Chris Makes Braised Short Ribs at Home

[clap]

Boom, who's ready?

I'll just start talking then.

[Director] Alright, action.

Okay, action!

[upbeat music]

Ha, Chaey!

Hi!

I have such fond memories of having this dish with you,

and in fact we kind of cooked this dish with Sohui.

Oh we fully did.

On her menu, this is called Galbi-jjim right?

Mm-hmm, galbi referring to the short ribs,

and jjim referring to a braise.

Whenever you hear any dish in Korean ending with jjim,

it means that it's a braised dish.

Do you remember when she told us

about searing them? Yeah.

Versus what you would normally see,

which is boiling the meat.

Right, you'd blanch it.

She opted for the very Western approach,

which is the deep hard sear, the crusty outside of the meat,

and she does it to great effect.

I just remember how special it felt.

You know, galbi-jjim in the context of a Korean meal

being like, this is like feast food right?

To me in my experience,

it feels as special as like a $100 rib-eye.

You're not whipping that out on a Wednesday night,

you're doing that for a birthday,

you're doing that for some kind of festive celebration

or special occasion.

Yeah so it's like, that's what I associate it

Yeah. Like birthdays.

My kids are getting restless in the background,

I'm gonna throw some lunch in the oven for them

and I'm gonna get going with the recipe in a sec.

Okay, well I guess I'll talk to you in a few hours then.

Alright, yeah I'm gonna get this going,

get it in the oven,

and then you can hang out with me

while I eat short ribs

for four for one.

Great, can't wait.

Cool. Can't wait.

I'm just throwing this in the oven now,

and then I'll bring over my meats

and then we'll cut

like a few minutes

[banging]

when I go and bring this in. Do what you need to do.

I just did it.

It's all already done.

Gotta stay ahead.

All right, great!

I'm going to get into some quick prep.

I'm just doing a rough chop on this onion.

It's just going into our braise

as part of our aromatic base.

[chopping] It certainly does not have

to be perfect, here.

So our ginger,

we're just gonna peel it

and then do eighth of an inch thick slices.

No, I'm not peeling the ginger with a spoon.

I just [sighs] sometimes life's

just a little too short.

You know.

These are eighth of an inch thick slices.

And this can go, actually

right on top of my onion.

Because it's going to go all in

at the same time.

All right.

Now eight cloves of garlic.

A lot of garlic.

A lot of flavor.

[clattering]

Garlic has been crushed.

I'm just gonna measure out our sugars, here.

Real talk.

I don't have light brown sugar.

I've got dark brown.

Big whoop.

Honestly, its not going to make a big difference.

[clatters] All right.

So, quarter cup of that.

[clatters]

Now one thing that we

just could not get, Mirin.

It's a sweet Japanese

[clattering] rice-based cooking wine.

Ultimately, mirin's giving you

a little bit of acidity.

But mainly sweetness.

We were gonna have a half a cup of that.

Let's say,

two tablespoons of white sugar.

We're just kind of

[clattering] Spit-balling here.

But I feel like that's

maybe about what you might get

from half a cup of mirin.

[sighs]

You're never gonna have like

every single ingredient you'd like

to have these days.

But the important thing

is to just keep going.

All right.

That's it.

I think we're just about ready

to move to the stove.

[clicking] [clattering]

All right.

So let's talk.

These are flanken-cut,

bone-in short ribs.

There's something about

the flaken style.

The meat shrinks off the bone

a little bit less.

[clattering] And everything stays

in tact a little bit better I think.

[clattering] So pot is heating.

I'm gonna lay out these short ribs.

And I'm gonna season them generously with salt.

Making it rain.

[clattering] Turning.

So I wanna turn them

at least a couple of times.

And season most if not every side.

And just enough oil to coat

the bottom of the pot there.

[clatters]

We're gonna do these in two batches.

[sizzling] So everything's got room

to breathe in there.

That level of color

is what we're going for.

That's gonna be a lot

of the flavor development

that happens in this dish.

So its super important

to take your time at this stage.

All right.

So we're gonna do the rest.

We're gonna transfer them back

into that same baking sheet.

And then we're gonna do our aromatics.

All right.

