It’s pretty un-like me to toot the horn of my Asian peoples, but I have to hand it to them, they are geniuses when it comes to using beans. Some times, you even forget that the famous soy sauce, all that liquid umami, is made from fermenting soy beans. Then there’s black bean sauce, also a fermented bean, which is responsible for dishes like Clams in Black Bean Sauce. The Bomb! Lesser known ones like ground bean paste, sweet bean paste, broad bean paste, and more, fill my mom’s pantry. Who would have thought to make all these great sauces from beans? Well, thank goodness somebody did, because they are all vital in a Chinese kitchen.
I’m familiar with the look of each can and jar, because my mom often sent me downstairs to fetch stuff from our dry pantry for her. (The pantry took up an entire wall with four sliding doors.) Yet, I have definitely not mastered the uses of all of them yet, at least, I’ll never feel like a master next to my mom. But this time, I actually have to toot Lon’s horn, because he’s the genius that took my Doubanjiang (Broad Bean Paste with Chili) and slathered it on Beef Short Ribs. It’s ridiculously good, heightening the beefiness to a whole new level of umami overload. The sweet, salty, and spicy matches up to the grill and it becomes a powerfully flavored main course that seems like it’s Szechuan style, but you can’t put your finger on it. It’s really just heavenly and so so simple. I even thought, this is not a recipe. You really just slather Doubanjiang on the beef short ribs, give a generous sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper and grill to your liking. I did still write a recipe for those who are more comfortable with one.
*Doubanjiang, labeled Broad Bean Paste with Chili, is available at Chinese supermarkets.
Doubanjiang Beef Short Ribs
~4 servings
- 4 thick beef short ribs
- 8 tablespoons Doubanjiang (Broad Bean Paste with Chili)
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- rice to serve
Instructions –
1. Preheat the grill. Set the beef on the counter to come take the chill off.
2. Slather doubanjiang all over short ribs, about 2 tablespoons per slab. Sprinkle with a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper.
3. Grill to your liking. (I like medium rare.) Remove from heat and let it rest for 5 minutes.
4. Cut between the bones and serve over rice.
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YUM yum yum! I’m getting real hungry now and it’s lunchtime. Yay for Asians! My daughter LOVE soysauce to the max! SS on her rice is her favorite – thanks to my influence! This is GREAT food. Any recipe for rice with soy sauce that you can recommend with veggie trimmings and all? Thanks!
There are some awesome markets in our ‘hood with these sauces for cheap! So worth it to peruse the aisles and pick them up to experiment.
Short ribs of any kind are great. I’ve never had the Asian version, though.
I’m a new reader and am really enjoying the access to these recipes, you’ve been helping me avoid the staple college food of top ramen. Turns out the I am doing a paper in my english 102 course on blogs and I was wondering if you could tell me what you think of as your taget audience, if you have one in mind.
Thank you for your time, and your recipes
-Nick
Maricris, lots! These use soy sauce, go over rice, and include veggies:
Chicken and Flowering Chives (recipe is for lettuce wraps but you can put it on rice)
My Mom’s Lion’s Head Casserole
Shredded Pork and Burdock Root
Pork, Bean Curd, and Yellow Chives
Nick, I don’t really try to target, but you can find a bunch of data on demographics for blogs (mine and others) on quantcast.
Diligent student. Excellent.
Wow–this looks amazing!
EMC, is Nick one of yours?
uhh I think I want to be a food photographer when I grow up. That looks amazing. God my mouth is watering right now. Thanks a lot! lol
That looks great. I’m personally fond of charsiu sauce if going asian on some pork. mmm
You are right: Asians are amazing with using beans!
Your recipe sounds delicious. Thanks for sharing 🙂
for some reason i always braise my short ribs so I always think they take forever to cook; how long does it take for medium rare?
avisualperson, these thick ones take a while, about 15 minutes with something covering it. This is one of my favorite cuts of meat.