This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is one I was really looking forward to: Short Ribs in Red Wine and Port. I love short ribs! Well, I love any kind of meat that has braised for hours and becomes falling-off-the-bone tender.
This was a particularly good recipe for short ribs. They spent a total of three hours in the oven, making the house smell heavenly! They came out wonderfully tender and flavorful.
I roughly thirded (is that a word?) the recipe because there was no way my small family needed 9 pounds of short ribs. Besides, I had the perfect size package to feed us already in the freezer, so I might as well use it. If I could have done one thing differently, it would have been to only halve the amounts of the liquids. I felt like I didn’t have quite enough liquid after a couple of hours of cooking.
The flavor of these short ribs was fantastic! The star anise imparted a really unique flavor that I loved (don’t leave it out!). The gremolata made from orange zest, garlic and parsley really rounded out the flavors and added a fresh spark, both visually and on the tongue.
One thing I loved about this recipe is that the meat and sauce are separated before serving, allowing you to remove most of the fat from the sauce. Mine came out of the oven a couple of hours before dinner time, so I separated the meat and discarded the solids from the sauce, and then I refrigerated them, causing the fat to congeal on top of the liquid. This made it super easy to remove the fat.
Can you tell I liked these short ribs? I think this was my favorite FFwD recipe so far!
Looking for the recipe? You can find it in the cookbook Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.
From Scratch 
This recipe sounds great, I can’t wait to make it. Thanks for the tip about the liquid, I always prefer to have too much.
I loved these as well, even though I forgot the gremolata and couldn’t find star anise for the life of me. (I know they’re out there, I just never seem to find them.) I halved the short ribs in the recipe, but kept the same amount of liquids, and it was a good balance. I’m into sauce man. But yes, they were absolutely delicious.
Glad everyone liked them – they look great. I think star anise is awesome and use it whenever I can – I totally forgot the gremolata (sad face).
Doesn’t the gremolata give a great punch of flavor and color? I bet these were wonderful on mashed potatoes 🙂
This is my favorite FFWD recipe too. I think I need to make gremolata every single week.
Glad these turned out so well for you! My husband LOVED the gremolata on top!
Glad you LOVED this recipe. Your post reminded me of how surprised I was at how much flavor one star anise imparted to the delicious sauce.
Your meal looks wonderful! My family loves ribs too…especially all the men so this was a great excuse to please them all…they can’t wait for me to make them again.
Your ribs look beautiful! I also thought the gremolata was perfect with the ribs.
Yes, you can always boil down the sauce anyways. I made a full batch but I had a houseful to feed and they barely let me have the time to take a picture!
Your results look amazing – and I know how great they must have tasted because Nana and I loved our results as well ! This was a real winner in our books, and of course a wonderful meal for this time of year. I am loving the whole “braising” thing and plan to do a lot more of it in the future.
I halved the recipe, but only reduced the liquid by a third. It worked out really well. I wish I’d done the gremolata – it looks wonderful in everyone’s photos.
Lovely! Yours were just as dark as mine…but I know they tasted as great as mine did too! I made the gremolata too, but forgot to use it…oops! I’ll just have to make it again.
The ribs and the gremolota look fantastic. Im glad there a fav. of yours now! It’s so fun to try all these french recipes with Dorie!
Beautiful photo! I also agree about star anise and wonder why more recipes don’t include it. Great post!