Everyone has a signature dish and this is mine. Juicy shortribs rolled on the bone, braised low and slow to mouth watering perfection, finished with a red wine morel mushroom sauce that is reduced with crème fraîche, touch of grain mustard, and a pinch of nutmeg.
I love stroganoff but, I do not love that greyish beef gravy it is often served with. As good as it tastes, the look is not appealing. If you add the crème fraîche or sour cream while reducing the sauce it will not change color but it will have that characteristic tang that makes stroganoff, stroganoff.
I serve homemade thick cut egg pasta with this dish called Pappardelle. Sometimes I toss the noodles in butter and add a twist of cracked blacked pepper. Or, in this case, I poured my favorite parmesan cream sauce with caraway seeds over top. Either way is delicious, it just depends how decadent you want to go.
Creating shortribs rolled on the bone takes a little knife work. However, the extra attention to detail creates a beautiful presentation and a more succulent finished product.
Ask your butcher for a rack of beef shortribs of 3 to 4 bones. I have used racks of 3 bones before but 4 is easier to roll. Ask the butcher to cut the ribs across the rack of bones in 2-inch strips. This cut is similar to what is called “flanken” (often used in Korean BBQ) but larger.
Figure on 3 to 4 servings per shortrib rack. One strip is going to be smaller because ribs tend to be fattier at one end. Even though shortribs are still considered a butcher cut, they are very expensive today even at wholesale prices which makes this dish, rolled on the bone, a special one. Each roll is about 1-pound before braising.
Remove the bones from each strip, clean the best looking one, trim excess fat from the strip and any silver skin, roll strip back around bone and tie with string. Sounds easy, but it will take a little practice to get the hang of it.
When tying the kitchen string around the roll start at the bottom, then tie the top, last secure the middle. And don’t tie too tight or your shortrib roll will have muffin top.
Generously season the shortribs before searing with Kosher salt and black pepper. Add mirepoix and sauté until lightly caramelized. Add dry red wine, herbs, then beef stock bring to a boil and braise, braise, braise…
This is a great dish to entertain with because it can be made the day ahead – and it is much, much better if made the day before. I have yet to serve this dish at a restaurant or at home and not have all the dishes come back squeaky clean!
Ingredients
- 4 pieces center-cut flanken-style beef chuck shortribs, (shortribs cut across the bone) about 1 pound each
- 2 medium carrot, chopped
- 4 ribs of celery, chopped
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 shallots, diced
- 1⁄4 bunch parsley stalks
- 4 stalks of tarragon
- 2 bay leaves
- 5 thyme sprigs
- 1 bottle dry red wine
- 5 cups low sodium or unsalted beef stock (chicken stock can be
- used in a pinch, the sauce will still be rich brown in color)
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter for finishing sauce
- 2 tablespoons crème fraîche
- 1 tablespoon grain mustard
- 2 pinches nutmeg
- Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 8 medium morel mushrooms, cleaned (dried can be used and rehydrated)
To create shortribs rolled on the bone place one strip on cutting board meat side down. With a filet knife, cut just under the bones to remove. Trim excess fat and sinews on both sides. Clean 4 bones with a small pairing knife by making an incision down the bone on either side and peeling away the sinew with fingertips. Season meat with salt and pepper. Roll rib tightly around the bone and tie with cooking twine, ensuring that the roll is secure in the middle, top, and bottom.
In an oven safe casserole large enough to fit the rolled ribs in one layer and with sides high enough to submerge ribs completely in liquid, heat 2 tablespoons of canola oil on high until it shimmers. Reduce heat to medium-high and add rolled ribs. Brown ribs on all sides using tongs to gently turn. Do not crowd ribs while searing or they will steam instead of brown.
Remove ribs to a plate. In the same casserole add 1 more tablespoon of oil. Add all the vegetables and cook stirring occasionally, until nicely caramelized and softened, about 5 minutes.
Add the bottle of red wine with all the herbs and bring to a boil. Skim greyish looking foam as it rises to the top. Add 5 cups of beef stock and continue to skim impurities while boiling. Gently place rolled ribs with tongs into liquid once it is boiling completely. If necessary add a little more beef stock to fully submerge. Cover with a lid that fits tightly or make a parchment paper circle the size of the casserole and place on top.
Put casserole in oven at 400 ̊F and cook for 21⁄2 to 3 hours until meat is fork tender.
When ribs are cooked, take casserole out from oven and gently remove rolled ribs to another casserole. Strain liquid over ribs and throw out cooked vegetables. Refrigerate over night.
