Daniel Boulud's Red Wine Braised Short Ribs With Celery Duo.

A few months ago I was caught in the middle of an IM chat with a non-foodie friend, trying to explain the construction of Boulud's famed burger. In the process of pulling up several links regarding it's construction, I came across something interesting: he'd published the recipe for the short rib entree from his cookbook on the web. I won't repost the recipe here, but that link should suffice.

Any recipe that starts off with opening three bottles of wine and setting them on fire is going to instantly appeal to my inner pyromaniac. So, it was decided on the spot that I'd need to make these. Of course, anything worth doing is worth doing well and documenting poorly - so, I don't have any pictures of the wine flaming & reduction process. Suffice to say that it was fun.



This is one-half of the short ribs. I wasn't quite sure what the best way to have them cut would be, so I simply kept them as they'd been packed by the butcher - cross-cut, almost as if ready to be made into the world's thickest kalbi. The other half of the ribs was dusted with flour, salt & coarsely crushed pepper and sizzling away in my dutch oven when I snapped this picture. For some reason I didn't think to snap a picture of the searing ribs.



The now browned ribs resting on a plate, waiting to be braised.



Garlic, carrots, celery and a leek browning in some reserved fat from the ribs. These were browned slightly and then two tablespoons of tomato paste was added and mixed before cooking for another minute.



This is when I realized that I need a larger dutch oven. The short ribs, browned vegetables with tomato paste, reduced wine and stock barely fit into this dutch oven. I added the parsley, thyme and bay leaves afterwards. The resulting mix was brought to a boil and then tightly covered before being put into a 350F oven for 2.5 hours, removing every thirty minutes or so to skim any floating protein muck.

When the braising was nearly done I began on one half of the celery duo.



Peeled celery root that's been cut into eight pieces simmering in whole milk with peeled and halved yukon gold potatoes and salt. After simmering for about 25 minutes the milk was drained and an entire stick of butter (chopped into many pieces) was added. I processed the mix using an immersion blender to create a smooth mashed potato like puree that had a strong flavor of celery.



The finished celery root and potato puree.

While I was working on the puree I also had the other half of the celery duo in progress.



Quartered celery stocks with carrots and turnips simmering in chicken stock. Before adding the stock I'd browned the vegetables over high heat for about three minutes. The goal is to reduce the stock to nothing, leaving the vegetables coated in a thin film of condensed stock.



This is the finished result of the reduction. Everything but the celery is discarded.



The finished short ribs, after they'd been done braising while they rested before plating.



Reducing the braising liquid to about 1 quart to serve over the short ribs and celery duo.

Here's where I truly failed - I never snapped a picture of the plated entree. It had been a late start to begin with and the house smelled amazing throughout the process, leading to a near-mutiny by the guests. In my haste to get everyone fed I neglected to snag the proverbial "moneyshot". Suffice to say that plating is dead simple. Celery root & potato puree on the bottom, short ribs piled on top, celery stalk on top of the ribs, reduced braising liquids poured over the whole mess.

I'll definitely try my hand at making this again.

Pete wrote:Any recipe that starts off with opening three bottles of wine and setting them on fire is going to instantly appeal to my inner pyromaniac. So, it was decided on the spot that I'd need to make these. Of course, anything worth doing is worth doing well and documenting poorly - so, I don't have any pictures of the wine flaming & reduction process. Suffice to say that it was fun.

There is an episode of Julia Child on TV where she is doing a flaming desert. As is her style, she is waxing poetically about the sauce she is cooking to pour over the desert. She lights the sauce on fire and pours the 'flaming sauce' onto the desert, again talking about how wonderful it is to watch the flame as it carmalizes the desert. Unfortunately, the blue flame of a fire will not photograph or show up on the TV camera. We are left watching her pour what looks like air onto the desert.

Chiming in late as I somehow missed this, Pete.

Great post! It's probably pretty obvious (based on my own posts) but I do love a step-by-step, photo-heavy walkthrough! Great work.

I'm currently cooking dishes that fit perhaps a little better with the rare and short summer-like days that Sweden is experiencing right now. But I'll be sure to check back on this post as autumn starts making itself felt.

Thanks again.

Those shortribs look great. Where did you purchase them at?

brandon_w wrote:Those shortribs look great. Where did you purchase them at?

Amusingly enough? Whole Foods.

I generally prefer Artamo's, but I live on the near east side and it's quite the hike. So, I'll often head west and stop at Whole Foods to check for an item and continue on to Artamo's or the Seafood Center next to it if WF can't help me out. (Which is pretty rare, really.) I've had nothing but good interactions with both the staff at the meat counter at Whole Foods as well as the guys at Artamo's.

Pete wrote:

brandon_w wrote:Those shortribs look great. Where did you purchase them at?

Amusingly enough? Whole Foods.

I generally prefer Artamo's, but I live on the near east side and it's quite the hike. So, I'll often head west and stop at Whole Foods to check for an item and continue on to Artamo's or the Seafood Center next to it if WF can't help me out. (Which is pretty rare, really.) I've had nothing but good interactions with both the staff at the meat counter at Whole Foods as well as the guys at Artamo's.

I'd also suggest checking out Chicago Meat for your shortribs. Also, here's a previous short rib cooking thread that you might find interesting.

Chicago Meat
3021 N Cicero Ave
Chicago, IL 60641
(773) 777-7116

stevez wrote:I'd also suggest checking out Chicago Meat for your shortribs. Also, here's a previous short rib cooking thread that you might find interesting.

Chicago Meat
3021 N Cicero Ave
Chicago, IL 60641
(773) 777-7116

Steve,

I truly wish that was a realistic option for me at this point, but I moved out of the city about a year ago. I'm in Madison these days.

Pete wrote:Steve,

I truly wish that was a realistic option for me at this point, but I moved out of the city about a year ago. I'm in Madison these days.

In that case, find a butcher that will cut the short ribs for you and ask for them cut "flanken style". That should get you what you want.

Finding a butcher in Madison that knows the term "Flanken" might prove to be a difficult task. Artimos might know, I'm not sure though, because my budget doesn't allow me to shop there for meat.

I have run into a couple of older guys at Copps that know about butchering, but are limited on what they can do because of the way the meat comes into the store. Although they are the only place I found on the eastside that can cut shortribs at all, the rest of the places they come in precut in little chunks.

brandon_w wrote:Finding a butcher in Madison that knows the term "Flanken" might prove to be a difficult task.

Give it a try, you might be surprised. Also, you could print out a picture to take with you. 1,000 words and all that.

If you look at the picture in the Boulud recipe, the short ribs do not look like "flanken "style anyway. I doubt it makes any difference to the recipe.

rickster wrote:If you look at the picture in the Boulud recipe, the short ribs do not look like "flanken "style anyway. I doubt it makes any difference to the recipe.

You're right about that. Short ribs taste great no matter how they're cut.

rickster wrote:If you look at the picture in the Boulud recipe, the short ribs do not look like "flanken "style anyway. I doubt it makes any difference to the recipe.

Steve's ribs would definitely fit better in my dutch oven without overly impacting portion size in a negative manner. I'm completely in favor of trying it out.

The Boulud recipe has vanished from the original site but here's an Internet Archive link to it.