Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

On my last visit to Haverick Meats, butcher Mark went out to the cool room and found three kilos of locally grown grassfed beef short ribs for me. As Havericks is primarily a restaurant trade supplier, most of their beef is grainfed, but they usually have grassfed available if you ask for it.

That night, I popped my Römertopf baker into the sink to soak, and smeared a kilo and a half of the ribs with the Portuguese seasoning mix I bought at Charlie’s Deli..

The pre-soaked Römertopf was filled with chopped vegetables (we had onions, carrots and capsicums in the fridge), black barley (my latest Harkola find), tomato passata and one of my friend Diana’s homegrown chillies. The ribs were laid on top and a box of defrosted beef stock was poured over…

The covered pot was placed in a cold oven before turning the heat up to 200C with fan. After the first hour, the oven temperature was reduced to 160C with fan for a further two hours (in the past, it would have been 150C, but Bobby II doesn’t run quite as hot as Old Bob) until the meat was tender and the black barley was cooked through.

We de-fatted the dish as much as possible, then served it with brown rice and the first of our preserved garden lemons. It was a huge hit with the carnivores…

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As mentioned in the previous post, Allison and I popped into the Portuguese butcher in Petersham on our most recent foodie adventure. While we were there, we discovered their magnificent dinosaur ribs – a cut neither of us had seen before (“dinosaur” is my personal descriptor, if you ask for them by that name, they’ll probably just look at you oddly). These huge grassfed ribs are basically brisket on the bone and each weighs in at about a kilo and a half ($13/kg).

I bought two and gratefully accepted Jose’s offer to cut through the bone at the back, separating it into shorter pieces while leaving the meat intact on top. Inspired by the Mothership brisket recipe in Save with Jamie, these were rubbed with ground black pepper and sea salt, then browned in a little oil on all sides in our (much loved) flameproof Emile Henry roasting pan. Two chopped onions were scattered over the base of the pan, the ribs laid on top, then rosemary leaves were stripped over…

We tucked a wet sheet of parchment over the meat, then covered that with two layers of foil. The roasting pan went into a preheated 170C (non-fan) oven for four hours, with a splash of water added halfway through.

The meat was very tender after four hours, so we let it rest, covered, on the hob while the root veggies roasted at a higher temperature. Then we removed the foil and returned it uncovered for a final half hour in the oven to brown and caramelise…

The meat was falling apart as I sliced it into smaller pieces, each with a bone attached. We served it with roasted vegetables, steamed broccoli from our garden and Pete’s homemade gravy, and the hungry wolves declared it to be their favourite beef dish ever…

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We’re incredibly fortunate in Australia to have access to excellent grassfed beef – it’s a kinder option for the animal, has a distinctly different flavour to grainfed (particularly in the fat),  and is thought to be healthier for us. Both these dishes were a huge hit with the boys and perfect winter comfort food – we’ll definitely be making them again!