Beef Short-Ribs and Slaw (by G)

I've heard a lot of talk over the past couple of years about how awesome beef short ribs are, but I've never really thought about cooking them for some reason. Then, the other day, I saw them for sale at the butcher and realised that large chunks of beef is probably what is lacking in my diet.

The ribs, for the most part, were pretty easy to cook. A bit of salt and pepper the into the oven for 7 1/2 hours at 100 deg C.  That gets them to the stage where they are no longer tough and indigestible, but does nothing for their flavour - for that aspect I made up a bbq sauce from tomato paste, brown sugar, garlic, apple cider vinegar, mirin (because there was not much vinegar left), Worcestershire sauce and some tomato sauce. The tender ribs got a coating of this sauce then went back into the oven for finishing.

As a side I decided for something a bit clean and tart to cut through the fattiness of the beef ribs - finely shaved fennel, cucumber, red chilli, mint and kiwi fruit tossed together with half a teaspoon of mayonnaise (because that too had run out) and the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of cider vinegar.

The problem with the ribs, in my opinion, was a lack of sauce - I should have been a bit more generous with it, otherwise I was pretty happy with them and the salad was a very good accompaniment.