Who needs take out?

I love to slow cook meat.  It makes the entire house smell wonderful, and it is little to no effort what so ever, I can chop & drop my ingredients and pop in my dutch over or slow cooker and come back a few hours later when I am ready eat and it is all set for me.  This is a recipe for Asian short ribs.  Brian (my boyfriend) came home from Costco with enough short ribs to feed an army, so we divided them up into freezer bags and them promptly began to come up with different flavors and idea's for each serving.  The Asian short ribs came out so flavorful and tender -- they were salty, spicy, sweet and honest to goodness tasted like I had slaved in my kitchen, when in reality I just watched netflix all afternoon.  A great twist on a Sunday meat supper!

Start by adding 1/2 lb of boneless short ribs cut into medium size cubes to a dutch oven or a slow cooker.  To this we are going to add in our cold braising liquid, you want the meat and liquid to come up to temperature together.

Braising Liquid - I used foodnetwork.com and made my own additions to the recipe
1 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 (5-inch) stalk lemongrass, halved and smashed
1 tablespoon peeled and minced ginger
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 quart water (I used chicken stock instead of water)
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
I added 1/2 of frozen mango, 1/2 cup of frozen pineapple

Pop in the oven at 325* for about 3 hours covered and about 1 hour uncovered.  The soy and brown sugar will start to reduce and get really sticky and sweet, it is awesome!  When you have reached the 4 hour mark, start to shred your beef using two forks -- I am a glutton for punishment and used my fingers, but that gives me the opportunity to lick my fingers.  Place the shredded beef back in the braising liquid and continue to cook stove top to reduce liquid if necessary.  Serve over rice or you can take a healthy approach and use ice berg lettuce leaves and voilaaaa you have Asian lettuce cups!  The cold crunch of the lettuce gives the dish a whole other element of surprise in your mouth, I would strongly suggest it.

No meal is complete without a side dish.  I made an Asian coleslaw to go along side (or on top) of the short ribs.
1 cup of carrot cut in thin shoe strings
1 medium red onion thinly sliced
1 small red pepper in thin strips
1 small yellow pepper in thin strips
All tossed in a homemade sesame dressing (1/4 cup rice wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sesame oil, 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter, 1 tablespoon of garlic minced, and if you like it spicy add some crushed red)  The dressing is going to be thick, but remember it is a slaw and you want the dressing to coat and stick to all the veggies! [This recipe gave us about 4 meals]

until next time..eat, laugh, love and enjoy! 

This recipe gave us about 4 meals