Not Korean?

Today, Neil and I took a drive in the country. We visited IKEA, (don't get me started), where we defied the traditional convention of leaving the store seething with anger and frustration and actually received some form of satisfaction.

After this illuminating breakthrough, a little giddy in the head, we drove to a meat store called Hopcotts which is virtually situated in the middle of nowhere, or, it's own land to be exact, with their farm next door. Here, we celebrated by buying short ribs, once tried before on a barbecue.

At that time, they were deliciously sweet and meaty, slightly charred and caramelized with nice, crispy edges and perfectly flat with a large, flat round bone. Today, we bought some boneless and took them home in great anticipation. I prepared a stir fry of vegetables with soy and oyster sauce and I planned to serve them with some pickles, bought from the local Korean supermarket.

Hopcott's vegetable patch is next door to the shop

My anticipation was short-lived as I realised that the previous ribs were Korean, that is, they had a Korean style sauce and were cut in that country's preference. These were not the same. They were boneless, a lot thicker and cooked under the grill in the oven instead of on top of charcoal or propane. I suppose the fact that they were also labelled as Maui ribs should have been a giveaway too!

However, they were still pretty nice once sliced thinly across the grain. We still had some sliced mango with chili and some radish, red onion and carrot chutney I made earlier this year, but it was not the Korean feast I was hoping for. I will be going to the supermarket mentioned earlier to buy some of the real thing some time this week and we will be returning a sofa to IKEA just before that.

Stir fry vegetables

1 onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, sliced

1 red pepper, seeded and sliced

bunch of kale, shredded

small head of broccoli, boiled for 3 minutes in the microwave, drained and sliced thin.

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp oyster sauce

1/2 tsp sugar

Fry the onion, garlic and pepper in a little oil over high heat until soft.

Add the other ingredients and fry until the kale is wilted.

Serve with maybe a dash of sesame oil.

The ribs were grilled for about 7 mins, turning once, left to rest for 2 minutes and then thinly sliced against the grain.