SR Fresh Hot Sauce -- Heat with Intensity of Fresh Flavor!

As I have mentioned before, I make Hot Pepper Sauces myself, and for those who would like to check them out I now have an ecommerce site that explains the Hot Sauces and sells them. Check out the SR Fresh Hot Sauce website.

I have talked a bit about these sauces elsewhere in this blog, and I certainly recommend you take a look at those articles, but I do want to say that in the Hot Sauces I make, I have tried to address the lack of Real Pepper Flavor in most (all other???) commercial hot sauces.

Oh, a lot of them taste good and I like them, and they do get some flavor from Hot Peppers, as well as Heat of course, but they don't have the Real Fresh Flavor of the Habanero, Cayenne, Jalapeno, or Fresno or other Peppers I use in making the sauce.

These sauces are a pain to make. They are mostly Fresh and Blended Juice that has been allowed to settle and the micro-particles of Pepper saturate for a couple of months while kept under refrigeration.

During that time, what becomes the actual sauce forms a concentrated layer at the bottom, of micro-solids and juice, underneath a clear and much less flavorful layer which is not used. So the process is inefficient and expensive as well.

And the sauce has to be kept cold, too.

But It's Worth It!

So this Hot Sauce is fairly expensive, too, by commercial Hot Sauce standards. After all it's not mostly distilled vinegar. It's Fresh Pepper and other Fresh Juices that have been concentrated for flavor, and which are much more expensive than vinegar.

So the proof is in the pudding ... no, it's in the Hot Sauce!

I invite you to give them a try.

Yours in Heat and Flavor,

~Ted

4th of July (Coming Right Up) Hot Ribs -- A Little Bit Different

As part of my ongoing articles on foods/recipes that go well with HEAT, I'm going to include something for 4th of July weekend. Pork Spareribs on the grill. Perfect. Except ... maybe not the same old ribs on the grill, maybe something a little different, and ... a little better even. But not hard to make. That's the ticket. That's what I've been planning for the 4th anyway.

We are not going to brine the ribs. That's too much work. We are going to get major flavor from them, though, in 2 ways.

One, we are going to semi-cure them -- the outside anyway -- and dry out the exterior, so it crisps up nicely.

Two, we are going to a make a hot pepper and sweet bell pepper mop/infused sauce, or whatever you want to call it, for a BBQ sauce, to slather on for the last 1/2 hour or so, and some extra, for serving the ribs with. I think it's very, very good.

OK, pick the pork ribs of your choice; they can be baby backs, or spareribs. The only difference will be the cooking time. The sauce that follows is based on 1 rack of ribs -- if you have more increase the sauce accordingly.

With either cut, we will rinse and dry the ribs and then lay them in a large sheet pan, and salt, pepper (use freshly ground black pepper), and sugar (use light brown sugar) the top and bottom of the ribs and the trimmings. And if you want to get some heat on the ribs at this point, you can dust the racks and trimmings with ancho or chipotle chile powder as well. If you are using spareribs, do trim and save the non-bony parts from the rib sections with a knife of kitchen shears, and trim as well any large flaps of meat that are attached to the bottom of the ribs. No need to tear the membrane from the bottom of the rack. Since the trimmings are done sooner than the other parts, you can be eating your appetizer while waiting for the rest of the BBQ to finish!

Then put the uncovered pan in the fridge overnight or until a couple of hours before you are ready to grill. At which time, pull them out and let them come to room temperature before grilling them. The dry-rub salt and sugar mixture will have dissolved to a glaze coating the ribs, which is perfect.

I often cheat and start with a commercial sauce; I like a bottle of Stonewall Kitchens Mesquite Steak Sauce, not for steak, but for PORK, and a small jar of Hoisin Sauce, say 8 oz, to start the mop or BBQ sauce, and then:

I then add a non-traditional Bell Pepper reduction. This is actually the basic recipe for one of my Fresh Hot Pepper Sauces. You can do without it if you like or just use your favorite BBQ sauce, but I am willing to go the extra mile! For the Flavor! And the Bell Pepper reduction does combine vinegar (acid), salt, and sweet flavors, which are traditional, so ...

Oh, you need a juicer!

