Simply Nigella's Asian-flavoured Beef Short Ribs (with a twist)

I love watching most cookery programmes and there are a few chefs I idolised, with Nigella Lawson being one of them. I have been religiously following her latest series on BBC and there are lots of excellent new recipes I am interested in trying out.

So, with so many recipes to choose from, where do I start? I had a family gathering last week and what a great excuse to try out the Asian beef short ribs. So effortless and can be pre-cooked the night before! 

Waitrose sells some delicious Aberdeen Angus beef short ribs at £6.99 per kg which I was tempted in purchasing; in the end I opted for what the local butcher has to offer instead. They were some well-hung beef from Twyford and just the look of them I know they will come out gorgeously delicious. This is a rack of ribs rather than short rib pieces. I've been reassured by the butcher that it cooks better this way. If you haven't got a big enough roasting tray/ pot then it cut up pieces will do just fine.

As the title of this post suggest, the recipe originates from the Simply Nigella series and I would not pretend otherwise. However, I did make some small adjustment to it. The key ingredient to the recipe is hoisin sauce. It is so easy to get all kinds of what used to be exotic ingredients in general supermarket nowadays it really does make life easier. The one I have gone for is the trusted Lee Kum Kee Hoisin Sauce. 'Hoisin' actually means 'seafood'. However, turn the jar around to the ingredients list you will see there is no sign of any sea creatures but mostly made up of fermented bean paste! I do love languages. 

Here is the finished masterpiece and my God it was divine! 

Serves 6 - 8

2.6kg beef ribs

1 jar of Lee Kum Kee Hoisin sauce

500ml water 

1 tbsp of light soy

1 tsp of dark soy

1 tsp of sesame oil

125ml of Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry as an alternative)

1 pinch of ground white pepper

1 tbsp of Chinese five spice

4 gloves of garlic, crushed

10 whole dried chillies, chopped

Some freshly ground Sichuan peppercorn 

1 bunch of fresh coriander, chopped

2 fresh red chilli, chopped (or use 1 tbsp of crushed dried chilli flakes) 

1. Preheat the oven to 150C/ gas mark 2. 

2. Place the ribs in a large, deep roasting tin.

3. Mix together all the above mentioned ingredients (apart from coriander & fresh red chilli) and pour over the ribs.  

4. Cover the roasting tin with foil, ensure the edges are securely sealed and place in the oven for 4 hours.

5. Once cooked, take the roasting tin out and leave on the side to cool. 

6. Transfer into a large tupperware or any type of container then leave in the fridge overnight. This is so the flavour can enhance and the fat solidify to the top.

7.  Before reheating the meat, remove the harden fat at the top and transfer the content into a ceramic ovenproof dish and cove with foil (I used the largest Le Creuset stoneware dish here).

8. Preheat the oven to 200C/ mark 6 and cook for 1 hour.

9. Scatter the chopped coriander & chilli on top before serving.

For the dinner, I served the meat with steamed rice and spinach. Much to my surprise here were leftover for lunch the next day. The sauce was so intensely rich I cannot resist to make a noodle soup dish out of this. The next morning I reheated the meat in the oven and boil some udon in just boiling water. When the meat and udon are ready, I dish up the udon with piece of meat sitting on top. I then anoint the dish with 2 tablespoon of the meat juice follow by the udon water. Boy oh boy it surely made a tasty noodle soup broth, and a lighter way of serving this beautiful dish too.