Çemen-Braised Beef Short Ribs with Brown Butter Sauce and chili butter

Çemen-Braised Beef Short Ribs with Brown Butter Sauce and chili butter

As adapted from the wonderful recipe by Selin Kiazim’s Oklava

As with so many meat dishes, this one certainly improves with a night in the fridge. It is also even more of a delight to serve. Do not be intimidated by the length of this recipe: make the paste. Put the short rib in the oven for 3 hours. Make the heavenly Brown Butter Bread Sauce. There!

Serves 4-6

The Çemen paste:

2 T fenugreek seeds, covered by about 1 ½ cm water, soaked for 10 minutes

5 garlic cloves

5 T castor sugar

½ tsp salt

7 T paprika

1 T hot smoked paprika (used chili flakes)

5 T smoked paprika

1 T ground cumin

2 tsp cumin seeds

¼ c olive oil

200 – 250ml water (you may want to add more to make the paste looser as you’d prefer)

Put the garlic cloves and soaked fenugreek in a food processor or Nutribullet and puree to a paste.  Then add all the remaining ingredients, adding the water and the olive oil in at the end.  Taste and adjust seasoning with salt or sugar.  This paste will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for a good 3 months.  You could freeze it too.

For the Braised Short Ribs:

1 ½ kg beef short rib.  I ask my butcher to cut the ribs to roughly 80g blocks.

½ cup + Çemen paste thinned with 2 T water

Salt and white pepper

2 onions, sliced (you only need 1 but I like lots of onions in my gravy!)

4 cups beef stock

50 g chili butter (or harissa butter or similar), melted

Pre-heat oven to 180°C.

Season the ribs with salt and white pepper. Place the ribs together in a baking dish or roasting tin, just big enough to hold them snuggly.  Tuck the sliced onions around the ribs.  Pour over a good ½ cup of the cemen paste, thinned down with a little water, all over the ribs. Cover tightly and bake for 3 hours, until the meat is just coming away from the bone. 

Once cooked, pour the cooking sauce into a sauce pan and cook to reduce the sauce. This might take 10 – 15 minutes.  Place the short rib in a serving dish that can go in the oven and pour the sauce over the ribs.  Reheat in the oven, covered, at 180°C for 25 – 30 minutes.

For the Brown Butter Bread Sauce:

2 T sunflower oil

1 shallot or ½ onion, sliced

3 garlic cloves, grated

120g butter

100g fresh white breadcrumbs (about 4 – 5 slices, crusts off)

400 ml milk

100ml fresh cream

Sea salt and white pepper

Heat the oil in a saucepan over low heat, add the onion or shallot and garlic and cook for about 6 minutes until softened and translucent.

In a small separate saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat and keep cooking until it turns a nut-brown colour.  (it will become a bit foamy but you will be able to see the hazel nutty colour beneath). Strain through a fine sieve lined with paper towel.

Add the breadcrumbs to the shallot/onion mixture followed by the milk. Stir-stir and cook gently  until thickened.  Add the cream and the salt and pepper and transfer to a food processor or employ your stick blender to blend smooth.  Add the strained melted brown butter as you are blending.  Keep warm or set aside to reheat for serving.

To serve!

Spread the warmed bread sauce on a (warm) deep serving platter or wide, flat-bottomed bowl.

Using tongs or a lifter, arrange the beef short rib in the middle of this “pond”.  Pour some of the Çemen gravy over the ribs. Then pour the melted chili butter over the whole dish!

If you have some chopped parsley about to garnish, good.  Otherwise delight your guest with the fruits of your loving attention.