8 to 12 red, yellow, or orange sweet bell peppers, depending on size

16 cloves of garlic

1 large sweet or Vidalia onion

1 TBS salt, preferably sea salt, or to taste

Rice Wine Vinegar, approx 1/2 cup

Hot Peppers of choice -- I like 4 or 5 Habaneros, myself, but you can substitute the Hot Sauce of your choice instead, if you wish.

Juice the first 3 ingredients (and Hot Peppers if using), and add the salt, and vinegar, but add about 10% by volume only, approx 1/2 cup depending on the juice in your peppers and onion.

Now reduce (in a non-stick frying pan) the pepper juice mixture by about 75%, that is, leaving only 25% of the original volume of liquid.

The remaining pepper liquid should have become a little thick and syrupy.

Check the seasoning. You should have a bright, sweet, somewhat garlicky and oniony, but not salty liquid -- if the flavor does not pop enough add salt a TSP at a time until the flavor develops.

Good. Mix it all together, that is, the Mesquite Steak Sauce, the Hoisin, and the Bell Pepper reduction you've just made. Taste it. If you want something hotter, juice more Habaneros, or add your Hot Sauce of choice, or some Huy Fong Chili Garlic sauce, for a really good kick. You don't want to add the Bell Pepper reduction, or make it? Fine. The Mesquite/Hoisin mixture is great by itself. Just add your Hot Sauce. You should end up with about a quart of BBQ sauce total if you have added the Bell Pepper reduction.

Now we are going to grill the ribs at 300 DEG until they are tender and nearly done. For those of you with a digital meat thermometer, that's about 180 degrees. For those of you who do not, that's when 1/8" of bone starts to show at the sides of the racks of ribs and the ribs are knife tender, but not fork tender.

If you are doing this on the grill, be sure to use indirect heat, and do not place the ribs directly over the open flame. Place them bone side down.

At the 180 DEG point with 1/8" of bone showing, we begin to mop the ribs (top and bottom) with the mop/glaze every 15 minutes or so, for about 1/2 hour(3 mops) to 45 minutes (4 mops), at which point the ribs will measure around 190 to 195 DEG , and they will show 1/4" of bone and start to pull apart easily. The whole thing will take a little over an hour for the trimmed pieces; the back ribs may take and hour and a half; the spareribs make take 2 hours to 2-1/2 hours.

OK, they are done.

Serve.

Happy 4th of July!

You don't actually need the excuse ...

~Ted

Bufalo Jalapeno and Bufalo Chipotle Hot Sauce Reviews

Today I want to talk about 2 commercial hot sauce, the Bufalo Jalapeno Mexican Hot Sauce, and the Bufalo Chipotle Mexican Hot Sauce, from Herdez Corp., of Stockton, Ca. according to the bottle but online searching indicates they are a Hormel product, and made in Mexico.

I have a weakness for commercial hot sauces. Because they are readily available from supermarkets and local specialty stores, I think of them as hot sauces for everyone. So I am in a never-ending search to find the overlooked or unnoticed among those hot sauces which you can often just go down to the store and buy.

Two recent discoveries of which I very much approve are Mexican, the Bufalo Jalapeno. and Bufalo Chipotle, and I bought them from our local King's supermarket, a local chain. Cost less than 3 bucks each for the 5.5 oz bottles.

The Bufalo Jalapeno is RED, not Green, and clearly made from fully ripened Jalapeno peppers, and so this hot sauce has fully ripened, fruity flavors, rather than the grassy, herby flavors of the unripened Green Jalapeno.

Bufalo Jalapeno Mexican Hot Sauce:

Ingdts: Water, Carrots, Distilled Vinegar, Chile Peppers, Sugar, Salt, Carob Bean Gum, .1% Sodium Benzoate, Spices, and Red Food Coloring

Well, the ingredients make this product a fairly typical commercial product, except for the carrots, which add a nice sweetness, and which I like very much in hot sauces, though carrots are more readily found in Caribbean style sauce.

The bottle warns that this sauce is Very Hot, and while it has some heat, it is NOT very hot at all. On the tongue, there is first a sweet red pepper fruitiness along with a nice lemony saltiness from the vinegar, and the sauce fades very gradually over a minute or two to a mild or medium heat with a lingering hint of lemon and pepper sweetness. Very faintly in the background is a little hint that the pepper used is a Jalapeno from just a faint herbiness that adds complexity to the overall flavor. It's really nice. The texture is fairly thick.

