Basically - brown the meat, add liquid and extras, cook at low heat for a long time to break down connective tissue and convert to gelatin, then do something with the liquid.

Sometimes you marinate the meat first for flavour, or coat in flour to thicken the sauce later, I often don't bother with either. The liquid is usually wine or beer or stock, being tastier than water. Extras are usually aromatics (mirepoix etc), herbs/spices, tomato paste, anchovy paste, lardons/bacon, etc. You can use stock-making tricks like adding a gelatin source (powdered gelatin or a piece of animal with lots of collagen - knuckles, feet, etc) or adding bones - these are discarded at the end.

It is hard to mess up. I'm sure you'll get lots of recipes. Here is a slightly Asian version that is very simple and tasty. In fact I made short ribs in this manner a couple weeks ago, yummy.

- start with 3-4 lbs of short ribs, do not trim fat
- use large sauce pot or dutch oven with tight-fitting lid
- brown ribs over high heat in a little vegetable oil, working in batches
- chop a few slices of gingerroot and a few cloves of garlic, cut a bunch of green onions into 2" lengths (ginger and garlic are optional, can use regular onions)
- place ribs, ginger, garlic, green onions in pot
- add about 3 oz of soy sauce and a little bit of red pepper (if don't like heat, then black pepper)
- add about 6 oz of rice wine (if none, could use sake or white wine or red wine, the wine version will taste different)
- add enough water or beef stock to cover ribs (you want at least 10 oz of liquid in total)
- bring to boil, then cover pot and reduce heat to simmer or place covered pot in 350F oven
- cook for 4 hours, stir once or twice
- remove ribs, the meat should be almost falling off the bone, and set aside in a warm place
- discard all remaining solids (ginger, green onions, etc)
- defat liquid if needed (probably won't be)
- place pot on burner, uncovered, bring liquid to full boil, and boil until reduced by 1/3 to 1/2 (you want to end up with an adequate amount of sauce, which is why you started with at least 10 oz liquid)
- heat to medium, return ribs to pot to reheat and coat in sauce
- faster alternative to 4 hours slow cooking: pressure cooker at high pressure for 1 hour

I went out and looked at some recipes and they look just like pot roast recipe's, just a different cut of meat? Ok, wiki'd and answered my own question.

Since I'd rather be able to sort of eyeball the whole thing my one question is - how much liquid. Covering half the meat? Less? Its supposed to be sort of a moist heat ie steam method right?

For the acidic element tomatoes just sound weird to me but I did a stew with red wine and it was ok.
Johnliu's suggestion of white wine might be my experiment choice. Or a vinegar?

From Wiki
Braising (from the French "braiser"), is a combination cooking method using both moist and dry heat; typically the food is first seared at a high temperature and then finished in a covered pot with a variable amount of liquid, resulting in a particular flavor. Braising of meat is often referred to as pot roasting, though some authors make a distinction between the two methods based on whether additional liquid is added.

If the food will not produce enough liquid of its own, a small amount of cooking liquid that often includes an acidic element, such as tomatoes, beer, or wine, is added to the pot, often with stock.

perhaps the guy you are thinking of is Tyler Florence??
I watched that show and wanted to run out and buy short ribs!
I've never prepared them before, let us know how it turns out!

I usually use red wine when braising beef, white wine when braising pork or chicken. No particular reason, just habit - there are classic recipes that go the other way.

As long as the pot is tightly covered, the meat can either be, or not be, fully submerged in the liquid. I like it fully or mostly submerged as I think (imagine may be the better term) the meat can stay moister and pick up more of the liquid's flavour, and because then you have a goodly amount of tasty liquid to make a sauce. But this seems less important with larger cuts (like a pot roast) as the moistness/flavour in the center of the cut isn't going to be much affected by whether the outside of the cut is submerged.

Admittedly, the more the liquid, the more the process sounds like simmering, but who cares.

I'd be sparing with the vinegar, that's a strong taste, easy to overpower the meat and make the dish inedible. Think pickled pot roast - tasty?