Korean BBQ Beef Short Ribs in the Oven

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg beef short ribs, English-cut
• 200 ml beef stock
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• steamed rice, to serve
• 1 pear or apple, grated
• 6 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 thumb fresh ginger, finely grated
• 3 spring onions, finely sliced
• 6 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 3 tbsp gochujang
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
• Pickled cucumber, to serve
• Fresh coriander, to serve

Method

1. Whisk the soy sauce, gochujang, honey, sesame oil, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger and grated pear together in a large bowl. Pat the ribs dry — water means steam, and steam means no lacquer later — then season them generously with salt and pepper. Score the fat side in a shallow crosshatch and turn the ribs through the marinade until thickly coated. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. The marinade is doing the acid work here, so a long sit is non-negotiable.
2. Heat the oven to 160°C/fan 140°C. Lift the ribs into a deep roasting tin in a single layer — don't crowd them, or they'll braise into each other rather than each developing their own sticky edges. Hold back the marinade left in the bowl for the glaze. Pour the beef stock around (not over) the ribs so the tops stay proud of the liquid.
3. Cover the tin tightly with foil and braise for 2.5 hours, until the meat shrinks back from the bone by a good centimetre and yields easily to a fork. If it's still gripping the bone, give it another 20 minutes — short ribs tell you when they're ready.
4. Lift the foil off carefully, away from your face — there will be a cloud of steam. Tip most of the braising liquid into a small saucepan, leaving the ribs sitting in just a shallow pool. Turn the oven up to 200°C/fan 180°C.
5. Brush the ribs generously with the reserved marinade. The garlic in that marinade has been raw until now — the high oven will cook it through quickly, so watch the ribs in the last 5 minutes and pull them if the edges are darkening past mahogany into black. Burnt garlic turns the whole glaze bitter. Roast uncovered for 20 minutes, until the tops are darkly lacquered, sticky, and catching at the edges.
6. While the ribs glaze, bring the reserved braising liquid to a brisk simmer for 4–5 minutes until reduced to a glossy, spoon-coating sauce. Skim any fat from the surface. Taste it — most of the salt comes from the soy, but a final pinch and a crack of pepper tie it together. Taste again before it leaves the pan.
7. Pile the ribs onto bowls of steamed rice, spoon the glossy pan sauce over, and finish with a heavy scatter of finely sliced spring onions and toasted sesame seeds across the top.