I have used it on eggs, a bacon cheeseburger, in a gringo Mexican Posole pork and hominy soup, in my chick pea and smoked ham hock soup, on a chicken sandwich and in a bean salad. Was terrific in all of them. Would make a terrific wing sauce, too, I think.

If you see it, buy it; you will like it.

Highly Recommended.

Now to the Chipotle sauce. Well, this is a more narrowly focused product, useful in much the same way a spicy worcestershire sauce, or A1 steak sauce is useful, that is, on red meat.

Bufalo Chipotle Mexican Hot Sauce:

Ingdts: Water, Distilled Vinegar, Chile Peppers, Sugar, Salt, Caramel, Spices, .1% Sodium Benzoate.

It makes me laugh to compare the info provided here with that on the label for the red Jalapeno sauce. It's just about the same; except for the omission of the gum for thickening, it is the same.

So the label could be more forthcoming.The sauces are NOT the same.

Anyway. as far as the tasting goes, the first impression is one of strong Chipotle smokiness over a pretty salty/lemony vinegar flavor with a moderate pepper heat, and all flavors fade gradually leaving a predominance of mild heat with a hint of smoke, salt, and vinegar after a minute or 2. Quite pleasant, no bitterness really. The texture is very thick.

The heavy meatiness of the sauce would seem to restrict its use to, well, heavy and meaty dishes. Which is true. Great on burgers and steak. Don't even want to try it on other stuff.

Recommended within its narrow range of utility.

Yours in Heat and Flavor,

~Ted

Photos courtesy of HerdezTraditions.com

Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce -- or Why Hot Sauces Don't Necessarily Do to Food What You Think They Will!

Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce from Huy Fong Foods, Inc. is a relative newcomer to widely available (a lot of mainstream grocery stores carry it), commercial hot sauces and has quite a number of fans, who think it wonderful on everything from eggs, to asian food, and from American Food to old boots, I guess.

There isn't much neutral ground either: people like it or hate it. Why?

It is a fairly simple sauce with only 5 major ingredients, quite thick, and with some real heat and a nice salty/sweet/sour garlicky flavor ... at first, but by itself, it has ... drum roll, please ... a rather bitter finish.

Those ingredients are: red ripe jalapenos, sugar, salt, garlic, and distilled vinegar, along with some preservatives and xanthan gum thickener.

I do not know where the bitterness comes from for sure, but I suspect it is from the jalapenos, which, even when full ripe and red, have a a grassy bitterness.

If you taste HF Sriracha out of the squeeze bottle, that's the impression you are left with after the heat and other flavors fade -- mild bitterness. Not so nice.

How many of us are looking for that in our hot sauces?

Not too many, I think.

So why do (s0me/many) people like it? I guess some like the bitterness, but ...

Well, most people don't consume plain hot sauce; they add it to food. And that's where Sriracha shines, or, umm, should I say, tastes good.

The mild bitterness which is really a fairly prominent, grassy herbiness adds complexity and depth to strong, simple flavors, and when Sriracha is mixed with other foods, that bitterness is diluted and muted and recedes into the background as a complementary and pleasant aspect to the overall flavor.

But the first taste of Sriracha is really very nice indeed, with the bright, ripe pepper flavor and the lemony garlicky salty sweetness ... MMMMMmmmmm. Then of course, the bitterness. However, when diluted with food, the initial bright pepper flavor remains, and the bitterness fades quite a bit.

Some more delicate foods do not benefit from Sriracha: I do not like it with the delicate flavors of eggs or fish, for instance.

I also do not like HF Sriracha directly on many foods, such as over meats or on fries, but I do like it when mixed with other foods.

But, Sriracha is great in making a Spicy Garlic Aioli, for instance. Just mix your favorite prepared mayonaise, I like Hellman's (Best Foods in the West) myself, with 1/4 to 1/2 the quantity by volume of Sriracha. Voila! Excellent Spicy Aioli! Great with fried foods, steak, sandwiches, you name it.

Let me say this though about Sriracha sauces: Huy Fong in the squeeze bottle is not the only brand around. There is also the much less widely available Shark Brand Sriracha which is a Thai product, note that Huy Fong is American, and, frankly, Shark Brand tastes better. Not as bitter and better balanced, but still with that nice salty/garlicky/acid bright flavor and not too much on the vinegar, and a little less heat.

