Cooking with St. Arnolds amber and my first attempt at braising.

One of my dear friends got me tickets to a braising class over the holidays.  We drank some wine and ate a few amazing dishes.  At the class I realized that I had no experience whatsoever with the technique.  The class was very straight forward and informative, but for some reason I was completely intimidated by it.  Well, I found this recipe last week and decided it was time to give it a go.  Braising and beer together defiantly got me motivated.  So here it is.  This was so easy.  There are a lot of steps, but the outcome was worth all the time spent.

Ingredients

•  2 racks boneless country style pork ribs
• Salt
• Paprika
• 3 tablespoons olive oil 
• 1 large white onion
• 1 12-ounce bottle amber ale, I used St Arnold's Amber 
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 3 bay leaves
• 8 sprigs thyme
• 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 3 tablespoons honey

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Pat the ribs dry and season with salt and paprika

Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Add the ribs in batches and cook until browned, about 8 minutes per side. 

Looks like this:

Remove the ribs from the dutch oven.

Add the onions and cook until browned, about 10 minutes. Add more salt and paprika.

Pour in the bottle of beer and bring to a good boil until the liquid is reduced by half, about 8 minutes, while boiling be sure to scrape all the good stuff of the pan with a wooden spoon.

Add the chicken broth, bay leaves and thyme; when the liquid begins to simmer return the ribs to the pot and put into the oven. Cook, uncovered, turning the ribs once or twice for an hour.



Mix the vinegar, honey, and more paprika in a glass. Remove the pot from the oven and place on the stovetop; bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add the vinegar mixture and bring to a boil, then return the pot to the oven.

Continue to cook uncovered for 20 more minutes.

Return the pot to the stovetop and remove the ribs.

Bring the sauce to a rapid boil over medium heat.  Reduce the sauce until it's almost as thick as a bbq sauce.

Put the ribs back in the pot just to reheat them and cover them in the onions and sauce.

Now, I'm just waiting for my beer salted caramels to be done.  If they are good, recipe and pictures to follow.