Let me brag here a bit—my kimchi was a huge success...although I'm still giving it a few more days of fermentation before I go ahead and chill it. I could hardly taste it four hours later as opposed to living and breathing the taste of kimchi for the next two days.
I loved reading all your feedback and comments since although Korean is one of my favorite cuisines, I think it doesn't get the attention it deserves. And judging from your responses, apparently I'm not the only one!
In addition to being a little gaga for Korean food lately, I'm also on a caramelizion kick, craving anything with caramel. Ribs, tarts, cookies, cakes, frostings...you name it, I'm gonna caramelize it. But hold on to your hats—I have the ultimate caramel dessert coming up sometime later this week.
As mentioned, I'd bookmarked the recipe for Vietnamese Pork Ribs in Caramel Sauce over at Chubby Hubby, and let me tell you, folks, this recipe is a winner.
What doesn't it have going for it?
Let's see...
You begin with an inexpensive cut of meat and after about 15 minutes worth of work, you pop the whole thing in the oven for a couple of hours, then pull out a roasting pan with a jumble of the most succulent caramelized ribs that took almost no effort.
I don't need to reprint Aun's version of the recipe, since I pretty much followed the one at his site.
But I did make a few changes and had some observations:
And the one thing I wasn't expecting, even though many of you warned me would happen: I used up quite a bit of my kimchi. My guests were a multi-mix of Swiss, Italian, and French, and I was expecting them to shy away from the curious 'pickle' in the funky jar on the counter. I tried to get a picture of the expression on a Parisian friend's face when he took a sniff from the open jar, but I couldn't grab my camera fast enough.
Still, almost half of it was gobbled up by the end of the evening and I'm off to the Korean market this week to get more ingredients for another batch.
And this time, I'm not holding back on the chili paste.
Bring it on!
(The recipe was adapted from Molly Steven's book All About Braising.)
__________________
On a sidenote: I just sent out a newsletter and was wondering if the font, or lettering, was too large for you or your monitors. I used 12pt, but since I'm on a laptop, it's tricky to gauge. On my end, it looked a bit huge.
Although some of you might appreciate the larger type, let me know how it looked on your end.
This all sounds wonderful and drool-worthy. I'm going to have to follow along in your trail and make up a batch of those ribs, they look amazing. And yes, your newsletter looked great in my gmail inbox. Thanks!
Thanks David! I'm a Chubby Hubby big fan and reader. Korean food is so yummy, I miss so great addresses I had back in the bay area. In France I haven't seen a lot of Korean places ... sadly ...
Those Vietnamese caramelized ribs look totally irresistible! Hmm, am I sensing a theme in recent postings? Related to an upcoming book, maybe?
BTW, my Mac mail client read your newsletter as 12-point but it looks really small for 12-point. Granted, my eyes are getting old, but even with glasses it looks small. MacMail thinks your site is in 14-point; is that right?
I guess standardization on the Web has a ways to go.
Hi,
I want to make these ribs but my boyfriend hates the Fish sauce. Is there anything else I can use...I am going to try the extra ginger and pepper and probably the chinese vinegar.
http://talkmorelater.blogspot.com/
Thanks,
h
I don't know about you, but I don't think they'll be coming out with eau de fish sauce any time soon:) I think fish sauce an integral ingredient in Viet cooking and I can't imagine using a substitute. I've noticed that anchovy steam seems to linger on your clothing and skin even longer than cigarette smoke.
How about adding lemongrass to marinade?
David, I made a similar thing after reading a post at Sunday Night Dinner. Delicious! In that recipe, they used lemongrass, which I think adds that little extra something something.
I have a friend whose mom wears a lab coat when stir-frying to keep the pungent aromas off her clothes. Maybe something to look into? :-)
I wonder whether your stinky neighbor has his own blog where he writes about HIS neighbor who always has unusual smells emanating from his apartment.
Steve: LOL!!! (That was funny..thanks for cracking me up...)
Babeth: Yes, Korean food isn't widely known here. Japanese food (the real stuff, not those icky sushi chains) is becoming more prominent, so maybe Korean is next.
Heather: I bet water mixed with a little soy sauce and vinegar, in the same proportion, would be great too.
I'm Vietnamese and a huge fan of caramelization, and I think the best preparation in the world is with a fillet of catfish in a clay pot. Oh my goodness, so delicious. I'll have to find you a good recipe for that.
Another thing that I like to do for a really quick meal is to add about a tablespoon or two of sugar to a pan, let it get all brown and caramelized, then add in a diced onion, and ground turkey or pork, and season with a LOT of black pepper and fish sauce to taste. Simple but tasty preparation that takes two seconds to put together. And it goes with everything...from rice, as a salad topper, in porridge...
OHHHhhhhh yummmm.... I LOVE LOVE to have that as my dinner today ....ohh...carameli-sed RIBS!! Good lord I must be in heaven :)
psstt... do u love korean bbq ribs?!! If yes .. pls hope over to ">SteamyKitchen
Just TRUST ME...TRUST ME ... it's sooo good!! Nothing out of a jar could taste that good! :)
You were wise to braise the ribs in the oven, David. The problem with stovetop braising is it's difficult to keep the cooking temperature low enough to avoid drying out [and toughening up] the meat.
The font on the newsletter was fine for me, but then I have a Mac laptop, so my perception might be a little skewed.
Font size was great and so was the layout!
I started using reading glasses about 1 year ago and I'm really beginning to feel the strain when I have to read small print :p
Hi David,
This is totally unrelated to this post (although the ribs and kimchee do sound yummy), but after reading your FAQ, I decided to put a question here instead of emailing you.