There is also an ABC Indonesian brand that I have not tried, and there are Ka-Me and Roland knock-offs of the Huy Fong product. Ka-Me I have not tried. The Roland product is even more bitter than the Huy Fong.

Get the Shark Brand if you can.

And the lesson here is that hot sauces don't necessarily taste the same right out of the bottle as they do in the food you eat.

I can recommend the Shark Brand Sriracha without reservation, but the HF Sriracha I can only recommend with the fairly serious reservation that its real bitterness restricts its use to complex and robust foods.

Yours in Heat and Flavor,

~Ted

Benito's Hot Sauces -- The Review

This review has been some time in coming, but I finally got hold of all 5 of Benito's Hot Sauces, which are:

Benito's White Hot

Ingdts: organic bhut jolokias (ghost peppers), organic orange habaneros, organic ginger, organic lime juice, fresh onions and garlic

Joes' #1 Jalapa

Ingdts: lime juice, jalapeno peppers, habanero peppers, cubanelle peppers, white onions, garlic, cilantro, extra virgin olive oil, white vinegar

Old Bricktucky Cayenne

Ingdts: lime juice, cinnamon, cayenne peppers, paprika, extra virgin olive oil, red bell peppers, white vinegar, roma tomatoes, white onions, garlic

Mango Habanero

Ingdts: yellow bell peppers, lime juice, vinegar, habanero peppers, mango nectar, extra virgin olive oil, onion

and

Naranja (that's Orange to you gringos)

Ingdts: orange bell peppers, lime juice, vinegar, habanero peppers, ginger, carrots, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, onions

I've been interested in these sauces for a while because ... they are designed to be Fresh Tasting! And, Fresh is Good. Fresh is where intensity and brightness of flavor come from.

As you may know, I myself Make Fresh Hot Sauce, and Very Fresh It Is, Too.

So I have a personal stake in this type of sauce, which I think is definitely a step in the right direction.

Benito Maniscalco, the maker and owner, will be the first to admit, these are not Hot, as Hot Sauces go, and says he is interested in big, fresh flavor with just enough, but not too much heat, so the sauces will appeal to a broad audience.

Let's see:

Now the White Hot states on the web site that it "packs extreme heat!" Given that it lists the 1 million Scoville Heat Unit Bhut Jolokia Pepper as its principal ingredient, one could imagine that would be true. Well, it's not. Thank Goodness.

This sauce has a bit of a fearsome look to it, thick and white with little floating flecks of something or other.

To the nose it has strong notes of lime/onion/garlic with a light peppery undertone.

On the tongue, and I had to do a full teaspoon test, instead of my usual 1/4 teaspoon test. because the sauce is not that hot, I tasted a nice fresh lime and mild habanero pepper needle-like heat, finishing with a fruity, slightly acid and fresh pepper finish. Very pleasant, very clean, about 1/2 the heat of say, Tabasco. Some slight ginger and garlic presence in the background. There is a slightly pulpy texture.

There is no Saltiness to the flavor -- none at all. You can see from the ingredients that there is no salt added to he sauce. It is an interesting choice on Benito's part, since to some degree, Salt Is Flavor. Oh, I know most of us like some saltiness in our food, but aside from that, Salt itself is necessary to bring out Taste.

Anyone who has made chicken stock knows that you can make the stock from the best ingredients, but unless you add some salt, it tastes like dishwater.

So whatever you add the White Hot to will and should have some salt in it. And it will need it. What should you add White Hot to?

Well this sauce, fruity and fresh as it is, should go very well with lighter fare, such as fish, chicken, and the like, as well as food that combines sweet and savory. And it does -- it's really good on a chicken sandwich with french bread with mayo and red onion.

Make no mistake, this is a very unusual Hot Sauce, and one with a lot of flavor going for it.

It is very different from most of the stuff in a 5 oz bottle however.

Make sure you add it to something with some salt in it -- it will need it!

Recommended.

Which brings me to an important point. All of these sauces are more similar than they are different.

They are all limey/fruity, a little pulpy, fresh-tasting, have a roughly similar amount of heat, and no saltiness and not much vinegar.

The Bricktucky is a nod in the direction of a Louisiana Style Cayenne Hot Sauce, with some cayenne flavor, but still the above described overall flavor profile applies

The Jalapa has the grassy herbiness of the jalapeno pepper; the Naranja has the carroty sweetness of a Carribean Hot Sauce; and the Mango Habanero has the mango flavor and the least heat.

