Stewed Korean Short Ribs, Kalbi Jjim (갈비찜)

Succulent Stewed Ribs Reminiscent of French Bourguignon

Whenever recent inductees to Korean cuisine describe fond memories of Korean food, the frequently mentioned universally palette-pleasing dish is kalbi, Korean barbeque short ribs. Typically marinated overnight and then fired over a tabletop or backyard grill, kalbi is the Korean equivalent of American barbeque. What people are less familiar with, however, is the kalbi jim*. Kalbi jim essentially uses the same cut of rib meat and similar seasonings as barbeque short ribs, only the bone is longer and meat scored or butterflied. But, the similarities end there. This tasty dish has more in common with the flavorful French bourguignon than its brother barbeque.

Bourguignon is beef braised in red wine and seasoned with garlic, onions, carrots and bouquet of assorted herbs like thyme, sage, tarragon and parsley. Like the French bourguignon, kalbi jim is also slow-cooked with liquor and spices, simmered till it reaches a fall-off-the-bone, melt-in-your-mouth tenderness. The reduction, when cooled, congeals and resembles aspic, a savory meat gelatin. The richness of kalbi jim derives from the bone marrow of the ribs, which steadily seeps into the sauce, thickening it as it simmers.

Although many traditional Korean recipes call for par-boiling the ribs, soaking the meat, or adding chicken broth, I have found that the simplest and most efficient way to cook kalbi jim is to just group the ingredients together according to cooking time and throw each of them in at the right time in a heavy-bottomed, copper-coated pot. What is most important in this dish is the cooking time and quality of ingredients. I love simmering raw chestnuts in kalbi jim, but since chestnuts are out of season, I used small Korean sweet potatoes with similar success.

^* Kalbi is also spelt galbi, kalbee or galbee. Jim is also spelt jjim or chim.

Kalbi Jim, Korean Stewed Short Ribs Recipe

~ Serves 3-4 people

Preparing the beef short ribs
3 lbs short beef ribs (English, thick-cut 3”-5” pieces)

1. Rinse the ribs in cold water to clean away any remaining bone bits.
2. Trim and discard excess fat.
3. Score or butterfly the meat (I will post separately for how to properly butterfly short ribs).

Cooking the beef short ribs
The alcohol and fruit juices in this kalbi jim tenderize and naturally sweeten the meat. With enough meat tenderizers, overnight marinating and sugar or honey rendered unnecessary.

6 cloves garlic, sliced
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
6 tbs soy sauce
1 ½ cups pineapple juice
1 cup vermouth or rice wine
¼ cup maesil ju, green plum wine, or Grand Marnier
½ cup water
1 tbs fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1 tbs roasted sesame seeds
8 raw chestnuts, peeled or 2 Korean sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
10 ginkgo nuts, shelled
2 tbs red pepper threads (sil kochu), cut into 1” pieces
1 tsp black pepper, ground

1. Throw all ingredients, including meat but except the chestnuts and ginkgo nuts into heavy-bottomed or thick clay pot and cover with a tight-fitting lid.
2. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a low simmer.
3. Simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally to ensure the bottom does not burn.
4. Add in chestnuts and simmer for another 20 minutes.
5. Add in ginkgo nuts and simmer for another 20 minutes.
6. Remove the lid and turn up heat to medium high.
7. Stirring frequently and scraping the bottom with a wooden paddle, cook for another 20-30 minutes, until the meat becomes shiny and liquids reduce.
8. Optional step: Wait till the whole pot cools, then put it in the freezer for 20 minutes. Scrape away the fat, then reheat and serve with ogokbap, mixed rice.

