Braised short ribs: the results

This was a pretty simple dish to cook, there are a couple of things that made it a bit more complicated but overall not too bad. I browned the meat and made the sauce and threw it in the dutch oven. The one thing that made it complicated was the fat. Short ribs are extremely fatty and as you braise the meat that fat comes off so you need to skim it off the sauce or it'll taste like crap. I don't know if there's a better way to do it but I look for where the fat is on the sauce and took a large metal spoon and skimmed it off. All told, I probably ended up skimming a cup and a quarter of fat off the sauce and two different points. Again, it's a pain in the ass to do but you have to do it.

I ended up braising the short ribs for a little more than three hours. They were falling off the bone at that point. You could probably go a little bit less, but I wouldn't recommend it. And you could let it cook longer if you wanted to. I cranked up the heat on the sauce to let it cook down but it wasn't doing much so I added a little flour to thicken it. When I tired the sauce on its own it was pretty sweet, but with the meat and potatoes it worked well.
The photo above is my attempt at a nice presentation, yeah, I know not very nice but I figured I would try. Also, I substituted portabello for porcini and I think it worked.

The meal overall was fantastic. I was very happy with the flavor and texture of the meat. Rory says the meat melted off the bone, you could taste the zinfandel (the wine didn't suck) but it wasn't overpowering.

I will make this recipe again, but will most likely try another short rib recipe before going back to this one.