So you can choose your Benito's pretty much on that basis.

I would add the Mango or the Naranja to a tropical Pico de Gallo, or to fish or lighter fare, and the Bricktucky or Jalapa to a burger or meat.

Some of the user reviews on Benito's website suggest use in eggs (can't see it, personally -- don't want any fruit in my eggs -- but that's just me), and I invite you to check it out. The comments are at the bottom of the main page.

Many of the labels cite organic ingredients as does Benito's website, although there is some inconsistency as to specific ingredients in each of the sauces, website vs labels.

I just love hot dogs, or kielbasa with any of the sauces, especially when you use a lot and add it to other condiments like ketchup, mustard, onions, kraut, and relish.

Like no other Hot Sauces.

Recommended.

~Ted

Cholula -- The Sequel: Chipotle, Chili Lime, Chili Garlic -- More Mexican Hot Sauces!

I really liked the Cholula Hot Sauce I reviewed a month ago, and I am always interested in checking out locally, and hopefully, widely available Hot Sauces, that you can find in the supermarket, so I was pleased to discover 3 more Cholula Hot Sauces in our local King's Supermarket (part of a fairly small, upscale, northern NJ regional chain)-- the Chili Lime, Chili Garlic, and Chipotle.

They are not expensive, and I hoped, as with the original Cholula, they would have really good flavor. For more info about Cholula and their Hot Sauces, do see the review link above.

OK, straight to the reviews.

Cholula Chili Lime:

Ingdts: Water, Apple and White Vinegar, Peppers -- Guajillo/Paprika/Arbol/Piquin, Salt, Sugar, Dried Tomato, Natural Flavor, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, Citric Acid, Silicon Dioxide, Garlic, and Xanthan Gum

Wow, that's quite a list of ingredients. For a sauce with water and vinegar as the 2 primary ingredients, this is quite thick. 4 different types of peppers, hmmm. Also included is hydrolyzed vegetable protein, which is high in glutamates, and is a "meatiness" ingredient. Adds what the Japanese call "Umami", for you foodies.

Well, to the nose, there are strong lime and dried/aged pepper notes, characteristically Cholula arbol and piquin, with just a little sweetness.

The 1/4 TSP to the tongue test gives a salty/lime taste 1st, followed by a strong Arbol dried/aged pepper flavor with some mild heat, and saltiness, fading to a pleasant and mild pepper heat over a minute or so. This is not a very hot sauce. Tomato and Garlic are off in the background. Texture is thick and smooth.

Overall impression is very pleasant, and the many ingredients give a complex and well balanced flavor that is robust and delicate at the same time.

This sauce is certainly suitable for Mexican food, and, for those of you who like a strong lime flavor, suitable for a wide range of dishes, from eggs, to steak, and sandwiches to stew. Great with a Bloody Mary.

As with other Mexican Hot Sauces, the Vinegar is in the background, quite unlike a Louisiana Style sauce, which is primarily a Vinegar sauce.

The sauce could be a little hotter. You have to put a lot of it on robust and complicated foods to get the heat.

Highly Recommended.

Now for the

Cholula Chili Garlic:

Ingdts: Water, Salt, Dried Peppers -- Arbol and Piquin, Vinegar, Garlic, Spices, Natural Flavors, Xanthan Gum, Dried Garlic.

This formula is quite a bit simpler than that for the Chili Lime, but the flavor is very similar -- just take out the lime and add a big dose of garlic and there you are! Heat level is similar, and there isn't quite the same level of pepper complexity, but hey, it's a Garlic Lover's dream!

Chili Garlic will be good on all of the same foods, too. Chili Lime will be better for a Bloody Mary.

Highly Recommended especially for Garlic Lovers.

Last but not least is the

Cholula Chipotle:

Ingdts: Water, White and Apple Vinegar, Sugar, Peppers -- Chipotle/Guajillo/Arbol/Piquin, Salt, Natural Flavors, Spices, Xanthan Gum, Silicon Dioxide, Citric Acid, Caramel

This list is VERY similar to that for the Chili Lime. The Chipotle has no Paprika, Tomato, or Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, but it does have Chipotle, of course, and Caramel.

