooked inferior short ribs that ended up the size of quarters by the time I was finished braising. So here’s the answer to my dilemma: don’t try to purchase prepackaged short ribs.

The issue with prepackaged short ribs is the fact that this cut of meat is very thick and grocery stores have a funny habit of placing the ribs meat side up in the package so that it looks like you have this nice big juicy piece of meat. Then, you get home, open it up and whadda you got? A thin piece of meat on top and big hunk of F.A.T. underneath sitting on a bone. Not very appetizing and you just paid about $8 lb. for the experience.

Take yourself to your local Whole Foods (if you have one), Central Market,  or where ever you have a real quality meat market in your area and pick your short ribs out of the meat case one by one. My personal favorite are the organic short ribs at Whole Foods – you just can’t beat them and they’re often on sale.  Give those babies the stink eye as they hit the scale. They’re going to cost you about the same – give or take a dollar – and you’ll be so much happier with the results.

I made my Hoisin Ribs last night over buttery mashed potatoes and I have to say that they melted in my mouth. Check out the recipe and give it a shot, you’ll be so glad you did. This is not a difficult recipe, it takes about 20 minutes of prep and then you pop them in the oven for 3 hours and walk away. Whip up the potatoes, a salad and some french bread and you’ve got heaven on a plate. We cracked a really, really good bottle of red too but it was Saturday night…what else we were to do?

I made Pioneer Woman’s Pecan Pie for dessert. I didn’t take photo’s since I was a total copycat word for word but it was delish so go to her website and check out her recipe if you’re looking for slight variation on the old classic. It was tasty!

Enjoy your Sunday everyone, happy cooking!

Chris

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