Estofado de Costillas

Stewed Short Ribs with Tomato–Ají Pepper Sauce & Potatoes

This estofado is my version of the Peruvian staple. In Peru, slowly cooking short ribs in a stewlike sauce is a classic Sunday supper. It’s the sort of dish your mom put on the stove in the morning that made the house smell so incredible, you were never late to the table. Some versions have raisins, a Spanish or maybe Italian addition, and whatever seasonings the home cook in charge wants to throw in the pot. In mine, the tomatoes and ají peppers cook down into a rich sauce spiced with cumin, and the fall-apart-tender meat sops up all of those flavors. This estofado braise would be good with any big, meaty cuts of beef like a chuck roast or brisket. Smash, mash, or roast your favorite potatoes to serve along with the ribs, and open a really good bottle of wine.

• 3½ to 4 pounds meaty bone-in short ribs, oven-roasted (see page 149)
• Tomato–Ají Pepper Braise (recipe)
• Homemade chicken stock (page 40) or low-sodium store-bought broth, if needed
• 1 bay leaf
• Kosher salt, if needed
• Smashed, mashed, or roasted potatoes, for serving

1 Preheat the oven to 350°F and place a rack in the bottom third of the oven. Arrange the roasted short ribs snugly in a large Dutch oven or a baking dish with 3- to 4-inch sides, and pour the tomato–ají pepper braise over them. If the ribs are not fully covered, try a different size pot, or add a cup or two of chicken stock. Add the bay leaf and cover the pot with a lid or foil.

2 Bake the short ribs until the meat is fall-apart tender, a solid 3 hours. If you are roasting a pot roast or brisket, bake the meat a little longer, 3½ to 4 hours. Use a large spoon to skim off as much of the surface fat from the braising liquid as possible (although a little fat is always tasty). Taste the meat and braising liquid (it should have reduced to a jus-like sauce) and season with salt, if needed. If you are not serving the short ribs right away, let them cool completely in the sauce, cover, and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Rewarm the ribs and sauce slowly over medium-low heat or in a preheated 300°F oven. Add a splash of chicken broth, if needed, to keep it from burning, and stir regularly.

3 To serve, pile the potatoes onto a serving platter or individual plates, arrange the short ribs on the potatoes, and spoon some of the sauce on top (or serve it alongside).

Tomato–Ají Pepper Braise

Makes 7 to 8 cups

Give me a hunk of beef, and the first thing I want to do is make a really good sauce. As in so many other slow-cooked Peruvian dishes, the bright, spicy ají amarillo and mellow, almost smoky-sweet ají panca pepper pastes work together to balance the flavors of the braise. The ají panca pepper paste is more like a smoky tomato paste, so it adds flavor depth and color more than heat.

• 1 large or 2 small red onions
• 1 large red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and veins removed
• 2 medium carrots, peeled
• Cloves from ½ head garlic, separated
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 bay leaf
• 1½ tablespoons ají panca paste, store-bought or homemade (page 36)
• 1 tablespoon ají amarillo paste, store-bought or homemade (page 34)
• 4 plum tomatoes, stem ends trimmed, quartered
• 1½ teaspoons ground cumin
• ⅓ cup dry red wine, like Beaujolais, or whatever you have around
• 3 cups homemade chicken stock (page 40) or low-sodium store-bought broth

1 Chop the onion, bell pepper, and carrots into big chunks, roughly 1 inch or so. Peel and lightly smash the garlic. Heat the oil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until hot, a good 2 minutes. Add the chopped vegetables and garlic and sauté, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until the vegetables begin to soften and the edges color, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the bay leaf and ají panca paste and sauté, stirring every so often, for 2 minutes more. The aderezo (flavorings) should smell deliciously smoky from the pepper paste.

2 Stir in the ají amarillo paste, reduce the heat to medium-low, and sauté for another minute or two, moving the aderezo back and forth on the bottom of the pot with the spoon. Add the tomatoes, cook for another minute or two so they release their juices, then add the cumin and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook the tomatoes until they start to break down and look juicy, 3 to 4 minutes, deglaze the pan with the wine, and reduce the liquid for another few minutes. Add the chicken stock and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan one more time. Remove the pan from the heat.

3 When cool enough to handle, discard the bay leaf and puree everything in a blender in batches until smooth. Use right away, or cool the tomato–ají pepper braise completely, cover, and refrigerate for up to 2 days.

Aderezo

In Peruvian cooking, everything starts with the aderezo. The aderezo is the sabor, flavor, the backbone of many traditional dishes, especially slow-cooked stews and braises; it provides their unmistakable Peruvian character or personality. It is a lot like a Spanish sofrito, only the ingredients you use are not as rigidly defined and change depending on the dish and the cook’s preference. In many, the aderezo includes some kind of pepper, and often garlic and onions, but it might be just garlic and onions fried in some kind of oil for the simplest rice preparations. The only consistency is that, like any good Peruvian dish, the aderezo always varies.