Slow Cooked Short Rib

This holiday season, I was given the greatest gift of all. A slow cooker! Yay! I decided to christen it with short ribs.

The meat melts down over the course of hours, turning into rich, tender bits of falling-off-the-bone loveliness. I like to use vegetables that hold their shape well, like mushrooms and onions for dishes that cook more than two hours and I avoid ones that turn to mush, like carrots. The onions add a subtle sweetness and the mushrooms lend additional heft. Served over mashed potatoes, this dish becomes a serious winter warmer.

One last note is that I like to remove the meat from the bone before serving just to make it a little easier to eat and slightly more presentable.

Slow Cooked Short Rib – serves 2 – 4

2 lb beef short rib
1 T olive oil
16 oz whole button mushrooms
2 leeks, cleaned and loosely chopped
1 yellow onion, quartered
1 C dry red wine
2 C beef stock
1/3 C brown sugar

Prepare vegetables and arrange the first layer of leeks and smaller mushrooms in the slow cooker.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high. Sear the short ribs on all sides. Remove ribs from skillet and arrange on top of the vegetables in the slow cooker. De-glaze the skillet with red wine, scraping up any small bits. Stir the beef stock and brown sugar into the wine.

Arrange the larger mushrooms and quartered onions over and around the ribs. Pour the wine mixture over the short ribs. Cover and set the slow cooker to low. Cook for 8 hours.

Slide the meat off of the bone and serve with vegetables over mashed potatoes.

Ingredient origins: Short rib – can’t be sure (I know it’s terrible! I bought it at a store whose name rhymes with stop and flop, which means the cow was probably raised on a brown, hideous feedlot somewhere in the Midwest, consuming corn and other things that cows should not eat, like hormones and antibiotics. I know, I know! I’m sorry! The natural foods store was out of local short rib. Sigh. I’ve lost all cred now, haven’t I?); Olive Oil – Italy; Mushrooms – Pennsylvania; Leeks – New Hampshire, Onion – New Hampshire; Red wine – California; Beef stock – Colorado; Brown sugar – Florida