Coffee-Marinated Bison Short Ribs - Part Two

Last time we marinated bison short ribs in coffee and herbs and left it overnight.  Now it's time to braise them in more coffee.  

Here's what you need:

Marinated bison short ribs

4 slices bacon

2 onions

2 shallots

6 garlic cloves

1 small jalapeño or other hot chili pepper

1 cup strong brewed coffee

1 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup chili sauce or ketchup

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

Chop the bacon.

And cook in a large, heavy, enameled cast iron pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until brown and crisp.

Remove the crisp bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Drain the short ribs and discard the marinade.

Add the short ribs to the bacon fat left in the pot to brown.  I browned them in batches to give them plenty of room.

Once browned on both sides, remove to a plate and brown the rest.  Set the ribs aside.

Next, chop the onions.

And the shallots and garlic.

And the chilis.  I used a red and green chili pepper from the garden but a jalapeño works great.

Add the chopped veggies to the pot.  You should still have some bacon fat in there but if not, add some oil first.  Sauté for about 5 minutes until slightly softened.  

Now take 1 cup of strong coffee...

...and one cup chicken stock and add to the vegetables in the pot.  Bring to a boil, scraping any brown bits from the bottom of the pot.

Stir in the ketchup, mustard, cider vinegar and soy sauce.

Then add the short ribs and bacon back into the pot.  Put the lid on it and slip it into a 325 degree oven for about two and a half hours.

Once it's done, it'll look a little something like this:

The ribs are tender, falling off the bones. 

Remove them from the sauce and set aside.

Now, the next step will depend on how your sauce looks.  You'll want to skim any fat from the surface and reduce it if necessary.

I removed a bit of fat but there really wasn't too much.  That's the nice thing about these bison short ribs.  Besides the great flavour, there's way less fat than beef short ribs. 

My sauce was also already pretty thick.  You can boil it for a few minutes to reduce it if necessary, but I didn't think so.

I added the ribs back into the de-fatted sauce to coat and warm through.  Now it's time to serve!

I served the ribs over mashed potatoes.

I smothered them in the coffee sauce and served steamed green beans on the side.

These ribs are so delicious.  They fall off the bone and the depth of flavour from the coffee marinade and sauce is such a nice compliment to the bison.  If you can find some bison, I highly recommend you try this.  Here's the original recipe from Epicurious.