 Hi, I'm Divina with ForkingPlate.com and today we're going to show you how to braise. Now the basic thing that you need to know about braising is you need a tougher cut of meat with a lot of connective tissue and bone-in works best for flavor. Today for our example we're going to use short ribs. For braising you're also going to need a miro poc, which today we're using celery carrots and onions, but you can use these are all interchangeable, you can use whatever vegetables you want. You're also going to need some braising liquid. We're using beef stock in wine, but you can also use any other liquids you want, you can use water, it's up to you and what types of flavors you would like to get out of this dish. You're also going to need your seasonings. Okay, so the first thing you want to do is take your meat, you want to make sure it's dry and you want to season it very pretty generously. We're using just salt and pepper today, but you can use any other types of seasoning that you want. You can use garlic powder, you can use whatever you want, you can do a dry rub on this. You need your salt here. Be generous with your salt. And make sure you season all sides. Okay guys, so the first thing you want to make sure you do is that you have an oven proof pan with a lid and you want to preheat your oven to about 375 degrees. Now we're going to turn this on. You're going to put it on high and you want to make sure your pan is hot before you add your fat. Okay, so our pan is hot, so we're going to add our fat, in this case we're using olive oil, but you can use canola, you can use whatever you want. And you just want to make sure that this oil gets hot before you add your meat. Don't add too much, just enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Now we're going to take our short ribs and we're going to add them to this oil. And you want that sear. Now you may have to do this in different batches because you don't want to crowd the bottom of your pan. You want to get a nice brown sear on all sides of your meat. Okay, so you want to make sure you sear all sides of your meat and a good trick is if your meat is still sticking to the pan, it's not ready to be flipped over yet. So just let it cook and then once you can easily take it off the pan, you know it's ready to flip. Okay, so I'm taking all of my meat out because it has a nice sear on all sides. Now take your time when you do this because this is the first layer of flavor for your braise. I'm going to take those and you see that it's really nice and seared and brown. And then I'm going to add my other two cuts of meat. Okay, so I've seared all of my meat. I'm just going to take that out and set it aside. And then using the same oil, I'm going to brown my mirrored pork. Okay, so I've sauteed my mirrored pork for about five to seven minutes until the onions become a little bit translucent. That's how you know it's ready to go. Okay, now you can, because you're doing a braise, you can have a larger cut mirrored pork, but you can also dice it smaller, just depends on what you want. Just remember the smaller your mirrored pork is, the faster it's going to break down in your braise. Okay, so once your mirrored pork is completely ready to go, you're going to grab your tomato paste. Now, this is optional. We like to use it. You don't have to use it. It just adds another layer of flavor to your braise. Now, we're just going to add about a half a cup, not even maybe about quarter of a cup. And we're going to just let this cook for a minute. Now, be careful because tomato paste burns quickly, so you don't want to burn it. Just make sure you just let it caramelize a very little bit. Okay, so once you've added your tomato paste, you want to deglaze the pan with wine. Now, we're going to add a little bit of wine in here. We're using a hearty red wine. And what this does, if you have a wooden spoon, it works best. You want to scrape up all the bits of meat and everything that is stuck to the bottom of the pan. Well, you have your pan on high heat. Okay, so once you've added your tomato paste and deglazed your pan with wine, you're going to just add your meat back to the pan. And you're going to put the meat side down in the bone up. Just add it onto here. So, we're going to add our meat on there like that. And then we're going to add our braising liquid. So in this case, we're going to use beef stock. So you want to make sure two thirds of your meat is cooked with liquid. And I'm actually going to use a little more wine. This is all optional. Okay, so while this is cooking, you want to add your aromatics. So we're actually just going to add some time. Now you can bundle this with a string if you want so you can get it out easier later. And a couple bay leaf. And at this point, I like to add a couple cloves of crushed garlic. You can add that before and saute it as well. Just don't let your garlic burn. So we're going to just add all of this in here. We're going to cover it and put it in at 375. Okay, so this has been covered in cooking for about an hour and a half at 375. And just halfway through, you want to check and make sure that not all of your braising liquid has evaporated, which we're totally okay here. And then you can turn your short ribs around. And also at this point, if you see any fat, you can skim that off the top if you want to. But we look okay, so we're just going to let this ride about another hour and a half. Okay, so it's been about three hours. And the way that you can tell that your short ribs are done is pretty much they should be falling off the bone. But you can also take them out. And with the fork, you should just be able to go like this and they fall apart. So good. Okay, so there are two ways to make a sauce for this. You can either just use the braising liquid as is. But if you want to make a roux and thicken it, you can absolutely do that. Another way, which is actually very easy, is you can just take all of the sauce, remove all the ribs from the sauce here. You want to remove your bay leaf and your thyme. And of course the bones. Okay, so once you've removed all your ribs, your bones and your thyme and bay leaf, you're going to add this all to a blender, your vegetables and everything. And the mere plan here will actually help to thicken the sauce. Just so you know when you make your sauce in the blender and you're ladling all your vegetables and everything, it is going to change the color of your sauce. It's going to lighten. If you do it stovetop and make a roux or cornstarch slurry thicken it, it will keep the same color. And then we're just going to puree all of this. Hey, oh yeah. Okay, and if you want to, you can't leave the bones in for presentation purposes, but if not, then you can take them out and then just pour your sauce over. Okay, guys, and this is how you braise. This is the roof. Oil's getting hot.