To serve: take ribs from refrigerator and skim off fat that has solidified on top. Reheat ribs in an oven safe casserole uncovered for 20 minutes at 350 ̊F. Remove ribs gently to a plate and keep warm. Reduce braising liquid on stove top on high heat to 2 cups and add 2 tablespoons of butter, mustard, nutmeg, crème fraîche, and morel mushrooms. Place rolled ribs back in sauce and baste.
Serve ribs with extra sauce and pull bone up so that it shows. Don’t forget to cut off cooking twine. Garnish with buttered pappardelle, glazed baby carrots, sautéed swiss chard or vegetables of choice.
Note to Chef: I add butter to the sauce at the end to give it a glossy look and rich mouth feel and I baste the meat continuously at this point with the sauce so everything gets lackered, but it can be left out.
Add the cold butter after the sauce is reduced and shake it in over high heat (and baste meat with it)– be forewarned that there is a point where the sauce will go from gorgeous and glossy to ‘split’ so be sure and watch out for this and only use the butter to finish the sauce when you are ready to serve.
If you do not use low or no sodium beef stock, when the sauce is reduced it will taste too salty. If nothing else is available then reduce the sauce until it has the right flavor and add arrowroot or a little cornstarch to thicken.
Wow! Beautiful dish and beautiful presentation Chef. It reminds me of a delicate feminine version of the whole beef shanks you were making at Guy Savoy.
I’m supposed to do a demo for my boucher some time early in the new year and I think this is a winning idea for the main.
I will definitely use transglutaminase to glue the cleaned meat back to the bone because I hate tying with twine and what you’ve done takes more than a little practice to get it right. I will do a test rack to compare traditional braise with sous-vide.
What is the length of the bones? If the strips are 2 inches wide, the bones look about 3 inches.
Wattacetti! Transglutaminase will definitely do the job. For anybody that doesn’t know what that is – it’s a food glue of sorts that bonds with protein and it’s edible and harmless (or so I’m told?). We used it on a fish dish at Guy Savoy, Las Vegas to layer filets of sole so that they appeared to be really thick and decadent. However, if this powder is inhaled it can potentially glue your lungs together so be careful.
As for the lengthh of the bones. 2-inches is fine, you can roll the meat fully around the bone and brown on all sides and then pull it up for presentation. In my picture the butcher cut my strips about 4 inches and I coudn’t see until it was too late. Therefore I couldn’t brown them on the top but the long bones do look fabulous. Somewhere in between 2 and 3 inches is just right for these, it depends on the look you’re going for.
Also, I really clean a lot of the fat of the strips…makes for a nicer bite!
Ah! thanks for the clarifications. I really like the look of the long bones and I think I can get around the inability to pan-sear the top surface by painting some clarified butter on the surface and then carefully blowtorching.
Transglutaminase makes covalent bonds and versions found naturally are involved in wound healing (e.g. knife cuts) and forming hair.
It is harmless in food prep because it’s completely deactivated if it hits 56º (132ºF or so) and because it can also make covalent bonds with itself, it will eventually deactivate itself by losing active conformation.
Ah ha! I knew you would know exactly why transglutaminase does what it does! Funny enough I started writing a murder mystery that takes place in a 3-Michelin star French restaurant (you’ll never guess which one) and one of the commis is discovered dead from breathing in too much of the powder. I guess one starts to go a little crazy when working 12 to 14 hours a day…
Shortribs are a wonderful cut of meat, what a well executed dish. Thank you for sharing.
This looks fabulous! I’ve made it my mission to try my hand at your recipe. Thanks for the detailed notes. I’m still a bit confused by the instructions on how to create the rolled short rib bones. I think I understand the cut I need – basically a “fat” flank-style strips (here called Korean short rib), about 2-3 inches thick. Each strip contains 3-4 bones, of which you only use one to create a rolled up bone, right?
But then you note that you put the strip “meat side down”, does that mean such that the bones are parallel to the table surface, and the most meaty side is on the table with the bones hovering above it?
Also, once the meat is cut off the bone (I assume you end up with a rectangular strip), how is it then rolled around the bone? With the cut side touching the bone? I feel like a picture could be handy 😉
Finally, you say you end up with 4 1lb ribs. Are those 4 single servings? 1lb of meat? Sounds like a good meal 🙂
Thanks!
Nico
Nico! You know, I never take pictures when I really need to. And I told myself I was going to photograph this the whole way through because it’s easy once you do it and feel it, but the description is just problematic – sorry about that, I ran out of time.
So yes, you are going to get a fat flankin style cut of shortrib. This “fat” cut-across-the-bones style (preferably 3 to 4 bones) should be about 2-inches thick. Slap that puppy on the counter with the bones facing up towards you. Then carve ALL the bones out with a sharp boning or filet knife so you are left with a boneless strip of meat. It should be around 2-inches wide and about 5-inches across.
