Red Wine Braised Short Rib with Salt-Baked Onion and Bone Marrow Crumb

⏱ 330 min · Serves 4

Five hours of gentle braising turns short rib into something you can spoon apart, glossed in a reduced red wine sauce. Alongside, whole onions baked in a salt crust steam in their own sweetness until silky and jammy. A crunchy marrow-and-thyme crumb over the top does the rest.

Per serving: 880 kcal · 62.0g protein · 26.0g carbs · 54.0g fat

Ingredients

• 1.8kg bone-in beef short rib, cut into 4 pieces
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp flaky salt, plus more to season
• 2 onions, roughly chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 celery sticks, chopped
• 1 whole head garlic, halved across
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 750ml bottle full-bodied red wine
• 500ml good beef stock
• 4 sprigs thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp cold butter, to finish
• 4 medium onions, unpeeled, for salt-baking
• 800g coarse sea salt
• 3 egg whites
• 2 sprigs rosemary, chopped
• 50g bone marrow (or 30g butter)
• 60g coarse sourdough breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp thyme leaves
• Small handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Method

1. Heat the oven to 150C/130C fan. Pat the short ribs very dry and season generously with flaky salt.
2. Heat the oil in a large casserole over high heat and brown the ribs hard on all sides, 3–4 minutes per face, until deeply crusted. Set aside.
3. Lower the heat, add the chopped onion, carrot, celery and garlic and cook 10 minutes until well coloured. Stir in the tomato purée and cook 2 minutes more.
4. Pour in the wine, scrape the base clean and simmer briskly until reduced by half. Add the stock, thyme and bay, return the ribs, and bring to a bare simmer.
5. Cover and transfer to the oven for 4 to 4.5 hours, turning the ribs once at the halfway point, until a spoon slides through the meat with no resistance. Leave to settle in the liquid for 30 minutes.
6. Meanwhile make the salt crust: mix the sea salt, egg whites and rosemary to a damp-sand texture. Sit the whole unpeeled onions on a lined tray and pack the mixture over each in a 1cm shell. Bake at 180C/160C fan for 1 hour 15 minutes, then rest 10 minutes.
7. For the crumb, melt the bone marrow in a frying pan, add the breadcrumbs and thyme and fry over medium heat until crisp and golden. Season and stir through the parsley off the heat.
8. Lift the ribs out carefully. Strain the braising liquid into a wide pan, skim the fat, then reduce hard to a glossy sauce that coats a spoon. Add the vinegar, whisk in the cold butter and check the seasoning.
9. Crack the salt crusts, peel back the papery onion skins and halve the onions. Plate each short rib, spoon over plenty of sauce, add an onion half and scatter with the marrow crumb.