Beef Short Ribs in Dried Fruit

It was cold outside and I was in the mood for a beef stew like dish so I rummaged in my pantry and found a wonderful array of dried fruits and then my eye caught a nice big can of pineapple in its own juice. Done. I was already dreaming of the combo. I decided I wanted a little smoky taste in this mixture and took out a packet of chorizo sausages (beef, natch) and decided to make it all in the instant pot. No worries, no instant pot or pressure cooker? Just make it on the stovetop but understand it’ll take longer to cook and you have to come by and stir it from time to time. The joys of the instant pot is get it going and walk away. Yay to that.

So gather your ingredients and get set!

Note that I used the frozen crushed ginger here. It’s a great save when you don’t have the fresh available. A note. If you don’t have tamarind sauce, you can substitute with the pomegranate syrup/molasses by just using extra. Though there is a difference in the taste, you are going for that sweet sour tang (which the pineapple enhances) and it works. By the way, the white bulb like objects in the above pic are those large garlic heads that I love that are so easy to peel and use. You can sub regular garlic, of course and the baggie is filled with chopped, frozen onion which whenever I chop some, I toss extra into the freezer in a ziploc bag. K.

Take your beef and sausage and cut into chunks like so:

set aside.

Take your pot, put some oil in it and heat and saute your onions till light brown. (If instant pot, turn on saute. You will switch it to stew afterwards).

Now toss in your chopped garlic and ginger right on top and stir into oil and onions for less than a minute. Garlic burns easily so have everything ready to roll. I do not brown the beef. Add the beef and sausage. Add molasses or silan (date molasses), pomegranate molasses, tamarind paste and stir well, then add the canned pineapple (I leave them in slices) the dried apricots, prunes and figs, black peppercorns and salt. Add the pineapple juice, water, Stir well again, scraping from the bottom.

Close the top of the instant pot or pressure cooker and switch to stew for 70 minutes. If using a regular stockpot, bring to the boil, lower to simmer and cook for about an hour and a half to two hours, stirring from time to time till beef is soft enough to fall off the bone. Taste to see if any salt is needed and serve in rimmed bowls over couscous Fluffy Couscous or white rice Simple Basic White Rice to catch all that incredible sauce.

Beef Short Ribs in Dried Fruit

1 small onion peeled and chopped small

2 -3 tablespoons oil

2 -4 cloves chopped garlic

1 knob fresh ginger, peeled and sliced or 2 pieces frozen ginger crushed

beef short ribs – bone in 650 grams (approximately 1.5 pounds) cut into chunks

1 400 grams (about 1 pound, a little less) package chorizo or regular beef sausage, cut into chunks 

3 tablespoons molasses or date molasses (Silan)

2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses 

2 tablespoons tamarind paste 

6 dried apricots (70 grams) 

6 pitted prunes (97 grams) 

5 dried figs (75 grams) 

Canned pineapple 

6 black peppercorns 

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (240 ml) pineapple juice from 20 ounce (825 gram) can of canned pineapple 

1 cup (240 ml) water 

 

Directions:

Place the oil in the pot and gently saute the onion till light brown. If in instant pot, first on “sauté” for the onions then you will switch to “meat/stew” for 70 minutes. Add garlic and ginger and just stir into hot oil/onions. Immediately add the beef, sausage, molasses/silan, pomegranate molasses, tamarind paste, dried fruit, pineapple, peppercorns and salt and stir all together. Pour the juice and water over all and stir again. Switch to “meat/stew” and set for 70 minutes. In regular stockpot, simply lower heat to a simmer and continue to cook about one and half to two hours, stirring from time to time or till meat is soft and tender. Serve over couscous or rice.