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Braised Short Ribs With Peanuts and Anchovies
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- Total Time
- About 3½ hours
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1½pounds boneless beef short ribs, cut into 2-inch cubes, or 2 ½ to 3 pounds bone-in ribs
- Kosher salt
- 3tablespoons canola oil
- 1½teaspoons black peppercorns
- 1dried chipotle chile, broken in half
- 2bay leaves
- 1medium onion, sliced (1½ cups)
- 4garlic cloves, smashed
- 1(1-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into thin coins
- 1small head savoy cabbage
- 1cup unsalted roasted peanuts
- 4anchovy fillets, minced
- Steamed rice (optional), for serving
Preparation
- Step 1
Season the beef with salt; set aside at room temperature for at least 20 minutes.
- Step 2
In a large stew pot, heat the oil over medium until it shimmers. Add the peppercorns, chile and bay leaves and cook, stirring, until they are fragrant and little bubbles form around the spices, about 1 minute. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook until the onion is translucent, stirring occasionally, 3 to 4 minutes.
- Step 3
Add the seasoned short ribs, plus 5 cups water and a pinch of salt (don’t add too much here). Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer until the meat is tender when pierced with a fork, 2½ to 3 hours.
- Step 4
While the short ribs simmer, separate the cabbage leaves and cut the ribs out of each one. Stack the leaves a few at a time and cut into 2-inch pieces. Set aside 4 cups of chopped cabbage for this dish, reserving the remainder for another use.
- Step 5
Place the peanuts in a blender with 1½ cups water; purée.
- Step 6
Once the meat has simmered until tender, add the anchovies to the pot, along with the 4 cups chopped cabbage and the peanut purée. Bring to a simmer, stirring to prevent sticking, and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is tender, about 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt.
- Step 7
Remove and discard the bay leaves and chipotle halves, if desired. Serve in shallow bowls, with rice if you like.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
This sounded so intriguing but had few notes, or fans, here. I made it; recipe needed some help. Here are my thoughts: • Using just savoy cabbage gives no visual appeal. Add lacinato kale as well to create more color and interest • Peanut butter vs. peanut purée: the purée does not resemble peanut butter at all. Stick with the recipe • You may need more water to cook meat, making dish very bland. Best advice? Use fish sauce instead of salt to season at the end. Brings disparate flavors together.
I loved Floyd Cardoz and his restaurants, especially Tabla, so I was eager to try this recipe. It is great, and the flavors are delicious, but the recipe needs some help I think. First, 250-275F oven is too low for a braise. 325F works better, but it depends on your oven. Check after twenty minutes, the liquid should be simmering gently. There is too much liquid in this recipe, especially for the peanut puree. With this much water, it turns into a slurry, not a puree. Use 1/2 cup.
See Step 3.
Used 4 cups of water based upon reader recommendations. Additionally, didn’t love the whole peppercorns and large pieces of ginger. We’re I to make it again, I would use less water, ground pepper and grated garlic. As it is, I strained the liquid, pulled out the ginger and peppercorns and reduced the sauce. Added peanut butter too. Liked it better that way.
Adapts very well to Instant Pot, cutting cook time to around an hour. Given that this is a real calorie bomb of a meal, I strongly suggest that after the short ribs cook, remove them from the liquid, strain it, saving the strained-out onions and peppercorns and adding them back to the meat, then remove the fat, either with a fat-separater, or by cooling in the fridge. You will lose up to a full cup of beef fat, or 2000 calories.
We thought this was delicious. Next time I might use ground pepper rather than whole peppercorns; I found biting into a whole peppercorn unpleasant. I also might cut the ginger slices in halves or quarters to distribute the ginger more evenly.
Very disappointing. Had hoped for more flavor from the peanuts and anchovies, but it was very bland and very watery. The meat was tender, but the cabbage and excessive amount of liquid were not pleasant.
Used 4 cups of water based upon reader recommendations. Additionally, didn’t love the whole peppercorns and large pieces of ginger. We’re I to make it again, I would use less water, ground pepper and grated garlic. As it is, I strained the liquid, pulled out the ginger and peppercorns and reduced the sauce. Added peanut butter too. Liked it better that way.
Made this today. Followed the recipe. Tasty, but a bit bland. Would a splash of vinegar help?
Very disappointed with the lack of flavor despite its great ingredients. Too watery, needed a lot of salt, more cabbage. Added dry chipotle, and Aleppo Chile to pick it up. Even added more anchovy than asked for. This recipe is not a keeper as opposed to the contrasting one called Nihari.
Any thoughts on how to adapt this for Instant Pot? I love how it does meats
This should work (Floyd's co-writer here lol): Use the "sauté" function through the end of Step 2. For Step 3, add water just to cover the short ribs. Bring to a boil, close it up, and set the timer for 25 minutes. Let it release naturally, then pick up at Step 6, back on "sauté."
This was absolutely wonderful! I made no changes whatsoever. We had very high quality meat from a local butcher (grass fed meat) and this recipe let the beef shine!
Lovely dish!!!
This is pretty good! Don’t see the reason to limit the cabbage cause it really just melts away- or maybe my cabbage was small. My addition was a healthy 2-3 cap fulls of rice vinegar to add some acid, which felt like it was much needed after adding the anchovies and cabbage. Braised in the oven at 300f for 2.5 hours. If I make it again, i’ll salt my shortribs more and let them sit out for a bit longer. Worth it, and it came together really well.
I loved Floyd Cardoz and his restaurants, especially Tabla, so I was eager to try this recipe. It is great, and the flavors are delicious, but the recipe needs some help I think. First, 250-275F oven is too low for a braise. 325F works better, but it depends on your oven. Check after twenty minutes, the liquid should be simmering gently. There is too much liquid in this recipe, especially for the peanut puree. With this much water, it turns into a slurry, not a puree. Use 1/2 cup.
This sounded so intriguing but had few notes, or fans, here. I made it; recipe needed some help. Here are my thoughts: • Using just savoy cabbage gives no visual appeal. Add lacinato kale as well to create more color and interest • Peanut butter vs. peanut purée: the purée does not resemble peanut butter at all. Stick with the recipe • You may need more water to cook meat, making dish very bland. Best advice? Use fish sauce instead of salt to season at the end. Brings disparate flavors together.
How long to bake in a 250-275F oven?
See Step 3.
Would it be OK to use natural chunky peanut butter for the puree?
Yep should be great!
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