Coconut Curry Braised Short Ribs

#36, sry she took so long

I made braised short ribs for the first time last year and immediately fell in LOVE. They were so easy and PACKED with flavor and they literally make their own sauce as they cook. So comforting and so tasty what more can I say!! There are a ton of variations of braised short ribs online, most of which (that popped up in my google search at least) were braised in red wine with aromatics. I love anything cooked in coconut milk and spiced with curry powder or paste (i.e. Thai red or green curry, Panang curry, etc.) so that’s what I decided to do with them here!

I made this with my friends over a facetime call last year. Everyone loved them. This technically serves 4 but you can definitely just double the amount of short ribs you sear off to serve 6-8. You wont need to change any other ingredient amounts, you should have enough braising liquid as is. If you feel like you need more liquid to cover the extra short ribs add just a bit of stock (beef, veggie, chicken, etc.) or water to just barely cover. you won’t need much if you need any at all.

We served this with some very simple roasted winter squash (delicata, butternut, whatever is your fave) tossed in just oil salt and pep. Also with some rice that I mixed a ton of herbs, some lime zest and juice in to. It was so good. I especially loved how the sweet roasted squash tasted with the curry coconut braising liquid and how the herby-limey-rice added some brightness and freshness to everything. But eat the short ribs with whatever sides you like because this is your adventure and you can do what you want!!

Ingredients

serves 3-4, double just the short ribs to serve 6-8

• 5-6 lbs bone in beef short ribs

• 1 large onion, diced

• 2 large carrots, roughly chopped

• 2 fresh red chilis, seeds removed (for less spice) and diced. use green if you can’t find red. and use 1 chili if you want even less spice.

• 5 garlic cloves, crushed and skins removed

• 1 inch of fresh ginger, thinly sliced lengthwise. no need to remove the skin

• 2 tablespoons tomato paste

• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder

• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder

• 2 tablespoons curry powder

• 1 28oz can of whole peeled tomatoes

• 1 13.5oz can of full fat coconut milk

• 3 tablespoons ghee or a neutral cooking oil like grapeseed or avocado

• salt

• cilantro for serving, optional

Instructions

1. Using about 5-6 teaspoons of salt (you want 1 teaspoon of salt per pound of beef, at least), generously salt the short ribs on all sides and set aside. Let them sit, salted, for a minimum of 30 minutes.
   You can also salt them the morning of and place back in the fridge. Take them out to come to room temperature about 30 minutes before you plan to sear them.

2. Place a large Dutch oven over med-high heat on the stove. Once hot, add 2 tbsp ghee or a neutral oil and sear your short ribs on all sides for about 2 minutes per side, until they have a deep golden brown crust on each side. You may have to do this in batches. Place seared short ribs on a plate and set aside.

3. Preheat oven to 300 degrees fahrenheit.

4. Add 1 tbsp ghee to your pan over medium heat (no need to wipe it out) and add the onions, carrots, and a teaspoon of salt. Cook 7-10 minutes or until the onions are tender. Add 5 crushed garlic cloves, 2 diced fresh chilis, 1 inch piece sliced fresh ginger, 1 teaspoon turmeric powder, 1/2 teaspoon chili powder, 2 tablespoons curry powder and sauté until fragrant, 2-3 minutes.

5. Add 2 tbsp tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly, for another 2-3 minutes or until the tomato paste darkens from a bright red to a more brown-y orange color and begins to stick to the pan.

6. Next pour in the juice from the 28 oz can of tomatoes and then crush each tomato in your hand a bit, breaking it up before adding it to the pot. Stir in the whole can of coconut milk.

7. Add the short ribs back to the pot and nuzzle them into the sauce. Place your lid on the Dutch oven and put it into the oven for 3 hours. You do not need to check them during this time.

8. After 3 hours check them. They should literally slip off the bone they should be so tender. If you think they need a bit more time put them back into the oven for 20-30 min and check again.

9. Once tender, take the short ribs, along with the bones if they happened to slip out, out of the sauce and set them aside on a plate. Using an immersion blender (or by carefully adding everything to a table top blender) blend all of the contents in the Dutch oven together until very smooth. Taste for salt, add more a 1/2 teaspoon at a time, making sure to stir it in and tasting until it tastes perfect to you.

10. Pour the sauce back into the dutch oven, nuzzle the short ribs back into the sauce and place over medium heat on the stove, just to heat the short ribs back up if they have cooled. About 5 minutes. You can skip this step if they are still warm.

11. I like to serve the short ribs on top of the rice and roasted vegetables, spoon some sauce over everything, and add some fresh cilantro at the end.