Beef & Guinness Short Ribs

3 tablespoons olive oil
4 lbs. boneless beef short ribs, cut into 1.5" pieces
1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 cups low-sodium beef stock

1 pint Guinness
Fresh green salad, optional
Mashed potatoes, optional

Preheat the oven to 380 degrees F.

In a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil. Season the short ribs with salt and pepper, to taste, and sear in the Dutch oven until brown, about 5 minutes per side. Remove the meat from pan and set aside. Add the onions and garlic to the same pan and saute, until lightly browned. Scrape any brown bits from the bottom of the pan using a wooden spoon. Add the carrots and celery and let cook for 5 more minutes. Add 1 cup of beef stock and scrape bottom of pan to remove any more browned bits. Return the meat to the pot along with the remaining stock and the beer. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring the stew to a simmer and cook uncovered for 20 minutes. Cover and braise in the oven for 2 hours.

Serve with a fresh green salad or on top of mashed potatoes, if desired.

Carrots Cooked in Carrot Juice

This amazing method of cooking carrots comes from the fantastic Lucky Peach Magazine, a quarterly journal of food and writing. It’s a recipe by David Chang and comes from an article in the latest ‘Chefs Edition‘ where he challenges a few cooking techniques.

I’ll get to the carrots in a bit, but in this article, which is superbly written by Peter Meehan, Chang says ‘We’ve got to talk about it in the Chefs Issue. About not always blindly  following culinary dogma. Especially blanching. And stocks. Boiling stocks is so stupid. And olive oil is a scam for idiots.’

He puts forward a great argument for all of the above with Mark Bittman, and it’s an excellent read. I knew immediately that I wanted to test this technique as I really get the notion that blanching vegetables in water before finishing them off in the pan is weird. Im not sure if I totally agree with Chang’s philosophy about never blanching vegetables, because a quick blanch for some dishes can take the much needed raw edge off, but cooking carrots (or vegetables in general) in their own juice makes so much sense. The flavour intensifies and they are completely delicious. David cooks up these carrots in fresh carrot juice which has been fortified with kombu to add fantastic umami flavour. He’s very big into adding umami.

• 1 cup carrot juice
• 1 sheet kombu 
• 1 - 2 T butter
• 4 carrots scrubbed and roughly sliced on the bias
• salt to taste

1. In a small pot, heat the carrot juice with the kombu (lowest setting and allow it to steep for 20 - 40 mins.
2. Melt the butter in a wide pan with a lid and once the butter has stopped bubbling add your carrots. Add a large pinch of sea salt and toss it all around to coat the carrots. Add the carrot juice and cover the pan.
3. Continue to cook the carrots until done to your preference, giving the pan a shake now and again or stirring. They should be cooked around 6 - 8 minutes - or longer if you prefer softer. The goal is to be left with a reduction of juice that acts as a glaze to coat the carrots.