Ad Hoc At Home Short Ribs

I’m usually not big on cookbooks. I know I should be, and I have a few I really like, but I usually like to play around with stuff on my own, I guess. A cookbook came out late last year, though, that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on… Thomas Keller’s newest, Ad Hoc At Home. Well, I got it for Christmas from my wonderful wife!

Each of Keller’s books is centered on one of his restaurants. Ad Hoc is his newest, in Yountville, CA, and is a bit different. The concept, as I understand it, is to do a menu like a staff meal before service at a restaurant. Chef’s often set up a family-style meal for their staff in the late afternoon, and they all eat together before service. So Ad Hoc has one menu that changes daily. You get no choice in the courses. Ad Hoc does email the menu every day, and it’s basically $49 for the menu, and, from what I’ve seen, well worth it.

The main difference between Keller’s books that I’ve heard is that Ad Hoc is full of dishes that the home cook can actually do. French Laundry At Home is an incredible book, but many dishes require equipment or skills that the home cook typically won’t have. So, if Ad Hoc At Home is approachable, I figured it’s also something I can try my hand at doing the Livefire way!

I finally made my first dish from the book. I chose short ribs, which I’ve done before and really liked, but I liked the differences in this recipe. There are no tomatoes in this recipe, but mushrooms and leeks instead. I have to say that I really liked the results!

How did I change Keller’s instructions for the Livefire method? Instead of searing the short ribs in a pan with fat, I did it on the grill, and, because I was grilling, I didn’t use any flour to dust the short ribs. I did, however, put a bit of roux in the sauce to thicken it a bit. With the grill, I tried to get a nice brown-ness all the way around the short ribs. I also didn’t apply a parchment cover to the whole dish, but instead allowed a bit of smoke to get to the short ribs while they braised in a cast iron Dutch oven.

The other change I made, because I didn’t have a conical mesh strainer, was that I used an immersion blender to blend the sauce at the end, and a mesh scoop (spider) to remove the bits left in.

So my Livefire method for Ad Hoc short ribs was basically:

I Diced/chopped one cup of onion, carrots and leeks, in about 1/2″ chunks, along with a cup of thinly sliced button mushrooms (I would use crimini next time). Then, I added a few sprigs of thyme and parsley, 3 cloves of smashed garlic, 2-3 bay leaves and a small handful of peppercorns. I put all of that into a Dutch oven on the stove, and added a bottle of red wine (I used a Cabernet Savignon that was cheap but very drinkable). I brought that to a boil, then simmered for about 50 minutes.

While that was simmering away, I took out the short ribs. All I was able to find on a late Saturday were bone-in short ribs. Next time, I will try Korean style, which don’t include the bone and are larger pieces. I salted and peppered the pieces and let them sit for about 10 minutes before putting them on a hot (500 degrees or so) grill, browning them on each side for about 1-2 minutes.

I removed the short ribs from the grill, and I added more onion, carrots and leeks to the sauce that was simmering, along with 2 more garlic cloves, thyme and bay leaves, along with beef stock, then I covered the sauce with cheesecloth, with a few inches hanging over the sides. The purpose in this is to keep the short ribs out of the veggies but in the sauce. After I added the short ribs on top of the cheesecloth, I put the Dutch oven out on the Bubba Keg Convection Grill at about 250 degrees. This is also where I varied from Keller’s instructions, as he calls for higher temps in the oven. I just let the ribs and sauce sit on the smoker with a bit of pecan smoke for quite a bit longer than called for in the recipe, until they were very tender and the bones moved easily (a couple rib bones came out).

I don’t cook pork ribs or even barbecued beef ribs this much, but the braising liquid helps the tenderness, so fall off the bone isn’t the same when braising as it is in dry smoking.

I took the short ribs out of the liquid and removed the cheesecloth, then did my best to de-fat the liquid before taking the immersion blender to it. The color of the sauce wasn’t anything fantastic, but the earthiness of the mushrooms really tasted great.

(take note of Dreyfus, our lab, trying to get close to the plate on the lower left! I didn’t even notice that at first!)

Along with the short ribs, I again made a rutabaga/carrot mash by boiling 1/2″ chunks of rutabaga and carrot in a 2:1 ratio for about 25 minutes, then mashing them with just a bit of heavy cream, adding salt and pepper. I also grilled some Swiss chard by drizzling it with olive oil and grilling it on medium-high heat.

While the meal was finishing, we had some bread with cheeses and pig candy (so addictive!), and we ended the meal with dulce de leche panna cotta, which was so simple to make, and is made ahead several hours before.

I liked these short ribs so much I am looking forward to my next Ad Hoc recipe, of course done with a Livefire twist!

How many of you have Ad Hoc At Home, and what do you think of it so far? I think it was actually on the bestsellers list, and, around Christmas, was impossible to find!