I’ll be honest, books are my happy place and food is one of my foremost love languages. This may have been why I was always imagining foods to go along with the book I was reading: what would the character most like to eat? What kind of food does this setting remind me of? Or I get the same feeling from this dish as I get when I read this book.
To me, books and food are a natural combination: one I’ve been indulging in since I first began diving into chapter books in elementary school. At the breakfast table, during afternoon snack up on my bar stool at the counter in our house, even just cuddled up on the couch with a snack, I swear I’ve always done my best reading when food has been involved.
And so I invite you to join me in the ultimate book and food experience, with food specifically crafted to go with the book. The dishes, the flavors, the ingredients, all picked with significance to your next great read. Consider me your book and food sommelier!
First up, the book:
The first book I picked for us was The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn. If you enjoy yourself a little bit of a thriller, a little bit of a mystery here and there, you’ll enjoy this one. What I really appreciate about this book was that it immediately draws the reader in, introducing us to our main character, Anna, who is a lone shut in in her expensive New York City home. She entertains herself by watching the neighbors, and after the new neighbors move in just across the park, she sees something she shouldn’t have. Then it gets juicy.
Anna has a lot of interesting flavors that make up her shut in, voyeuristic personality: a bit of classic cinema, a dash of online chess, shake in some time in online chatrooms and add a WHOLE lot of Merlot. And I mean a LOT of Merlot. More than our dear Anna would like to acknowledge. Everything that makes up Anna as a person, a prisoner to her own beautiful home, is what inspired the pairing for this dish.
The Pairing:
The perfect pairing for The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn? Drumroll please….. Merlot Braised Short Ribs with a Lemon Garlic Baguette.
First and foremost, we needed to work with the ingredient that I knew Anna would appreciate the most: Merlot. Merlot is a red wine that is really good for cooking beef. But I didn’t want us to cook just any beef. Anna lives in a nice neighborhood with lovely homes that are valued in the millions. Her home is also this kind of expensive home with three floors, what once was a rooftop garden, and a basement apartment. Let’s be real, Anna can afford herself some nice classic short ribs any day of the week, even if she has to have them delivered.
Let’s Get Cooking!
For this recipe, I gathered up all my ingredients, my short ribs, my Merlot, my veggies, beef stock, seasonings, and my baguette. I actually went to the butcher counter at the grocery store to ask for the short ribs and had them cut me some. That way I got to pick the ones I wanted and didn’t just have to pick whatever was left over in the meat section. Thank you butcher!
After chopping and preparing all my veggies and seasoning my short ribs on all sides with salt, pepper and paprika, I was ready to get started. While my oven was preheating, I got my cast iron dutch oven heating to about medium, maybe just slightly above, on the stove. I definitely would suggest a cast iron dutch oven if you have one, but if you have some other kind of dutch oven or another kind of heavy oven safe pot, feel free to use that instead. When my dutch oven was warmed up, I tossed in my ghee. For those who are not familiar with ghee, it is clarified butter. Basically, butter with the milk solids removed. It is used a lot in middle eastern cooking, but I use it for pretty much anything I can because I love it. It tastes like butter, has the same flavor, but it has a higher smoke point, so it doesn’t burn as easily. That makes it great for searing things, grilling things, sauteing things. If you like butter, chances are you’ll like ghee.
So I added your brand new friend -ghee- to the pot and, working in small batches, browned these beautiful short rib beauties on all sides. One I was finished with that, I set them aside to take a little rest while I moved on to my veggies. First up, garlic. Garlic, garlic, garlic, garlic. I know this seems like a lot of garlic, but it does really need this much, and, trust me, you’re going to want a TON for your baguette toast at the end. You should have seen my poor husband’s face when we finally ran out of lemon garlic toast. It was, in a word, forlorn.
I like to give my little lovely garlic cloves just the slightest squish. I want them to release a little extra flavor, but I really want them to stay as intact as possible for the entire cooking process. Drain any excess fat from your pot (your end product will still have a good amount of fat in the sauce so if you can get rid of some now, you should) and add a little more ghee. I added my ghee back to the pot and tossed my slightly crushed garlic in, letting it sit for around two minutes undisturbed, getting nice and golden on one side. The smell was amazing! I can’t help it, I love the smell of garlic.
Once that smell had taken hold of my kitchen and the garlic was nice and beautiful, I added in my chopped veggies: the shallots, the carrots, the celery, and parsnips. Each one adding its own specific flavor to our dish. I mixed everything to get it really well coated in that ghee and cooked them, stirring occasionally, until they had softened a bit but weren’t mushy and hadn’t gotten brown. Don’t forget to hit them with a good dose of salt and pepper during their time in the spotlight. When they were just right, I stirred in the tomato paste. The tomato paste gives this sweet flavor that is super yummy. It might look like it comes in a toothpaste tube, but this is seriously one of my go-to ingredients. I let it cook for about two minutes, watching the bottom of the pot for the tomato paste to start to get nice and sticky. I don’t even mind if it gets ever-so-slightly charred. Just so long as it’s not flat out burnt. About two minutes should do the trick.
And now, the Merlot! I deglazed with two cups of Merlot, then I let the wine reduce for another two minutes. Letting it reduce a smidge is important. You need to cook out just a little of the alcohol. Letting it braise in the wine without reducing it at all could cause the short ribs to have a slightly bitter flavor, and we don’t want that. I added the beef stock, thyme sprigs, and a really good squeeze from half of my lemon, which ended up being probably about a tablespoon of lemon juice. Then, using tongs, I carefully added my short ribs back into the pot. You want to make sure they are bone side up and that the meat is fully submerged in the liquid. If needed, go ahead and add a little bit more beef stock.
