Monday, September 24, 2007

A GOOD RIBBING

The Missus and I spent a completely lazy day yesterday loafing around the house. Aside from a few minor tasks, it was pure Wastrel Time. A good way to decompress after Yom Kippur.

For dinner, I grilled some Korean-style beef short ribs. I’ve been on a Ribby Tear lately, making one variation or another of this recipe at least once a week. She Who Must Be Obeyed will be heartily sick of it if I continue.

The benefit of this recipe is that it can - in fact, it must - be cooked on the grill. And since we’re still without a functioning oven, that limits our options considerably.

Last week I used flanken-style ribs for this, and they were delicious. This week, I got some short ribs, trimmed the meat off the bone, removed the excess fat and silverskin, and pounded each piece down to a ¼-inch thickness.

For the marinade, you’ll need:

3 scallions
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
½ cup soy sauce (I used ¼ cup Kikkoman low-sodium soy sauce and ¼ cup Tabasco soy sauce)
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp toasted sesame seed oil (the seeds are toasted, not the oil, Emeril!)
6 tbsp sugar
1 ripe pear
1 thumb-sized chunk of fresh ginger, peeled
You can add a generous squirt of hot chile-infused sesame oil or a dash of red pepper flakes, if you like ’em spicy. I used the hot oil, and it was just right.

Peel and core out the pear and cut into quarters. Place in the work bowl of a food processor. Add the garlic, ginger, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Process until smooth. Chop the scallions into ¼-inch chunks and add to the marinade. Place the meat and the marinade in a large zip-lock bag and stick it in the fridge for at least four hours...or overnight. Make sure you move the meat around periodically so all of it is exposed to the marinade.

Heat up your grill and grill the meat until nicely charred on the outside and done the way you like it, turning several times. Purists will use lump charcoal...I used my gas grill.

You can serve this with lettuce leaves, wrapping each chunk of meat to make a Korean-style Meat-Taco, or you can just throw it on a plate. Kimchi makes a great accompaniment, although we did not, alas, have any kimchi in the house. Wash down with cold beer.

Rib-a-licious!

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