First of all, this is the easiest beef short rib recipe you will come across. It's one easy cooking liquid (hint: it comes out of a can) but produces a flavoursome and meltingly soft beef short rib! And you can make it on the stovetop, oven, slow cooker or pressure cooker depending on the amount of time you have! This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader!
I'm just going to get this out there: you've got to try these beef short ribs! They're roasted in sarsparilla or root beer (YES!) until they fall off the bone and then basted in yuzu kosho and chives. Although this sounds crazy and like it crosses continents, it is sooo delicious.
Please don't be put off by use of the root beer. I love using Coke and root beer for cooking over drinking and both have a complex range of flavours that lends itself to savoury cooking with meat. Root beer has a light aniseedy, licoricey sort of flavour. You can also use Coke. You can keep the root beer poaching liquid afterwards and then make a sauce of it (with the salt, onion and garlic, it no longer tastes overly sweet) or you can discard it if you don't like the idea of drinking root beer. It's no different from poaching meat in wine or a stock. This recipe is also delicious with just the root beer cooked ribs and you don't have to top it with yuzu kosho!
What is yuzu? Yuzu is a Japanese citrus fruit prized for its fragrance and flavour. It originated in the Chinese Yangtze River basin but has now become associated with Japan. It is like a cross between a mandarin and Meyer lemon. The fruit itself has lots of seeds and not a lot of pulp (compared to other citrus) and in Australia, is expensive and difficult to source fresh.
What is yuzu kosho and where can I buy it? It's a Japanese condiment from the Kyushu region where chillies called koshō are widely grown. Yuzu Kosho is made up of three ingredients: yuzu peels, chillies (usually green but in some cases red like the one I used) and salt. It is, as expected, aromatic, fresh, spicy and very salty. The yuzukosho is really there to lift the unctuousness of the ribs. I was given a packet of yuzu kosho by my friend Monica and I decided to add it to ribs. You can buy it from Japanese speciality stores. This yuzukosho is from Two Providores in Marrickville where there is a red and green varieties available.
What if I can't get yuzu kosho? You can make your own using yuzu peels (the zest, not the pith) or use mandarin and lemon peel if you can't get a hold of yuzu peels. The percentage of weight for ingredients in yuzu kosho is: 76% yuzu peel, 12% chillies (your preference for heat) and 12% salt. Or just use your favourite chimichurri or chilli sauce with lemon to lighten the short ribs!
What else do you do with the poaching liquid? I was always taught to deglaze pans and keep any roast juices. My mother would then add some of that to noodle soups along with chicken stock. After eating this one day with the sweet potato mash, I served the short rib off the bone with a noodle soup with greens (it was a particularly cold winter day).
Cooking times for different methods of cooking:
For a pressure cooker or Instant Pot: cook on high pressure for 1 hour
For a slow cooker or crock pot: cook for 6-8 hours on low.
For oven or stovetop in a pot: cook at 180C/350F oven for 3.5 hours.
Note: I do find sometimes cuts of beef like this need a little more time. I'm not sure why, perhaps it's the type of beef and the level of fat eg wagyu vs grass fed beef.
I learned a new Japanese phrase the other day. I was with friends and we had just eaten a big meal but it was an hour or so later that we felt like dessert. "I'm still full but my mouth needs some entertainment," I said and Jaqi interjected with the Japanese terms "kuchisabishii".
It translates to "lonely mouth" or "When we eat not coz we are hungry, but because our mouth feels lonely," explained Jaqi. Sometimes we eat because we just want to put something in our mouth. It can also apply to stress eating or eating not for hunger. But for me, my mouth is as demanding as an attention seeking toddler and sometimes it just needs amusement and attention.
Generally I try to eat when I get hungry and because I skip breakfast and eat my lunch at noon that's when I eat when hungry. But often when dinner rolls around, I'm not hungry but I'm ready to eat because I enjoy preparing and eating food. Plus my mouth demands it!
So tell me Dear Reader, can you related to kuchisabishii? How often do you eat when you're hungry vs when you have a lonely mouth? Have you tried yuzukosho?
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