035/18 – Spicy Gochujang Baby Back Ribs:
I was chatting to ArtustBBQ about ribs on Twitter one day and said I fancied cooking them again but wanted to do something different. He suggested Spicy Gochujang Baby Back Ribs from Hardcore Carnivore by Jess Pryles – My wife and I love Korean food, especially Gochujang so that sounded like a great idea!
I have cooked from this book before, the Smoked Lamb Shoulder was the last cook:
The Meat:
Pork Loin Ribs from Turner and George. 2x450g for £6, I got 2 lots so £12 all in.
The Ingredients:
I have seen Gochujang paste in some supermarkets but you can get it from Amazon. £5.99 for 500g on Prime. Everything else is easy to get hold of.
The Prep:
The smoker was fired up with a bag of heat beads and a half chimney of lumpwood dumped on top. This was left for half an hour to settle then the smoker was put together with half a bucket of hot water in the water bowl then left for another half hour to settle at 225f.
I made the Pork Season-All Dry Rub from the same book and mixed light brown sugar, sweet paprika, salt, chilli powder, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, mustard powder, ground cumin and cayenne pepper. I blitzed it in a coffee grinder to create a fine dust then filled up a spice shaker.
The ribs were laid out and the membrane on the back removed by gripping and pulling with a bit of kitchen towel. They were patted dry then the rub was applied. The rub was a great colour!
They were left for 15 minutes for the rub to soak in a bit.
Time for the ribs to go in the smoker. I added some Whisky Oak chunks from Smokewood Shack.
Quick check after 90 minutes and more smoking wood added.
3 hours in I remembered I meant to do 2 hours uncovered then wrap, not 3 hours!
The ribs were wrapped in foil with butter and brown sugar, meat side down then put back on the smoker for 2 hours. When I opened them up they looked great!
Time to brush on the Gochujang paste. It’s really thick in the pot so I spooned some into a little bowl and microwaved it for 30 seconds to soften a bit. I spooned it onto the ribs then brushed it in.
Back on the smoker uncovered for 15 minutes. The colour was fantastic!
The Sides:
During the final stages of the rib cook it was time to get the sides ready.
Inspired by the K-fries in the K food book by Busan BBQ (£8 on Amazon) but lacking in ingredients (and any way to buy them due to the Beast from the East trapping us indoors!), I used this as a basis for our Dirty Korean fries.
Next I made a quick bulgogi sauce using some staple ingredients from the cupboard (soy, sugar, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, spring onions and orange juice, should have been apple or pear but I had neither and figured something sweet was the key here!). I popped this in a pan and let it bubble away to reduce down to something the consistency of a good sweet and sour sauce.
Next up, the chips went in the fryer at 190 till they looked nice and crunchy.
While the chips were frying, I grated some cheddar, whipped out some jalepeńos and chopped a couple of spring onions.
Time to layer up something dirty people! Spread out your chips to allow maximum coverage of filth, apply a liberal coating of cheese, dollop over your sauce, sprinkle spring onions and jalepeńos on top and pop under a hot grill till bubbly and melty and delicious.
I LOVED these fries and will definitely make them again. I would use better potatoes (these were big, old and gnarly so not massively crispy) and would try them as they should be in the book which is not with sauce drizzled over the top but added to mince to make beef bulgogi – so this would be kinda like a Korean version of chilli nachos, sounds good to me!.
We also battered and deep fried some green beans! These were topped with the seasoning for Byron fries.
Time to Eat:
15 minutes uncovered, time to take the ribs out. Look at the colour of them!
Plated up and looking awesome! Couldn’t wait to eat this!
A close up of those fries!
Summary:
We really enjoy Korean food and I have been cooking a lot more Asian food on the BBQ this year. This was a cracking meal, the spicy ribs were fantastic and I think I prefer them to standard ribs! The K Fries were unreal, we will need to eat those more often.
Not sure how I ended up cooking the ribs 3/2/.15 as I normally do 2/2/1. I would go back to 2 hours uncovered the next time.
| Cook Difficulty: | 2/5 |
| Cook Duration: | Quick: 2/5 |
| Cook Equipment: | Weber Smokey Mountain |
| Cook Method: | Low and Slow |
| Charcoal: | Heat Beads |
| Smoking Wood: | Smokewood Shack Whisky Oak |
| Cook temperature: | 225f |
| Cook time: | 5 hours and 15 minutes |
| Internal temperature: | Unknown |
| Notes: | 1: 2/2/1 – 2 hours uncovered not 3! |
THE BOOK:
If you like the look of this recipe you can buy the book from Amazon (£16.89) by clicking the picture below:
Oh wow, what a stunning looking dish.
Hello mate. Great blogs!
What heat beads to you use? And do they have any chemicals in?
Cheers
Hello Mike,
Thanks for the feedback!
I use heat beads at the moment, I had an article that showed they were made with brown coal (peat), eucalyptus shavings, an oxidiser and a secret ingredient. Struggling to find that article though!
However, not keen on promoting the use of peat or shipping stuff half way around the world so have been meaning to move to lumpwood in the smoker. I just got a Kamado Joe and plan on smoking in there over charcoal.
Thanks for the reply. I’ve got an Egg and only use lumpwood. Was wondering if I was missing out by not using heat beads. Keep up the great work.
Thanks Mike, if you have an egg you are definitely better off with lumpwood rather than briquettes. The heat beads work well in a WSM as they aren’t very well insulated so the heat beads help keep a steady temp. You won’t have that problem in an egg.