At work, I met a few people who I called “food freaks”. These people are as passionate, if crazy isn’t a better term, about food as me. When it comes to cooking, I’m often amazed by their creativity. We get together once a month and one of us will bring a dish for others to share. In the past, someone baked bacon cookies. Yes, you have heard it right – bacon is embedded in a sweet confection. Another “food freak” is a kitchen gadget expert. Not only he knows a lot about just any kitchen gadget exists, he can also find you the best deal to get them at any time. Every “food freak” has impressed me in one way or another and I always look forward to our next gathering to learn about a new dish or a new restaurant from them.

We met up this Halloween and to try out dishes created by each other. Many dishes were presented with an innovative spin to suit the theme – little orange cute pumpkin “mochis”, lycee jelly with lycee that looked like eyeballs, poached pear shaped as cute animals, and scary bloody finger cookies. Unfortunately I wasn’t as creative with presentation, my dish was a slowly braised short ribs in black pepper sauce (my defend is the attempt to make the dish at least look black). Regardless, I want to share this recipe because I can say it might be the easiest recipes out of everything that I have cooked. There are only 3 steps in this recipe.

Turn the oven to 300F.

I’m using 3 lb of boneless short rib. You can use less beef if you are not a big carnivore like me. Short ribs come in many different cuts and one of the most common cut is a a thin cross section slice. The cut in this recipe is a thick cut without the bone.

Put the short ribs in a quart pan and cover the pan with a lid. When the oven is ready, put the pan into the oven and roast the beef for 3 hours.

After 2 1/2 hours, take the beef out of the oven. There will be a lot of juice in the pan. Pour the juice into a bowl or oil separator. Remove the fat from the juice and save it for another recipe (this juice will make a great dip for a beef sandwich like the one served at Feenie’s, which I have always intended to recreate one day).

Note: be very careful when you do this step. The pan will be very hot out of the oven. Remember not to touch the pan without wearing mittens. I got burned in the pass because I forgot the pan was taken out of oven and it was a big ouch!

The black pepper sauce in the recipe is ready-made. When people learn that I use ready-made sauces or stock, they are often surprised. I’m crazy about cooking and I love creating everything from scratch, but I’m not against using ready-made ingredients. Heck, nowadays who would always have the time to make crab cakes by picking crab meat out of shell?

Coat the ribs with 4 tbsp of black pepper sauce. If required, add in more sauce. Cover the pan with the lid and roast for another 1/2 hour.

After 1/2 hour, check to see if the beef is fork-tender. If the short ribs are not ready, continue to roast them until they are fork-tender.

That is it. The ribs are ready to eat. If you want to be fancy, you can julienne the ribs and sprinkle them with deep fried onion flakes.

The ribs are tender and literally melt in your mouth. The black pepper sauce compliments the rib well. I told one friend about this sauce and she told me it tastes exactly like a dish she always had when she was small. Knowing that makes me happy.