Cooking

A few weeks ago when I was going through the recipes that I had cut from my magazines, I came across one for beer braised short ribs.  It sounded good so I bought a small package when I went to the supermarket.

Today I decided to make them.  I checked and rechecked the recipe and found that I didn't have all the necessary ingredients on hand.  Thanks to my experiences at Cooking By the Book, I have the confidence to make substitutions.

I only had 1 1/4 lbs of short ribs instead of the 3 lbs called for, but that's not unusual, I often halve a recipe.  If I didn't, I'd be eating the same meal for days and days.  Then I discovered that I didn't have any potatoes on hand.  Oh well, I'm not fond of potatoes anyway.  I started browning the short ribs and peeling the carrots.  Instead of the two carrots called for, I used five, after all I didn't have any potatoes.  I always have onions in the refrigerator, but since I was halving the recipe, I used one onion instead of the two called for.  Of course, I didn't have any stout beer on hand, so I used a can of light beer.

I put the browned meat and the carrots, onions, beer and 14 oz. of beef stock into the slow cooker on high for five hours.  After an hour, I decided that it looked a lot like soup, so I added 1/4 cup of barley.

At dinner time, I opened some wine.  My philosophy is that I must have a glass of a favorite wine whenever I'm trying a new recipe.  That way, if the recipe turns out badly (as some have in the past), I'll still have something enjoyable.

It turned out to be a good soup.  Since there wasn't much meat on the bones, I ate the whole thing for dinner and I really didn't need the wine, but I did drink it.  It was good too.