The Cholula Chipotle is very Smoky to the Nose and the Tongue, a little sweet to the tongue, and has a more slowly developing pepper heat that lingers nicely for a minute or 2. The texture is again similar, smooth and a bit thick.

This is a great sauce for robust, long-cooked, or meaty foods, like burgers, steak, pork, stews, and anything you want smoky.

Highly Recommended especially for the carnivore crowd.

Cholula goes 3 for 3 today. Good job, and good for all of us!

I have delayed the Benito's Hot Sauce reviews, because the latest product I have received is not similar to the last I had. Soon as I clear that up, I will review the White Hot, Naranja, Joe's #1 Jalapa, Bricktucky, and Habanero Mango.

Yours in heat and flavor,

~Ted

How Hot is Hot? Is Hotter Hot Sauce Better?

So if we like Hot Sauce, and Heat is Good, and more is better, then the Hotter Hot Sauce is better, right? Well, that's obviously not true, and we all know we have our limits.

Testosterone crazed males aside, most of us will even admit that flavor is important, too. So, how much Heat is right?

If you are to believe the ads and photos for many Hot Sauces, like the one above, and the labels on the Hot Sauce Bottles, many are so hot that they can cause insanity and death -- clearly false advertising! I know, because I have tested regular so-called Insanity Hot Sauces and Death Sauces, and they are quite safe for people who can tolerate a basic level of heat.

The makers of these sauces do offer hotter sauces, and even much, much hotter sauces, and these sauces are really scary hot, often hot enough to cause a nasty accident if used unwisely or by someone unaware. But what purpose do they serve, really?

The truth is, the hotter the sauce, the less you can use of that sauce, and the less you can use, the less flavor you get. Period.

I know when I make a Hot Sauce and use a very Hot Pepper, like a Habanero, I have to use less of that pepper by proportion, compared to, say, a Cayenne Pepper, and even so, because peppers vary in heat from one batch to the next, I have to taste the Hot Sauce and adjust accordingly.

There are some really good Hot Sauces out there, and some of them are pretty hot, too, but one thing the good ones have in common is FLAVOR, not just heat.

One of my favorite Hot Sauces, which is not super hot, but which is a good place to begin because it has Real Flavor, is Blair's Original Death Sauce, which I reviewed earlier. It won't kill ya', and you'll be glad you tried it. You want something hotter, try the other "Death Sauces", from "After Death", "Pure Death", "Megadeath", and "Ultra Death", to "Sudden Death".

Don't be fooled, "Mo' Hotta" ain't necessarily "Mo' Betta!"

That said, I do like fairly hot, Hot Sauce. Just, not with Pepper Extract, and Capsaicin.

I want the Real Pepper, not just the hot part.

~Ted

Image courtesy of Jailhouse Fire Hot Sauce. Love the image -- don't know anything about the Hot Sauce.

Technorati Tags: Technorati Tags: Hot Sauce Hottest Hot Sauce

Beef Short Ribs -- Foods for Hot Sauce

So we like Hot Sauce because it makes food taste good, right? Yes! In keeping with that. I'm going to post one of my favorite recipes, which is great with almost any Hot Sauce, and is particularly tolerant of REAL Heat. That is ... my Braised Short Ribs. My God, I love it. I consider this to be The Ultimate Beef Stew.

The recipe will make 16 single rib servings, which in my house translates to 8 or fewer servings. And it makes a lot of honest beef stock gravy, in this case, really, sauce, that is thickened with the natural gelatin from the collagen in the cartilage and bones of the short ribs.

Do not be tempted to marinate the short ribs before cooking -- it is not necessary -- the short ribs have tremendous flavor and texture all by themselves.

This recipe is good with lots of sides, mashed potatoes, noodles, and good with Cayenne Pepper Sauce. It's good with Habanero Pepper Sauce, too.

I cook it in the Slow Cooker after browning the ribs, and I like to let the ribs braise overnight, or about 12 hours on low, strain and de-fat the liquid in the AM, and recombine the sauce and the Short Ribs by dinner time. You do not have to use a slow cooker for this, however, and braised in the oven at 300 for 6 hours or so or on the stove for 6 to 8 hours at low, the dish will be fine. For oven or stovetop, test each hour after 3 hours or so for doneness -- when the meat starts to fall off the bone, it's done.

