I’d been meaning to try a recipe from Nobu Miami: The Party Cookbook – Marinated grilled short ribs (p. 144) but just hadn’t gotten around to it since I got the book. Summer’s here and I started thinking BBQ, grilling…oh wait, is that a guy thing? The online recipe and a ‘sort of’ video of the preparation can be found here:
To start, the recipe apparently calls for aji limo, which I couldn’t find; so I opted for 1/2 of a dried
Marinade ingredients
Half a dried ancho chile
ancho chile.
breaking down the dried ancho chile
marinade dry ingredients
The marinated was completed with 1/2 cup sake, mirin each and 1/4 cup of soy sauce.
Marinade completed
For the meat, I got ~1.5 lbs of boneless “jersey steak’ short ribs from Newtonville Whole
boneless short rib ‘steaks’
short rib ‘steaks’ broken down into 2″ wide pieces
Foods. What’s not shown in the video is the preparation of the sauces that pairs with this dish. While the NBC Today hosts tasted the ribs with the reduced marinade, I was quite interested how the tosa-zu based sauce and the macademia based sauce contrasted with the flavor of the marinated ribs.
For the tosa-zu sauce – it wasn’t a straight ahead version with soy, vinegar and bonito flakes; it also
tosa-zu base (wet ingredients)
Dried bonito shavings for the tosa-zu
4 g bonito shavings weighed/measured out
had the addition of 5 tablespoons of amazu, 3 shallots (minced fine), and a teaspoon of ground black pepper to 1/2 c of the traditional tosa-zu. To make the tosa-zu, it was matter of heating (until just steaming) 6 tablespoons of soy sauce, 8 tablespoons of rice vinegar, and 4 grams of bonito
tosa-zu infusing
shavings/flakes.
tosa-zu sauce strained of the bonito shavings
For the amazu, 1/4 cup of rice vinegar, 3 tablespoons of sugar and 1 1/4 teaspoon of salt, was heated until the sugar and salt were dissolved (think as if you are making sushi vinegar).
amazu (on top) tosa-zu (bottom)
Both the amazu and tosa-zu were set aside to cool to room temperature. Once at room temperature,
3 shallots for the tosa-zu based dipping sauce
I the combined the amazu, tosa-zu, minced shallot and black pepper and set aside for the meal.
shallots minced up for the sauce
Shallot and black pepper for the sauce
For the macadamia sauce, Chef Buckley mentioned in the book that pine nuts, almonds, cashews or hazelnuts could be substituted. Upon reading the recipe for that sauce, it said “…nuts, roasted until golden brown…Place the roasted nuts and oil in a blender and mix at high speed to a smooth paste”.
Almond butter replacing the ground toasted macadamia nuts
To me that immediately said “nut butter” and I had almond butter (and I couldn’t find the unroasted
70g (about 2 3/8 oz) of almond butter
macadamia nuts) on hand. So I weighed out 70g of almond butter and mixed in:
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
1/2 tablespoon of usukuchi light soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon sake
1 teaspoon mirin
3 tablespoons dashi
The rest of the macadamia/almond dipping sauce ingredients
One note as I discovered in making this sauce: first add the warm dashi, and then the rest of liquid
Thinning out the almond butter with dashi
ingredients (less the oil), blend into a loose sauce. Add the sugar and stir to incorporate it in evenly and THEN add the grapeseed oil (yes, yes, I know, the grapeseed oil was supposed to go into with the roasted whole nuts to blend them in to a smooth paste). Once I got that all blended together and also
Finished almond (macadamia) dipping sauce
set that aside for the meal.
Removing the ribs from the marinade
Straining out the marinade to make the reduction
Chef Buckley from Nobu Miami indicated in the video that the ribs should be cooked on the grill pan
Grilling the ribs for about 20 minutes (5 mins/side) and reducing the
marinade
about 10 mins/side, the marinade is reduced to a syrupy state and then poured over the plated ribs.
Ribs off the grill
Pouring the marinade reduction over the grilled ribs
The ribs are then finished with a little sprinkle of salt.
The finished ribs (less the Nobu Miami garnishes)
While my wife helped out by making a vegetable stirfry to accompany the grilled shortribs, I portioned out the shallot tosa-zu and almond sauces into dipping cups (about 3 tablespoons into
Dinner is served: Nobu Miami Marinated Grilled Short Ribs With Shallot Tosa-zu and Almond Dipping Sauces and Savoy Cabbage Stirfry
each).
While enjoying the meal and the ribs in particular, my wife and I both observed the preparation reminded us of cooked wagyu. We both thought the marinade reduction was much lighter in sweetness than teriyaki sauce/glazes with a gentle zing of the chili that was in the marinade. The almond sauce, as expected, provided a nutty complement to the richness of the short ribs and light sweetness of the reduction. But we both found that the shallot tosa-zu sauce provided a refreshing smoky tartness contrast to the richness of the short ribs. As nice as the almond sauce was, I think both my wife and I were more partial to the shallot tosa-zu.
A couple of days later, I decided to do crisp pan fried medallions of monkfish ( prepared in the manner as I wrote about in https://tastingmenu.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/nobu-hk-spiny-lobstershrimp-and-tamari-sichuan-soy/ ). Considering the Baked Monkfish Medley With Tosa-zu in Nobu: The Cookbook (p. 102), I decided, why not flavor the monkfish with the shallot tosa-zu
Monkfish and Broccolini with Shallot Tosa-zu
instead of the tamari sichuan soy. Upon trying the fried monkfish with the shallot tosa-zu, my wife immediately loved the combination. I must say I was impressed how well the monkfish paired with the shallot tosa-zu. As much as I liked the marinated grilled short ribs, I could see using the shallot tosa-zu more often with something like monkfish. Thank you Matsuhisa-sama and Chef Buckley, for sharing the recipe for the marinated grilled short ribs.
