Main Meals

Sweet baby Grace’s ribs

6
Easy
20 minutes, plus 1 hour’s resting time
2 hours 45 minutes

“Whenever I ask what I can bring to a braai, the answer is always these sticky shortribs – and wet wipes! What makes this dish super-special is that it was what we ate to celebrate my baby niece coming home from hospital, and it was the dish I prepared when we recently celebrated her first birthday. It’s officially been named ‘sweet baby Grace’s ribs’.”

Wine/Spirit Pairing
Kanonkop Kadette Pinotage

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Ingredients

Method
  • 1.5 kg Woolworths cubed beef shortribs
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 4 bay leaves
  • ¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 onion, peeled and quartered
  • ¼ cup red wine vinegar
  • ½ cup Woolworths smokey BBQ braai marinade
  • 2 spring onions, thinly sliced
  • 90 g sachet Woolworths pickled red onion petals
  • Woolworths frozen battered onion rings, cooked according to package instructions, for serving
  • lime, for serving
  • fresh coriander, roughly chopped, to garnish

Method

Ingredients

1. Season the shortrib with salt and pepper and allow to rest for 1 hour before cooking.

2. Heat a heavy-based frying pan over a high heat, place the meat in the pan fat-side down, and allow some of the fat to render as you brown the meat until well charred. Do this in batches to prevent the meat from steaming as it browns.

3. Place the browned shortrib in a large roasting dish with the bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce and onion. Pour some water into the pan that was used to brown the meat and bring to a simmer over a medium heat, then scrape all the charred bits into the roasting dish. Add just enough water to the roasting dish to cover the shortrib, cover with a lid or foil, and place in a cold oven. Set the temperature to 180°C, and allow the oven to heat up gradually with the roasting dish inside it, then cook the beef for 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours, or until the meat comes off the bone easily.

4. Remove the meat from the dish and strain the liquid into the heavy-based frying pan placed over a high heat and reduce the liquid by half. Add the vinegar and BBQ marinade, and continue reducing. When reduced by half again, check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper if necessary.

5. Set a braai grid over medium coals, and place the shortrib on the grid, slowly heating it up as it renders more fat and turns extra smoky. Once the ends become charred, baste the meat in the reduced sauce until sweet and sticky. Reserve some sauce for serving.

6. Serve the sweet, smoky ribs with the pickled red onion, battered onion rings, a squeeze of fresh lime and coriander.

Photograph: Jan Ras
Production: Emma Nkunzana
Recipes: Clement Pedro

Find more braai recipes here.

Clement Pedro

Recipe by: Clement Pedro

Clement Pedro strikes a balance between rib-sticking fare you can really get stuck into and experimental recipes that take accessible ingredients to next-level status. Clem can do pretty much anything – and so can you with his recipes.

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