The list of ingredients and long cook time might initially be a little off putting but once you have browned the meat and veg it really is a case of throwing most of the ingredients in and leaving it to cook and fill your house with amazing aromas.  This is such an effortless, delicious meal I urge you to give it a try.

Ingredients
3 dried peri peri chillies
2-4 tbsps flavourless oil
8 individual beef short ribs
500g frozen soffritto
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped or minced
½ tsp chipotle chilli flakes
3 tbsps concentrated tomato puree
400ml red wine
1 Knorr really rich beef stock pot
400g tin of finely chopped tomatoes
3 tbsps apricot jam
2 tbsps Mrs Balls chutney
1 tsp brown vinegar
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsps salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
130g pap or maize meal (or fine polenta)
1 litre of chicken stock
2 large corn on the cob

Ingredients for the gremolata
2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
25g Fresh flat leaf parsley, leaves finely chopped
6 echalion shallots, very finely chopped
Zest of 1 small orange
Zest of 1 lemon

Method
Place the dried chiles in a small bowl and cover with water.  Put to one side while you carry on with the recipe.

Get a large heavy based pan and put 1 tbsp oil in.  Heat the pan to medium and put in 2-4 ribs depending on the size of your pot, the whole surface of your ribs will need to be in contact with the pan to sear properly.  Sear each side until a deep golden - this will impart a huge amount of flavour.  Once each side is done, remove the ribs to the side and add a little more oil if needed and fry the next batch.  You may find that you have a lot of oil in the pot, at this point don’t worry, just carry on.  Repeat until all ribs are browned.  Expect this to take 20-30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180c.

Turn up the heat of your pan and if your pan has no oil then add a touch more oil if needed and add your soffritto.  Cook your soffritto for around 5-7 minutes until all of the liquid has reduced away and the vegetables soft and translucent.  Add your garlic and chipotle and cook for another 2 minutes.  Add the tomato puree and cook for another minute, stirring. 

Next add the wine and throughly mix and cook for a couple of minutes until everything is bubbling nicely.  Add the soaking peri peri chillies and their liquid, stock pot, tomatoes, apricot jam, chutney, brown vinegar and Worcestershire sauce and stir through.  Take your empty tomato tin and fill with cold water and add this also to the pot, stir and cook over a medium high heat for 5 minutes.   Add the ribs back to the pot, pushing under the liquid.  Put the lid on - on top with foil.

Put into the oven and cook for 2-3 hours depending on the size of your ribs.  I always err on the side of caution and would rather my ribs be a little too soft than still tough, the worst that will happen is the bone will fall out - which to be honest doesn't upset me in the least.  When your ribs are soft enough, check the seasoning and adjust if needed.

When you are happy with your ribs, reduce the heat to low and start your polenta.  Into a saucepan add the chicken stock and slowly sprinkle in your polenta, stirring with a whisk the whole time for the first couple of mins until it combines.  Every few minutes just give a little stir to stop it sticking. 

Turn to your gremolata, combine the garlic, parsley, orange and lemon zest.   Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Meanwhile either steam your corn in the microwave for about 5 minutes by putting them into a container with a lid and adding 150ml water.  If you do not have a microwave you can blanch in boiling water.

After 30 mins put your corn under the grill to brown, turning every few mins. 

Meanwhile test and see how soft your polenta is, if it still feels like individual grains cook for a few more minutes and test again.  If your polenta is too thick, just add initially 50ml of boiling water and stir in.  I like my polenta to be soft like mash.

Cut the corn kernels off of the cobs by standing the cob thick side down and cutting down top to bottom in sheets of 3 or 4 rows.  Turn and continue until you have all kernels off.

To serve place a spoonful of the polenta and top with a rib, bone on or off, it is up to you.  (I prefer to pull the bone out and cut off the skin that attached it.) Top with a ladleful of sauce and scatter the sweetcorn and gremolata over the top.