Korean Galbi with SsamJang by Chef Tom Whitaker
What is the perfect food pairing for English Pinot Noir? This is the challenge we set Chef Tom Whitaker. With his international Chefing experience and love for local ingredients, we were confident that Tom would come up with some intriguing suggestions. He didn’t disappoint.
Chef Tom’s Korean Galbi with SsamJang
This is a super simple dish that delivers an eating experience on many levels. The use of a seasoned fermented soybean paste delivers bags of flavour when combined with a beef stock to make a killer broth. Best of all, you can put the ingredients together, and then leave it to slow cook while you go off and do something else.
There’s a misperception with Korean food that it’s always very spicy. There are the obvious things like fried chicken, but Korean cuisine is very nuanced. It isn’t always super-spiced or hot, and it has real depth of flavour.
The Koreans are crazy about fermentation, which I’ve got a lot of experience with because my British charcuterie company Tempus ferments its salamis. I also do a lot of fermentation at home because I enjoy it!
Koreans do soy ferment pastes, but you can buy British versions too, like Hodmedods’ fermented fava bean paste. These are very flavoursome, but it’s a real umami rather than a spicy flavour.
Pairing Korean Beef with English Pinot Noir
They might seem like unlikely bedfellows, yet the rich umami notes prevalent in the milder end of Korean food match wonderfully with the fruit forward nature of English Pinot Noir.
Koreans will often serve this type of dish with something quite fruity, so English Pinot Noir is a great home grown alternative. The earthy umami notes work especially well with Crouch Valley Pinots like Danbury Ridge, Lyme Bay, and Martin’s Lane, and deeper Pinots from Sussex and Kent like Simpsons, Oastbrook, and Oxney.
Ingredients:
- Galbi (Korean-cut short ribs)
- Beef stock (buy or make your own)
- 3-4 whole cloves garlic
- Thumb-sized piece of Ginger, finely sliced
- 3-4 tablespoons SsamJang (fermented soybean paste)
- 1 teaspoon Potato starch
- Spring onions
Method:
- Brown the ribs on the hob in a heavy ovenproof casserole dish.
- Add the beef stock, garlic and ginger and slowly braise covered in the oven until tender.
- Remove the ribs from the stock and set aside.
- Add 3-4 tablespoons of Ssamjang and a teaspoon of potato starch to the broth and whisk to thicken slightly.
- Re-add the ribs and finish with spring onions.
