Slow Braised Short Ribs

This stew is most welcome on a fall or winter night! If you own a slow cooker, it can be started on Saturday night and makes a perfect Sunday dinner.

Ingredients:

2 pounds beef short ribs

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon salt

100 grams pancetta (or 2 to 3 bacon slices)

1 onion

3 sticks celery

4 large carrots

2 pieces anis wood (or 2 cinnamon sticks)

½ can tomato (pick the best quality, sweetest tomatoes)

½ to 1 cup dry white wine

Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat.
2. Chop the onion, celery and carrots.
3. Brown the pancetta in the hot oil until slightly crisp, and add the chopped onion.
4. Once the onion is soft and lightly caramelised, add the chopped celery and sauté until soft.
5. Transfer the pancetta and vegetables into the slow cooker and mix the chopped carrots in.
6. Top the vegetables with the anis wood.
7. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the same pan.
8. Mix the flour with salt and pepper on a plate and coat the ribs with the flour mixture. Drain the flour and brown the meat in the hot oil.
9. Transfer the ribs, with bone underneath, onto the anis wood.
10. Add the leftover flour to the pan and stir-fry for 1-2 mns over low to medium-high heat.
11. Drain some of the tomato juice into the flour and stir until forming a ball. Cook the ball for 1 mns, and deglaze with splash of wine until the ball is dissolved. Stir in the rest of the wine and tomato. Pour the tomato gravy on the meat.

12. Slow cook overnight. Moisten the stew with a splash of wine if it looks dry after 12 hr cooking and resume cooking.
13. Serve hot over mashed potatoes, steamed rice or bread.