Sous Vide Korean-style Shortribs

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Sous Vide Korean-style Shortribs
 
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One of the gastronomic advantages of living in the Los Angeles metropolis is the vast availability of ethnic restaurants and foods from all over the world. You often don’t need to drive more than 30 minutes to find authentic restaurants that will transport your taste buds to another part of the globe.

I love spicy food and Korean cuisine is one of my favorite. I’ve been fortunate to enjoy it in the city of Seoul in Korea during my airline pilot days in the 1980’s. It was a bitterly cold winter day when my crew and I had a layover and I have vivid memories of enjoying a hot pot of spicy tofu with bits of pork and green onion in a cozy restaurant while the chilly wind howled outside. I’ve been told by my Korean friends who have settled in the US that Korean food in Los Angeles has evolved into its own variant. LA-fied Korean cuisine has even become its own bona fide style that has been “exported” back to the homeland. For example, the classic Galbi (or Kalbi) beef prepared in Los Angles uses the flanken (cross-sectional) cut of the beef short rib while the whole meaty rib-on-the-bone version is more popular in Korea.



Thanks to the gracious folks at SousVideSupreme.com, I’ve been able to get my feet wet (pun intended) in a new realm of low-and-slow cooking with the 3-gallon sous vide water immersion oven they produce for the home cook. Sous vide or hot water bath cooking has been around for a while and it’s common among high-end restaurants and commercial food processing facilities. Since 2009, its popularity has been growing as more and more home cooks have discovered its advantages for cooking tough cuts of meat and its season, seal, and simmer convenience. After cooking, you can refrigerate or freeze your entrée, and then reheat without any loss of flavor or texture.

For a brief primer on how I got my loaner, please see this article. As an avid home cook, I love trying new devices and techniques on my favorite foods. When SousVideSupreme.com asked food bloggers to submit their favorite recipe, I sent in my Beef Rendang recipe and won the People Choice award and a nice prize for my entry.

In this article, I’ll share my Sous Vide version of the classic Korean short ribs with you. There are two secret ingredients in the marinade that my Korean friends told me that make this dish especially tender and flavorful: Asian pear and 7Up soda! Apparently the Asian pear provides some tenderizing effect and the carbonation and sugar of the 7Up sweetens the dish. I’ve been told that this version was introduced in America as the homeland version does not use it.
Beef short ribs marinating in vacuum bag

Flanken Cut Beef Short Ribs
Author:
Recipe type: Entree
Cuisine: Korean
Serves: 4 to 6
Ingredients
  • 3 lb Flanken-cut beef short ribs (I used Angus Choice-grade from HMart, a Korean grocery store), about 10-12 pieces
  • Marinade
  • 1 Asian pear, peeled and rough chopped
  • 1 small white onion, peeled and rough chopped
  • 6 cloves whole garlic peeled
  • 1 stalk green onion, rough chopped
  • ½ cup Korean soy sauce
  • ½ can 7Up
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoon honey
  • 3 tablespoons Sesame Oil
  • 1 teaspoon SYD Hot Rub or salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Puree marinade ingredients in a blender.
  2. Sprinkle SYD Hot rub on both sides of the Flanken-cut ribs
  3. Place 4 pieces of the Flanken-cut ribs into a 1-gallon Sous Vide bag. Pour in the marinade and seal the pouch. Repeat until all ribs are marinated. Save any excess marinade for future use (you can freeze it)
  4. Place into fridge overnight to allow marinade to infuse the meat
  5. Take out of fridge and put into your Sous Vide Supreme unit (140F for 3 days)
  6. Remove and cut open the bag. At this point, you can sear, grill, or blow torch the ribs to get a nice char
  7. Serve with steamed rice and some Korean-style vegetables