Eintopf (Braised Short Ribs With Fennel, Squash and Sweet Potato)
- Total Time
- 4 hours
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:6 to 8 servings
- 4pounds meaty, bone-in short ribs, cut into single-bone portions
- Salt
- 1tablespoon neutral oil, such as grapeseed, canola or vegetable oil
- 1small fennel bulb, trimmed and chopped (about 2¼ cups), top with fronds separated from bulb and thinly sliced
- 6shallots, peeled and halved lengthwise
- 6garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
- 1teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
- ½teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1(28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes
- 4cups chicken stock
- 1white sweet potato, such as Japanese sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces, or use an orange sweet potato (2 loose cups)
- ½small butternut squash (about 1 pound 3 ounces), seeds removed, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
- 1(14½-ounce) can full-fat coconut milk
- 1teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1(1-inch) piece fresh ginger, scrubbed and grated
- 4cups torn or cut fresh greens, such as kale, mature spinach, mustard greens or dandelion greens
- Warm crusty bread, for serving
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
1150 calories; 97 grams fat; 46 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 40 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 29 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams dietary fiber; 10 grams sugars; 41 grams protein; 1441 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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- Step 1
Season the short ribs with a sprinkle of salt on all sides. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven set over medium-high. Working in batches if necessary, brown the tops and sides of short ribs, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a large plate and repeat the browning process with the remaining ribs.
- Step 2
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the pot. Add the chopped fennel bulb, (reserve the top and fronds for garnish), shallots and garlic to the pot, season with salt, and toss to coat in the pan drippings. Sauté over medium-high heat, stirring frequently until softened, 3 minutes. Add the fennel seeds and turmeric, and cook until fragrant, 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and break apart the whole pieces with a wooden spoon or other cooking utensil. Cook until the tomato juices are thickened, about 6 minutes. Return the browned short ribs, bone side up, to the pot along with any drippings from the plate. Pour in the chicken stock and bring up to a simmer. Cover and transfer pot to the oven. Braise until the meat is tender, but not falling off the bone, about 2 to 2½ hours.
- Step 3
Increase the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Transfer the cooked short ribs to a plate. Using a colander or sieve set over a bowl, drain out the vegetable solids from the pot and discard, reserving the liquid broth. Skim off and discard as much oil as you can from the surface of the liquid using a spoon or a ladle. (You should have about 3 to 4 cups of broth.) Return the broth to the pot, add the potato and squash, and pour in the coconut milk. Season to taste with salt and the 1 teaspoon black pepper. Add the ginger and return the short ribs to the pot, nestling the pieces between the vegetables so that the meat is mostly submerged in the liquid. Return the pot to the oven and braise uncovered until the potato and squash are tender, the meat is falling off the bone, and the liquid is slightly reduced, 50 minutes to 1 hour.
- Step 4
On the stovetop but off heat, stir in the greens: The heat from the stew should gently wilt the leaves. Top with the thinly sliced fennel top and fronds. Serve hot in bowls with warm crusty bread for dipping.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Heather
Beef short ribs are super flavorful but fatty, so whenever I cook them I start by spacing them well apart in a shallow pan and baking them at 475 for 20-30 minutes, turning occasionally, till they are browned and have rendered some fat. I drain them on paper towels and proceed with the recipe. This gets you to falling-off-the-bone stage a little quicker and reduces fattiness with no loss of flavor.
CL
In the accompanying article, the author mentions that she only really uses coconut milk because she avoids dairy. Heavy cream or creme fraiche would work just fine here.
MP
Excellent. Added some carrot too. Was skeptical about tossing the fennel/shallot/tomato mush after straining (tasted good and seemed wasteful), but after eating I think best to follow as written. Can be sloppy about peeling shallot/garlic since it all gets strained out. Cut the yam & squash into bite size pcs. Used better-than-bullion for the 4c chicken stock. Highly recommend serving over rice in a bowl, soaks up sauce and very tasty.
BobB
As others have pointed out there were numerous notes in the original article that are VERY helpful. "The coconut milk provides a finish that suits me — an avoider of dairy — but you can add heavy cream or any other ingredient that thickens quickly without watering down the dish." "Any root vegetable you have on hand will work, and any combination of two or three works best: Carrots, parsnips, beets, sunchokes and potatoes are just some options.Spicy greens, hearty greens or cabbages are ideal"
Prakash Nadkarni
Any ribs should work - St Louis-style pork ribs, even "country-style" ribs (which aren't ribs at all, but cut from the shoulder blade. They just need a little fat on them to keep from drying out.
Roberto
Looking forward to this winter braise. Discarding the vegetable solids bugs me, my parents grew up during the Depression. I think I will use the stick blender on them.
Malamia
I made this on a lark, intrigued by the flavor combination of fennel, squash, tumeric and coconut milk with short ribs. Rave reviews all around!! My only comment is that this produces A LOT of fat to skim off, and also I was not left with 3-4 cups of broth to braise the sweet potato and butternut squash in so I added some additional chicken broth to the coconut milk to have enough liquid. This was so great that my friends who came over asked for the recipe. I'm definitely making it again!
-bwg
"½ small butternut squash (about 1 pound 3 ounces)" I wonder about the meaning of "about" in the context of "about 1 pound 3 ounces."
BB
$50 for the short ribs is too much. Bought 1 lb. short ribs and 2 lbs. chuck roast. Worked just fine and tasted great. Like the recipe states, don't keep the aromatics. Throw them out after you've squeezed all the liquid from them using a mesh strainer. You won't want to eat them. I then used a fat separator and had no trouble removing the oil. Fresh crusty bread was perfect to soak up the sauce.
