meat crack

This is hands down one of my favorite things to eat. There is nothing better in this world than succulent, sweet meat. It's a head to head battle between the Vietnamese candied pork variety (suong ngo) OR the Korean candied beef short rib variety (kalbi). I love both, so I'm posting the two recipes for you to enjoy :)

KALBI SHORT RIBS

1 1/2 cups soy sauce
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup sesame oil
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
8-10 cloves garlic, chopped
6 green onions, chopped
4 lbs Korean style short ribs
(you can find this at Uwajimaya, it needs to be the kind of short rib that is cut across the bone)

Combine all of the marinade ingredients (soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, vegetable oil, garlic & green onions). Cover short ribs with the marinade in a freezer bag and make sure the meat is completely saturated in the marindade. Refrigerate overnight or for at least 4 hours.

Preheat oven to the highest broil temperature (500 degrees). Remove short ribs from the marinade and place on a baking sheet and put in the oven. Broil the ribs for about 5-7 minutes on each side until the meat is cooked and developing a nice char.

In the mean time, pour the marinade into a small saucepan and simmer until slightly thickened (about 10 minutes).

Serve the Kalbi with white rice, kimchi, a Korean green salad and the side of thickened marinade as an additional sauce.


VIETNAMESE CANDIED PORK

3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup fish sauce
6 cloves garlic, minced
4-5 hard boiled eggs
4 lbs of fatty pork, cut into 1 inch pieces (pork shoulder or boneless country pork ribs, look for a healthy amount of marbled fat .. or if you're feeling very committed to deliciousness ... opt for some pork belly)

You'll essentialy start with making a dry caramel. Heat a large pan on med heat. Add the sugar and stir with a wooden spoon constantly. The sugar will slowly melt and turn a golden caramel color. Keep stirring to make sure all of the sugar melts and doesn't clump. If the caramel isn't turning golden and doesn't look like it's at risk of burning, slowly increase the temp to med-high. Once the caramel is a nice dark honey-golden color, add the pork and continuously stir to combine the caramel and pork. (Be careful during this step. The caramel clumps and sticks to the wooden spoon very easily. So you'll want to keep stirring and keeping the caramel off the spoon so that it can combine with the pork).

Stir and brown the pork for about 2 minutes, then add the chopped garlic. Stir to combine. Add the hard boiled eggs whole and stir to cover the eggs in the golden brown sauce. Let this simmer on medium heat for about 8 minutes. Occasionally stir and continue to check on the pan to make sure the caramel doesn't burn.

Add the fish sauce to the pan and stir. Let the mixture and sauce bubble and reduce. Check the sauce to make sure it is the perfect balance of salty and sweet. Add more sugar or more fish sauce if it seems off balance on either side.

Top with a few turns of fresh ground pepper and serve with white rice.

If you're meat-centric and hungry enough to try both ... let me know which one is your favorite!

- Queen LaBeefa