Stay with me.

That was our first batch of short ribs.

That's the level

of sear we're looking for.

[sizzling] This is the second batch.

Just about finished.

One more turn should do it.

You just wanna be mindful

that the Fonds,

those round bits

on the bottom of the pot

aren't getting black.

You just don't wanna burn them.

All right.

But we're good to go here.

So I'm gonna transfer these out.

If there's like crazy amounts

of fat in the pot,

you can take some of the fat out.

[sizzling] But that's reasonable.

So I'm just stirring

this around.

This is our garlic, onion, and ginger.

Again just be mindful.

Turn down the heat as needed.

So we're gonna let that cook out

'til it's nice and jammy.

Then we're gonna throw in

our wine on top of that.

We'll come back in at that point.

All right.

So of those aromatics

are just nice golden brown around the edges.

Here's where our red wine goes in.

Two cups of that are gonna go in.

Increase the heat.

It's really important,

whether you're cooking

with red or white wine,

to cook it out.

If you don't do that,

you will taste raw alcohol at the end.

It's not a good thing.

It's just not a flattering sensation.

All right, cool.

We're about halfway reduced

on our red wine here.

So it's at this point

that our combination

of brown sugar and white sugar

are gonna go in here.

I'm just gonna stir those in,

make sure they dissolve.

Brown sugar has that tendency

to, you know, clump up and just be

[whispers] annoying.

Then we have a third of a cup soy sauce.

So that's gonna go in.

It's dark in there.

It's already kind of inky.

You know between the soy

and that reduced red wine,

it's looking pretty cool.

So at this point in the recipe,

we will also be putting in

a couple cups of water.

Just to kind of bring

the liquid volume up around the short ribs.

[clatters]

I'm gonna maybe plan to throw in a cup.

We'll see.

If we need the two cups,

we will use it.

But work with me, here, okay?

So ribs are gonna go

into this pot, single layer.

I wanna get as much

of the meat as low as possible in the pot.

Does that make sense?

Maybe that doesn't make sense at all.

I don't even know if

that made sense to me.

So rather than having the bone down,

Have the bone up

or on the side.

That way you know

that your meat

is what is being submerged there.

And its gonna continue to lose

some of its liquid.

So if everything doesn't fit perfectly

in an even layer,

it's gonna be okay.

So I've got like one straggler

who just really doesn't wanna find a home.

But its okay.

We're gonna nestle him in.

All right, nice.

So see how we could use

a little more liquid in there, right?

So I think a cup of water will do it.

I can always add more water

during the cooking process.

But I'd prefer not to have

to reduce the liquid on the backend

to get a nice glaze-y sauce.

So we're gonna bring it back up

to a simmer now that the water's in there.

Make sure the cooking process

is actually going.

So I'm gonna monitor this.

Especially,

[clatters] in the beginning just

to make sure

that the heat level is appropriate.

I wanna see active bubbles

but not violent bubbles.

I want it to be,

blup, blup, blup, blup, blup.

Does that make sense?

Cool.

Daikon radish.

I'm gonna peel it.

I'm gonna cut it

into one inch pieces.

Drop it in there about an hour

before the meat is done braising.

Let me tell you a story

about this Daikon.

It was very hard to find this.

Okay.

Rhoda Boone, culinary producer extraordinaire,

she found this and she messenger-ed

this Daikon to me.

Cause she knows how much

I love Daikon.

In honor of Rhoda,

you know what,

changing the tite.

On the fly.

This is now braised daikon with short ribs.

Kind of just kidding.

But seriously,

thank you so much, Rhoda.

For finding me that daikon.

[Director] All right. All right.

So everybody's gonna sign off,

and then what time

are we gonna come back in?

Let's check in around four.

And I'll tell you how

it seems like we're doing.

It may be a five o'clock situation.

[Whoosh]

[chatter] All right.

So we're back.

We've been braising the short ribs

about three hours.

Yeah, the steam.

All that jazz.

Their just about fork-tender.

They could definitely

[child talking] use another minute.

I've got rice going.

I've got my table just about set

with all our other garnishes.

But before we do that,

we are here to make egg ribbons.

I haven't done this for a year

so I may blow it.

