Short Ribs and Risotto – Recently I was in St Petersburg, Florida, visiting my son, Luke. Our visit coincided with his birthday. For his birthday, we went to a restaurant called “The Library” in St Pete.
It is a restaurant attached to the Johns Hopkins Children’s Hospital in downtown St Petersburg. There were 4 of us for dinner, including my wife Ellen and Luke’s girlfriend Lauren.
All the food was outstanding. I was particularly taken with the meal that I ordered. It was short ribs on risotto. The interesting part for me was the risotto. It had a dark color and an interesting flavor.
When I go to restaurants, I like to try recreating dishes at home. If there’s something I like, I want to recreate it at home. And, I wanted to recreate The Library’s short rib and risotto dish.
How the Risotto was made
I called Chef Rachel Bennett of the Library and she was very kind to explain how she made the dish.
It’s somewhat complex in that I would not say this is a Cooking Secrets for Men recipe. But I wanted to try and replicate it anyway. I wasn’t going to follow all the steps she laid out, but I think I nailed the flavor. We served this at a recent dinner party. And here is how we made it.
Chef Bennett had two ingredients I was not expecting. First, she uses Mushroom Stock to braise the risotto initially. Second, she uses reconstituted short rib juice from the pan to finish the risotto. There were also pieces of short rib in the risotto. I cooked a couple of extra ribs. This allowed me to add more to the risotto. With this information she shared, I was ready to make a plan.
Short Ribs and Risotto
Making the Mushroom stock was a snap and I did that a day before our dinner party.
I decided to make the risotto in the microwave. The recipe for Microwave Risotto from our recipe website – https://cookingsecretsformen.com/2020/02/28/easy-microwave-risotto/ with a few changes for this dish noted below.
And I was going to cook the short ribs in the Instant Pot. You can bet money that Chef Bennett wasn’t using the microwave or Instant Pot. But after all, this is “Cooking Secrets for Men” and it’s how I roll.
Instant Pot Short Ribs and Risotto
For the Short Ribs, I used a basic Instant Pot recipe, listed below. The juices from the ribs after cooking were used to flavor (and color) the risotto. I used an immersion blender to get the onions/carrots/celery pieces pureed into the rib sauce. Then finish the risotto with reduced sauce from the ribs.
If you’re ever in the Tampa/Saint Petersburg area I highly encourage you to have dinner at The Library.
The Library St. Petersburg, FL
Located in: Johns Hopkins All Children’s Research and Education Building, The Library in St Petersburg. A Polished eatery offers New American bites, brunch staples & craft cocktails. There is also outdoor seating available.
Address: 600 5th St S, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
Menu: thelibrarystpete.com
To follow Chef Rachel Bennett, catch her on Instagram: @thelibrarystpete
Short Ribs & Risotto
Equipment
- Instant Pot
- Microwave and Microwave safe bowl
Materials
Mushroom stock
- 6 cups water
- 1 pound flavorful mushrooms
- Some chopped onion carrot, and/or celery (optional)
- Salt & pepper to taste
Short Ribs Ingredients
- 2 slices bacon cut into 1" pieces
- 6 bone-in short ribs 4 to serve, 2 to shred in the risotto
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 4 shallots quartered
- 4 carrots chopped
- 2 celery stalks chopped
- 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
- 6 garlic cloves chopped
- 1 tsp thyme
- 3 tbsp. tomato paste
- 1 cup dry sherry
- 2 tbsp. brown sugar
- 2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
- 2 cups beef broth
- ½ cup chopped parsley
Microwave Risotto Ingredients
- ½ cup chopped Shallot or any type of onion
- 2-3 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup Arborio rice
- 2¾ cups Mushroom stock
- ¼ cup dry white wine
- 2 shredded short ribs
- Extra ¼ to ½ cup short rib broth as needed to flavor and color the risotto
Instructions
Mushroom Stock – PREPARATION
- In a saucepan, toss a pound of trimmed, flavorful mushrooms in with 6 cups of water.
- Add some onion, carrot, or celery for extra flavor.
- Add some salt and pepper as desired
- Bring to a boil, and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Strain the mushrooms & veggies out, or use an immersion blender to add even more flavor to this broth.
- This can be done a day ahead of time.
Microwave Risotto Instructions Part 1
- Stir the first 4 ingredients into a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl.
- Microwave on HIGH for 2 minutes.
- Add in the Arborio rice, and stir to coat it
- Microwave on HIGH for 2 minutes.
- Stir in 2¾ cups stock and ¼ cup wine.
- Cover tightly with plastic wrap. (Do not vent).
- Microwave on HIGH for 8 minutes.
- Carefully stir the bowl (to combine the mixture)
- The first 8 steps can be done while the short ribs are in the oven
MICROWAVE RISOTTO – PART 2
- Add shredded rib meat to the risotto and stir to combine
- Add up to ½ cup of rib juices, reserving more if needed
- Re-cover with plastic wrap, not venting
- Microwave on HIGH for another 8 minutes.
- Carefully remove and discard plastic wrap.
- Stir in ¼ cup rib stock (if needed), stirring for 30 seconds to 1 minute or until creamy.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste,
Short Ribs DIRECTIONS
- Season short ribs with salt and pepper and set aside.
- Set Instant Pot to Sauté setting.
- Once hot, add bacon and cook until lightly golden and fat is mostly rendered 5 minutes.
- Remove bacon and set aside, leaving bacon fat in the pot.
- Sear ribs on all sides until caramelized, 4 to 5 minutes per side. (You may also want to do this in a large pan.) Transfer to a plate.
- Add in shallots, carrots, celery, red pepper flakes, and garlic to the Instant Pot, and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened, about 3 minutes.
- Add thyme, and tomato paste, stir until fragrant, 1 min
- Add sherry, bring to a simmer, and use a wooden spoon to deglaze and scrape the bits off the bottom of the Instant Pot, for 3 minutes.
- Turn off the Sauté function and add in brown sugar, Worcestershire, vinegar, beef broth, seared ribs, and cooked bacon.
- Season with salt and pepper, then lock the lid and set to Pressure Cook on High for 45 minutes.
- Let Instant Pot naturally release for 15 minutes, then carefully quick-release
- Remove the ribs from the Instant Pot, separating the 2 ribs to be shredded from the 4 to be served.
- Keep the 4 ribs to be served warm.
- Shred the other two ribs, to be included in the risotto recipe below. Discard the bone
- Transfer the contents of the Instant Pot into a saucepan.
- Using an immersion blender, puree the cooked veggies with the rib juices
- Bring to a boil and reduce. This will be used in the finishing of the risotto (See part 2 below)
- Once the risotto is finished, put a serving of risotto in a shallow bowl, with one short rib on top. Garnish with chopped parsley
Notes
Nutrition
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If you like this recipe for Short Ribs and Risotto, you should try our recipe for Chicken Thighs and Risotto
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Short Ribs and Risotto
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The dish looks so delicious. So nice of the chef to share her recipe. 🙂
Oh my god this is sooo not a cooking secrets recipe but it looks right straight up my alley. Looks just fabulous.
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This looks wonderful. I’ve never made mushroom stock, but I do use seasoned mushroom powder. Looks like a fabulous dining experience!
Thank you Charlie for sharing this special occasion recipe.
Thanks to Chef Rachel Bennett for sharing her secrets for this recipe.
Thanks, Ronit!!
It really was delicious in the restaurant. It was a little more involved than I usually like, but it came out very well. Thanks for checking in!
Thanks, Chef, appreciate your comments!!
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