Asian glazed beef short ribs

For some reason, I always picture beef short ribs on the belt worn by Rambo, where the chain of hand grenades looks to be studded with this cut of meat. Maybe it’s also something to do with the flavour explosion in this recipe.

INGREDIENTS

2kg bone-in beef short ribs

2 tablespoons oil

1 large onion, diced

330ml lager beer

500ml beef stock

110g sugar

60ml fish sauce

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

MARINADE

250ml light soy sauce

125ml mirin

2 tablespoons dark cooking caramel

1 tablespoon chinese five-spice

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

5 cm piece fresh ginger, thinly sliced

1 large red chilli, finely chopped

TO SERVE

rice, steamed

baby bok choy

METHOD

To make the marinade, combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Add the ribs and rub all over with the marinade. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator. Marinate for at least 2 hours, or preferably overnight.

Preheat the oven to 150ºC.

Remove the beef ribs from the marinade, shake off any excess liquid and pat dry with paper towel. Reserve the marinade for cooking later.

Heat the oil in a large heavy-based frying pan over a medium–high heat. In batches, brown the ribs on all sides, about 3–4 minutes.

In the same pan, sauté the onion until soft and translucent, about 2 minutes. Pour the beer into the pan, scraping the base of the pan with a wooden spoon to dislodge any caramelised bits. Add the reserved marinade and return to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 3 minutes, or until slightly thickened.

Put the ribs in a large roasting tin in a single layer. Pour the thickened marinade mixture over, then add enough beef stock until all the ribs are fully submerged.

Cover the tin tightly with a double layer of foil and transfer to the oven. Braise the ribs for 2–2 1⁄2 hours or until the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender, turning them twice during the cooking time. Remove the ribs from the tin and set aside, covered in foil to keep warm.

Pour the braising liquid into a saucepan, skim off the fat that has risen to the top. It should leave you with about 500 ml of flavourful braising liquid. Add the sugar, fish sauce and garlic and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Reduce the heat to medium–low and boil until the sauce has thickened and reduced by half, about 10–15 minutes.

Remove the syrup from the heat, return the ribs to the syrupy sauce and toss everything together. Serve the ribs with steamed rice and baby bok choy.

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