Fall of the Bone Tender Korean Braised Beef Short Rib (Galbi Jjim)
Most tender, fall of the bone tender, Korean Braised Beef Short Ribs made the traditional long way but worth the extra time and effort for an extremely flavorful dish.
Servings: 2 if this is the main dish
Ingredients
Galbijjim Broth
- 2.5 pounds (1.2 kg) beef short ribs
- 5-7 garlic cloves
- 1 large green onion 대파
- 1/4th onion
- 3-4 cm lenth Korean radish
- 2 tablespoon mirim (cooking rice wine) 맛술/미림
- 1 teaspoon peppercorns (pepper)
- Optional: 2 spicy red peppers this will not make the broth spicy but just give it a slight heat level, I did not notice at all
Galbijjim Sauce
- 1/4 asian pear
- 1/2 sweet onion
- 9 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon Mirin (rice cooking wine)
- 2 tablespoon rice syrup (물엿) can use sugar - I just try to avoid sugar when I can
- 2 1/2 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon mince garlic
- 1/8 teaspoon minced ginger
Galbijjim Additional Vegetables
- 1 carrot cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 2 inches (4-5 cm) Korean radish cut into a similar size as the carrots
- 1/4th small kobocha squash not used as often but I really love this in the galbijjim
- Optional: 15 chestnuts
- Optional: 10 jujubes
- Optional: 3 shiitake mushrooms
Instructions
- Soak the short ribs in cold for at least one hour and make sure to change the water a few times in between. ( I prefer to do this for about 3 hours).
- First phase parboil. Place short ribs in a pot and fill with water just until all the meat is under water. Bring to a boil and simmer in medium-high heat for about 10 minutes. Throw out the water from the pot and wash the short ribs again. This makes sure that the short ribs are thoroughly clean before the broth is cooked.
- Second phase boil. Place the short ribs in a clean pot with the broth making ingredients and about 5-6 cups of water - until all the meat is under water. Bring to a boil and simmer on medium-low heat for 45 minutes. Simmering on low heat will make the short ribs more tender.
- At this time, get the sauce ingredients ready. Take the skin off of the pear and place 1/4th pear and 1/2 an onion in a food processor or mixer. Blend until smooth as possible. Make the the rest of the sauce by mixing the rest of the ingredients together - soy sauce, mirim, rice syrup, honey, same oil, garlic, ginger, Set both mixtures aside.
- Remove fat from broth. Once the broth is done from the second phase boil, throw out the vegetables that were used for the broth. And then comes the tedious part. There is quite a bit of fat on the short ribs which in turn means there will be quite a bit of oil/fat floating on the top of the broth. The broth will taste most refreshing and flavorful if much of the fat is taken out. The easiest way to do this without any special equipment is freezing the broth until the fat layer freezes at the top! Takes about 1-1.5 hours.
- Once the top of the broth is frozen, dispose of the fatty frozen pieces. Pour in some of the broth into the pot with the short rib marinade just until all the meat is under liquid. Do not discard of the remaining broth yet as you may need to add more broth if some of it evaporates.
- Final boil - third time's the charm! Bring the pot to a boil and simmer for about 40 minutes. Keep a watch every few minutes and if the broth seems to be low, add a bit more of the broth on standby. Some of this will depend on how much broth evaporates from your pot.
- At this time, get ready all the other ingredients you would like in the galbijjim. This is where you can really choose to put in some different types of vegetables.
- Once the broth has been simmered for the final time, add in the final ingredients and continue to boil and simmer until the carrots are soft (takes the longest). About 10 minutes. Much of the sauce should start to become thick. You can play with the thickness that you may want with the extra broth on standby.
- Plate the chunks of galbi and vegetables with a spoonful of broth on a pretty plate. Enjoy with a bowl of warm rice!!