Tablitas – great and unrecognized deliciousness!

Tablitas are my go-to dish whenever I am in a hurry! Every time I visit the supermarket, I see flank cuts of tablitas lined up in trays – and I just end up buying. There are reasons why I prefer tablitas over traditionally cooked beef. The first thing is simplicity.

Tablitas adapt to any grill and seasoning rule. Sometimes, just by marinating with salt, granulated garlic, and pepper does the wonder. The cooking time takes a maximum of eight minutes, depending upon the thickness of the meat. If we cook it over coals, we get a flavor of smoked tablitas out of it.

The tradition of flank-style short ribs started in Korean grilling; to cut the meat across the bone about ¼ inch thick. But meat is how we cook it, after all! Despite its Korean origin, we can cook it in our ways!

What Are Tablitas?

Tablita is a Spanish word meaning ‘little planks’ in the literal sense. In the culinary world, it refers to the plank-like cuts of beef short ribs.

Usually, a beef cut is done crosswise across the bone, approximately 3/8 inches thick. But the measurements of a cut depending on how it will be cooked, and hence it can be customized accordingly. A regular tablita cut is of ¼ inch thickness.

Preparing any Tablita dish is very easy. It takes a maximum of eight minutes, and we are done! And most importantly, it tastes delicious every time we have it.

Tablitas can be very similar to beef ribs and can be really tasty as smoked ribs.

Forget the days when we used to prepare the meat for over an hour to get that delicate taste out of the meat cuts. Tablitas has saved the food-lovers with taste and time!

How to buy tablitas?

Tablitas is very easy to get in the markets of Asian or Mexican neighborhood. Alternatively, any reputed supermarket should also have meat cuts in their frozen department.

They are labeled differently in different markets. But everywhere, you should be able to identify them by their thickness, which should never be more than half an inch at most.

Certain Hispanic markets sell the cuts marinated as well, saving you precious time. Prices of regular and marinated tablitas should be between $3.50 and $5 per pound.

How to grill tablitas?

The thumb rule is to cook tablitas medium and then set them up for grilling. Using medium-high flame can flare up the meat. We have to be careful not to burn them.

We start by placing the ribs in a large pot, filling it with water, and covering it. Now we boil the tablitas until the meat is no longer pink.

While doing the previous step, keep a preheated oven (at 425 degrees) ready. Take a medium bowl. Stir olive oil, red wine, soy sauce, curry powder, brown sugar, flour, and garlic together.

Tablitas can be very similar to beef ribs and can be really tasty as smoked ribs.

Drain the ribs. Now we have to coat them sufficiently with the sauce that we have prepared. Then, we must arrange the ribs on the baking sheet before putting it in the oven.

Roast the tablitas for about 30 minutes in the pre-heated oven (the temp is 425 degrees) or until they can be taken apart with a fork. Pour the remaining sauce on the plate before putting it in the oven.

Preparation of tablitas

The steps for preparing the dish are the same. But to prepare the meat at 350 degrees, the browning step has two methods. Here is another way to prepare lip-smacking tablitas in simple steps.

Hot On The Stovetop

We can do this by placing a sauté pan at medium-high heat and adding 2 to 3 tablespoons of grape-seed oil to the pan. Now, place the ribs on the pan.

Make sure the meaty side is down for about 6 to 8 minutes on the pan. The ribs must have a brown outer crusty coating outside.

Bake At High Temperature, Lower It Gradually!

In this method, we have to preheat the oven at a high temperature then lower it gradually while the ribs will continue to bake until cooked.

The results are the same for both techniques. We can choose the one in comfort!

Place the meat in a 450-degree preheated oven for about 25 minutes. Make sure the ribs are half brown by the time they are at 450 degrees.

Once the 25-minute mark is reached, we have to lower the temperature to 350 degrees and remove the short ribs from the oven. Here, we cover the foil properly on the pan so that the edges are tightly sealed, and steam does not escape.

Bake this for 2 – 2 ½ hours in the covered state. Now, we put this under the broiler for about 3 to 4 minutes to make the outside crunchy and crispy.

How To Serve Tablitas?

I suggest to eat tablitas with bare hands. We can also let the guests enjoy the meat by separating it from the bones. We can also use forks or knives to cut the meat on the plate.

Tablita is best served with salsa. The dish is especially called Salsa Tatemada if we have it in a Taco Style.

We can also pair Tablitas with roasted beets, creamy baked mac and cheese, coleslaw without Mayo, crispy Broccolini, any kind of salad, and roasted potatoes.

Tablitas is popularly served with Roasted Sweet Potato, Frijoles Charros, and Avocado Salad.

If we want to keep it simple and superb, we can open the Jalapeno pickle can and serve the dish. Apart from the dish, keep a lot of paper towels handy for the guests to help themselves.

Exclusive recipe for Short Ribs

We can cook beef in many ways. Tablitas are the best-cut beef for slow cooking. It is tender, and the juiciest beef one can ever have.

If we prepare tablitas most finely, the home-cooked dish can compete for top dollar restaurants.

Tablitas with Red wine sauce

The recipe is pretty straightforward and served amazingly on the plate. The list of ingredients is pretty simple. It has a luscious lip-smacking taste with in-depth flavor and thick taste from the sauce itself.

In Asian dishes, tablitas are thinly sliced to reduce the cooking time. But in general, beef short ribs are slow-cooked to break the tough connective tissues to have tender meat.

Since beef short ribs are coated beautifully with layers of fat, the dish becomes juicy and delicious compared to other beef cuts like brisket and chuck.

Braised Tablitas with red wine sauce can be made in the following process.

Step 1: Browning

First of all, we start by browning the meat. This is the main step in the recipe because this will lay the foundation for the whole flavor in the meat and the sauce.

Step 2: Sofrito

Once browning is done, we shall proceed to the second step to slow sauté carrot, celery, garlic, and onions. Time is a great factor here.

The longer we keep it on sauté, then we will get the flavor base better. This mixture is called a Sofrito.

Now, we add tomato paste to thicken the sauce and add a mere touch of sour and cook it for a minute to eliminate any raw edge from the dish.

Step 3: Braising Liquid

Now is the time to make our dish a bit more liquid. We add beef stock/broth with some red wine, bay leaves (optional), and thyme. The latter two are mainly used to add a specific fragrance to our dish.

Step 4: Add The Ribs

When the liquid, sauce, and everything is half-prepared, now we add the ribs. Make sure, that the Tablitas are added very carefully to the pot.

We have to arrange them in a specific way inside the pot so that it remains fully submerged in the liquid. If the liquid is not sufficient to cover the entire rib, there is nothing to worry about. It would cook fine under the steam.

Step 5: Slow Cook

Add the lid on top. Now, either we have to slow cook Tablitas in the oven, slow cooker, or stove.

Step 6: Check The Meat

If we see the liquid level has gone down and the meat looks tender and juicy, we will understand that the dish is completely prepared.

We can check the meat using two forks to see whether it falls apart right off the bone or not. The meat should fall off the bone but stick to the fork.

Step 7: Serve With The Sauce

Garnishing a dish depends on preference. We can strain the liquid and use it as a jus or a sauce of the tablitas.

Transfer the ribs to the plate, scooping out some sauce on it. Do not forget to season your dish with salt and pepper.

Endnotes

Tablitas is a perfect dish for a dinner party with a friend or family. It is delicious, filling, as well as a cultural delicacy.

The best part about serving tablitas at parties is that you do not have to spend hours in the kitchen since morning to prepare it. It has a simple cooking process, even if you try something offbeat.

Dine with delicacy, with Tablitas on a plate!