To me, short rib is very inexpensive yet incredibly flavorful. I always loved the Korean version of grilled short rib on the bone that was marinated in pear and apple sauce. This is a more Chinese take on that dish – chucks of short rib was cooked with pear that was first steamed in a rice wine marinate; a wined pear is also served on the side to clean the palate afterwards. It does require a few steps if you really want to do it right. I first made my own rice wine – cooked sweet rice fermented for about a week. You can also buy it from the Asian grocery store as well. I then soaked 2 pears in the juice of the wine with some Goji berry and Osmanthus (a very aromatic dried tiny flowers, very typical in Chinese desert) and steamed them for 1 hour. And then cooked the short rib with one of the pear and the juice for 45 minutes. But I think this can be simplified as following –
Ingredients:
Short Rib 1 pound (no bone, cut into bite size chucks)
D’Anjou Pear 2 (peeled and cut into chucks)
Young Rice Wine (could also use desert Sake) 1 cup
Anise 3 whole pieces
Garlic 2 gloves
Soy Sauce 2 table-spoon
Oil: 1 table-spoon
Direction:
In a dutch oven, heat up the oil and put in minced garlic to sweat it up a little bit. Then saute the short rib to be brown on the outside. Add the chucked pears and anise and stir fry for another minute, then add in the rice wine and soy sauce. Cover the pan up and cook in median low heat for 30 minutes or until most of the liquid evaporated. Salt and pepper to taste.
tastyfun 