Spicy Kalbi Jjim

This recipe was an experiment gone v. v. RIGHT! I stumbled across some yelp reviews of a Korean restaurant that serves spicy kalbi jjim and thought to myself, "Hm, that sounds really delicious!" so I set out to try and make my own. Since I'd never tasted the dish before there was nothing to compare it to but I think my attempt was rather successful.

[serves 4]

2 lbs Korean short ribs (jjim kind, not the sliced kind you use for marinated kalbi)
4 or 5 cloves of garlic
4 cups water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/4 cup Korean hot pepper paste
1 white radish (Korean kind preferable, daikon is a great substitute), chopped into big chunks
1/2 onion, roughly chopped
handful of mushrooms (I used baby bella, regular white mushrooms would be good too), roughly chopped
2 Korean hot peppers, roughly chopped, jalapeno would be a good substitute
1 cup chopped cabbage kimchi (optional)

I started off by simmering the ribs and garlic in a bit pot on low heat for about an hour until the meat was tender. I skimmed off any foam and fat that was floating on the surface.

To prepare the sauce, I mixed the soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar, sugar, and hot pepper paste together.

I mixed it until it was nice and smooth.

Then I chopped up the vegetables.

Next, I stirred the sauce ingredients into the pot and then added in all of the vegetables. I put the heat on medium high and covered the pot with a lid.

Meanwhile, I cut up some kimchi into bite-sized pieces.

After about 45 minutes of cooking, I checked to see if the radish was cooked through, which it was, and if the meat was fork tender, which it also was. I added the kimchi in at that point and let it cook for another 5 minutes.

Then it was ready to serve! (With some sticky white rice, of course)

I'd say the dish was a hit. It was a really yummy alternative to regular kalbi jjim.