So just bare with me.

So egg ribbons

it's just literally scrambled egg

rolled and then sliced

into thin ribbons.

Just as a fun garnish.

[Children talking] Its just joyful.

Hey, guys.

I feel like I hear you.

I feel like we talked...

Mr. Komodo dragon.

Mr. Whatever you are.

[Child] We deactivated! Mr. Aardvark.

Guys, I'm about to make egg ribbons.

[children whining] So everyone needs to chill.

We're going to

[clatters] crack one egg.

[children talking] We are going

to lightly beat it.

[clanking]

Okay maybe that wasn't

the lightest beating.

But you know what I'm saying.

Mix it well.

All right, so its a teaspoon

of neutral oil

in our non-stick.

Just gonna spread that around.

While I add the egg to the pan,

we're gonna tilt it.

Almost like we are making a crepe.

Okay.

Just try to get this

into a rough circle.

[metal clatters]

Can I redo this egg ribbon?

[Supervisor] Yes.

[children yelling] Okay.

We're redoing the egg ribbon.

Quiet on the set.

This is take two

on egg ribbons.

First time, honestly,

I don't know what that was.

Takes a lot to get something

to stick to a non-stick

but we did it.

[knocking]

Okay.

A little hotter.

A little more heat.

[clatters]

This is good.

Gonna buy me a little time.

I didn't really mess up

the egg ribbon.

I was just buying time

on the short ribs, honest.

Great, here we go.

[metal clatters]

Okay, that went a lot better.

So basically, that was like

you know, 30 seconds.

Scrambled egg set

in an even layer.

Don't mess with it.

Don't move it around.

Then we're gonna turn it out.

Trying to keep it in one Piece.

So we can roll it up.

We're gonna slice it crosswise.

Egg ribbons.

So, the rest of my garnish

is at the table.

We'll talk through that

when we get over there.

But I think we're good to go.

Awesome!

It's all coming together.

Finally.

[thumps on wood]

[Child talking]

Hi!

[exasperated laughing]

This morning was a lifetime ago.

Yeah, can I talk you through

what I have here?

[Christina] Talk me through it.

All right.

So I have the braised short ribs,

which are looking pretty dynamite.

Then we have some pretty fun toppers.

I have kimchi, sil-gochu,

then we have egg ribbons. Lovely.

And then we have our sliced scallions.

And I made rice, boom.

Oh, before I make a plate,

Can I have a drink

of wine with you Yes, yes! I thought that

was the first thing

you would've done

in your plating.

[laughs]

What are you drinking?

This is really, really lovely.

Wright Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon.

Worst evils is their label on this.

It's a big Napa Valley Cab.

I was explaining to these guys

like big flavor food,

big flavor wine,

you know? It's so true.

Hmm.

All right, sorry.

So now I'm gonna make myself a dish

and now I have to apologize

that you can't partake in this.

[clinking]

We're gonna see how we did here.

[clinking] Yum.

I'm just responding

to a fork and knife hitting a bowl.

Mmm.

That's the sound

of a good Galbi-jjim.

No sound at all.

Cause its so soft.

Happiness.

[Child talking] Oh, Oh my God.

[Child screaming] [clanking]

Excuse me!

We can hear everything you're doing.

Everybody can hear.

They don't care.

[Child yelling] They're...

What're you doing up there?

What're you getting?

No, no, no, no, no!

[child laughing] No, no!

Hey guys will you do cheers with me?

Apple juice cheers.

[thumps on table]

[Child] Yum!

Yeah, let's do a cheers, okay?

Cause I think we did a really good job today.

Well, I did a really good job, today.

[Laughs]

Christina, cheers.

Thank you for hanging out

Basically all day,

waiting for my short ribs to braise

and not having them.

[child chattering]

Hey guys, everybody's gonna do a cheers, gently.

Two hands!

[Child One] I'm not doing it.

[Child Two] Wow.

Wait, but your gonna drink the juice, right?

You have to do the cheers to drink the juice.

Where are you going?

No, come back here for the cheers!

Babe, its gonna spill everywhere.

[cringes]

[laughs]

[Child Two] Daddy! Give me a cheers!