A Hearty Winter Dinner: Slow-Cooker Beef Short Ribs, Green Beans, and Garlic Mashed Potatoes

This meal is great for Sundays.  You can prepare it in peices between the day's other domestic demands.  I love to get the short-ribs in the crockpot by about 10 or 11am so that dinner can be ready anytime between 6pm-8pm.  Spending the day in the slow-cooker makes the ribs fall-off-the-bone tender, and all feedback so far points to the leftovers being just as big of (if not more of) a hit!  I'm the queen of overserving - The meat and veggies from the crockpot alone are plenty, but I like to have mashed potatoes to absorb some of those cooking juices and green beans to add a little color and balance out the cholesterol!  This picture is actually of leftovers - I forgot to take one on Sunday when I made them.  Imagine how juicy and tender they were the first time around! 

FALL-OFF-THE-BONE BEEF SHORT RIBS

 





Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic
2-3 shortribs PER person (I usally get 3 so I have leftovers - I maxed out the crockpot with 15)
1 onion
3 celery stalks
15 baby carrots or 1.5 c sliced carrots
flour (approx 1/4 c per 4 ribs) - OPTIONAL
S&P
1 c red wine
1 c beef broth
EVOO

Intructions:
1. Rinse and pat dry your short ribs.
2. Mix together flour and generous amounts of salt (I always use sea salt) and pepper.  Put in a large ziploc with ribs and shake to coat.  The flour helps the ribs brown and seal in the moisture. This step is OPTIONAL, but if skipping the flour, don't forget the S&P!3. Coat the bottom of a pan with EVOO till about 1 cm high and heat on Med-High until the oil starts to bubble a little bit.
3. While waiting for oil to heat, chop your veggies.  You can substitute or add what you have in your fridge - chopped potatoes and mushrooms work well too.
4. Once oil is heated, brown your ribs on all sides (about 2 min per side) and transfer to crockpot.  I end up doing this in batches of about 4 so that I don't crowd the pan.
5. After browning all ribs and transfering to crockpot, turn heat down to Medium and add your veggies to the pan (don't dump the juices!).  Season with a little S&P - sometimes I add a little rosemary.  Saute until fragrant and spoon out over ribs in the crockpot. 
6. Add your chicken broth and wine to the juices and bring to a boil.  Turn off heat and let stand while you clean up a bit.  Pour over ribs and veggies and set your crockpot to cook on low.  This should be timed 7-9 hours before you're ready to eat.

MY DAD'S CREAMY GARLIC MASHED POTATOES

Ingredients:

(This recipe serves at least 4)

2.5 lbs yukon gold potatoes

6 cloves garlic, peeled

1-2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 stick butter

S&P

Instructions:

1. Slice potatoes into 1/4 in slices(leave skin on) and peel garlic. *Tip: smash clove with the back of your knife for easy peeling and flavor release!

2. Place potatoes and garlic in cold water and leave for upto 4 hours before boiling.  *Tip: I just do this in the pot I plan to boil in for easy transfer to the stove.

3. About 35 minutes before you plan to eat, place pot of water, garlic, and potatoes on the stove over med-high and allow to simmer until it's time to smash and serve.  Make sure you have enough water to completely submerge potatoes in your pot.

4. Just before you're ready to serve, drain the potatoes and garlic and turn off heat.  Add butter to pot and return potatoes/garlic overtop.  Pour in 1 c cream (you can sub or mix in skim milk if looking to cut the fat).  Let the potatoes absorb the butter and cream while you set the table or clear some counter space.  Smash potatoes to desired texture.  Add cream in small doses until you reach desired creaminess and sesason with S&P to taste.  Serve hot!

CITRUSY GREEN BEANS

This recipe is super-fast and super-easy.  Typically, I take a break from my Sunday laundry or school work about 2 hours before I hope to serve dinner to prep the potatoes and green beans, so that all I have left to do is turn on the burners!  But you can wait until the last 10 minutes before serving for the green beans if you choose to.

Ingredients:

Green Beans (I grab at least a handful per person)

1 lemon

1 tbsp butter

Sea Salt

Instructions:

Boil green beans for 4-8 minutes depending on desired tenderness (beans should be submerged with water boiling for this time period).  As I mentioned above, I typically submerge the beans in water when I'm prepping the potatoes and just place on the stove until about 15-20 minutes before serving.  This allows time for the water to simmer and boil and eliminates the waiting for water to boil element.

Turn off heat and drain when beans reach desired tenderness.  Return pan to stove and add butter.  Return beans over butter and grate some zest from the lemon overtop.  Season with salt, toss, and serve.  In the above picture, I added a bit of orange zest as well.  Easy!