My friends at Slo Moe’s recently asked me to whip up a winter warmer dish for their new eBook, so I put together some smoked short rib with my favourite sides, including beef fat potatoes made from the rendered trim. The full recipe is below.

Beef short ribs are one of the best cuts to smoke low and slow, both visually, with giant bones and taste wise with melt in your mouth meat and crunchy bark. Read the whole recipe before you begin, as there are a number of things to be doing while the ribs are cooking.

Ingredients

• Rack of full plate beef short ribs (approx. 3-4 bones)
• Moonshine BBQ Beef Rub
• 4 large potatoes
• 10 Brussels sprouts
• 3 rashers streaky bacon
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Unsalted butter
• Salt & pepper

Method

RIBS

1. Square up the short ribs, removing a bone off the end if necessary to give you consistent thickness of the slab of meat.
2. Trim the fat cap from the top of the beef short ribs, reserving the trimmed fat (this will be used for the potatoes)
3. Turn the rack over (bones up) and begin to loosen membrane from one corner of the rack using the handle of a spoon or a butter knife. Once you have enough to grip, use a paper towel to hold it and pull back and remove the remaining membrane. Discard.
4. Using a shaker, apply Moonshine BBQ Beef rub to the top of the ribs and all sides and let rest for 30 minutes.
5. Prepare your smoker to a stable temperature of 275F
6. Place the meat on the smoker, and add wood to your fire. We used ironbark in our cook.
7. Keep checking the smoker through the cook to make sure you are maintaining a heat of 275F.
8. At 3 hours, begin to check the internal temperature with a digital probe thermometer. If beginning to look dry, spritz with some beef stock (use a spray bottle)
9. Once the ribs reach 205F internal temperature and are probing like soft butter, then they are done (approx. 8 hours). Depending on the meat, this may take more or less time, so it’s important to check the temperature regularly. Try not to open the smoker too often as heat will fluctuate.
10. Wrap in foil and a towel and rest in a warm place for 20 minutes.

RENDERING THE FAT

1. While the ribs are cooking, remove any excess meat from the trimmed fat and place the fat in a saucepan with ¼ cup water
2. Bring the water to a simmer and continually stir the beef fat until it begins to break down. You will notice it will begin to look like oil
3. Once all the beef fat has been rendered, you will be left with what looks like pork crackling. Strain the solids from the rendered fat through a muslin cloth or a clean Chux into a clean bowl. Discard the solids. This rendered fat will keep in the fridge in a sterilised jar for a week or two.

SMASHED BEEF FAT POTATOES

1. About an hour from your intended finishing time, quarter your potatoes into similar sizes and place in a pot of boiling water until semi-tender
2. Add two tablespoons of the rendered beef fat to a tray and place in an oven at 210c
3. Drain the water and rough the potato edges up by tossing them in the strainer
4. Add to the tray of heated fat and toss, season with salt and pepper and place back in the oven. Occasionally stir potatoes to further break them down and make sure all sides are golden and crispy.

BRUSSELS SPROUT HASH

1. About 10 minutes from the end of the intended finishing time for the ribs, chop your bacon into small pieces and fry off in a frypan to render the fat out. Remove from the pan when golden and rest on some paper towel
2. Trim the bottoms from the sprouts and separate the leaves
3. Add a knob of butter and a clove of garlic to the pan, add the sprouts and sauté in the butter for a minute until the leaves begin to slightly wilt, but maintaining their structure.
4. Add bacon back into the pan and stir to combine.

TO SERVE

Remove the ribs from their resting foil and slice lengthways down the bone. Serve with the beef fat potatoes and brussels sprout hash.