Braised Short Ribs with Red or White Wine:

8 lbs of beef short ribs. or flanken, preferably with the bone in
1 large sweet onion, rough chop
2 large sweet onions medium dice
3 large carrots, rough chop
3 cups medium dice carrots
4 stalks of celery, rough chop
3 cups medium dice celery
8 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 to 8 TBS tomato paste
4 bay leaves
Bouquet Garni (small bundle) of fresh herbs -- parsley, oregano, marjoram, rosemary, thyme ...
2 or 3 TSP freshly ground black pepper or pepper mix
3 TSP sea salt
3 to 6 TSP fresh (not old) paprika
1/2 to 1 bottle drinkable cabernet or merlot, not too dry, or sauvignon blanc--full bottle

Optional -- pearl onions, mushrooms ...

The recipe will involve 3 cooking segments -- 1) preparing the ingredients for the slow-cooker, about 30 minutes -- 2) straining and de-fatting the stock, and removing the fat, bones, and rubbery parts from the short ribs, about 30 minutes-- 3) reducing the stock, sauteeing some new veggies and combining the ingredients, about 30 to 45 minutes. The 3 cooking segments are spread out over a 24 hour period, which for me are usually the afternoon of the day before serving, the morning of the day the dish is served, and the evening of the meal.

Part 1:

On a large sheet pan place the short ribs in a single layer, douse them with olive oil and salt generously, then brown them in a 450 degree oven for about 30 minutes or longer until well colored.

Transfer to the bottom of a large slow cooker, including juices from the pan.

Add all other ingredients, and then enough water to bring to a level with the top layer of veggies. Slide bundle of herbs (Bouquet Garni) into pot at the side. If you have an unsalted demi-glace or stock (beef or chicken) you could add that in place of the water -- it is not necessary.

At this point you could add some optional spices, like 2 or 3 TSP of ground chipotle pepper, or ancho pepper, 1/2 TSP of liquid smoke, or 2 TSP of cumin, or whatever you think will taste good. Or you could save the modifications for the next time you make this.

So now you set the slow cooker for low heat and 12 hours, the night before, and come back in the AM to an all-pervasive aroma that makes you hungry for dinner before you've even had breakfast. That's what happens to me, anyway.


Part 2:

After the slow cooker pot has had a chance to cool a bit, transfer , carefully and gently, all of the short ribs to an appropriate sized dutch oven, with enough room left over to add more sauteed veggies, and all of the stock.

After you've transferred the short ribs, you can slide the rib bones out of the meat and carefully pull or cut off the rubbery membrane that sleeves the bone.

Strain the cooking stock through a chinois or a fine mesh sieve and carefully compress the solid matter against the mesh to extract all that slow-cooked goodness.

Transfer liquid to tall 1 or 2 quart containers with lids and place in freezer until fat has congealed.

Part 3:

Then remove fat from top of the frozen stock containers with a spoon and discard.

Reduce stock by about 1/3 at a simmer.

Saute in 3 TBS neutral oil over medium high heat 3 cups each of medium dice carrots and medium diced celery until just softening about 5 to 8 minutes, and reserve.

Saute over medium high heat 4 cups of medium dice sweet onion in 3 TBS olive oil. until well browned but not burned, about 15 to 25 minutes. Nonstick pans are good for this.

Add to stock and simmer for 30 minutes more.

Taste and correct the seasoning with additional sea salt and freshly ground black pepper as required.

Pour stock and onion mixture back into dutch oven with short ribs and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add any optional veggies, such as mushrooms or pearl onions (you can saute them a little first if you like to build flavor and pre-soften them)

Add carrots and celery to dutch oven and continue to simmer for 15 minutes.

Correct the seasoning again and serve. Add some Hot Sauce to the pot if all of your customers will approve.

As I said earlier, to my own serving I add my SR Virgin Fresh Red Cayenne-Cherry Pepper Sauce that's made with fresh pepper juice, fresh garlic juice, and fresh onion juice as well as a little sea salt and rice wine vinegar. !!!


This dish gets better and better over the week to 10 days from making it, and you can serve it with different sides each time.

By the way, it freezes very well and keeps in the fridge for quite a while since it's immersed in the solidified gelatin of the sauce.

If you make it, let me know!

Yours in flavor and heat,

~Ted


Technorati Tags: Beef Short Ribs Beef Short Ribs Recipes Recipes Good with Hot Sauce