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Mixed Rice2, Dolsot Bibimbap (돌솥 비빔밥)

Sizzling Stone Pot Rice, A Multi-Grain Mix of Rice Mixed with Seasoned Vegetables & Meat

This Sizzling Stone Pot Mixed Rice, Dolsot Bibimbap*, should be called Dolsot Bibim Ogokbap (돌솥 비빔 오곡밥) because not only is the rice physically mixed with all the vegetables, meat, and rice as in traditional bibimbap, but the grains themselves are composed of a mix, hence Mixed Rice².

My blend of grains diverges from the traditional ogokbap^† five-grains^± of sweet rice, foxtail millet, red beans, black beans, and sorghum. And, unlike ogokbap, which is traditionally served on the day of Jeongwol Daeboreum, the first full moon of the new lunar year, my grain mix has been modified for daily consumption. While health-conscious Koreans are increasingly consuming multi-grain rice nowadays, I find pre-packaged blends of mixed grains to not be quite to my liking. I don’t like the taste of beans in rice that I plan to eat with kimchi, unless they are buttery Peruvian lima beans or quick-to-cook lentils. Nor do I like wild black rice mixed with sticky rice. Wild black rice tastes better, in my opinion, with fragrant, long grain rice, like jasmine rice. Some varieties of black rice not only poke at your throat but also bleed into the rice, coloring the rice a dark purple. Grains and beans also have different soaking times, and the pre-packaged multi-grain rice does not allow you to adjust for the different soaking times.

In my everyday version of ogokbap, I blend short grain brown rice, sweet brown rice, foxtail millet, wheat berry, oat groats, green lentils, and peas to create a golden brown rice mix with flecks of yellow and green. Combine this rice with a medley of delicately seasoned summer vegetables, earthy shitake mushrooms and burdock, and well-marbled bulgogi-style flank meat and you have a well-balanced meal all in one bowl! Crack in an egg, drop a dollop of kochujang or samjang^‡, mix the mix up, and your dolsot bibimbap will be ready to eat!

Cooked in a granite stone pot, even the leftover roasted rice stuck to the bottom of the pot, nurungi, is delicious and is, in fact, a favorite Korean snack now sold in grocery stores. After you scoop out the rice, pour water into the stone pot for a toasty, after-meal palette cleanser.
^* Also spelled tolsot pibimbap.
^† Ogokbap, also called chapgokbap, is served on the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar year.
^± The exact grain blend varies, depending on which region you examine. Sometimes, for instance, black soybeans are included. Generally, the grains used in ogokbap are those they plan to plant in the coming year.
^‡Samjang, also spelled ssamjang, is a combination of kochujang, fermented hot pepper paste, and doenjang, fermented soybean paste. Although kochujang is more commonly used in bibimbap, samjang may also be used.

Dolsot Bibimbap Recipe

~ Serves 2 people

Soaking and Cooking the Mixed Grains
Peruvian lima beans require a longer soaking time of 4-6 hours and at least three water changes (in hot weather, soaking time is less than in cold weather). Otherwise, most of the grains here are relatively quick-to-soak-and-cook.

1 cup short grain brown rice
½ cup sweet brown rice
2 tbs split peas
2 tbs wheat berry
2 tbs foxtail millet
1 tbs lentils
1 tbs oat groats
¼ tsp salt

1. Soak the short grain brown rice, sweet brown rice and wheat berry together for 1 ½ - 2 hours and separately, the lentils for the same time, rinsing the lentils thoroughly and changing the water at least once.
2. Soak the millet for one hour, rubbing the grains and changing the water at least once.
3. Drain the millet and set aside.
4. Mix together the short grain brown rice, sweet brown rice, split peas, wheat berry, lentils, and oat groats and rinse once more. Drain and set aside.
5. Make sure your stone pot has been properly cleaned. See below for Dolsot Cleaning Instructions.
6. Put all of the grains except the millet in the pot with three cups of water.

7. Bring the water to a boil with the lid off. Dissolve salt into the boiling water.
8. After boiling gently for 15 minutes, add the millet in, decrease the heat to low, and cover the pot, leaving a crack of an opening.
9. Cook for another 15 minutes and then seal the opening shut with the lid.
10. Cook for another 15 minutes on very low, and then turn off and let sit for 5 minutes.
11. Fluff the rice with a fork and immediately seal to preserve the heat.

