Braised Short Ribs in a Non-Scary Mole

Happy Cinco de Mayo! What is a scary mole? Well, I am the king of scary moles. A scary mole is one that is made correctly, with all kinds of flavor and spice, but served incorrectly to a Tex-Mex lover. Those big full flavored moles are not for the uninitiated.

I decided to combine one of my favorite cooking methods, braising, with one of my favorite sauces - mole.

Braised Short Ribs in a Non-Scary Mole

You will need about 3 pounds of beef ribs. Have the butcher cut them in half if you can. You will also need some dried New Mexico Chilies. These are red in color and milder than other chilies.

You need to take the stems off the chilies and pull the seeds out. The place a layer of chilies, 1/2 of an onion, and a few cloves of garlic in the bottom of your braising vessel. Drop in a handful of peanuts.

Add in 1/2 t oregano, 1 t cumin and 1/2 t pepper.

Brown your ribs briefly and place on top of the chilies. Add water to almost cover the ribs. Place into a 275 degree oven with the lid of the vessel just barely cracked. Braise for 2 1/2 hours. At the end of cooking take most of the chilies and place them into a blender. Add 1 cup of the cooking liquid and blend. Now add water, a little at a time, to make the sauce smoother and less thick. Remove the ribs from the pot and put on a plate. Clean the pot the rest of the way out and put the ribs back into the pot. Now take your sauce in the blender and strain it really well through one of those wire mesh strainers. This will remove all of the little particles of chili shell that didn't quite get softened and blended. Taste the sauce and adjust the salt as needed. Pour the sauce back into the pot with the ribs. At this point you need to put it back into the oven, covered, so that the sauce warms up. This is a good time to get everything ready to serve and eat appetizers etc.