Braising With Special Rice Wine Was Really Spectacular
By braising ribs with some Shaohsing (Shaoxing) rice wine along with cooking michiu (rice wine), I discovered that the dish had a more complex aroma and taste. It certainly livened up the plate!
Below are some links to more details, including photos:
My Story
I was planning to buy beef short ribs at a nearby supermarket because it was on sale, but didn’t want to default to the recipe from Lisa eats’ website, Galbitang Korean Beef Short Ribs Soup. This time, I wanted to try something new, so I browsed the internet.
Inspiring Recipe
What I found during my quest was Korean Braised Beef Short Ribs, a recipe that was described as “easy” on Seonkyoung Longest’s website. With that assurance, how could I resist?
First Try
With the purchase of ribs and some onions, I was ready to combine them with what I already had at home to make galbijjim for the first time!
Ingredients to Use
I had 3.59 pounds of ribs to work with, so I changed the amount of the other items and used the following:
- 2/3 cup of soy sauce
- 1/2 cup of honey
- 1/3 cup of rice wine
- 3/4 teaspoon of black pepper
- 2 cups of water
- 10 cloves of garlic
- 1 1/2 large onions
For the ingredients with options, I chose honey over sugar and rice wine over red wine. I picked honey for the taste and health benefits. As for rice wine, that’s what I had on hand.
Steps to Prepare
Of the two steps in the instructions, I only modified the first one.
First, I used a pot instead of a Dutch oven because I haven’t invested in the latter one yet.
As for skimming the scum, I got as much as I could with a serving spoon since I didn’t have a fine skimmer at the time. (However, as I’m writing this post, there’s now one in the kitchen ready for the next recipe!)
Next, since I bought the thin version of the ribs, I boiled and simmered them for half the time, i.e., over high heat with no cover for 10 minutes and medium heat with the lid for 30 minutes, respectively.
Lastly, I left the oil in the sauce unskimmed since I wasn’t planning to serve the ribs with much of it. Instead, I was hoping that the extra oil would be transferred to the side dish of steamed rice, while I saved time from not having to skim the oil.
Time to Eat
Here’s the plate of Korean braised beef short ribs (galbijjim) topped off with additional sesame seeds and ready to be eaten:
Recipe Rating
Below were the results of the recipe after the first try:
| Number of Ingredients | Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏) | Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰) | Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9️⃣ | 🤏 | 💰💰 | 🙂 |
The meat was oily as expected because the oil in the sauce wasn’t skimmed. Also, the meat was a little grainy.
Second Try
For the next attempt, I wanted to cook up some ribs with smoother meat.
Ingredients to Use
For round two, I used 3.54 pounds of ribs and kept the measurements for the rest of the ingredients the same as before. However, I added some Shaohsing rice wine to the cooking michiu (rice wine), since I didn’t have enough of the latter one. In addition, I used a different brand of soy sauce to replace the one that I ran out of and changed the honey to try another one that I had in the cabinet.
Steps to Prepare
For the process, I made one change in the first step and another in the second step.
For step 1, I simmered the ribs with the cover for 30 minutes on low instead of medium heat, hoping to improve the texture of the meat.
For step 2, I changed the heat back to medium after I added the garlic and onion to coincide with the instructions.
Time to Eat
After enjoying the smell from the pot while the sauce was boiling, the dish was finally ready for another evaluation:
Recipe Rating
Below are the results of the recipe from the second round:
| Number of Ingredients | Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏) | Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰) | Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9️⃣ | 🤏 | 💰💰 | 😋 |
The meat was softer so it looked like simmering the ribs at low heat helped. Also, it had a nice light sweetness with an oomph to it, which I can only attribute to the change in rice wine.
Although I enjoyed the taste of the short ribs, I think revisiting one part of the instructions would make it even better. Below is what I would do next time:
Continuous Improvement
- Skim some oil from the sauce to make it less greasy.
Because I noticed the oiliness of the sauce during the first tasting of this dish, I should’ve taken that as a clue to do something about it during the second try. Instead, I now have a lesson to share with my previous self.
Lesson for Dumber Self
- Don’t be lazy!
What will you do now?
Next Step for You
- Try the Korean Braised Beef Short Ribs recipe from Seonkyoung Longest’s website?
- Learn more about rice wine starting with the websites The Woks of Life and Egg Wan’s Food Odyssey?
- Read another post on this site? (Go to the menu at the top of the page.)