I’m not sure if it was my brother coming to visit me from NYC this past week reminding me of my childhood or if it was FaceTiming with my parents while they were eating Korean food, but I had an insane craving for Asian cooking yesterday. One sad thing about living in Marin county is the lack of Korean restaurants in the area. We either have to go into San Francisco or to East Bay to get our fix, but I’m okay with it because it’s been forcing me cook Korean recipes at home for the first time.
Cooking Asian cuisines always intimidated me because I wasn’t too familiar with the various fancy ingredients (I only ate the dish, I never questioned what was actually in them), but turns out, it’s not as difficult as I imagined. With a few tips from my lovely mother and some gluten free tweaks from online recipes, I can satisfy my craving for kimchi and Korean BBQ easily.
These Korean short ribs, called galbi, takes a long time to marinate but that’s when the magical flavors of umami are infused into the meat. The key to galbi is to get the right cut of the short ribs. I have seen them sliced Korean-style (thinly across the bones) at some grocery stores and farmers markets recently, but you can also ask the butcher to cut them for you. It’s pretty important for this recipe. You know you are doing it right when you can pick up galbi with your hand and hold the bone with your fingers to devour the meat off of it. This technique makes it taste 20x better. That’s just fact.
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb short ribs cut across the bones 1/4 - 1/3 inch thick
- 1/3 cup coconut aminos
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp sesame oil, preferably raw and cold-pressed
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp ginger, minced
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp black pepper (omit for AIP)
- 1 green onion, chopped, for garnish
Instructions
- Pour all ingredients except the short ribs and the green onion into a large glass dish and whisk them together.
- Place the short ribs into the marinade in a single layer.
- Refrigerate for at least 6 hours, flipping them halfway through.
- Take out the short ribs 30 minutes before cooking them.
- Preheat the grill to medium high.
- Grill the meat 3-4 minutes each side, until they are browned.
- Plate and sprinkle with chopped green onions.
- Cut them into sections and eat with your hands.
WE loved these! The marinade is top notch! The sort run I found were huge, not thin cut, so I opened for the Instant Pot. Added them along with the marinade and a half cup water, took 75 minutes to get fork tender. I reduced the sauce on the sauté feature, then used a scoop to season my cauliflower fried rice!! Thanks Jean!!
SO glad you enjoyed them and the Instant Pot method worked out. I’m also looong overdue on updating these photos haha. Thank you for your kind words, Tessa!