Stews glorious stews. The perfect meal for those chilly days where you can just have it in a bowl in front of the fire. Watching the day go by and just slow down. Or you can have it as a hearty meal on a busy week night if you have a slow cooker. I enjoy a good stew because the left overs is great for lunch boxes. So after all my singing praises to the humble stew. This stew came about as I had coffee and balsamic on my counter and wondered if it will go well together with short rib. I was looking for ingredients that can work with short rib to make it a lighter kind of stew than the usual rich stew. I do like the outcome of this stew. If you use a good quality 12 year old balsamic it will make the stew a bit sweeter and when you use a young modena balsamic it will give it a little more zing. So play with your balsamics and your coffees. I used freshly brewed coffee and not instant coffee. It gives the stew depth. Serve with mash, rice or even pap. Enjoy the stew and have fun playing with the recipe. Just a little note. If you have an oven proof dish with a lid that you can use on the stove then you only need to dirty one dish or you can use a pan to do all your frying and then pour everything in either and oven dish or slow cooker.
Ingredients
- 4 Short Ribs +- 1 kg
- 2 tbl Olive Oil
- 3 Carrots, diced
- 2 Celery Sticks with leaves, roughly chopped
- 2 Brown Onions, diced
- 2 Garlic cloves, chopped
- 200 ml Coffee, freshly brewed
- 125 ml Balsamic, I used a 12 year old but use balsamic you have in the house.
- 60 – 90 ml Brown Sugar. If your balsamic is younger and on the acidic side, use some more sugar if you prefer it a little sweeter and don’t have some of the mature balsamic at hand.
- 4 Bay Leaves
- 30 ml Lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- 50g Butter
- Sea Salt & Pepper to taste
Method
- Rub the short rib with 1tbs Olive Oil and season with sea salt.
- Warm your pot and brown the short ribs. When they are nice and browned on all sides. Take them out and set them aside,
- Add 1 tbs Olive oil to the pot and fry the carrots, onions, celery and garlic until it is nice and soft about 5 – 8 minutes.
- Place the short ribs back to the pot then add all the ingredients except the butter and lemon juice to the pot. Stir through.
- Now you can either put the lid on and place in a preheated 180 degrees oven for 4 hours or in your slow cooker at high for 4 hours.
- Check the meat. When they are nice and soft. Take them out and keep warm while you reduce the sauce. This is where you add the butter and lemon juice. It should take about 10 minutes to thicken and glisten.
- Put the short ribs back in to the sauce and serve with rice or mash or any starch you like.
