Kitchen Happenings: Beef Short Ribs

Alright. Back at it. First post since my Boston trip... long time, no see. I've still been eating well. I just haven't had the gumption to post. That ends now. I still have restaurant review that I've promised, plus a new one that I really have to write. I think that I may have stumbled into the best restaurant in Champaign-Urbana. And I don't think that anyone under the age of 50 knows about it. That'll be next time.

So one of the dishes that has been pretty established among the restaurant circles is beef short ribs. A typical dish would be braised beef short ribs in some sort of a red wine sauce (which is even on the menu at Olive Garden, for heaven's sake!) or a Korean-style, marinated in a sweet soy/garlic type sauce and grilled. The braised short ribs are a nice, meaty chunk of beef, and typically have been trimmed of the fat that goes right above, and is generally boneless. However, with the Korean-style short ribs, you get a very thin (maybe 1/4") slice of short rib, and it includes the bone, as well as the fatty layers above the meat. So, naturally, I'm curious. First of all, you have different ways of cooking, different types of flavors going on, and even different cuts of the same cut.

The first thing that I realized is that braising isn't as slow with this cut as it is with something like Osso Bucco, where you have it cook all afternoon. There isn't hardly any connective tissue to break down, this is just some really nice meat that's marbled very nicely. So, my first attempt at this wasn't good at all. I mean, it tasted okay, but the meat wasn't anything special - just like stew meat. Nice, but not what everyone's raving about. I actually just browned the meat and cooked it in this spicy, tomato/corn/bean soup (almost Mexican style). But where I went wrong was in cooking it too long. The meat ended up drying out as I slow cooked it. It just got sort of stringy. I think that if I would have kept it short, it would have worked.

So, back to the drawing board. The cuts that I was able to get at the store were just the trimmed chunks, not the Korean style, large flat pieces. But I decided to try the Korean way, and trimmed the meat into about 1/4" think strips. Went with the classic marinade of soy, honey, garlic, ginger, lime, and I added some siracha, sambal, and Bull's Head (see my Hot Pot posting) into the mix. Frenched some onions, added the short ribs, and let it marinate for a while. This time, cooking it over high heat, I was able to get a nice little caramelization and char on the meat, but the meat just wasn't doing it for me. Tasty, but a little too tough to get excited about. Really, on par with the Korean restaurants, but it wasn't quite what I was hoping for.

So, I decided in a moment of serendipity to combine the styles - Korean marinade, leave the chunks whole, and grill it outside. Now, what happened was that I didn't get a chance to grill for a while, so the meat marinated for about 48 hours. Which actually was the best thing. The flavors just permeated throughout the meat, and also kept it incredibly tender. So, fired up the coals, and put on the meat. It wasn't the hottest grill in the world, I'd say about medium-hot, really (you could leave your hand above the grill for about 5 seconds before it got uncomfortable, instead of the 2 seconds that BBQ U would have you go for, but that's just a function of my little grill). But by cooking for longer over the grill, you got more of the smoky flavor of the grill into the meat. So, I tried a variety of doneness for the beef ribs. I personally preferred it at medium-rare, though for the masses, I would guess that medium would be perfect. Incredibly tender. Still had some texture there, so you knew that you were eating meat. Awesome flavors. Now I understood what the restaurants were seeing in this cut. Easy to prepare. Flavorful meat. Very spicy or rich sauces wouldn't overpower the meat (like it can do in chicken, pork, or even something like a sirloin).

It took me a few shots at it (which is strange - normally, I can churn stuff out pretty well on the first try, but this cut was brand new to me) but we came out with something pretty darned awesome. What came out was easily 1 star quality food (though admittedly, I wasn't worried about plating or even using anything other than my hands to eat), but with a just a tiny amount of effort could be made into a 3-star type dish. This cut of meat can be that darned good. If you get a chance, give it a shot.

-foodgeek