We woke up to a grey, misty, drizzly Wednesday morning. We are in mid-august and currently experiencing the dying embers of the cold season and boy it’s kicking out butt!! We are now going to cosy up to the weather and enjoy all things comforting! We are going to enjoy some dawa as we go through our work day! We are going to prepare some rich and creamy coconut milk and peanut sauce matoke for some hearty, delicious lunch. And all through the weekend, we are going to enjoy my guinness braised cumin beef short ribs!! I filmed this in May this year (I do all my content months in advance) and it has been such a joy enjoying it since then till today and I am certain you too shall thoroughly enjoy it too!!
I shall be taking a brief break until around October as I heal from a jaw fracture. Can’t wait to film new YouTube and blog content then. In the meantime, I will be very very much present and active on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook so do follow me on there if you are yet to. That said, let us get into this beautiful beauty!
I made a dope vid to accompany the blog post. Do watch below, and subscribe!
PREP TIME: 24 hr COOK TIME: 3hr SERVES: 5
Ingredients
For marinarion
1.5 kg of beef short ribs
1 tablespoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of paprika
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
1/4 teaspoon of chili
Salt
For the cooking & braising
1 red onion, diced
1 cup of finely chopped leeks
8 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon of minced ginger
1 tablespoon of rosemary leaves
1 cup of beef stock
200ml of guinness stout
Method
Beef short ribs are a cheap cut, but cheap does not mean less delicious. They have immense potential of taking up flavor and when braised, they become super tender and really delicious too. I purchased mine from Karen Provision Store however CarreFour also have as well as Morrendat Farm.
We begin the process by marinating the meat. Place your individual beef short ribs in a container and rub the marination spices over them. Let them sit over night or if you are in a rush, 3-6hrs is adequate.
I chose to let my short ribs marinate overnight. Once the marination is done next day, allow them to come up to room temp, then proceed to sear until browned on each side. We let the meat come up to room temp first before searing so that the meat does not dry up and toughen were it seared while still cold.
The browning of the ribs is also very important. It deepens the flavor and also develops the spices we used for seasoning. The browning will take a few minutes each side. Do not stretch it. The ribs will finish cooking during the braising process.
Once the beef short ribs are seared, remove them from your pan (see video at 3.19) and then add in the red onion, leek, garlic, ginger and rosemary and allow this to simmer until fragrant and softened. A good herby base sets the stage for delicious shortribs at the end of this all. Because my ribs already had salt in the rub we prepared for marination, I chose not to add more while cooking however if you feel like adding more to yours, you are free to do so.
Add the tomato paste and let this cook down for about 5 minutes until it is all nice and thick.
Add back the ribs into the pan with the cooked onion, mix in then add your beef stock (or hot water) and the Guinness. Let this simmer for 20 minutes to cook off the alcohol.
You can swap Guinness for a dry red wine. It will taste entirely different but still super delicious; though i encourage you to go for the Guinness.
I get asked: “So, will I get drunk when I cook with Guinness (or any alcoholic drink)? “
The answer: NO
Cooking is very much a science as it is an art. Do you guys remember when we were learning about various liquid boiling points during Chemistry class in high school? We learnt that alcohol has a very low boiling point. Meaning, it evaporates very fast when heat is applied. Now, when you cook with an alcoholic beverage, the alcohol evaporates in the very early stages of cooking. It is cooked off. What is left behind is the other ingredients and flavors that were used to make the alcoholic beverage; and that is EXACTLY what we are after. We cook with alcohol not to get high (which doesn’t even happen), but to get to the other layered flavors there in. Please please remember this! When someone tells you they got high after eating food cooked with alcohol, just know they are lying because you know and understand the science behind what happens when you cook with alcohol.
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Once the simmering is done, transfer onto a baking pan or casserole dish, cover with a foil and let this braise at 180 for 3 and a half hours or upto 4 hours. You can see a sequence of this from my video from 8.20 -8.35.
Once done, proceed to serve with your fave veggies and starch. What I love about this recipe is that it can literally go with any starch+veggie combo! Be it with ugali and kunde, or rice and broccoli it will still be so bomb! For today, I plated mine with some chapo, spinach and abit of plantain.
How gorgeous is this plateful???
I loooooove how sinfully tender these beef short ribs were! You could appreciate the character that the spicy dry rub added to this during marination. The deep complexity that our guinness added was also much welcome and the herby base we used at the beginning of stewing gave this such a gorgeous flavor profile! This is perfect!
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Much love!
xx
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Hey there! My name is Kaluhi and I love food! Through my blog, I am happy to share with you my self-taught recipes, steeped in nostalgia and the happiest of memories. I hope each recipe you try out is as addictive as the previous one and is shared on a table full of love and hearty laughs!
