Slow Cooker Ribs — The Snow-Day Stew That Asks Nothing of You But Time

A snowstorm hit Long Island on Tuesday — the real kind, the kind that closes schools and silences streets and turns the world into a white page waiting to be written on. I love snowstorms. I know this is an unpopular opinion for a fifty-nine-year-old woman with a commute, but I love them because they are the only thing that slows the world down enough for me to feel like I am moving at the right speed. The world runs too fast. Snow makes it stop.

School was closed for two days. I spent both days in the kitchen, which is what snow days are for: ambitious cooking, the kind you don't have time for on ordinary days. On Tuesday I made bread — not challah, not this time, but a sourdough loaf from a starter I have been maintaining for three years, a culture of yeast and flour that lives in my refrigerator and requires feeding once a week, which makes it, in Marvin's words, "the most high-maintenance thing in this house, including me." The sourdough is cranky and particular and produces a bread so good that the crankiness is forgiven. Bread is like people: the difficult ones are often the most rewarding.

On Wednesday I made cholent — the Ashkenazi slow-cooked Shabbat stew that traditionally goes into the oven Friday afternoon and comes out Saturday after synagogue. But I don't wait for Saturday. Cholent on a snow day is exactly right: heavy, warm, brown, unapologetically hearty, the kind of food that makes you want to sit by a window and watch the snow fall and think about nothing more ambitious than whether to have a second bowl. The answer is always yes. Cholent is not a food of moderation. It is a food of commitment.

Marvin shoveled the driveway twice. He is sixty-seven and I watch him shovel with the anxiety of a woman married to a man whose father-in-law died of a heart attack. I want to say: don't shovel. Let the snow stay. We can stay inside until spring. But Marvin is a man who clears his driveway, the way Irving was a man who went to work, and telling either of them to stop would be like telling the snow to stop: technically possible but practically futile.

I wrote a blog post about snow-day cooking — about the luxury of time, about how a blizzard gives you permission to cook slowly, to make the bread you've been meaning to make, to simmer the stew for hours, to stand at the window with a cup of tea while the world outside erases itself and the kitchen stays warm and full. The readers responded. Everyone, it turns out, has a snow-day food. Everyone has a memory of being snowed in and cooking something ambitious and feeling, for one day, like time was on their side.

My snow-day recipe that year was the one I’d been putting off making for months — the kind that requires you to do almost nothing, and yet rewards you as though you’ve done everything. While Marvin shoveled and I watched from the window with my tea and my anxiety, the slow cooker sat on the counter doing its quiet, unhurried work, filling the kitchen with the smell of something that had nowhere to be and all day to get there. That’s the gift of a blizzard, I suppose — it gives even the impatient among us permission to wait. Here’s what I made.

Slow Cooker Ribs

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 8 hours | Total Time: 8 hours 20 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 3 lbs beef short ribs or flanken-style ribs
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed
• 3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 cup dried kidney beans or barley, rinsed (or one 15 oz can kidney beans, drained)
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 cup beef broth
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar or honey
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions

1. Sear the ribs. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season ribs generously with salt and pepper. Sear in batches, 2–3 minutes per side, until a deep brown crust forms. Do not crowd the pan. Transfer to the slow cooker insert.
2. Build the base. In the same skillet, cook onion and garlic over medium heat for 3–4 minutes until softened. Stir in tomato paste and cook 1 minute more. Add beef broth and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
3. Layer the slow cooker. Nestle potatoes and beans around and beneath the ribs in the slow cooker. Pour the onion-broth mixture over everything. Add soy sauce, brown sugar, smoked paprika, and onion powder. Stir gently to combine.
4. Cook low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours, or HIGH for 4 to 5 hours. The meat should be completely tender and pulling away from the bone. Resist the urge to lift the lid — every peek adds 20 minutes.
5. Finish and serve. Taste and adjust salt. Use a large spoon to skim excess fat from the surface if desired. Serve in deep bowls with thick slices of sourdough or crusty bread alongside to catch the broth.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 520 | Protein: 38g | Fat: 28g | Carbs: 29g | Fiber: 5g | Sodium: 610mg