Public Patience

Riding public transportation is truly a practice in meditation. Oh, and seemingly endless patience. Example, last Friday, it took me nearly 2 hours to move maybe less than 10 miles from my place of origin. It really would've been faster had I just walked, and less blood-pressure raising. I suppose that to have expected anything different was foolish of me.  After all, it was Friday evening at rush hour, which is prime time for everyone rushing either home or out on the town. Still, it was frustrating when the bus managed to hit every red traffic light on the route, and also to stop at every single stop because of the constant "stop requests" from the riders. All stops were separated by a mere distance of 3 to 4 blocks, so you'd wonder why people didn't just get off a stop earlier or later to walk. In fact, every time I looked up from my phone there was a "stop request" light flashing on and off, nearing the point of ridiculousness. I'm fortunate that I had Plants versus Zombies in my pocket, and that my final destination of the day was a bar. Nothing a cold beer and some social lubrication couldn't fix. And before I knew it happened, here we all are at Monday again, ready to roll into another week. It's like Friday didn't even happen.

Words feel chunky for me today, so I'm not going to dwell on too much. I'd simply just like to post two recipes together here, because they complement each other so well. Below are recipes for Galbi and cucumber kimchi. Galbi is a Korean-style barbecued ribs dish. It's super easy to prepare. All you have to do is make sure you have the right ingredients, in particular, the ribs themselves and the soy-sauce and garlic. Regarding the ribs, they are cut "across" the bone and not "along" the bone; it's a type of cut more often found in Asian groceries than American. If you don't have these ribs, I'm sure you could also use some thinner cuts of steak, the marinade does wonders for packing flavor into the meat. In terms of patience, just make sure you do it a day in advance, to give the marinade time to work. No meditation needed.

straight off the grill, perhaps a little too much char

Galbi (Korean-style Marinated Short Ribs)

5 lbs beef short ribs

1 C light brown sugar

1 C dark soy sauce

1/2 C water

1/4 C rice wine

1 small red onion

6 cloves garlic

2 TB sesame paste

1 TB sesame oil

1 TB ginger oil

1 small apple or pear

1 TB salt

2 TB freshly ground pepper

Coat your short ribs with the brown sugar and let rest about 10 minutes (while you prepare the rest of the marinade). In a food processor, puree together the peeled garlic cloves, onion and cored apple or pear. If you don't have ginger oil on hand, feel free to add a small knob of peeled garlic to the food processor as well. Once that is all done, in a large bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients and then stir in the pureed aromatics into that. Pour the marinade over the sugared short ribs in a large Ziploc bag (or in a container) and make sure the marinade covers all the meat. Let marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Grill them up the next day, or if a grill is not available, you can broil the ribs as well.

So how about that flavor punch, eh? Seriously, these ribs are addictive. At first, while putting together the marinade, I thought they might be too sweet because of the switch from granulated sugar to brown sugar, and because of the addition of the apple. Ends up, not too sweet at all! The ingredients in the marinade all work together to give the ribs a salty, sweet and complex nutty flavor. And even though five pounds of ribs may seem like a large amount, we still had a ton of marinade left over, so feel free to amp up the amount of meat. 

Now, while these ribs are solid on their own, with maybe with a bowl of rice or a piece of bread to sop up their deliciousness, it's also nice to have something crunchy and tart on the side to cut the richness. Kimchi cucumbers work well here, and they're quick and easy to toss together as well. As promised above, here is the recipe.

A couple of notes before I get to this second part though. I've made this dish a couple of times and it's ridiculously easy. I've never had a bad batch. You really just have to control your salt levels, because it's easy to make them a bit too salty. Kimchi cucumbers aren't a true kimchi in the traditional sense. They're more pickled than fermented, but that's probably for the better. Cucumbers may just have just too much liquid to survive a ferment, and in my humble opinion, their fresh flavor would also be lost in a fermentation process anyways. And not only do you avoid dealing with the bacteria and mold concerns that come along with a ferment, but this quick pickle also makes cucumber kimchi a dish that's ready to serve in less than an hour.  Now this recipe is pretty versatile. Besides the necessary cucumbers and garlic, you can also add things like scallions and chives. Have fun with it, yeah?

...after!

Before....

Kimchi Cucumbers 

5 Japanese cucumbers

2 TB to 1/4 C salt (depending on the brine method)

2 TB Korean red chili powder

2 TB fish sauce

1 TB rice wine vinegar

1 TB granulated sugar

2 stalks of scallions or chives

4 cloves garlic, minced

First, you should brine the cucumbers. You can either do a dry salt rub, with 1 to 2 TB salt. Rub the cucumbers down and let stand 15 minutes. Or, as I like to do, you can do a wet brine. Slice each cucumber into 3 sections lengthwise, and then for each section, slice two perpendicular cuts lengthwise across the middle of each cross-section (as in pictures). Rub down the cucumber pieces down with the salt (up to a 1/4 cup, but you can use less depending on your taste), even in the crooks. Then place the pieces into a large bowl, cover everything with water, and stir. Make sure the water is a couple inches above the cucumbers. Let the cucumbers sit in this brine for 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes, drain the water off the cucumbers and give one a taste. If it is still too salty for you, cover with fresh water and let sit another 15-30 minutes, then drain off the water again. Add the remaining ingredients to these salted cucumbers and let sit another 15 minutes. It can be served immediately or stored in a non-reactive container in the refrigerator overnight (the flavor will be better if cucumbers marinate overnight).