Red Wine Braised Short Ribs

2 Shares

Red wine braised short ribs are succulent and tender, marinated in red wine for a rich sauce. Serve these over buttered mashed potatoes or wide noodles.

Maybe it’s because I don’t have kids yet, but I can never finish a bottle of red wine by myself. At least, not within a reasonable amount of time.

The other day, I purchased a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, drank a little more than a glass and then left it on my counter for three days. I don’t know about you, but I think wine just tastes a little “off” after it’s sat that long. I felt guilty.

But not that guilty. Because then I decided to make red wine braised short ribs.

Short ribs to are a bit of a treasure to me.

This is because I buy grass fed beef in bulk once a year, and there are only a few sides of ribs that come with the purchase of a half cow or quarter cow. After slow cooking, the short ribs are tender, and the fat melts off the bone. After eating them, my lips feel slick from the fat and the broth. It gives me such a happy feeling!

I started buying meat in bulk after I gave up part-time vegetarianism. Bet you didn’t know I was a veggie once, did ya? It wasn’t because I had any moral qualms about eating meat. It wasn’t even because I was aware of commercial animal feed operation (CAFO) conditions either. This was wayyyy back, about a year after I graduated high school and started living on my own.

I became a part-time vegetarian simply because meat made me feel sick. At the time, I was dealing with a whole host of health problems related to autoimmunity and also a structural issue with my C1 (atlas) vertebrae.

I had tried dairy free, sugar free, and was fully gluten-free at the time. So the next thing was meat. I noticed that every time I ate red meat in particular, I felt queasy and really struggled to digest it. So I cut out red meat. I didn’t used to eat any pork or fish or seafood, and chicken was expensive, so I ended up pretty much being vegetarian.

But after a few months without meat, I would suddenly wake up one day and crave red meat. And I mean CRAVE IT. I would think about it for a week straight and then finally go get a ribeye at a nice restaurant. Or filet mignon & shrimp hibachi anyone? OMG.

…I wan’t a real vegetarian. But meat didn’t sit well with me.

That is, until I discovered grass fed beef! When I discovered grass fed beef, I did a double take. Didn’t all cows eat grass? I learned that as early as kindergarten when my mom taught me the bass staff space notes, for goodness sake! Turns out, NOT all cows eat grass. In fact, many consume massive amounts of GMO corn for their entire lives and are riddled with sickness and disease.

I was eating sick cows! I was horrified for myself and for the cows.

But it turns out, the grass fed beef didn’t upset my body. In fact, it invigorated me, strengthened me. I am so thankful to cows. At this point, I am probably halfway made up of cow between all the red meat, raw milk, and butter I consume.

Now, I buy grass fed beef in bulk and store a year’s supply in my frostless deep freezer. Buying in bulk is the cheapest way to buy grass fed beef. I purchase everything from ground beef to Porterhouse steaks for approximately $6/lb. That’s right. SIX DOLLARS PER POUND. Plus, I usually get soup bones to make broth, beef liver for meatloaf, and plenty of suet to render into tallow.

And I also get anywhere from 3-6 racks of wonderful, wonderful short ribs.