Preparing the Vegetables
Some people feel that bibimbap has a very labor-intensive process for preparing and seasoning vegetables, but actually, you can use whatever seasonal vegetables you like, including fresh sprouts and purple cabbage, both of which involve no preparation other than washing and chopping! Alternatively, you can cheat and go to the Korean grocery store and pick up prepared banchans such as doraji saengchae (marinated bellflower root) and pre-packed bibimbap seasoned vegetables. In general, the best short cut is using the right equipment. A mandolin slicer, as featured in Ratatouille and my cucumber salad recipe, is indispensable in any recipe that calls for slicing vegetables into thin disks or matchsticks.

3 medium carrots, sliced into matchsticks
2 Italian squash, sliced into matchsticks, leaving out the seed middle
1 lb chrysanthemum, leaves separated from stalks, stalks chopped in 1” pieces
2 tbs distilled white vinegar
½ tsp salt
2 tsp soy sauce
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp sesame oil
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper

1. Boil 6 cups of water with vinegar and salt.
2. Using a metal sieve, douse the carrots in the boiling water for 1 minute and then immerse in a bowl of icy water. Drain and set aside.
3. Douse the Italian squash for 45 seconds, immerse in icy water, drain and set aside.
4. Douse chrysanthemum leaves for 30 seconds, immerse in icy water, squeeze dry, and set aside.
5. Douse chrysanthemum stalks for 2 minutes, immerse in icy water, drain, and combine with wilted chrysanthemum leaves.
6. Coat the wilted chrysanthemum leaves and stalks with the soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil, salt, and black pepper.

Soybean sprouts- Mung bean spouts may also be used as a substitute for soybean sprouts. Although they are not as wide available, I do think they have a better flavor than soybean sprouts. You can also sprout your own, but it takes a few days.

1 ½ cups soybean sprouts
1 cup water

7. Place soybean spouts and water in a covered pot.
8. Boil for three minutes and then drain and set aside.

Ginkgo nuts- These healthy nuts are a beautiful addition to bibimbap, adding a wonderful chewiness and nutty flavor.

1 cup gingko nuts
2 tsp of vegetable oil

9. In a non-stick pan with oil, roast shelled ginkgo nuts over medium heat.
10. Transfer to a brown paper bag and rub between hands to remove the shell. Set aside.

Burdock & Shitake Mushrooms- The burdock root, which resembles a parsnip once peeled, adds a deep, earthy flavor. Similarly, shitake mushrooms add earthy and rustic undertones to this bibimbap.

1 burdock root, approximately 2 ½ ft, cut into matchsticks
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tbs sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ tsp honey

4-5 shitake mushrooms, fresh or thoroughly soaked and sliced
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tbs sesame oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
½ tsp honey

11. Over medium heat, pour the oil in the pan, then add the crushed garlic, sliced burdock, and roast for five minutes.
12. Add the soy sauce and honey, stirring often to make sure the burdock is well-coated. Cook until the burdock is browned on the edges, approximately 10 minutes.
13. Repeat these steps for the sliced shitake mushrooms.

Bulgogi
Literally translated, fired-meat adds a punch of protein to this otherwise vegetable-intense dish.

10 ounces of well-marbled rib-eye or tenderloin, thinly sliced
1 tbs + 1 tsp soy sauce
2 tbs vermouth
2 tbs maesil ju, green plum wine
1 tsp sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
¼ onion, sliced
¼ cup pineapple juice
½ tsp black pepper, ground
2 tsp red pepper threads, cut in 1” pieces

1. Put all the ingredients in a small pot and bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Reduce to a simmer and cook covered for 15 minutes.
3. Remove cover and on medium heat, cook until most of the liquid has evaporated and turned into a thicker sauce, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Set aside.

