Spanish Tomato Garlic Beef Ribs with Portabella Glace and Saffron Rice

A nice Spanish style beef rib and rice petite entree!

     Petite is in the eyes of the beholder!  The ribs in the pictures were not boneless beef ribs and the bone does take up about half of the volume.  There was about four to five ounces of beef attached to these small cut ribs, so by standards, they were some beefy ribs!  

     A four to five ounce meat portion is usually considered to be a petite portion or a lunch portion in fine dining.  Many chefs make the mistake of price gouging, when pricing nicely prepared lunch menu items.  Customers know when they are being ripped off!  I personally would not sell this Spanish style beef rib entree for more than $12.00 to $14.00 for lunch, because that would be pushing the limit.  

     The problem with overpricing a petite entree, is that a customer will decide not to order an appetizer or dessert.  A petite entree of nice quality should be properly priced, so the customer feels good about ordering a soup, salad or dessert with the meal.  Many times a soup has a much lower food cost and the entree is actually close to a break even proposition.  

     Rack of lamb is usually a break even item on a restaurant menu.  Two small trimmed beef ribs are very cheap.  When you consider that expensive ingredients like saffron, portabella and glace viande were used in this beef rib recipe, plus a labor intensive Spanish cooking technique was involved, the profit margin of this petite beef rib entree turns out to be an item that a chef will not make his first million on!

     Of course everything should be of the same portion proportion on a fine dining lunch menu and the service should be quick.  Business people usually only have one hour for lunch, so a chef should plan two to three course meals on a menu that can be served and finished within 45 minutes!  That leaves no room for error.

     Why is a fine dining lunch more expensive than a greasy spoon diner lunch?  Figure the quality of the table setting, the atmosphere, the server training, the real estate and the salaries of talented kitchen personnel into the equation.  There is even more to figure upon, but the bottom line is that the price paid for a fine dining lunch is for quality entertaining food, service and atmosphere.  Of course all that must be compressed into a one hour or less business lunch time frame.  Fine dining business lunches are intense!          

     Glace Viande Recipe:

     Place 4 pounds of veal bones, lamb bones, beef bones, pork bones and meat scraps into a roasting pan.

     Add 5 ounces of tomato paste.

     Add 8 to 10 ounces of rustic un-peeled mirepoix of carrot, celery and onion.

     Stir the mixture together.

     Roast the mixture in a 350 degree oven, till the bones and vegetables caramelize to a deep brown color.  (Stir the ingredients occasionally.)

     Place the roasted bones and mirepoix into a stock pot.

     Deglaze the roast pan with water and add the jus to the stock pot.

     Cover the bones with water and bring to a boil over high heat.

     Turn the temperature to medium low heat and simmer for 4 hours.

     Add water occasionally to cover the bones.

     Strain the stock through a fine sieve.

     Discard the bones and vegetables.

     Skim off the grease.

     Reduce the meat stock by a little more than half.

     This is a very rich unseasoned stock that can be frozen in portions for later use.

     The glace should be able to thinly coat and glaze the back of a spoon.

     When the glace viande is used in recipes, it will be reduced to a slightly thicker glaze to order.         

     Spanish Tomato Garlic Beef Rib Marinade:

     Place 2 whole partially crushed garlic cloves in a mixing bowl.

     Add 1 tablespoon of tomato paste.

     Add 2 pinches of cumin.

     Add 2 pinches of coriander.

     Add 2 pinches of ground anatto.

     Add sea salt and black pepper.

     Add 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar.

     Add 1 teaspoon of olive oil. 

     Add 1 ounce of water.

     Mix the ingredients together.

     Add 2 meaty beef ribs that have the excess bare meatless bone end trimmed off.

     Coat the beef ribs with the marinade.

     Cover the mixing bowl and refrigerate the ribs for 4 to 6 hours.

     Spanish Tomato Garlic Beef Ribs:

     Very lightly brush a small roasting pan with olive oil.

     Place the 2 marinated beef ribs in the roasting pan.

     Pour the marinade over the ribs.

     Stand the ribs in the pan, to the meat side is facing up and the bone side is facing down.

     Add 3/4 cup of water.

     Slow roast the ribs in a 275 degree oven.

     Add a splash of water occasionally, to keep the marinade drippings on the pan from burning.

     Roast the ribs, till they become fully cooked, yet moist and tender.

     While the marinated ribs are slow roasting, the rice can be made!

     Saffron Rice Recipe:

     Place 1 1/2 cups of light chicken broth in a sauce pot.

     Add 1 tablespoon of diced carrot.

     Add 1 tablespoon of diced celery.

     Add 1 tablespoon of diced onion.

     Add 1 pinch of saffron.

     Add 1 tiny pinch of turmeric.

     Add 1 pinch of paprika.

     Add sea salt and black pepper.

     Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat.

     Add 3/4 cup of long grain rice.

     As soon as the liquid returns to a boil, reduce the temperature to low heat.

     Cover the pot with a lid.

     The rice should be fully cooked in 20 minutes.

     Keep the rice warm over a stove top.

     Spanish Tomato Garlic Beef Ribs with Portabella Glace:

     This is an nice method for making a rich glace sauce that has an espagnole sauce flavor.  This is a deglaze reduction method that involves the basic ingredients of a classic espagnole sauce, but there is no brown roux added.   

     After the ribs are finished roasting, remove the ribs and set them aside.

     Discard the garlic cloves.

     Deglaze the roasting pan with 1/2 cup of water. 

     Place the deglace jus into a sauce pot.

     Add 3 sliced small portabella mushrooms. 

     Add 1/2 cup of dry red wine.

     Add 2 ounces of glace viande.

     Add paprika.

     Adjust the seasoning with sea salt and black pepper if necessary.

     Simmer and reduce over medium/medium low heat, till the sauce becomes a thin glace sauce consistency.

     Return the ribs to the sauce.

     Reduce the temperature to low heat.

     Gently simmer the ribs in the sauce, till the sauce reduces to a medium thin glace consistency.

     Spanish Tomato Garlic Beef Ribs with Portabella Glace and Saffron Rice:

     Use a ring mold to place a portion of the saffron rice on the center of a plate.

     Carefully place the 2 ribs on top of the saffron rice. 

     Spoon a generous amount of the rich portabella glace sauce over the ribs.

     Garnish with an Italian parsley sprig.

     Dark, rich, tender and delicious!  The slow roasted marinated ribs and marinade become dark in the oven and that adds even more flavor to a glace viande that is already rich tasting.  The cumin and coriander in the sauce with the saffron rice are classic Spanish flavors.  Yum!  ...  Shawna