This is a general cake/frosting question. My husband and I are good at cooking almost everything, but simple cakes elude us. The crumb is too big and the texture verges on being rubbery, and it doesn't seem to matter what recipe we are using. Can you give me any hints to make a nicely textured, small-crumbed cake (a quatre-quarts or genoise)?
I am thinking that there is a temperature issue with the butter when creaming (too warm/cold/soft hard- gets over creamed?), but need to dig out my McGee to be absolutely sure (I started reading it from cover to cover, made it to fruits and veggies, and then life stepped in and I put it down somewhere in our house).
This last time our (okay- HIS- it wasn't me this time!) buttercream frosting was greasy as well, which is why I thought it may be a temp issue. He brought the butter out of the fridge and put it directly in the mixer bowl. When I asked if he was going to soften it, he said that the beating would soften it. I disagreed- funny how one can argue over something so silly! Anyway it ended up with a gritty texture (even though we used sucre glace) and greasy mouthfeel.
Thank you from Lyon, France for any advice or hints you can give!
Respectfully,
Cheryl Stauffer
Got your newsletter -- thanks for all of the hard work you put into it!
The font was fine for me, but I'm guessing going a little smaller might work better. (and with the photos, too.) My resolution is 1280x1024 and it still was a little on the large size.
But I loved it and the pix! Thank you again for all that youdo!
Cheryl: Since you live in France, the ingredients are different if you're baking from an American cookbook. Check out my post American Baking in Paris. Greasy buttercream may be a result of the higher butterfat in French butter.
As for cake textures, use room temperature butter and really beat it well to aerate it. But don't beat the batter with the flour; that'll build gluten and you'll get a tough cake.
Next time you head to the states, you might want to pick up a copy of The Simple Art of Perfect Baking. It's the best book on cakemaking I know of...author Flo Braker is a whiz in the kitchen
David, I made these last night and my boyfriend plotzed. Score. First time ever making ribs. Thanks!
That reminds me that I need to eat some 'thit kho' for the Vietnamese New Year.
Those look sooo good!
Must go out for Korean at lunch today...now!
I can't believe I missed you on Sirius yesterday!! I'll have to try to catch the replay when it airs something this weekend...
I've only made ribs once before and while it turned out to be pretty easy I'm still a little gun-shy that I'll muck 'em up. I think giving these a shot might dispel some of that fear though. Damn I wish I hadn't already eaten lunch... I live across the street from a Korean BBQ. Damn, damn, damn.
I, too, made these after seeing CH's post and A) totally agree that the caramel-meets-fish-sauce moment sent a giant plume of fishiness all around my kitchen and B) the ribs were AMAZING. Even better the next day and the next day after that. This is one of those dishes that has so much complexity you can't believe how simple it is.
I liked the larger print of your recent newsletter....but then, I'm nearsighted.
Caramelizing meat before stewing and braising is just perfect. I love "Red Cooked Pork," a Chinese dish braised in a soy sauce based liquid. I always like to caramelize the pork first although many recipe call for the pork to be boiled first. Caramelizing not only results in better color but also flavor the dish.
Tròi Oi (OMG! in Vietnamese ) this bring back delicious memories!! This was a family favorite when I was growing up! Dad made many variations of this. His favorite addition for that extra zing was adding herbs to it- crushed lemongrass to the marinade or eating it with peppery rau ram herbs. Thanks for the tasty reminder!
I just hate tough superball ribs.
The restaurant I work at serves (usually) tough ribs, and they charge a lot of money for them. I feel sorry for the customers when I take their order.
These look good, though. I'm getting into Vietnamese food. I made some phở the other night.
pork and caramel - how can you go wrong?
i'd wanted to make these ribs for this week's smackdown but i don't think i have the time, so i'm going to do molly steven's very similar instead (with the addition of lemongrass, as several people have suggested).
Heather: If your boyfriend doesn't hate anchovies you can use this as a substitute.
Last year I had this craving for Lahb Moo (Thai food) that requires fish sauce and I couldn't find any at Carrefour (in Spain). Anyway from experience I know that Thai food just doesn't taste right without fish sauce so I had to think of something.
Then I remembered reading about Garum - the fish sauce that the Romans used - which was made from anchovies pretty much...and anchovies are really easy to find in Spain. In reality you have to make Garum from the anchovies but I didn't want to do that so I just liquified the fish.
I melted some anchovies in olive oil (peanut oil would have been preferable but hey - they don't have that here either!) and the Lahb Moo turned out ok. A bit different but delicious and it didn't have that awful flat taste when you omitt the fish sauce.
Because fish sauce is one of those 'hidden flavors' in the dish - don't put so much that you know there's anchovies in it! I'd say 1-2 filets would be enough. If your boyfriend's finicky about fish smells in general - only put 1 filet.
Of course it won't be as good as using real fish sauce but it will be much closer to the original than without it. :)
David,
Please try this new Korean restaurant in the 15th. It's got a refined twist that you've got to check out!!
Gwon's Dining
51 rue Cambronne
Phone: 01 47 34 53 17
Ayami
Thank you for this recipe! I changed out the fish sauce as you recommended and it worked out. I added a lot of ginger, chili paste and pepper and cooked them on the stove top. Amazing!!!!
Thanks again!
http://talkmorelater.blogspot.com/
If I stunk up the house with fish sauce, I'd get an eviction notice from my husband!
wow, how amazing i find this recipe here, i'm from this dish's country
nice entry, david, i love your site and your recipes here
Hi David-What was the oven temperature when you made them? I just made them tonight and would like to free up my stove top for other dishes? Thanks!
Tracy: You can click on the link and get the exact recipe, which includes baking times and temperatures, I believe. Enjoy the ribs! -dl