Dolsot Bibimbap
All of the prepared toppings won’t fit on the top of the rice in the dolsot, so arrange a bit of each for the purposes of presentation on top. You can then allow your guests to add more vegetables and meat to each of their dishes.

Ssamjang or kochujang
1 tbs toasted sesame seeds for garnish
1 sheet gim, seasoned, roasted pressed laver, shredded for garnish

1. First, crack the eggs on the piping hot rice.
2. Arrange the vegetables and meat on top of the rice in the pot.
3. Serve with more vegetables, meat, and a dollop of either kochujang or samjang.
4. Garnish with seaweed and sesame seeds.

Instructions on How To Clean Your New Dolsot, Chiseled Granite Stone Pot

You may notice that dolsots are traditionally a shiny jet black color, reminiscent more of cast iron than chiseled granite. Dolsots become this way over time after repeated seasonings with oil and salt. Chonju, a Korean city, is famous for serving delicious bibimbap in these striking jet black granite bowls. My dolsot has not gone through enough seasonings to get this color, but I am noticing it steadily getting darker with each serving of bibimbap.

There are two different ways to wash your new granite stone pot. Regardless of which method you choose, you must never wash your dolsot with soap. The granite surface of stone pots is very porous and will absorb the soap and emit a very-difficult-to-rid-of-soapy-flavor.

The First Method

1. Rinse your pot very well.
2. Wearing rubber gloves to prevent your hands from chafing and becoming dried from the salt, pour a generous amount of salt into bowl and rub the salt around the sides and bottom. You will notice the salt pick up the dirt and become grey in color.
3. Rinse the bowl well.
4. Fill the bowl with water and at least ¼ cup of salt and bring to a boil.

The Second Method

1. Rinse your pot very well.
2. Place your stone pot in a large pot filled with salted water.
3. Bring the large pot of water to a boil.
4. Boil for an hour.
5. Remove the pot once the water is cooled.
6. For good measure, rub salt in the inside of the bowl to remove any sanded stone residue.

Dolsot Maintenance
After each use, use only salt and water to clean your dolsot. If you wear rubber gloves, you can either rub the salt into the dolsot to clean it well or just boil the whole thing to remove large residual rice grains and etc. Once your dolsot has dried, rub a little oil all around it and inside it. Keep it away from dust.

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Super G-Salad (인삼산채)

A Medley of Ginseng, Garland Chrysanthemum, Gingko Nuts, Goji Berries, Green Peppers & Garlic

This ambrosial assortment is a stimulating health elixir in salad form. The ginseng, garland chrysanthemum, gingko nuts, goji Berries, green Korean hot peppers, and garlic hot pepper dressing create a rare, delicious salad. Composed of numerous nutrition-packed ingredients beginning with the letter “G”, hence the name “Super G Salad”, this salad sings with a robust, distinctively nutty, spicy, slightly bitter, savory, yet subtly sweet, fresh deliciousness.

Dressing this herbaceous bouquet of quintessential Korean ingredients, such as ginseng and gingko, is a distinctly Korean condiment-kochujang, fermented red hot pepper paste. Despite a striking resemblance to cream of tomato soup, the kochujang dressing savors like a garlicky fire gently dancing on your tongue.

And the Super G Salad tastes as good as it is for you. In particular, the ginseng and gingko nuts act synergistically together to improve cognitive function. Ginseng also widens blood vessels by increasing production of nitric oxide, which is also how a certain Little Blue Pick-Me-Up Pill works. This salad is not only an aphrodisiac but also an alleviant for Type 2 diabetes. The ginseng, gingko nuts, garlic, and Korean hot peppers all actively lower blood sugar levels. And, if you believe 5000 years of East Asian medicine, the Super G Salad is essentially a panacea for all existing ills.

