Since our son has started taekwondo, which falls during the time I usually make dinner, I’ve been trying use my slow cooker more. So last night, I decided to try a recipe I’d found for kalbi jjim in the slow cooker on the Kimchi Mamas site. (You’ll find the original recipe here, which it seems she adapted from the cookbook, Cooking the Korean Way.) But as usual I made changes to the recipe to suit our family and what I had on hand. It was the yummiest new recipe I’ve tried in the slow cooker so far.
Kalbi (갈) is Korean for short rib and jjim (찜) is a steamed dish. This dish can be made with beef short ribs or pork short ribs. I used pork so technically I made dweji galbijjim (돼지갈비찜). Here it is.
Kalbi Jjim
1 package short ribs, about 2.5 pounds (I used boneless, country-style ribs since that’s all I could find.)
1/2 cup water
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup sugar
1/2 large onion, peeled and sliced into lengths
10-12 baby carrots
9-10 small creamer potatoes, peeled
1 T. toasted sesame seeds
(The original recipe on Kimchi Mamas includes 10 fresh mushrooms and a 1/2 cup of peeled chestnuts, both of which I left out.)
Separate the ribs and remove visible fat. Put the ribs, garlic, and water in the slow cooker, and cook for four hours on low. Then add remaining ingredients, and cook for four more hours or until ribs are fork-tender.
I got started a little late so I cooked the ribs on medium for an hour then turned it to low and cooked for another three before adding the other ingredients and cooking for another four. Since the ribs I used were boneless they might not have needed to cook that long, but they were super tender so I’ll probably do it the same way next time.
The recipe made enough for dinner for our family of three plus lunch for all three of us today. I served it with rice. And you could, of course, add your favorite banchan.
The Korean Way 