We eat meat...and a lot of it in this house! If anyone is a meat & potatoes kind of guy, it's my manly hubby. Throw in Fall temperatures and this picture on the cover of Martha Stewart Living...
the hubs makes the request, and this lady gets to cooking!
Here's how I made this delicious one-pot meal!
BRAISED SHORT RIB, STOUT, AND POTATO POT PIE (or pies!)
First, my little notes....I halved the recipe that was in the magazine, and it would have been enough to serve 4 people if you had some side items. Some roasted veggies would be delish with this!
Y'all, I purchased a cheap "dutch oven" from Wal-Mart and I loved cooking in it! I wasn't ready to splurge for a big fancy one, but it might just go on my Christmas list!
I was also afraid that it would taste like beer, and I don't like anything beer-flavored. I was pleasantly surprised that it had a little bit of a kick, but not a beer taste at all!
I would advise you to start this meal about 4 and a half to 5 hours before you want to serve it. It's an all day cook, but you aren't working on it all day.Preheat the oven to 300 degrees & get out your favorite Dutch oven or slow-cooking pot!
Gather these ingredients (these amounts are for serving 4 people):
FILLING:
2 lbs. Boneless Short Ribs (I picked up some high quality ones at Richard's Meat Market in Fayetteville. YUM!)
Coarse Salt & Ground Pepper for seasoning the meat
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 T Safflower Oil (I read that it is one of the best oils for high temperatures and frying, so I went ahead and picked up a bottle of it.)
1/2 Medium Yellow Onion, Thinly sliced
2-3 Garlic Cloves (Martha says to thinly slice them. Since I use so much garlic in my kitchen & it takes me
forever to handle it, I buy the giant bottle of garlic at the store & just use it. EASY!)
1 Bottle Stout Beer (I used Guiness Extra Stout)
Sprig of Rosemary
1/2 lb Cipollini Onions, peeled (Couldn't find these, so I used scallions.)
TOPPING:
2 Medium Russet Potatoes, peeled & very thinly sliced
EVOO for brushing
Coarse salt & Ground Pepper
Alright, let's get started! I tried to remember to take pictures along the way, so you could see my steps. (It always helps me!) First, you make the filling.
Make sure your oven is on at 300.
Season the short ribs with salt & pepper, then dredge them in flour.
Transfer the coated meat to a plate & set aside.
Heat the safflower oil in your dutch oven/pot over high heat.
Working in batches, brown the short ribs. This takes about a minute per side.
Using tongs, remove meat and put them back on a plate.
Reduce the heat down to medium on your stovetop.
Add the sliced yellow onion to the oil (my favorite part of this whole thing!).
Cook them until they are golden and tender. MMMM!!!
Now, throw in the garlic and cook about 2 minutes more.
It should look like this....oh.my.goodness.
After cooking the onions & garlic, add the short ribs back to the pot.
Cover with the stout beer and toss a sprig of rosemary on top.
Bring this to a simmer. It should smell SO good!
Now, cover this with the lid and transfer it to the oven.
Cook this for 2 hours.
After you've cleaned your kitchen and tossed in & changed a couple of loads of laundry, this part will be finished!
Remove the pot from the oven.
Add the cipollini onions (or scallions) to the pot.
Braise until the meat is tender and the new onions are cooked through. (About 20 minutes) I didn't really know what it meant to braise, so after some googling and YouTube watching, I just decided to put the pot over my lowest burning setting and just let it cook a tiny bit more. Right or wrong? I still don't know, but it worked!
While you are waiting, peel your potatoes and slice them as thinly as you can. You can also go ahead and bump up the oven temp to 375 degrees.
Take the meat out and shred it using 2 forks. It should fall right apart.
Season the shredded meat with a little more salt and pepper.
Now, you can divide the "filling" amongst some small, oven-proof individual serving dishes. Or, do as I did and put it all in one large dish to make one pot pie.
Top the meat with the thinly sliced potatoes by working in a circle and overlapping them by quite a bit (3/4 overlap).
Brush the potatoes with EVOO and sprinkle with salt & pepper.
Bake about 45 minutes at 375.
I took this time to clean up this sink...
The potatoes should be golden and the filling bubbling when finished.
We had to go to community group, so I snagged it out of the oven a little early, but the potatoes were done and the filling was delicious! And then, since the kitchen was cleaned up I got to love on these guys until bedtime!
