The Secret Word is: Pears

Kalbi (Korean Short Ribs)

Pictured above: the version without bones.

Pictured below: the version with bones.

There are certain foods or food combinations that give me a food high. Really good pasta with a glass of red wine. Fresh Chesapeake crabs with drawn butter. Kalbi with rice and kimchi. Kalbi is one of my favorite things in the whole entire world.

Kalbi is a Korean dish. It is made with beef ribs that are cut thin, marinated in soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, etc. and grilled over a hot fire. In addition to providing amazing flavor, the brown sugar contributes to great caramelization on the meat.

Don’t ignore my recommended side dish: kimchi. Kimchi is fermented cabbage (or daikon radish or cucumber) seasoned with garlic, salt, chile peppers, and other secret spices. Cucumber kimchi is my favorite. Don’t skip the kimchi. The sweet, savory beef needs the tangy, spicy kimchi. Your mouth will thank you for it. Your breath, on the other hand…

A few thoughts before we get started:

• Use fresh garlic, fresh ginger, fresh (green) onions in the marinade. Don’t even think about using dry or powdered spices.
• Don’t skip the chopped pear in the marinade. An Asian pear is best. If you can’t find one, use a couple of regular, ripe pears. In a pinch, you can use 100% pear juice. Make sure it isn’t pear-flavored juice.
• Do not use traditionally cut beef ribs. These aren’t a BBQ-style rack of short ribs. You want thinly sliced, flanken-style ribs which are cut across the bone. Cutting across the bone makes each bone into a little cross-sectional disk (see photo above). The best place to find ribs cut this way is at a Korean market. If you don’t have one of those handy, ask your friendly neighborhood butcher.
• If you can’t find flanken-style beef ribs, buy boneless ribs (Costco has them). But before you marinate them, you need to make them really thin. Slice the meat into pieces that are 3 inches long and 1/2 inch thick. Then use a meat mallet to flatten them out. This not only tenderizes the meat, it gives it more surface area to absorb the marinade and makes it quicker to cook.
• The best way to cook this is over a hot charcoal grill. Second best is over a hot gas grill. Don’t cook this in a pan unless it’s a grill pan. You don’t want to boil the meat in the marinade. You want the meat to get a nice bit of char from the dry grill heat.
• Kimchi is a pain in the butt to make. Unless you’re a Korean grandma with a lot of time on your hands, you do not want to delve into kimchi making. You can find it in a Korean market. Many grocery stores carry it, too. My local Vons has it next to the tofu, soy cheese, etc.
• Beverage of choice with this: any Korean beer. If you can’t find any, go for some Red Stripe. If you’re under the legal drinking age, skip this bullet entirely.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 5 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
• 1 Asian pear, peeled and chopped
• 5 green onions, chopped (white and green parts)
• 1/2 cup mirin (rice wine vinegar)
• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• Black pepper
• 4 lbs beef short ribs

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Put all the ingredients, except the meat, in a large bowl and stir until sugar is dissolved
• Add the meat and move it around to coat it in the marinade
• Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight
• Alternatively: you can marinate the meat in 1 or 2 big zip-lok bags
• When you’re ready to grill, remove the ribs from the marinade
• Grill over a high heat, turning once
• If you want to make it look pretty, sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds and/or freshly chopped green onions on top before serving
• Serve with steamed rice and kimchi

Smoking is Delicious

Smoked Salmon on a Charcoal Grill

I love shellfish. Growing up in Maryland, I looked forward to crab season every year. If I make it back east anywhere close to the season, I almost always have some fresh Chesapeake bay crabs. I will sit at a newspaper-covered table with my mallet and knife and crack open blue crabs until the cows come home. I never get full from eating fresh crabs. It’s always the accompanying beer that does me in.

But with the exception of shellfish (and fish tacos), I’m not much of a seafood lover. For me, the least appetizing item on a menu is almost always the fish, particularly if the word “baked” is in front of it. Baked fish doesn’t conjure up any appetizing images for me. The only things that should be baked are desserts.

When I was in college, I developed a taste for lox. For the uninitiated (i.e., goyim and non-Nordic peoples), lox is thin-sliced, cold-smoked salmon. I love lox on a toasted bagel with cream cheese. Especially if it’s topped with a slice of ripe tomato, a little fresh onion, some capers, and a squeeze of lemon. But I digress…

Regular salmon never appealed to me unless it was covered in Hollandaise. Anything tastes good covered in Hollandaise. It’s kind of like deep frying, melted cheese, or chocolate. It doesn’t really matter what’s underneath or inside. It’s the not-so-secret secret behind the popularity of county fairs.

Then one day, I ordered smoked salmon at a restaurant – it was probably on a plank – and I fell in love. It was moist, smoky, and slightly sweet. Where had you been all my life? When I tried to recreate it at home, I was happy to discover that it is actually very easy to make.

A few thoughts about smoking food:

• I use my old fashioned, charcoal-powered, Weber kettle grill. I’ve used gas grills and dedicated smokers but I always come back to the Weber. Maybe you have something else that you like better and that’s fine. But I am able to control the heat and smoke on a Weber better than anything else.
• I usually use hickory chips for the smoke because they carry them in my local Vons. Depending on the food, cherry, apple, oak, and other hard woods work nicely, too. You want to be careful with mesquite, though, because it can overpower your food.
• Soak the wood chips or chunks in water for about an hour before throwing them on the hot coals otherwise they’ll burn right up. A water-soaked wood chunk will smoke for a pretty long time and not go up in flames.
• You don’t want billows of thick smoke coming out of your smoker. That will leave your food with bitter flavors. A thin stream of smoke coming out of the vent is perfect.

INGREDIENTS:

• Whole salmon fillet (I like the ones from Costco)
• Olive oil
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup brown sugar (this may seem like a lot but it isn’t – some people use twice as much)
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Dash of Sriracha
• 1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Light your coals.
• Soak your wood chips or chunks in cold water.
• Combine mayonnaise, lemon juice, Sriracha, relish, and some black pepper in a small bowl until you have a nice sauce. Refrigerate until ready to use.
• Rinse fillet in cold water and pat dry with paper towels.
• Rub the fillet lightly with olive oil.
• Season both sides of fillet with salt and pepper.
• When the coals stop flaming and ash over, they’re ready.
• Use tongs or your indestructible bionic arm to move all the coals to one side of the grill.
• Put the grate over the goals and close the lid.
• After 2 minutes, open the lid and use a grill brush to scrape the grate clean.
• Sprinkle half the brown sugar on the fillet and gently rub it into the fish.
• Turn the fillet over and repeat with the other side.
• Pour a little vegetable oil over some wadded up paper towels and wipe down the grate.
• Gently lay the fillet on the cooler side of the grill (away from the coals).
• Toss some wood chips or chunks on the coals and put the top back on the grill.
• Make sure the vent is open and try to position it over the fillet so the smoke can draw across the fish.
• If the smoke stops coming out, toss some more wood chips on the hot coals.
• After 10 minutes, use a large spatula to carefully flip the fillet over.
• Replace the lid and smoke for another 10 minutes.
• Carefully remove the fillet from the grill and place onto serving platter.
• Serve with sauce on the side.