Flavours of home is a series of recipes from around the world cooked by people at home in Otago. They are accompanied by a video on the ODT website so you can see how the dish is made. This week Soomi and Soohee Moon, from Korea, show us how to make Galbi Tchim (short-rib stew).
Soohee Moon came to New Zealand three years ago, married a New Zealander and is a fashion design student at Otago Polytechnic. Her sister Soomi arrived in December so her two children could go to school here.
There is more opportunity here and they prefer the lifestyle - it's less pressured than in Korea.
This is their mother's recipe for galbi tchim (short-rib stew), a dish served on special occasions such as birthdays, weddings, Korean thanksgiving or lunar new year. It takes a lot of preparation, but it's very tasty and worth cooking.
Women of their mother's generation spent a lot of time in the kitchen, Soohee says.
Galbi Tchim
Ingredients:
2kg beef spareribs, cut roughly in 5cm cubes
2 spring onions, roots and all, roughly chopped
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
20 whole black peppercorns
2cm knob of fresh ginger
Marinade and sauce ingredients
1 1/2 pears, skin and core removed
1 1/2 onions, chopped roughly
2 spring onions, roots removed and roughly chopped
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup mirin (sweet rice wine), or you can use white wine
2 dsp crushed garlic
1/3 cup liquid honey
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 tsp ground pepper
1 dsp toasted ground sesame seeds
1 dsp sesame seed oil
For the stew
2 whole dried chillies (or chilli flakes)
1 kumara, cut in 3cm pieces
1 carrot, cut in 3cm pieces
2-3 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 spring onion, finely diced
Trim fat from the spareribs and score the meat where it is thick so it will cook more easily. Rinse in cold water and soak for an hour to remove any blood. Rinse again.
Place the spring onions with roots, onion, peppercorns and ginger in a pot with the meat and just cover with water. Bring to the boil, then simmer with the lid off for a few minutes until the meat has changed colour and is about a third cooked. Remove the meat from the pot, rinse with cold water and allow to cool. The stock and vegetables are not reused.
To make the marinade and sauce, blend the pears, onion, spring onion, soy sauce and mirin until liquid. Transfer to a bowl and add liquid honey, caster sugar, crushed garlic, sesame oil, ground sesame seeds and pepper. Mix. It should taste both sweet and salty.
When the meat is cool, add to the sauce and allow to marinate in the fridge overnight or for at least six hours.
When ready to cook, put the meat and the marinade in a large pot, add the dried chillies and water to cover. Bring to the boil over high heat, then reduce the heat and simmer for about an hour, until the meat is almost cooked and the sauce thickened.
Turn the meat from time to time.
Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables.
Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water for about an hour, then chop. Reserve the soaking water.
Finely chop the onion and slice the spring onion thinly on the diagonal. Cut the carrots and kumara into 3cm chunks.
About 20min before the meat is cooked, add the carrots, kumara and mushrooms, with the reserved soaking water, and more water if needed.
When the vegetables are cooked, stir in the onion and spring onion and simmer for 5min-10min longer.
Serve with rice, with kimchee (a spicy fermented cabbage pickle) on the side.
Thanks to Afife Harris and Hinton Fruit and Produce.
Tips
Galbi tchim is a national dish, but each region has its own variations. Soohee and Soomi come from the south, which is known for its rich flavours and using lots of garlic, chilli, soy sauce and sesame oil.
Other vegetables can be used - pumpkin is a favourite - and in Korea they would often use chestnuts.
You could substitute Portobello mushrooms for the shiitake, but they do not have the distinctive flavour and texture of shiitake.
A Korean meal consists of a soup, a bowl of rice, a main dish that is shared and side dishes such as steamed vegetables, and, of course, the essential kimchee.
Short beef ribs should be available from a butcher and ingredients such as shiitake mushrooms, mirin and sesame oil can be found in Asian grocers or international sections of good supermarkets.
