Red Wine Braised Short Ribs or Boeuf Bourguignon

Hi everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back with a recipe that I thought was a fail, but was actually delicious. How's that for a ringing endorsement, eh?
So, first of all, I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas season. I think he's glad we're home and my opinion is that there's nothing cuter than a kitty under the Christmas tree. We came home from midnight Mass and found him like this.

 We've been on the move so we haven't cooked as much as we do this time of year but we have gotten a batch of tamales and some sugar cookies done. It's not Christmas without those crazily frosted cookies!
Ingredients:
Short ribs, several pounds
2 cups chopped carrots
2 chopped onions
3 celery stalks
5 TBS flour
1 small can of tomato paste
1 bottle full bodied red wine
4 cups of good beef stock
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp rosemary
3 lbs of small potatoes
Although I love mushrooms, I forgot to add them to shopping list and so this isn't completely a traditional boeuf bourguignon... but then with short ribs, that's probably obvious!
                                      
So, the first step in this recipe is to brown the short ribs in small batches, about seven or eight minutes per batch. Transfer to a plate and pour off the drippings except for about 5 tbs. Add about 2 cups of chopped carrots, 2 chopped onions, 3 celery stalks to the drippings and stir on medium high heat until the onion is translucent. Add about 3 TBS of flour to the veggies and let brown, stirring constantly.

 Add the wine, return short ribs to the pot, and let simmer for approximately 25 minutes, or until reduced by half. I don't cook much with wine and I took a taste at this point and was horrified. LOL. Apparently, the alcohol has to cook off before it tastes okay. Never too old to learn new things, right?

 So, here it is, nicely reduced. Add the beef stock, garlic and all the herbs. Bring everything back to a boil and let it simmer for another 30 minutes or so, until it's again reduced by about half. By this point, it was MUCH tastier.

After this point, add the peeled small potatoes, transfer the pot (if it's a dutch oven or cast iron) to the oven and bake at 350F for about 2- 3 hours, or until everything is very tender. The sauce should be very savory and since the beef stock has salt, I didn't feel like I needed to add salt at this point but I did add some pepper. 

All in all, it was a very time-consuming dish but it looked wonderful on the table and our guests definitely recognized it as boeuf bourguignon.  Bonus!

I hope everyone is keeping warm, whether you've stayed home for the holidays or have traveled. Feel free to stop by my facebook page Mary Jane Hathaway, check out my posts at Huffington Post Books, or on my blog The Things That Last. Until next time!