These savoury-sweet Korean style grilled ribs are what you'd typically find as "marinated ribs" (Galbi) in K-BBQ eateries, and every place will have their own signature marinade for these babies. I got inspired to make these cause A) Leftover LA-Galbi in deep freeze from.. Too Long Ago B) Leftover Pear from Steamed Pear Coconut C) Recently had an amazing K BBQ meal, where these marinated ribs were grilled on the hot plate in front of us, over charcoal, as they were constantly flipped and cut into easy chunks for us to devour. Got inspired to make this after speaking to the lady who cooked our ribs, and I find the use of fruits in Korean cooking really interesting. Do note that due to the high sugar content of the marinade, leaving it too long on a hot grill will lead to a scorched (read: Burnt) exterior, so don't go too crazy with the heat here, especially if you're doing the cleaning up yourself.
The marinade I'm sharing incorporates the use of two fruits - pears and oranges, both of which not only lend a fruity, fresh sweetness, they also work to tenderize the slices of meat. Some may say the fruits are merely denaturing the surface of the meat, but I ain't about to chew on tough grilled ribs. SO whatever the fruits or marinade appear to do, or not do, it doesn't matter as long as they taste good! #RuleOfThumb
Since we're doing a relatively quick cook here for these ribs, use a thinner cut like the LA Galbi //Flanken cut. They're basically cut across the rib bones, resulting in longer, thinner strips with three rib bone eyes exposed. You'll want them to be thinner so that the marinade works more effectively on the surface of the meats as well. Surface area : thickness of meat. It's just math. Hahaha
Ingredients:
500g LA Galbi/Flanken cut ribs
Marinade:
1/4 asian pear, peeled
1/2 cup light soy sauce
1 Tablespoon fish sauce
2 Tablespoons sesame oil
2 Tablespoons sesame seeds
Scant 1/4 cut sugar
2 tablespoons mirin
Juice of 1/2 an orange
1/2 a white onion
6 garlic cloves
Bunch of spring onions
For the marinade, process everything up in a blender or food processor. Yup, that's it. Taste and adjust the flavour to suit Your tastebuds. If you'd like it saltier, add more light soy or fish sauce. Different brands and origin of soy have got different levels of saltiness, so really, taste and adjust! I didn't go with the Korean light soy today and just used the Chinese one I've always got on hand.
It's just a matter of marrying both meat and marinade, then leaving them to sit overnight in your refrigerator. Total hands-off time, no babysitting required.
One hour before you're ready to cook up the meat, take them out of your fridge and have them come to room temp.
Heat up your pan (I used nonstick because.. Sugar) over medium-high heat with some canola oil. Once it's sufficiently heated, reduce heat to low and add your slices of meat. Do this in batches so as to not overcrowd your pan.
Continue flipping your meat and grilling them, allowing the fat to render out and the meat to slowly caramelize. Doing this on too high heat will cause the surface to scorch/burn before the meat is properly cooked. Repeat until all your ribs are cooked.
To serve, you can opt to cut them up into chunks or leave them in long strips. Sprinkle on some sesame seeds and spring onions. Done.
To watch the steps to make this, head to the reels section here.