Super G Salad Recipe

~ Serves 3-4 people

Salad
Living in Los Angeles, I am blessed with numerous shopping options for Asian groceries. I found the best place to buy organic garland chrysanthemum, however, is at your local farmer’s market or a Japanese grocery store like Nijiya or Marukai. Garland Chrysanthemum is also known as Crown Daisies, Shungiku in Japanese, or Ssukat/Ssukgat in Korean. Fresh ginseng can generally be found at any Korean market. To create the ginseng shreds, I suggest using a vegetable peeler that resembles a personal razor.

1 bunch organic garland chrysanthemum
2 fresh ginseng roots, 5-6 inches long, 1 inch base
4 green Korean hot peppers

1. Wash, spin-dry, and then separate the garland chrysanthemum leaves.
2. Wash, pat dry, and shave the ginseng lengthwise with your vegetable peeler.
3. Slice the green Korean hot peppers into thin disks.
4. Mix the garland chrysanthemum, ginseng, and green Korean hot peppers together.
5. Divide the salad onto plates.

Toppings
I purchase my gingko nuts fresh in Korean markets, but I have also seen them sold shelled and vacuum-packed in plastic. Gingko nuts are small and have a thin, delicate shell, so regular nut crackers are not efficient for shelling them. The best nut cracker for gingko nuts is actually a lime squeezer, and you can usually crack about 5-6 gingko nuts in one go.

½ cup gingko nuts
2 tbs goji berries
2 tbs pine nuts
1 tsp olive oil
pinch salt

1. Lightly roast the shelled gingko nuts over a low fire with 1 tsp of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Set aside and let cool.
2. Lightly roast the pine nuts over a low fire. Combine with the cooled gingko nuts.
3. Sprinkle the gingko nuts, pine nuts, and goji berries over each salad.

Kochujang Dressing/Fermented Hot Pepper Sauce
The best kochujang is homemade from scratch with organic ingredients, but if you don't have time, the best MSG-free store-bought brands for kochujang are O'Foods and Pulmone. O'Foods is two-three times more expensive than Pulmone, but it also tastes better and is less salty. Due to the nature of the fresh dressing ingredients, you require a powerful blender. One of my favorite kitchen tools is my Vita-Mix Blender because the motor is incredibly powerful, and it pulverizes my smoothies, spices, grains, and of course, dressings in mere seconds.

3 tbs kochujang, fermented hot pepper paste
2 tbs dry vermouth
2 tbs olive oil
2 large cloves fresh garlic
2 tbs freshly squeezed lemon or kalamanzi juice
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
½ Korean pear, peeled and seeded
1 tsp white peppercorns
1 tbs sesame oil

1. Place all the kochujang salad dressing ingredients in your blender.
2. Blend on low before increasing to high. The resulting salad dressing should be smooth and resemble cream of tomato soup, or a reddish Thousand Island’s dressing. Let people help themselves.

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Super Natural Samgyetang (삼계탕)

A souped up Korean ginseng chicken soup dressed with the finest organic ingredients

Here is the Super Natural twist on an old Korean dish – Samgyetang, ginseng chicken soup. This bright coffee-colored consommé stands in stark contrast to the oatmeal opaque of standard ginseng chicken broths. Generous portions of jujubes, goji berries, and ginseng saturate this soup with the deep reddish gold and brown hues you see.

I encountered my first bowl of samgyetang a few years ago. Although Los Angeles is home to many different samgyetangs, each one fell short of the first one I dreamt of, as I waited, sick and eager, fingers tightly gripping my spoon. I imagined samgyetang fusing the crock pot of aromatics in my childhood memories to chicken matza ball soup—deliciously potent Korean penicillin. But, where ingredients were right, quantities and proportions were wrong, and vice versa, a milky broth bursting with rich flavor would only be spoiled by a bite into a bitter, gritty date. One restaurant boiled their tiny bird under such a fast, furious fire that I would have swore they served me the wrong order, Chicken with Water, were it not for my spoon stirring up a sliver of ginseng from the cast iron bottom. Leaving my bowl of Chicken with Water untouched, I vowed to create a Super Natural Samgyetang, a souped-up samgyetang dressed with the finest organic ingredients.