Judy
Delicious! Definitely make sure you are using a large pot as the recipe calls for. I thought mine was big enough but everything was crowded and the potato and squash didn’t cook evenly.
Franny
This sound delicious except for one main ingredient! I’m not a big fennel fan, any other vegetable you think might be a good substitute? I like fennel seeds but not the actual vegetable?!!
D. Miele
My mom and I, independently of each other but on the very same evening, tried this recipe because we could not resist seeing how it would taste if seasoned with a little patis (fish sauce, nampla). Also independently of each other, we thought it would be silly to discard the mirepoix. I used escarole, because I knew that kale would not cook completely and my fam would not like that texture; for the same reason my mother precooked her kale! Delicious new dish for the next Filipino fam gathering!
stephanie
rather than trying to blend it into the stew and scraping bits out of the can, just shake the can really well before you open it :)
Craig
Add a halved serrano pepper at the top, dice the fennel and shallots neatly and leave them in, use pureed tomatoes, add twice as much grated ginger in the middle, omit the tasteless kale and add a giant handful of chopped fennel fronds and a healthy squeeze of lime (or some citric acid?) at the end.
Emily
Yep, you can cook with unsweetened coconut milk. Ideally it should be full fat, and will likely have separated in the can, so you'll just need to mix it up once you dump it out into the stew. It's easy!
Netta
I doubled the slices and aromatics. It seems like the cook times are unnecessarily long? At the 2hour mark, my short ribs were falling off the bone. And after 35 minutes my squash was fork tender. LOVE this recipe.
Laure
Forget the arguments about discarding the aromatics or pureeing them in - use them as an excellent spread on baguette as a snack while you’re in that final hour. Trust me. I’m saving the rest for more. Waste not want confit.
Tony Boskovich
I rarely give 5 stars, but this was fantastic. I used an immersion blender rather than straining, and the result was a thick and delicious sauce.
Zari
Has anybody tried lamb for this recipe? Probably, not lamb ribs but another cut with bone?
Laura
Looks amazing- any suggestions for a squash substitute? Ive tried to like squash but not my thing TIA
Tom H.
Swapped the beef for lamb chops. Flavor and textures were superb. This is a great meal.
Murphy
Oh, my gosh. LOVE, love, love this recipe!! I didn't have 4 hours to make dinner though, so I did this in the Instant Pot instead! Just halve the recipe, or the ribs won't fit. I cooked for 30 min with a 10 min natural release for the first step, then strained everything, added the last 3 ingredients, and cooked for another 10. Quick-released it, and viola!! Gourmet meal. :) Only thing I would do differently in the future is leave my potato chunks MUCH bigger, like ping pong ball sized. Cheers!
NoCheese
Took advise from comments. Used half short ribs half chuck roast. Next time will just do chuck roast. Could not scim fat, but it needed it. Highly recommend the mod of pureeing the tomatoes mix chunks and adding it back in. Veggies were Japanese sweet potatoes, red skinned potatoes, carrots, and baby spinach. I had a lot of liquid left at the end, so it's more of a soup. 10/10 would do again.
Kate
Divine. Chopped the aromatics relatively fine and kept them in. The fennel is the best part of the whole dish! Probably added more veg than was called for. Half an old cabbage, some chard, half a volunteer pumpkin that the squirrels planted, a few small, old sweet potatoes. Ended up with about a gallon and a half of stew - well more than 20 servings as my household eats! Make sure you've got a crowd or space in the freezer! :D
Kate
Also - my squash and sweet potatoes were still rock hard after the last hour of braising. Threw the whole thing on top of the stove for fifteen minutes and it got there much, much faster.
Diane M.
I've made this recipe three times now and it just keeps getting better and better. The flavors all meld together perfectly and the short ribs are spectacular. Makes a great Sunday dinner meal to feed a crowd. The next time I make it, I want to experiment with oxtail.
Peter in DC
Sounds like a very flavorful dish and I will try to make it one of these days. It reminds me more of a (fusion?) curry though than a German-inflected "Eintopf." I cannot imagine that either my grandmother or our neighbor (both of them made great "Rippchen") would have ever added such things as turmeric or coconut milk, let alone sweet potatoes or butternut squash (I'm not even sure they would have known squash). And in Germany, a more typical carb to go along would be potato dumplings.
Peter
Great recipe, and not difficult at all to make in a single pot. I subbed out lamb shanks totaling a little under 3lbs for the short ribs and it came out great. Also, the strained tomato and alliums from the first part of the recipe still had a ton of flavor; I kept it for pasta later!
Mike P.
I read that about straining and discarding and thought: What a waste!
Sarah
I did steps 1 and 2 in the instant pot instead of the oven to save some time. A good rule of thumb is to cut the cooking time by 2/3, so I cooked it for 40 minutes on high pressure, then transfered to the oven to finish it off for the remaining steps.
Gigi
This is a comfort food stew that does not require expensive beef short ribs. Good beef chuck stew meat would do just as well. While good, it was not great, except for the excellent ($) grass fed ranch meat I used and the garnet sweet potato. Per someone's suggestion, I did not strain the sauce (it would have made it even blander), but used an immersion blender on the fennel, shallots (could have used onion), garlic and tomatoes. I never tasted the fennel seed or the ginger. Served over farro.
SJ
Liquid GOLD. Added to my exclusive list of annual recipes. My trust in Yewande’s recipes DO NOT disappoint…
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