On chilly San Francisco days, sometimes we just crave a good hearty meat and potatoes dinner. We recently took on the task of elevating a traditional meat and potatoes dinner to the next level. We started with a good cut of meat. We wanted something that we could easily braise in the oven, and we found an amazing cut of boneless short ribs. It was a block of meaty goodness. What set it apart from other cuts was that the marbling is more evenly distributed through the grain of the meat, rather than having a fat cap. This makes for more tenderness and flavor. If you aren’t able to find a boneless short rib roast, you could also use a chuck roast or brisket.
We roasted the meat in our favorite sauté pan. Using a sauté pan or a dutch oven like this or this very is important because you’ll want to be able to sear the meat on the stove and then cover it and put it in the oven. You could even use it to serve the meat after you cut it and return it to the pan. We tend to serve from pans, but this time we choose to be a little fancy and use this platter to serve it.
We also wanted to make a quick bordelaise style sauce with the drippings. Rather than making the sauce at the end, the sauce was basically made while we cooked the meat. By adding aromatics and vegetables to the pan, we opened the top to a deliciously fragrant sauce. Done!
We of course had to have some awesome sides to go along with this, right? We decided to go with simple roasted carrots topped with salt and pepper, plus these amazing roasted garlic mashed potatoes.
If you haven’t roasted garlic yet, you should. Get the instructions here. We’ve actually been pretty obsessed with how easy it is to roast garlic in the oven and the different flavor that it adds to the potatoes. It’s super easy to make and is delightful on rustic crusty bread or in mashed potatoes. These mashed potatoes would also be perfect with a steak-house dinner, but that’s for another day.
To finish off your menu, we suggest serving this meal with a full-bodied red wine like Cabernet, a Super Tuscan, or Barolo. We hope you enjoy your Sunday dinner and look forward to more meals like these.
Shopping List
| Produce | Pantry | Dairy |
| 10 Carrots | Olive oil | 1/4 cup Butter |
| 1 Onion | 1 Bay Leaf | 1/4 cup Half and Half |
| 1 of head Celery | 1 box Beef Stock | |
| 3-4 large Potatoes | Salt | Meat |
| 1 head Garlic | Pepper | 2-3 lbs Boneless Short Ribs |
| 1 bunch Parsley | ||
| 1 bunch Marjoram | Alcohol | |
| 1 bunch Thyme | 1 bottle Dry Red Wine |
- 6-8 Carrots, scrubbed or peeled and trimmed
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Coat carrots with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
- Cover baking dish with tin foil and roast carrots for 15-20 minutes, or until they become tender.
- Remove the foil and finish cooking until the carrots are perfectly roasted.
- 3-4 large Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and chopped into ½ inch cubes
- ¼ cup Half and Half
- ¼ cup Butter
- 1 head of roasted garlic (see here)
- Salt
- Pepper
- In a sauce pan, bring salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook for about 20 minutes or until fork tender.
- Drain potatoes.
- Add half and half, butter, and squeeze out the roasted garlic paste from the head of garlic. Mash with a masher or spoon.
- Salt and pepper to taste. Add more half and half and/or butter if needed.
- 2-3 lbs Short ribs, or other cut of beef for braising
- Olive oil
- 1 cup Mirepoix
- 2-3 sprigs Italian Parsley
- 1 Bay leaf
- 2-3 sprigs Marjoram
- 2-3 sprigs Thyme
- 2 cups dry red wine
- Salt
- Pepper
- 4 cups Beef stock
- Preheat oven to 300F.
- Heat a sauté pan and add a drizzle of olive oil, enough to just coat the bottom of the pan. Salt and pepper the beef on all sides, then add to the hot sauté pan and sear on all sides.
- Remove the beef from the pan and put it aside on a plate. Add the mirepoix and cook until golden.
- Deglaze the pan with a generous amount of red wine, 1-2 cups, then add the herbs to the pan.
- Return the meat to the pan and add enough beef stock to cover about half of the meat.
- Cover the sauté pan and transfer to the oven. Braise for 2-3 hours, or until the meat easily comes apart when pulled with a fork.
- To serve, remove the meat from the sauté pan and slice. Keep the pan sauce warm and adjust to taste with salt. Drizzle the pan sauce over the meat and serve immediately.