The Hoopty was promised to me about two years ago. My grandmother, as my friends know, finally succumbed to reality and recognized that it was time to relinquish her driving privileges. Though her mind is still sharp and her memory nimble, her 1989 Buick Century would never again take her to Winn-Dixie.

And then I, as the eldest grandchild, was given the right of first refusal. I would also argue that I am the logical choice. My one cousin on that side is an ex-marine suburbanite who likely hasn't had an ironic thought in 30 years. And I doubt my sister is genetically capable of driving anything can't go 130 miles an hour and isn't red.

So after hassles with the title and the logistics (the car was in my dad's hometown of Birmingham, AL) , it's finally here.

And, without belaboring the point, it's a SWEET ride. Thirty-nine thousand miles. I know it's not 139 because the 100M marker still reads "0" on the odometer. It has a zippy v6 engine, responsive breaks, power steering and a smooth, smooth ride. And I'm not even getting into the fact that even after 20 years the car is still cleaner than my kitchen counter.

Just kidding. Well, mostly.

So, throughout my adult life I have had several periods of carlessness, and this latest one, due to a combination of my own fecklessness and a bad transmission, has lasted for about a year and a half. For the most part I wind up, perhaps subconsciously, structuring my life in ways that mitigate my lack of mobility -jobs downtown, apartment in a walkable neighborhood with a grocery store, meticulously planned bus trips for the occasional sundry item.

And, for the most part, I have liked my simple life. I buy the amount of food that I can carry home, I don't eat out often, and there are very few impulse buys.

And I can't help but wonder, one week into this, how much or how little will change.

My birthday dinner, for example, would have been nearly impossible without a car.

The IGA down the street is somewhat of a retail contradiction. In a lot of ways it caters to a university population: swanky beers, gourmet TV dinners with Kasha, organic juices, a sushi stand, and all that. But the store anchors this neighborhood in ways that all the shops selling incense and picture frames can't even hope to do. It's heartening how many people walk there. You always see one or two jurrasic Cliftonites in the place, too, joking with the managers and piling bags of apples into their shaking hand-carts. It harkens back to an era where people lived where they shopped, something I'm ostensibly willing to fight for.

Karen always jokes about the viability of a Bohemian Cincinnati tour, whereby suburbanites can be bussed in on Friday nights for a sanitized tidbit of "city" flavor in the Gaslight - a real honest-to-goodness panhandler, tone-deaf street musicians in front of Graeter's, local restaurants and some skaters. You know, dinner at Ambar, a movie at the Esquire and a walk along Ludlow, before being whisked back to Blue Ash before the criminals wake up.

Anyway, I digress. But it's a fairly standard measurement of a neighborhoods health to look at how much of said neighborhood's commercial traffic is generated by people living within it.

But, this time, there was no argument. I needed short ribs. Bone-on.

Kroger will have them, but usually only one or two at a time. And so I can't even think about this without thinking about the bus: a trip to the Hyde Park Kroger for just that purpose is almost silly, not to mention kafka-esque on the 51. And don't get me started on the Queen City Kroger, because then I have to start talking about the 47 which, until Monday, has been the bane of my existence.

So i had to drive to three or four places to find enough meat to make perhaps, my favorite meal...

Braised Short Ribs

It's not quite beef stew, and it's not quite pot roast. The bone-on meat has a deeper, earthier flavor and is augmented by bone marrow which will soon infuse the gravy. While the dish contains a lot of fat, most of it is scraped away, leaving a clean, velvety, almost shimmering sauce which augments the meat without overwhelming it.

And, oh, the texture. It almost seemed like there was NO grain to it, so soft it was.

The standard recipe I use for this is adapted from fantastic The Balthazaar Cookbook. I halve the recipe, give or take, and substitute quality beef broth for veal stock. The ruby port adds some sweetness, and as is my standard for beef, I used a Cabernet, in this case, one with "notes of chocolate and tobacco." Whatever.

Remember, braised dishes are very forgiving if you follow the basic method: sear, deglaze , low heat, remove meat, rest, reduce the liquid, reheat the beef, yadda yadda.

Anyway....

3-4 pounds bone-in beef short ribs
3 cups beef broth (mix and match veal stock or demi as desired)
2 cups Red Wine (nothing too "dry")
1/2 c ruby port
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped roughly
1 celery stalk, in half
3 T tomato paste
3 T vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves
3 T flour
sprigs of rosemeary and thyme, and a couple of bay leaves
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 325.

Bind ribs with cotton twine (note to Beth: NOT the vinyl stuff you have in your toolbox, kk?).

Bind your rosemary, thyme and bay leaf between the celery halves and tie this up as well. Like that:

Salt and pepper the ribs.

Heat the oil in a dutch oven until it shimmers. Brown the meat in batches, about three minutes on each side. You might need to pour off some of the fat between batches.

Lower the heat to medium, and add your carrots, onion, and garlic to the pot. Add a pinch of salt, and sweat the veggies until they are softened. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for another couple of minutes, until the paste is evenly distributed. Add the flour and stir well to combine. You should not see flour remnants at the bottom of the pot.

Add the port, wine, and the herb bundle. Raise heat to high and reduce liquid by 1/3, about 20-30 minutes.

Slowly pour in the broth and give the mixture a quick stir. Then add the ribs, and you will likely have to stack them. The liquid should cover the ribs by about an inch. Add more wine or broth or water if you need to. Bring to a boil, reduce to a bare simmer, and then cover the pot and stick it in the oven for 3 hours.

You will need to stir the pot occasionally, making sure to rotate the ribs at the bottom of the pot up to the top.

The ribs will be done when there are fork tender and falling off the bone.

Transfer ribs to a platter and remove the strings. Strain out the solids and discard. Bring the liquid to a boil and reduce by half. About 40 - 60 minutes.

Note: It is perfectly acceptable to re-introduce the ribs to the sauce at this point. But, for the full effect, refrigerate the ribs and the sauce separeately overnight. In the morning, peel off the layer of accumulated fat, and reheat. Up to you.

Serve with noodles, potatoes, or, my favorite, polenta. MMMMM.

All I need now are some rims.

Posted by Jeff at 2:30 PM:: Permalink :: Leave Comment

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