Sous Vide Short Ribs, White Bean Puree: restaurant quality on a weeknight

This turned out really well and was a minimal work over a couple evenings. Reduced red wine created a flavorful sauce and the bean puree provided a balancing base.

The photo doesn't do it justice, I only took it after I bit into it and exclaimed, "Wow, this is great!". It was rather improvised so I didn't expect such stellar results but we definitely would say this is restaurant quality. The Short Ribs came out tender and still pink, not gray and shreddy like conventionally braised ribs. Our 24-hour sous vide made it easy, and the hands-on time is minimal, but you need to plan a couple nights in advance.

Amounts below are approximate and not critical.

250 ml      Red Wine (we used the dregs of a Bota box :-)
 90 g       Onion, diced (half onion)
  4 cloves  Garlic
peels from  Whole Orange
            Black Pepper
2 sections  Beef Short Ribs, enough for 2 people

           

250 g       Large Lima beans, cooked

 30 g       Butter
100 m       Milk
  6 cloves  Garlic, poached in the Milk/Butter
  5 ml      White Pepper
            Salt
  4 sprigs  Parsley
            Lemon Zest (from one lemon)
[other ingredients in the puree]

Heat the Red Wine with Onions, Garlic, Orange Peel, Black Pepper and cook to reduce to about 200ml/1C, maybe 10 minutes.
Freeze it solid in a container so you can bag it as a solid; overnight works.

Pop the frozen sauce out, add it with the Short Ribs to a sous vide bag, vacuum  and seal.
Cook at 70C/160F for 24 hours.

Drain the bag, straining the sauce.
Let the oil separate from the sauce and separate it out; reserve.
Cook down the sauce to intensify it, 5-10 minutes; season with Salt.
Remove the bones from the Ribs and carefully separate the rubber-band-like tendons that attached them; discard them, but salvage any little nubbins of meat.
Get the pan smoking hot, and use the separated oil  to film a cast iron pan, then sear the sides of the Ribs, adding weight to the top to ensure good contact.

Meanwhile...
Poach Garlic in Butter/Milk with White Pepper to tame the fire, adjust Salt.
If Lima Beans are not hot, heat covered in microwave to serving temperature.
Puree the  Lima Beans in a food processor .
Add the hot Butter, Milk, Garlic and whiz until perfectly smooth.
Stir in Parsley and Lemon Zest for service.

To serve:
Add the Ribs nubbins to the hot Sauce to reheat.
Spread a base of the Bean Puree on a plate, top with a Rib, cover with the reduced Sauce.
Serve with an audacious red wine.

2020 August: second try, needs work

We repeated this, cooked for the same time and temperature, but it was not as unctuous. The beef was not terribly tender, certainly not "falling off the bone", or fork-splitable. The sauce was a bit meager. Not restaurant quality. What went wrong?

The beef ribs must have been somewhat different, they really did need more time or a higher temperature. I may have cooked down the wine a bit too far, not leaving enough liquid in the bag.

We should get another flat of ribs and try them, Serious Eats style, cooked at a variety of different times and temperatures to see which is best. The first time we threw this together, it was amazing, and I want to be able to recreate it reliably.