2For66

November 21, 2015

I’ve been slobbering over this recipe for Pressure Cooked Korean Style Short Ribs  from Dad Cooks Dinner for almost two months now. I broke my leg shortly after I saw the post so I had to wait until I could hobble around the kitchen before I could cook them. Last Wednesday I was released from my crutches and knee scooter and getting back into the kitchen in a meaningful way was one of my top priorities.

This is a fairly simple recipe so it wouldn’t require a lot of standing and chopping. The list of ingredients is small. I intended to make this as a practice run to see if it was worthy to be served to company. At the last minute we had a couple of neighbors over. I wasn’t worried – Mike Vrobel has never let me down.

The butchers at my local New Seasons Market are fantastic Normally, short ribs come in one-bone segments that are a few inches long. I asked them if they could cut me some two-rib portions with each section being about 1/2 the length of the one-bone. Not a problem. I requested it when we got to the store and when we we had finished the rest of our shopping they were  packaged and ready.

I spent about ten minutes chopping, smashing and measuring.

It probably goes without saying – you don’t need to put all your ingredients in separate little bowls; cooking will go much faster if you don’t. I’m a list lover – to paraphrase Sheldon Cooper  on The Big Bang Theory recently: if I made a list of things that make me happy; making lists would be on the list. Putting the ingredients in their little bowls is like creating a bulleted list of ingredients.

The onion, garlic and ginger are sautéd briefly in the pressure cooker.

Then add the ribs and the liquids ingredients and stir.

Next time, I might combine the liquids in a large bowl then add the mixture to the ribs  in the pressure cooker. (Yeah, I hear you: if I hadn’t put things in individual bowls it would have been easier – but then I wouldn’t have had beautiful little bowls of things.) Things were snug in my six quart Instant Pot Duo electric pressure cooker and it took a couple of minutes to mix everything together.

They cook for 45 minutes in my electric pressure cooker – longer than they would have on my stove top pressure cooker (yeah, I have two pressure cookers, what can I say?) Then turn the cooker off and let pressure down normally for 15 minutes. I fished out the ribs…

…and defatted that lovely au jus…

…then reduced it in a small sauce pan.

Don’t be intimidated – making the sauce is simple and quick.

We started some white rice when the ribs went into the cooker. A scoop of rice, topped by a section of ribs, and garnished withe some green onions. Then pour a bit of the sauce on the top and add a bit of the Gochujang sauce to the rice and you’ve got some good eats.

The gochujang sauce is a a spicy paste/sauce that has a hint of sweetness followed by some lingering heat. Use just a little before you are sure you can handle it. We’ll be serving it with our rice dishes in the future. I found some at New Seasons Market; I’m sure your local Asian grocery will have multiple brands to choose from.

I  made a list (that’s right) of steps with the timings to figure out when to start so dinner would be ready on time. Um, I forgot to include the time for the  cooker to come up to pressure. So, if you are on a schedule, don’t forget to count the time it takes for the PC to come up to pressure; it took 12-15 minutes for me on this dish. My copy of Mike’s recipe is here along with my notes. But check out Mike’s Dad Cooks Dinner site for  more details and notes

We had a side dish of fried vegetables! I searched for “Korean Side Dishes” and found this delicious recipe from My Korean Kitchen. Thinly slice an English cucumber and combine with salt for a while. Then sauté for a very short time in vegetable oil, then add sesame oil and sesame seeds and chill. We didn’t chill it enough before serving.

This was delicious – the ribs were so tender and beefy; I highly recommend this. Next time I’ll try browning the ribs before pressure cooking.

Usually Mike Vrobel has recommendations for cooking without a pressure cooker. I didn’t see it this time; but you could probably do something in a slow cooker.