Asian crock pot short ribs

Ingredients
4 - 4½ pounds beef short ribs
½ cup soy sauce
⅓ cup + 1 - 2 tablespoons brown sugar (loosely packed)
¼ cup rice vinegar
½ cup orange juice
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
1 teaspoon dried chili flakes
3 carrots, peeled and cut in 1-2 inch pieces

Instructions:

• Brown meat with a bit of cooking oil.
• Combine all the ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on High for about 4 hours (I like to cook for 1-2 hours on high the night before and then leave on low overnight for 4 hours and then let it sit on warm until I wake up in the morning).
• Serve immediately
• For a lower fat version, I take the meat and veggies out of the crock pot and put stock in the freezer for an hour for the fat to solidify, remove the fat, and then reheat the gravy.
• For an even better gravy, boil down on medium until volume is reduced by half.