Awesome!mouth-watering, a must try😁
For sure!
What do you use in marinating
It is detailed in the blog post you are replying to
How much tomato paste? It’s not listed in the ingredients.
3 tbs
Before going gluten-free I’d always cook with beer. Made this for my husband and he loved the incorporation of flavors from the guiness.
So awesome to know hubby loved this!
You had me at beef ribs! I’ve been craving beef ribs all summer. I’ll have to see what the grocer has available. Great video as well!
Thank you!!!!
Made these as a treat for my husband (we always have Guiness on hand lol) and he’s obsessed!
Music to my ears!!!!
WOW! These short ribs are fabulous! Definitely adding this recipe to my go-to dinner recipe list.
Perfect choice to add onto your list!
Super delicious recipe! I can’t wait to make it again, as it will be perfect for fall!
It really is! Hope you get to enjoy it the next time round!
The short rib recipe was amazing! It was perfect to impress my in-laws for dinner. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
They will sure be impressed!!
The braising liquid was SO full of flavor! This is my new favorite short ribs recipe!
Yaaaaay!
I love the flavor of cumin! These beef short ribs are delish! Thanks for the recipe
Guinness adds such an amazing flavor to these tender ribs. and with the spices it was so delicious. Definitely a recipe I will repeat!
I had a whole case of Guinness and short ribs so I made this last night and served them over mashed potatoes. It was amazing!
So so happy you loved it boo thang! I’ll defo try it with mashed potatoes soon!
This looks super rich and delicious in flavor! I wonder if I could do this with pork as well.
Wont work as well with pork because of the ingredients here but look u my red wine braised pork rib recipe
This recipe blew me away! I couldn’t get over how delicious it was!
Happy you enjoyed it love!
Wow! This recipe was amazing! First of all I LOVE cooking with beer! The flavors in this dish were incredible! I followed your serving suggestion and prepared it with greens, and plantains! Is that roti in the photo? If so I’ll have to try it with roti next time!
Beer really is that guuuurl!!!! That is chapati i served it with
2nd recipe i have tried in this blog. I actually HATE beer and i cringed at the thought of my ribs tasting anything like beer. But because I have tried another Kaluhi recipe, I took the leap of faith. Girrrrl!! Listen!!! This food is bomb!!!! I personally paired it with Sukuma Wiki (Kale) and Ugali.
Took a while for the beer taste to fade but when it did, OMG!! Definately a keeper! Thank you Kaluhi!
Note to anyone reading this- I made a mistake and didn’t shave off the extra layer of fat on my ribs. Hence, the ribs turned out EXTREMELY greasy which was offputting. But, next time i will trim off the extra fat.
**Happy dance** So so happy you loved it!!
For braising, yes, any extra fat must be trimmed off. It can be kept on for roasting but for braising it is important to trim it off
That’s look delicious, very curious about it’s taste. Mouth watering😋
They taste perfect!
Great job here on making my mouth watering. You know what? I need to put this on my bucket list.
great job!
Must try for everyone for sure!
Thanks Kaluhi for sharing this tasty, mouth watering Guinness Braised Cumin Beef Short Ribs recipe, youjust made me pass my Splendid Hotel Wines Stores in Mombasa so I can go netflix and chill with my better half, while she cooks this for me. Keep up the good work.
Cheers!
Okay, I wrote a comment the first time i did this recipe but i can’t see it. Anyway, I did this receipe again and this time it’s even better.
First time, i didn’t trim off the fat so the food ended up really greasy (my bad), either way my husband loved it. I also used Guiness Extra Stout- which led to a very intense beer taste ( which i didn’t like, because i don’t drink beer.) All the same, i decided to try this recipe again and change a few things. Pick out lean beef ribs, trim off most off the fat and this time i used Guiness Draught Stout, which is very chocolatey and creamy- safe to say, I NAILED IT! This is it! I’m blown away by how amazing it tastes and you just have a slight beer taste. This recipe is a keeper!!
First time served it with Chapati, today i am serving it with stewed cabbage and ugali.Yum!
I write this long comment because if there was someone out there like me who reads comments before trying a recipe…totally try it out!
You know what, now that you’ve mentioned it, I will definitely give this a try with Guinness Draught Stout when I make this again!! Because of the qualities you have describes, I can totally see how it would work well with the flavors of beef! I love reading form you and I love your comments and your feedback!
I absolutely love braised short ribs and plan on putting this in my rotation! Quick question is the oven temperature 180 Celsius or Fahrenheit?
Celcius. 180C means celcius