Then I covered that baby up and stuck her into my preheated 275℉ oven. Now you can sit back and relax, drink some of your leftover Merlot, and read a few chapters of The Woman in the Window because you have about four hours to kill.
After four hours, I took my short ribs out and they were GORGEOUS! They smelled amazing and were absolutely beautiful. I had already sliced some of my baguette and put the pieces on a cookie sheet. Each slice was drizzled with a little olive oil. I cranked my oven to broil and put the slices in to toast. This only takes a couple of minutes so keep a close eye on them because they will burn so quickly.
While your toast toasts, carefully take the short ribs out of the pot with tongs. Then, taking care to reserve all the liquid, drain the veggies out of the liquid in the pot. It’s time to make your sauce. In a saucepan, I melted my butter and then added in the flour. I used a whisk to mix it together well. This mixture is called a roux and will act as the thickener for our sauce. I let the roux cook for about a minute or so, stirring every so often to make sure it didn’t burn. You have to cook it just a little to get rid of the taste of raw flour. At the same time, using a spoon, I carefully spooned off as much fat off the top of the liquid as I could. I got out about a quarter of a cup of just fat. Then when my roux was ready, I added (about half a cup at a time) the liquid to the roux, mixing well each time and letting it incorporate each time. Once all the liquid was incorporated in the saucepan, I let it simmer for a few minutes until it was all at the thickness I wanted. It might not get to a gravy consistency, but it will get to a really nice sauce consistency.
I also pulled out my toast in the middle of my sauce making and let it hang out on the counter while I finished up what I was doing. If you’re nervous about your short ribs getting cold, you can always make a little foil tent to put over them during this process. Luckily, making the sauce goes pretty quickly, as does making the toast.
I zested my lemon previously before cutting it and squeezing it when I was first preparing my short ribs to put in the oven. I kept the zest in a little bag to keep it from getting hard and gross. So now, I got that out and ready to go. I went to my colander full of veggies that I strained from the sauce and went on a treasure hunt for garlic. Almost all of it stayed intact so it wasn’t too hard to find. Then I took that delicious garlic that had absorbed the flavor from around it, and had become so soft and tender. The garlic flavor also becomes really delicate. Then I spread that garlic on the toast like it was butter. It was a beautiful sight. A generous sprinkle of kosher salt, and a beautiful shower of the lemon zest and this is not toast you will soon forget. Make sure you keep enough zest to put on your short ribs. Lemon zest is where it’s at guys.
When you’re all done, plate it up and enjoy, preferably while reading The Woman in the Window, but that’s just a suggestion. Happy eating!
Merlot Braised Short Ribs with Lemon Garlic Baguette
Paired with The Woman at the Window by A. J. Finn
Ingredients:
About 5 lbs short ribs
2 cups merlot
2 shallots, diced
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 medium parsnips, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 lemon, used for zest and juice
8-10 cloves of garlic, slightly crushed
2 cups beef stock
3 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp ghee
2 tsp paprika
4 sprigs thyme
Salt and pepper
1 baguette
¼ cup olive oil
For Sauce:
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
Directions:
Heat oven to 275℉. Heat your cast iron dutch oven to medium-high heat. Season the short ribs on all sides with salt, pepper and paprika. Add some ghee into the dutch oven and then working in batches, sear the short ribs on all sides. Set aside and pour out remaining fat that was rendered off, but leave the brown yummy stuff on the bottom of the pot.
Reduce the heat slightly and toss in the garlic. I slightly crush the garlic beforehand, just enough to release a little more flavor but not too much where it falls apart. Let the garlic sit for 2-3 minutes undisturbed so it can get nice and browned on one side. Then add the shallots, celery, carrots and parsnips. Season with a good amount of salt and pepper. Stir everything around to coat in the ghee, adding more ghee if needed. Cook until they are slightly softened but not mushy. Stir in the tomato paste and let it cook for a few minutes until it starts to get a little sticky at the bottom of the pot, another 2 minutes or so. Deglaze with the merlot and let it reduce for just another few minutes, just to let a little of the alcohol burn off a little. Add the beef stock and thyme sprigs, topping off with a good squeeze from your lemon (about a tablespoon of lemon juice). Carefully add the short ribs back to the pot, bone side up, making sure the meat is submerged in the liquid. Feel free to add more stock if necessary.
Cover and set in the oven. Cook covered for about 4 hours until ribs are super tender. Carefully remove the rubs with tongs. Strain vegetables out, reserving the liquid to make the sauce and taking care to save the garlic pieces out of the vegetables. Add lemon zest on top of the meat and serve with sauce and Lemon Garlic Baguette.
For Sauce:
After the vegetables have been strained out, using a spoon, remove as much fat from the top of the liquid as possible. Then in a saucepan, over medium heat, melt butter. When butter is melted, add flour and whisk together to make a roux. Let cook for another minute, stirring occasionally. Add about half cup of the braising liquid into the roux and whisk together. When thickened, add another half cup. When thickened, add more. Continue until all or most of the liquid has been added. Turn the heat up just slightly to bring the sauce to a simmer and then turn it down again. Stir occasionally until all the sauce is slightly thickened. Serve with rested short ribs.
For Lemon Garlic Baguette:
Cut slices of the baguette and put them on a tray. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil on each slice. Turn your oven on broil and put tray in the oven. Let the bread toast, but watch carefully, as this will only take a few minutes and can burn easily. As soon as it is toasted, take it out. Find the cloves of garlic from the strained vegetables and spread on the slices of toast. The garlic will spread like butter. Top the spread garlic with salt and lemon zest. Enjoy alongside your short ribs.
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