Sunday Supper: Asian Beef Stew with Caramelized Kimchi

This recipe donned the cover of Food & Wine Magazine February 2013 with the headline "Winter Cooking at its Best." It looked delish and seemed perfect on so many levels. It definitely sounded like the hearty meal I wanted to serve to compliment the chilly weather we've been having and it also suited the Asian flair I was looking for to pay tribute to Chinese New Year. This recipe is apparently a riff on the French version of Pot au Feu and well, since we are leaving for France this week, why not?

Of course, the finished result didn't quite look like the photo. Instead of radishes, because I don't like radishes, I used bean sprouts as a garnish to add that crunch. So I lack that punch of red color the cover had.

Would I make this again? Probably not. It was a lot of work with just ok results and 6 lbs. of beef short ribs ain't cheap. What I noticed about these recipes is that they never create enough marinade to cover all of the meat. I doubled the marinade recipe and I let it marinate for two days. I can't imagine allowing it to only marinate for 30 minutes/or overnight as the recipe suggested. Over the past two days, I rotated the meat so it had a chance to soak in the marinade. There's no way the original marinade recipe would have been enough. The marinade called for an Asian pear shredded. I bought one, but forgot to put it in. I honestly don't think it would have made a difference.

I also added only added half of the water that they requested. If I had added the full amount, I think it would have severely watered down the taste of the broth. Which again consisted of a double recipe of the marinade. I also used regular soy sauce and not low sodium soy sauce.

The end result? I did love the subtle kick that the caramelized kimchi added, but overall this recipe could have used more in-depth flavor and seasoning.