Beef rib casserole


Having discovered the value of beef short ribs, whilst shopping for the weekend roast I took the opportunity to grab some more from the supermarket meat counter.  The meat is cheap and its marbling makes it fantastic for slow cooking - this dish took less than 10 minutes prep time and then sat in the oven all afternoon and turned out pretty great.


(If anyone can teach me how to take a good photo of what is essentially a mush of vegetable casserole and a lump of meat then please do!)

If I'm honest, it was a fairly random, BBQ inspired casserole, whilst distinctly trying not to taste like BBQ.  What I mean is, the ingredients are really just a combination of my usual BBQ ratatouille and short beef ribs, but no BBQ rubs/spices/flavours.  As you would expect with the level of marbling in the meat, after slow cooking the meat fell off the bone and was incredibly soft - I could literally cut the meat with a spoon.


Ingredients

  • 1 beef short rib (just under 500g, served two people)
  • 1 tablespoon of mustard
  • 1 tablespoon of tomato puree
  • 250ml stock (vegetable/beef/whatever)
  • 1 onion
  • 1 aubergine
  • 1 courgette
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • butter for cooking onions
  • salt and pepper for seasoning
  • 400gram tin of chopped tomatoes


Method

  1.  Chop the onion and garlic and cook over a medium heat in the butter, untill soft (5 mins or so)

  2. Whilst the onions are cooking, chop the aubergine and set aside (on a plate/kitchen towel etc) and salt liberally - this is just to draw out the moisture and bitterness - we will wash this off later

  3. Next chop up the courgette

  4. Once the onions are soft, stir in the tomato puree and mustard and cook for another minute or two

  5. Now quickly throw the rib into the pan and brown it

  6. Wash the aubergines in cold water, layer them in the bottom of a casserole dish and then sit the rib(s) on top

  7. add the chopped tomatoes to the pan with the onions etc, mix through to de-glaze the pan, then pour the tomato mix over the rib in the casserole dish

  8. Cover and cook in the oven at 140 degrees for 4 hours or so, serve with mash, crusty bread, or whatever!


Rob Shambolically fumbling my way around the kitchen