curry coconut braised short ribs
i made braised short ribs for the first time this year and immediately fell in LOVE. they were so easy and PACKED with flavor and they literally make their own sauce as they cook. so comforting and so tasty what more can i say!! there are a ton of variations of braised short ribs online, most of which (that popped up in my google search at least) were braised in red wine with aromatics. i love anything cooked in coconut milk and spiced with curry powder or paste (i.e. Thai red or green curry, Panang curry, etc.) so that’s what i decided to do with them here!
i made this with my friends over a facetime call. everyone loved them. this technically serves 2 but you can definitely just double the amount of short ribs you sear off to serve 4. you wont need to change any other ingredient amounts, you’ll have enough braising liquid as is. if you feel like you need more liquid to cover the extra short ribs add just a bit of stock (beef, veggie, chicken, etc.) to just barely cover. you won’t need much if you need any at all.
we served this with some very simple roasted winter squash (delicata, butternut, wutever is your fave) tossed in just oil salt and pep. also with some rice that I mixed a ton of herbs, some lime zest and juice in to. it was so good. i especially loved how the sweet roasted squash tasted with the curry coconut braising liquid and how the herby-limey-rice added some brightness and freshness to everything. but eat the short ribs with whatever sides you like because this is your adventure and you can do what you want!!
ingredients
serves 2, double just the short ribs to serve 4
2.5-3 lbs bone in beef short ribs
1 large onion, diced
2 large carrots, roughly chopped
2 fresh red chilis, seeds removed (for less spice) and diced. use green if you can’t find red.
5 garlic cloves, crushed and skins removed
1 inch of fresh ginger, thinly sliced lengthwise. no need to remove the skin
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 28oz can of whole peeled tomatoes
1 13.5oz can of full fat coconut milk
3 tabelspoons ghee or a neutral cooking oil like grapeseed or avocado
salt
cilantro for serving, optional
instructions
using about 3 teaspoons of salt (you want 1 teaspoon of salt per pound of beef, at least), generously salt the short ribs on all sides and set aside. let them sit salted for a minimum of 30 minutes. this will allow the salt to evenly distribute itself throughout the meat.
get a large Dutch oven and place over med-high heat on the stove. add 2 tbs ghee or a neutral oil and sear your short ribs on all sides for about 2 minutes per side, until they have a golden brown crust on each side. depending on the size of your Dutch oven and how many short ribs you have you may have to do this in batches. place seared short ribs on a plate and set aside.
preheat oven to 300 degrees fahrenheit.
add another tablespoon of ghee to your pan (no need to wipe it out) and add the onions, carrots, and a teaspoon of salt. cook 7-10 minutes or until the onions are tender.
add the garlic, fresh chili, and ginger and sauté until fragrant, 2-3 minutes.
add your turmeric powder, chili powder, and curry powder and cook for about 1 minute more or until very fragrant.
add the tomato paste and cook for another 2-3 minutes or until the tomato paste darkens from a bright red to a more brown-y orange color.
next pour in the juice from the canned tomatoes and then 1 by 1 crush each tomato in your hand, breaking it up before adding it to the pot. stir in the whole can of coconut milk.
add the short ribs back to the pot and nuzzle them into the sauce. making sure they are each almost completely covered by the sauce.
place your lid on the Dutch oven and put it into the oven for 3 hours. don’t touch them, don’t look at them, don’t even think about looking at them. just let them be for 3 hours.
after 3 hours check them. they should literally slip off the bone they should be so tender. if you think they need a bit more time put them back into the oven for 20-30 min and check again.
take the short ribs, along with the bones if they happened to slip out, out of the sauce and set them aside on a plate. using an immersion blender, blend all of the contents in the Dutch oven together until very smooth. this is your sauce. alternatively, you can carefully ladle everything into a regular blender if you don’t have an immersion blender. taste for salt, add more a 1/2 teaspoon at a time, making sure to stir it in and tasting until it tastes perfect to you.
dump the sauce back into the Dutch oven, nuzzle the short ribs back into the sauce and place over medium heat on the stove, just to heat the short ribs back up if they have cooled. about 5 minutes. you can skip this step if they are still warm.
i like to serve the short ribs on top of the rice and roasted vegetables, spoon some sauce over everything, and add some fresh cilantro at the end.
short ribs after their bath in the oven
