Korean BBQ Short Ribs

On date night the other week, one of our go to restaurants had a new menu that included Korean BBQ Short Ribs. I’d never had Korean BBQ but it was really good. They did serve it with an aioli, which didn’t seem authentic but worked.

I did research on the recipe for the BBQ and for the most part it’s pretty consistent in terms of ingredients, though some called for vinegar instead of mirin. As mirin is easy to find, I didn’t think substituting was necessary. I did have to use a regular pear as Asian pears are apparently too exotic for my local shops.

There are a few steps to this dish but nothing is complicated and it’s well worth the effort.

Technique for Korean BBQ Short Ribs

First it’s important to prep the ribs. There will be connective tissue that you want to remove as that will make the ribs tough when cooking.

Use a sharp knife to do this so you don’t take off too much meat in the process.

Prep the marinade ingredients. I won’t lie, grating onions is torture on the eyes. I’ve always been curious how the first human decided onion was a good thing because raw is very strong! But for this marinade you don’t want any big pieces, with the exception of the finely chopped garlic, so grating it is.

Mix well and add the beef. Make sure the beef is well coated. Cover and store in the fridge for at least 6 hours. I then sliced some red onion and covered it with apple cider vinegar.

Marinade the onion for a few hours in the fridge. It makes a great contrasting topping to this dish.

When it is time to grill the beef, warm up the grill to medium. For this, you don’t want to have the heat on high in order to keep the meat tender. You will still get a good sear on the meat. Patience, grasshopper is the way to go here.

While the meat is cooking, prep the other ingredients. We have a lot of fresh veg in our garden so we did up a bunch of veg sticks. For dipping sauces I heated up the beef marinade, mixed some sour cream with ginger and lime, then made a traditional dipping sauce. That sauce was equal parts Gochujang and yellow miso ( 2 tablespoons each), 2 teaspoons of sesame oil and a clove of finely chopped garlic. If you find it too thick of a paste add more oil a bit at a time.

Once the meat has rested, slice it and serve with the sauces and veg.

Use the lettuce as the wrap and top the beef with the toppings of your choice.

We all loved this dish with the all the flavours from the marinade. We will definitely be having this again.

Korean BBQ Short Ribs

A fun and delicious meal with beef short ribs.

Course Main Course
Cuisine Asian
Keyword Korean BBQ Short Ribs
Prep Time 6 hours
Cook Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 lbs boneless short rib

Marinade

  • 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 1/4 cup Mirin
  • 1/3 cup grated red onion
  • 1 small pear or Asian pear, grated
  • 1 tbsp minced ginger
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp seasame oil
  • 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Prepping the Short Ribs

  1. Clean the beef by removing the connective tissue and any hard fat.

Marinade

  1. Mix all the ingredients of the marinade well. Add the beef and make sure it is covered completely. Cover and place in the fridge for at least 6 hours and up to 24 hours.

Cooking the meat

  1. Heat the grill to medium. Cook the meat until it is medium rare. The meat should have a nice sear without the sugars in the marinade becoming burnt. Allow the meat to rest for about 10 minutes

Putting it all together

  1. Cut up different veg to accompany the BBQ. Slice the beef and serve with the veg and lettuce leaves. Heat the leftover marinade as a dipping sauce. Chopped green onions and pickled red onions are great toppers.

Pineapple Asian Chicken

I have a little vent before I get to my recipe.  Thursdays are my grocery shop day and I headed to our co-op.  They leave water out for the dogs which is great on hot days like this but the whole front is covered by concrete which gets quite hot.  When I pulled in I could hear a dog whinging.  There was a small dog tied up outside on the hot concrete.  It kept lifting its paws.  I took out one of my cloth bags and laid it down and the pup immediately sat down on it.  I sat on the bench to wait for the owner so the dog could keep it’s paws off the concrete.

I only waited a couple of minutes before the owner came out.  She was not happy with me at all!  I said the dog’s paws were too hot because of the concrete and she very dismissively said the dog was fine.  I didn’t leave right away and said if a dog keeps trying to lift all their paws, they aren’t all right.  She was a bit shirty with me but I didn’t care and then she noticed the cloth bag and asked if it was mine and tossed it to me.  Honestly, while I would never tie my dog outside somewhere, if I did and someone said the pup was distressed I wouldn’t be bitchy about it!  I really don’t understand people.

I hope I got my point across!

Last week while we were running errands I got peckish and grabbed some turkey jerky.  A very strange texture but the flavour was really good so I made note of the ingredients as I thought it would make a great marinade for some chicken wings I needed to use up.

Pineapple Asian Chicken 1 2018

Now I don’t get anything for “promoting” the ingredients in the picture, they just happen to be what we like to buy and use.  In a bowl or container add 2 tablespoons of peanut oil, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of pineapple juice, a splash of lime juice and 1 1/2 tablespoons of tomato paste.  Finely chop 2-4 cloves of garlic, depending on their size, and grate 1in/2.5cm cube of fresh ginger.

Pineapple Asian Chicken 2 2018

Whisk until the ingredients are well blended.  Taste and adjust the flavours as you like.  Toss the chicken wings to coat well.

Pineapple Asian Chicken 3 2018

Marinate for at least an hour, I marinated for most of the day.  When it was time for dinner I fired up the grill and prepped the ingredients.  Out I go to grill the wings and find we ran out of gas.  Thank goodness for the stove top griddle so I got that heated up and began to grill the wings.

Pineapple Asian Chicken 4 2018

I also grilled some mushrooms and jalapeño as sides to the salad.  It’s much easier on the grill as the wings are surrounded by the heat.  When it is stovetop you have to keep turning and making sure nothing catches while you are trying to get it cooked through.

Pineapple Asian Chicken 5 2018

Serve on top of a salad and enjoy.  A very easy meal to throw together if you have a crazy busy day.  🙂

Grilled Sockeye Salmon with an Asian Flair

The local co-op had some lovely fish for sale which put me in mind to grill some salmon.  I got all excited when I saw the Scottish salmon but then I paused when I saw it was farm raised.  What popped into my head was the thought how humane can it be to farm raise salmon, never mind fish in general?  Salmon go miles in their life cycle.  So how can you properly raise them in the cages?  Plus there are places that do GMO farm raised salmon and thus far the label laws in the States are appallingly lax it makes sense to avoid farm raised.  Which is such a shame as Scottish salmon is amazing.

However all was not lost!  They also had some wild sockeye salmon which is fabulous.  As it is seasonal I look forward to this time of year when it shows up in our stores.

I had a bit of oyster sauce left over so I thought I’d an Asian inspired marinade for the salmon.

Asian salmon 1 2014

I chopped up a small scallion and 2 cloves of garlic.  In a small bowl, mix 1-2 tablespoons of peanut oil, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, a splash of fresh lime juice, some grated fresh ginger and 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce with the scallion and garlic.  Mix well.

Asian salmon 2 2014

Season the salmon with salt and pepper.

Asian salmon 3 2014

Earlier this year I started grilling the salmon on lemon slices.  I love how it adds citrus notes to the meal.

Asian salmon 4 2014

Grill until it’s cook to medium.  Serve with the grilled lemons.

Asian salmon 5 2014

My daughter and I enjoyed this with grilled corn and potato while my husband and son had jalapeno chicken sausages.  All in all a great meal!