After several different attempts and learning through trial-by-fire, two of which included a crunchy rice filling, the following recipe is a richer, healthier, and more flavorful version of the traditional Korean chicken ginseng soup. The cooking method for this samgyetang differs dramatically from others in that a crock pot is used. The crockpot allows the herbs to soak and cook at a lower temperature, which preserves the goodness of the ginseng, gingko, and jujubes, rather than a quick, furious boil, which destroys the nutrients and scarcely provides time for the herbs to permeate the broth. The crockpot also allows for long cooking time without long watching time, hence it is often dubbed the Prep-It-and-Forget-It (PIFI) cooking method.

Super Natural Samgyetang Recipe

~ Serves 3-4 people

Starting Herbal Broth
Worry not if you exceed the cooking time on this herbal broth, or if the herbal broth simply sits around for a few hours longer because this will allow the herbs to thoroughly saturate the soup.

3 quarts of water
3 cups/15 large jujube dates
½ cup goji berries 3 large fresh ginseng roots/2 dried ginseng roots>5 years

1. Place all the ingredients in a 6-quart Rival crock pot and cook on low for ten hours.
2. Strain the herbal broth through a sieve.
3. Pour the herbal broth back into the crock pot and discard the scraps.

Sweet Rice Stuffing
When picking your chicken or hen, make sure the poultry's skin is pale, spot-free and resilient. What you stuff inside your bird may vary. Some recipes stuff ginseng directly into the chicken. If you are using fresh ginseng, you may add a bit of fresh ginseng in the stuffing mix; however, I believe the ginseng is most efficacious steeping in the broth. If you are using two birds, divide the stuffing materials accordingly.

1 organic young chicken (3-4 lbs), or 2 organic cornish hens
6 medium garlic cloves
3/4 cup organic sweet brown rice
¼ cup goji berries
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
1 tsp cracked black pepper
½ tsp rock sea salt

1. Soak the sweet brown rice for 1-2 hours, drain, and set aside.
2. Wash and clean the inside of the chicken.
3. Sew-up the neck end of the chicken.
4. Stuff a clove of garlic into the neck end from the tail end.
5. Lightly salt the inside of chicken, reserving a tiny pinch of salt for the rice stuffing mix.
6. Line the rest of the garlic cloves against the ribs of the chicken.
7. Mix the sweet brown rice with goji berries, toasted sesame seeds, cracked black pepper, and pinch of salt. Stuff the rice mixture into the chicken.
8. Sew-up the chicken.

Ginseng Chicken Soup
Be very careful when peeling the chestnuts. I use a tool specially designed for peeling chestnuts, which can be found in the kitchen tool section of your local Korean grocery store.

Herbal Broth, prepared
1 organic chicken, stuffed
2 cups/10 raw chestnuts
2/3 cup gingko nuts
2 cups of jujube dates
2 tsp of rock sea salt

1. Peel the chestnuts.
2. Shell the gingko nuts.
3. Place the stuffed organic chicken, chestnuts, gingko nuts, dates, and salt into the prepared herbal broth.
4. Set the crock pot to cook on high for six hours. Your Supernatural Samgyetang is cooked and ready to serve!

Equipment for Super Natural Samgyetang

Cooking is always easier and more fun when you have the right tools. Starting from clockwise: Trussing Needle & Twine~ absolutely necessary for sewing poultry Chestnut peeler~ prevents fingers from getting cut Lime Squeezer~ can crush 5 gingko nuts at a time, in addition to squeezing limes Kitchen Shears~ A phat way of trimming poultry fat 6-quart Rival Crockpot or Luminarc glass casserole pot

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