Oven Roasted Beef Short Ribs with Ginger and Capsicum Cuscus

There are Sundays where one just has no idea what to cook, and this weekend was just that kind of Sunday.

There we were, standing in the middle of a supermart at Thomson, thinking of what to whip up for dinner. And then, I turned to Pauline and asked, "Why don't you choose something?"

Lo and behold, she went over to the meat section and picked out beef short ribs. Wow, never cooked that before.

Well, I figured there is always a first for everything, and every protein, so what the heck, why not?

Few hours later, we had a satisfying dinner, and what do you know? We had our very first recipe on short ribs, and here it is ...

Season the short ribs with lots of pepper and salt, and coat it with flour. Heat up a pan with some olive oil and sear the meat on all sides until they are colored and set aside. In a baking tray, take some aluminum foil and line it at the base of the tray.

Place the meat into the tray and pour in the remaining juices as well. Chop some onions and celery and add them to the mixture. Add a cup of water, and 3 to 4 cloves of garlic on top. Cover the entire mixture with the foil and make sure it is fully sealed.

Heat the oven to 190 deg Celsius, and put the short ribs into the oven and let it slow roast for at least one hour and 15 mins. Slow roasting actually helps to render the fat and the meat to be more tender, so be patient!

To prepare the cuscus, heat up some chicken stock to a boil. Pour into a small pot, enough cuscus for 2 persons (about a cup's worth).

Once the stock is at a boil, pour in some of the chicken stock into the cuscus. Make sure it is not too much as the cuscus will get too mushy.

Cover the cuscus pot with some plastic wrap and let it sit for about 5 to 8 mins.

Dice some capsicums (you can use a mixture of green, yellow and red) and lots of chopped garlic. I tend not to use bottled minced garlic as using fresh garlic is always better and more aromatic. Julienne some ginger as well.

In a separate pan, saute the ginger and garlic for a min or 2. Add the capsicums and stir through the mixture. Season with pepper and add in some of the chicken stock to the pan and add just a dash of sesame oil. Bring to a boil.

Going back to the cuscus, take the back of a fork and use it to fluff up the cuscus so they do not stick. Once broken up, they should have a very small and fine grain like texture that is just slightly moist and not too dry.

Now add the cuscus into the capsicum pan and stir thoroughly. The cuscus will continue to absorb some of the stock but it will be fine as long as you let it rest for a short while and it will dry slightly enough to retain the grainy consistency.

To serve, plate the cuscus and capsicum mixture first and set the fragrant beef short ribs over it. Spoon some of the delicious juices from the oven tray into the plate.

The meat will be very tender and literally falling off the bone, and rendering the fat into the juices may mean the sauce is slightly oily, so go easy on the saucing.

The kick from the ginger and the crunchiness from the capsicums will balance the protein nicely. Hope you guys will like this as this recipe was created pretty much on the fly during our supermarketing time.