Veal Short Ribs with Mushroom Cream Sauce: Gourmet on a Budget

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This classic French dish is perfect: the short ribs tender and buttery, and the sauce is a classic of mushrooms, cream, and parmesan cheese with herbs. Wow your family without breaking the bank.

Gourmet food without breaking your budget!

When Julia Child advised American cooks on The French Chef how to save money while feeding their families delicious French food, she often advocated for cheap cuts of meat braised for long periods. After all, that is just what Beef Bourguignon, Coq au Vin, and Veal Short Ribs are: tough or less-than-desirable meats simmered in wine until they fall off the bone tender and then served with an amazing sauce. In the last decade, the cuts of meat used for these dishes have become more expensive, particularly beef short ribs. This cut of meat has become very trendy: Thomas Keller teaches a Master Class on cooking this delightful cut of meat over 3 days but advises the cook to secure the best possible short rib, although this is costly. Even more costly in the last few years, beef short ribs are selling for the same price as rib steak at my favorite online meat store. It's a short rib, for goodness sake. What would Julia say? It is becoming harder and harder to cook gourmet or fine food on a budget.

The inspiration and original recipe for this dish comes from Half Baked Harvest, and it is a wonderful dish. But the cost of the original is very high, with beef short ribs and over two pounds of exotic mushrooms. This wonderful dish costs closer to $25 and is still amazing.

One solution to all this is to cook with veal short ribs. I know veal is usually more

expensive and is sometimes inhumane. However, people haven't figured out that veal short ribs are an inexpensive alternative when making braised short ribs or Osso Bucco. Wild Fork Foods delivers nationwide and sells veal short ribs for $6.50 per pound (a little over half the price that they sell their full-price beef short ribs), and I have seen veal short ribs at a similar price in the freezer section of my local supermarket. If you can find frozen veal short ribs (or beef short ribs) cheap, grab them and freeze them for later cooking adventures.

A word on the humane raising of veal. In the 1990s, inhumane practices for raising veal came to light, and many people stopped eating veal. Most producers and sellers now certify that their veal is humanely raised. Wild Fork Foods only sells humanely raised veal. This daughter of a beef rancher assures you of this: while eating any meat involves the loss of the life of an animal raised for consumption, veal is raised humanely by producers. The days of tethering calves is over, but always look for the certification that the veal was not tethered. We raised our beef for butchering at around 6-8 months. Veal is butchered 3-5 months earlier. But I do not see a moral difference between these two meats if the veal is raised humanely.

Braising Short Ribs

To begin this recipe, you will brown your short ribs. Do use a little olive or avocado oil

in an oven-safe pan. Just because your short ribs have a cap of fat does not mean it is possible to brown them without a little oil in the pan. I like to start braising by browning some salt pork or pork belly in the pan. In a pinch, you can even use bacon. (I find the smoke on bacon a little overwhelming, so I use pork belly. I found a half-priced pork belly package on the day I found the veal chops, so I used that. Just as Beef Bourguignon and Coq au Vin are always enhanced with little bits of pork, Veal Short ribs should also bet the boost of flavor that only pork can bring. But this is optional: leave the pork or bacon out if you do not eat pork or you wish to produce a simpler or leaner dish. After browning your bits of pork, remove them to a bowl and brown your veal in the oil and pork fat. Get it nice and brown, as caramelization of the veal is the source of flavor. 😊

Wine for Braising

After browning the veal, deglaze the pan with some nice white wine. I used Sauvignon Blanc from Aldi (Winking Owl is the house brand) at under $4 a bottle. This is a simply wonderful brand of wine for cooking (or for drinking, for that matter). Sauvignon Black is a fresh, dry white wine and is perfect for braising veal. Keep a bottle of this wine on hand for cooking. The price and quality can't be beat. If you don't live near an Aldi, Trader Joe's has a house brand that offers a similar quality and price. Otherwise, look for a reasonably priced Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio. Don't buy an expensive brand of wine for this purpose. Use the remainder of a bottle opened for another purpose or buy an inexpensive option.

Herbs

This recipe calls for fresh sage and thyme. I keep fresh thyme in my fridge most of the time. Aldi sells a good option below $2 for a little flat, and thyme keeps very well in the refrigerator. At my previous home, I planted and kept thyme in my flower beds in the backyard. It grows anywhere and is resistant to drought and underwatering.

Sage is another matter: it can be harder to find. I found it on the day I made this dish because it was close to the holidays. Sage is my favorite herb, particularly in stuffing or with poultry. But it is wonderful in cream sauces over veal or other meats. If you can't find fresh sage, use dried or rubbed sage. Be careful with ground sage: its intense flavor can overpower a dish.

Broth: Homemade or Canned

After adding wine and thyme to your pot, add 4 cups of stock. Use chicken instead of beef stock: it is nearly always better quality. I love having homemade chicken stock on hand but buy a quart size of your favorite chicken broth or stock for this dish. The pan liquid is not used for the sauce in this dish, and using up your homemade stock is completely unnecessary. You can even use Better than Bouillion to make a quart of chicken stock. Certainly, do not buy veal stock: in this instance, it would be a waste of money.

After adding your broth, you can place your veal and halved garlic heads in the pot. Bring the mixture to a simmer, cover with foil or an oven-safe lid, and place in a 325-degree oven for 2-3 hours. During the last hour, you can remove the lid. It makes the house smell heavenly.

Once your veal is done and tender, remove the braising pot from the oven and let it rest.

Mushroom Cream Sauce

It's time to begin making your mushroom cream sauce. This sauce is made from a

few simple ingredients: a pound of common mushrooms (I used 1/2 brown and 1/2 white), butter, thyme, and sage (fresh or dried), more of the wine, cream, and parmesan cheese.

A word on these ingredients: All the ingredients in the photo to your left were purchased at Aldi, and their cost in this recipe is around $7. It is not necessary to spend more. The mushrooms sold there are good quality, if not exotic, for under $4. The cream is first-quality: keep a quart in your refrigerator, as it has a long shelf life. Aldi parmesan cheese is a good alternative to much more expensive and reasonably priced cheese. Walmart also has very good options for making this dish, as does Trader Joe's and Sprouts. You could go to Whole Foods or other upscale supermarkets and buy these items for $20-30, but the quality of this dish would not be greater. One proviso: if you use a lot of parmesan cheese, you can buy a large block of first-quality cheese from Sam's Club and save money. If not, the smaller block from Aldi or Trader Joe's is great!

To make the cream sauce, sauté the mushrooms in 6 T of butter on medium-high heat. Let the mushrooms brown and release their juices. Season with salt and pepper. The smell will be heavenly. Remove the mushrooms to a bowl and add the wine and herbs, scraping the bottom of the pan to get the bits in the sauce. Reduce the sauce a little, and add the cream. Allow the cream to simmer very gently. Add the parmesan cheese and correct the seasoning.

You now have a simply legendary mushroom cream sauce for around $7! Saving money and cooking delicious food looks good on you!

Serving Veal Short Ribs with Mushroom Cream Sauce

It's time to plate up your dish. Now that you have both your veal short ribs. You can serve 1-2 short ribs as a serving. Serve on a bed of mashed potatoes or mashed cauliflower if you eat low-carb. Place your short rib portion on the mashed potatoes and spoon the mushroom cream sauce. Sprinkle with fresh thyme or parsley.