Having discovered the value of beef short ribs, whilst shopping for the weekend roast I took the opportunity to grab some more from the supermarket meat counter. The meat is cheap and its marbling makes it fantastic for slow cooking - this dish took less than 10 minutes prep time and then sat in the oven all afternoon and turned out pretty great.
(If anyone can teach me how to take a good photo of what is essentially a mush of vegetable casserole and a lump of meat then please do!)
If I'm honest, it was a fairly random, BBQ inspired casserole, whilst distinctly trying not to taste like BBQ. What I mean is, the ingredients are really just a combination of my usual BBQ ratatouille and short beef ribs, but no BBQ rubs/spices/flavours. As you would expect with the level of marbling in the meat, after slow cooking the meat fell off the bone and was incredibly soft - I could literally cut the meat with a spoon.
(If anyone can teach me how to take a good photo of what is essentially a mush of vegetable casserole and a lump of meat then please do!)
If I'm honest, it was a fairly random, BBQ inspired casserole, whilst distinctly trying not to taste like BBQ. What I mean is, the ingredients are really just a combination of my usual BBQ ratatouille and short beef ribs, but no BBQ rubs/spices/flavours. As you would expect with the level of marbling in the meat, after slow cooking the meat fell off the bone and was incredibly soft - I could literally cut the meat with a spoon.
Ingredients
- 1 beef short rib (just under 500g, served two people)
- 1 tablespoon of mustard
- 1 tablespoon of tomato puree
- 250ml stock (vegetable/beef/whatever)
- 1 onion
- 1 aubergine
- 1 courgette
- 1 clove of garlic
- butter for cooking onions
- salt and pepper for seasoning
- 400gram tin of chopped tomatoes
Method
- Chop the onion and garlic and cook over a medium heat in the butter, untill soft (5 mins or so)
- Whilst the onions are cooking, chop the aubergine and set aside (on a plate/kitchen towel etc) and salt liberally - this is just to draw out the moisture and bitterness - we will wash this off later
- Next chop up the courgette
- Once the onions are soft, stir in the tomato puree and mustard and cook for another minute or two
- Now quickly throw the rib into the pan and brown it
- Wash the aubergines in cold water, layer them in the bottom of a casserole dish and then sit the rib(s) on top
- add the chopped tomatoes to the pan with the onions etc, mix through to de-glaze the pan, then pour the tomato mix over the rib in the casserole dish
- Cover and cook in the oven at 140 degrees for 4 hours or so, serve with mash, crusty bread, or whatever!