Take the most slender bone and clean the fat and sinew off. This can be hard. I take the tip of a knife and score it down each side then peel away the skin with my fingers.
Next, clean off as much silver skin and excess fat off the strip as possible without destroying the strip. There’s a lot of fat on shortribs and even though I love fat there is more than enough even after you take a lot off. You will see some deep veins of fat, and I like to carve those out too as much as possible.
Rolling up is easy but you have to look at the strip and decide which way will work better. There’s no right or wrong. I prefer to have the meat side facing out and the bone side (that is now boneless) facing in. Place the cleaned bone at one end and roll the strip of meat tightly all around it. Then tie!
A 1lb strip with bone in will be about 1 serving. It gets tricky because different cross sections of the rib will have heavier bone or more meat or more fat. But that’s a close approximation. And I promise to get some pictures up!
I hope this helps a little?!?
Amy! Thanks a bunch for these extra tips! My lovely wife is out of town next week, so I’ll get plenty of time to experiment without the pressure 😉
I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks again!
Nico
Nico! Please let me know if these instructions workout for you. I’d love any feedback you have.. And, just so’s ya know, the shortribs will keep submerged in the braising liquid for up to 3 days so your wife can taste test when she gets home!
If I made this for my husband I think he would be the happiest man on earth. Perhaps I can entice you with some sort of trade to come over (we are in the Bay Area) and make these us? Don’t you think you could use a Graphic Designer to clean up a few odds and ends for you! Seriously…think about it..
That parmesan caraway sauce is killer. I used that with some pasta the other night. Easy and totally amazing – different too, in a good way. That is some of the best cream sauce I have ever had.
Het – Are you sure about that trade because I will take you up on that offer. Let’s chat over email. I could use a little sprucing up and my logo refined a little if that’s something you do? If so, you got a deal!
This looks divine! Also, with your further explanation of how to trim the meat, I totally understand how to do this now. I would TOTALLY have made this for my gun club guys. (That shows you how much I loved a few of them!)
Of course, I’d leave out the caraway (I hate it) and swap out the morels for porcinis (morels are tough and I worry about what might be hiding in the holes.) I might use that trimmed off silverskin to my advantage and drape it over the ribs as they cook. I adore the “fat in the mouth” feel when the connective tissue melts to gelatin, and self-basting anything is always good. The remnants can be easily removed before service.
Hey, I have a question for you: When cooking with portabellas do you remove the gills? I was taught to do it when I worked at the place where I cut my hand and I’ve done it ever since because it just looks nicer without little black flecks on everything. It really bugs me that TV “chefs” some of whom are real chefs, I realize, but most of whom are not, never seem to do it! (Thank the lard I’ve never seen your old bosses cook with portabellas!) I’m betting Ripert and Savoy remove the gills!
Yeah, you gotta be careful with morels, especially the fresh ones. I once had to pick out little bugs from ten flats– not fun! But I love the flavor and I often opt for the dried variety which are normally pretty clean. I’m a fat lover but the one time I didn’t trim excess off they didn’t braise as well throughout the roll. It depends on the strip too as I know you know! Wish I could have eaten at the gun club. I love your stories about it!
I really wish I’d known you then. I had the freedom to invite guest chefs, although I couldn’t offer to pay them, only the members could invite paid chefs– at their own expense, of course! But that’s how I met Lionell Robin, Tobasco CEO Paul McIlhenny’s personal chef, and Franco Dunn, who was the Jordan winery owner’s personal chef, as well as the chef for the winery. He later opened a great place in Geyserville called Sante. Nancy Oakes was supposed to come one weekend, but she didn’t show. She sent some lovely steamed persimmon puddings, though. I served them with a rum-scented creme anglais, as suggested on the accompanying note. It was truly delicious. We would really have had a great time, and I would have gotten one of the guys to take you sightseeing around some of the property on an amphibious vehicle.
I even had my own trailer there, not that I ever used it. But we coulda had one heck of a girls weekend! Only one of the members had any sort of ideas about not socializing with “the help,” but he was only there because he married money. The others were totally cool about me eating at the members’ tables, drinking as much wine or whatever as I wanted, etc. Probably because I didn’t abuse the privilege and because I can hold my own in most any conversation. They weren’t quite as “equality minded” with the employees with less education and sophistication. YOU? You would have been asked back every year forever.
Your description and follow-up comments have given me the courage to assay this fabulous recipe for my wife’s birthday party.
Thanks very much!
Your article petcferly shows what I needed to know, thanks!