Red Wine Braised Short Ribs Recipe
This is not your average short ribs recipe.
That’s because it’s been fully optimized for the purpose of hosting a romantic dinner date. The steps are broken out into “before she arrives” and “after she arrives” so you can spend more of your date connecting and less of it cooking. If you want your food to taste great and your relationship to be better off than before the meal, this is for you.
This recipe for red wine braised short rib with carrots and celery root puree is the suggested main course in my romantic dinner date guide. I recommend reading the guide if you plan to serve this to a lucky lady. And with that, let’s get to the recipe.
What you need
This is what you’ll need to make and serve this meal.
Ceramic dutch oven. You need a heavy duty pot with a lid that you can not only braise in but also serve with. If you don’t have one, consider buying an enamel cast iron dutch oven; it’s one of those lifetime investments that you might as well buy now instead of later. The two most popular brands are Le Creuset and Staub. I prefer Staub because it comes with a metal knob (making it better for higher temp cooks).
Medium pot or saucier (for the celery root puree). Make sure you have a lid. I bought mine from Made In Cookware.
Small pot or sauce pan (for the sauce). Lid preferred. I bought mine from Made In Cookware.
2 dinner plates (to serve). I use ceramic plates from Heath Ceramics in California.
Two sets of forks and knives (to eat). Duh.
Short ribs ingredients
The star of the show. The process of making the short ribs will also produce the sauce and carrots used in the final dish.
2+ pounds bone-in beef short ribs. Cut them into 2-3 inch pieces.
2 medium white onions. Chop them. We’re not actually eating this so it doesn’t have to be chopped pretty.
2 large celery stalks. Chop it. We’re not actually eating this so it doesn’t have to be chopped pretty.
Tomato paste or 2 tomatoes. Tomato paste is ideal, but if using tomatoes, cut into 8 pieces each. We’re not actually eating this so it doesn’t have to be chopped pretty.
1 bulb of garlic. Cut in half across its equator.
4 small carrots. Not the ones you feed toddlers! Just some small, elegant, and pointy normal carrots. They often come in different colors. Scrubbed or peeled but kept whole.
1 bottle of red wine. Look for an inexpensive but not horrible cabernet sauvignon.
2 bunches of thyme. One for the short ribs and one for the celery root puree. If you want to be a pro about it, wrap each in cheese cloth with a bay leaf.
1 small bunch of parsley.
1 small bunch of chives.
4 cups of beef or chicken stock. Low salt!
Celery root puree ingredients
My favorite way to elevate mashed potatoes is to ditch the potatoes altogether. Celery root puree has everything you love about mashed potatoes and all you didn’t know you love about celery root.
2 softball-sized celery roots. Cut off the gnarly outside like you are carving a pineapple to reveal the clean, white interior.
2 cups of heavy cream.
1 lemon.
2 tbsp of butter. It doesn’t have to be exact. I love butter.
Instructions (before she arrives)
These are the steps you need to carry out in the preparation phase. I recommend starting this at least 3 hours before she arrives.
Prepare the short ribs. To do so, see the steps below. You can also follow this video as a general guide, but note that the ingredients and techniques aren’t the same as that video for a reason! We’ve got goals here.
Preheat the oven to 325ºf.
Trim off any excessive fat from the short ribs, then dry them off with a paper towel.
Add canola oil to your dutch oven (enough to cover the bottom), then put your dutch oven over medium high heat.
Once the oil looks like it is shimmering, add the short ribs to the oil to sear the outside. The goal is to give the outside a brown color for flavor, not to cook them all the way through. Once the outside looks seared, put the short ribs to the side (e.g. on a plate). Season them liberally with salt and pepper.
Pour out all of the oil and fat from the dutch oven except just a tiny bit to coat the bottom. If you don’t do this, the sauce at the end will be too fatty.
Change the heat to medium, then add the onions and celery to the pot. Stir them over the heat until they begin to soften, then add the tomatoes and garlic with the cut side down. Continue stirring. The goal is to cook off all the moisture from the tomatoes and lightly brown the garlic until we get to the next step.
