Every Day Is Saturday's Braised Short Rib Dinner-Famous Fridays
As we head into the weekend, what could be more fitting than featuring a cookbook called Every Day Is Saturday?!! If you’ve ever struggled with feeding yourself and your family during the hectic workweek—in other words, if you are human, then you are going to love this Famous Fridays post…and of course, this amazingly delicious and easy Braised Short Rib Dinner.
There’s a part of the title of this cookbook that appears after a colon that I didn’t type above because it’s super long and I didn’t want to scare you off (lol) and it’s this: Recipes and Strategies for Easy Cooking, Every Day of the Week. That kind of really sums up the philosophy of both the book and its author, Sarah Copeland. As a person who loved to cook and had pretty much built her whole career and life around it, she found that weeknight cooking for her family had become stressful, monotonous and just generally un-fun. What she came to realize was that she needed to find a way to reclaim the ease and happiness of weekend cooking and incorporate it into her regular weekday schedule. So the book (which has gorgeous glossy photos) is filled with lots of homey, family-friendly food that you can make and enjoy on the weekend that will help to carry you through the week (think, supplementing leftovers) There are recipes for all different sorts of meals and they are all composed around easy-to-find, often seasonal ingredients, like Leftover Brown Rice Breakfast Porridge, Chocolate Snacking Loaf, Always-On Vegetable Soup, Essential Green Sauce…plus lots of non-recipe recipes like ideas for things to do with yogurt, or how to use up leftover weekend whipped cream,—all sorts of great common sense advice for making life easier and more fun. And who among us could not use more of that?!!
I chose to share this terrific short rib dinner with you because, with one day left in February (happy leap year day!!), I figured we could handle one more wintery meal. Guys, this is worth the splurge and so easy you won’t believe it!
The meat is meltingly tender and insanely flavorful. And it honestly comes together in like 5 minutes. The first time I made it, I took the extra step of browning the meat, but the second time, I actually forgot to do it till it was too late and I swear it was just as good! So literally, all you do is throw everything into the pot!
The only thing you need is time—it needs a long slow 2 ½-3 hour braise in the oven which means it’s perfect to make when you have time on a Sunday and then just skim off the fat, reheat, cook up a pot of rice or some pasta and enjoy when time is short on Monday. Makes getting back into the week so much easier!
Have a great weekend everyone and I’ll see you in March (aka as next week!)
Every Day Is Saturday’s Braised Short Rib Dinner
Makes 4-5 servings—recipe doubles easily if you want lots of leftovers or need to serve more people
Ingredients
1 large onion, cut in half and sliced thinly into half moons
4 garlic cloves, smashed
¼ cup rice vinegar
¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar, packed
Large pinch of red pepper flakes
3 pounds beef short ribs (bone-in)
½ cup water
Rice or pasta for serving (optional)
The Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Place all of the ingredients except the beef in a Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid and stir together. Add the beef and toss to coat on all sides with the sauce and onions. Cover and place in the oven for 2 ½-3 hours until the beef is very tender.
2. It’s really best to make this a day or two ahead so that you can skim all the fat off. After you’ve cooked the dish, let it come to room temperature, cover and chill. Then remove the hardened fat and reheat the dish over low heat on the stovetop.
3. You can also make this in a slow-cooker on low for 7-8 hours or high for 5-6 hours.
Enjoy!
Note: Recipe adapted from Every Day Is Saturday by Sarah Copeland. I cut the 2 tablespoons of fresh ginger from the dish and added more water so there would be more liquid. Also, Sarah serves this dish with fresh cilantro and sliced radishes—I’ve tried this but we like it better just as is.