Add the red wine the the pot and bring it to a boil. We’re bringing it to a boil for 3 minutes. We’re doing that so it reduces and sweetens up.
Add the seared short ribs and thyme into the pot, then pour enough chicken/beef stock to almost cover everything (like an alligator peering out of the water). To ensure the meat is cooked evenly, the bone side of the short ribs should be the side that is peeking out.
Bring to a simmer, put the lid on the dutch oven, then transfer the dutch oven to the oven.
Cook like this for 3 hours. After hour 1, add the carrots into the liquid. If three hours passes (or your guest arrives), adjust the oven temperature to 225ºf but otherwise keep it in there.
Prepare the celery root puree. You can do this the day before if you want! Or any time before really.
Chop up the peeled celery root.
Add it to a pot with a lid with the thyme, then pour enough cream to cover the bottom 3 inches of the pot. Cover the pot.
Put the pot on medium low heat with the lid on until the cream starts to simmer. The cream simmering will steam the celery root until it softens. It takes about 45 minutes.
Once the celery root is soft, strain the mixture and reserve the cream. Discard the thyme. Transfer the celery root to the blender and blend it. If it is too dense, add some of the cream you reserved and blend again.
Add salt to taste.
The celery root puree is now (almost) good to go. If she’s arriving in an hour or so, just keep it on the stove in the sauce pan with a lid. Leave the stove off but turn it onto low when you’re preparing the salad. If she is not arriving for awhile, chill it and keep it in the fridge and transfer it to a pot right before she arrives.
Cut the lemon to prepare for when you need to squeeze it into the celery root puree later.
Prepare the sauce. I recommend doing this about 30 minutes before she arrives. The sauce is easy because it is in your dutch oven right now! We just want to strain some of it. To do so:
Remove the dutch oven from the oven. Using a ladle, remove about two cups of the liquid that has now been flavored over the course of the last few hours. This recipe called for a bit extra liquid than normal so that you could remove this amount and the short ribs would still be somewhat submerged.
Strain it so that it’s just a smooth sauce, then reduce it a bit over medium heat.
If she’s arriving in an hour or so, just keep it on the stove in the sauce pan with a lid. Leave the stove off but turn it onto low when you’re preparing the salad.
Prepare the garnish. I also recommend doing this about 30 minutes before she arrives. It’s simple:
Pick the parsley leaves and chop them. Make swift sweeping motions with the knife rather than hard vertical chops to ensure you don’t bruise it.
Chop the chives. Make swift sweeping motions with the knife rather than hard vertical chops to ensure you don’t bruise it.
Mix the chives and parsley together then put them in the fridge in a container with a lid.
Instructions (when you’re preparing to serve the appetizer)
You’re doing these steps while you make the salad so everything is ready to go when you move on to course 2.
Turn the heat on low for the celery root puree.
Turn the heat on low for the sauce.
Remove the garnish from the fridge.
Instructions (when it’s time to eat)
This is your chance to get pretty with plating! Thankfully, we’ve made this easy.
Remove the dutch oven from the oven.
Add the nob of butter to the celery root puree and whisk it in. Squeeze the lemon, too. The celery root puree should be warm enough at this point that the butter just incorporates right in.
With a spoon, plate the celery root puree as a filled, round circle in the center of the plate.
With tongs, remove the short ribs from the dutch oven. Hold them over the dutch oven briefly to ensure that any liquids drain off. Place the short ribs on top of the celery root puree.
With tongs, remove the carrots from the dutch oven. Hold them over the dutch oven briefly to ensure that any liquids drain off. For each plate, place two carrots on top of the short ribs, creating a lean-two of sorts between the plate and the ribs.
Garnish both plates by pinching the parsley/chive mixture over each plate.
Serve. Describe the dish, present it with a smile, and sit down and eat your portion, too.
Instructions (when you’ve finished)
Once you’ve both finished, collect all dinnerware and place it into the dishwasher or into an organized pile next to the sink. Provided they are organized and to the side, I prefer to clean the dishes a bit later. You’re much better off getting closer to your date at this point.
