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Wok Star Eleanor Hoh

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meal ideas

Grilled Korean Style Kalbi Short Ribs, Wok Star Way

May 4, 2020 By Eleanor Hoh Leave a Comment

If you’re craving ribs with Asian flavors and you want it fast, I’ve got the PERFECT ANSWER – Grilled Korean Kalbi Short Ribs, done Wok Star Way. 

Kalbi, beech mushrooms, baby bok choy and grilled zoodles.
Sprinkle sesame seeds & Chili threads on Kalbi.
Served with beech mushrooms, baby bok choy and grilled zoodles.

My goal is always about the shortest way to achieve 3 things when cooking. Get authentic flavors by simplify long lists of ingredients and shorten the cooking process.

I got all excited when I found flanken beef short ribs at Costco recently. They cut the beef ribs across the ribs, the Asian way, so they are thinner, smaller to handle and cooks much faster. They also do this for pork ribs. 

The traditional Kalbi recipe calls for Asian pears, but the Wok Star way is to improvise and substitute or do away with if not in season or difficult to find. I left out this ingredient all together. You won’t miss it, especially if you’ve never had it before. 

Or you can just use any pear, it’s the sweetness you’re after. I personally don’t care for additional sugar of any kind because it masks the flavor of the actual ingredient, so you’re just tasting sugar. 

I’ve prepared Kalbi two ways so far.

Here are guidelines for making Kalbi, as you know, I don’t use precise measurements for cooking! 

While Kalbi is grilling, stir fry your vegetables, cook quinoa. Choose platter to serve. Lay your table. 

Stir Fry Bok Choy in cast iron wok, Iwatani gas stove
Stir Fry Bok Choy in cast iron wok, Iwatani gas stove.

Allow 2 strips of Kalbi per person with extra strips for seconds. 

Zing broiler on high. I think there’s only one setting, ON or OFF.

Place Kalbi on grilling rack on top rack, closest to broiler.

Flip Kalbi as soon as you smell yummy aromas on first side, don’t overcook. 

Let Kalbi crisp up a little, again don’t overcook because it’ll dry out. 

One last tip, I like to grill just the first strip for everyone and serve. While we eat the first round, I grill the second strip. 

1) San-J Tamari, garlic and ginger marinade
In a glass bowl, submerge ribs in a mix of tamari, scallions, ginger and garlic overnight in the fridge as instructed by most recipes. Then I had to pat the ribs dry. Some recipes said to throw away the marinade? So wasteful and I didn’t find the flavor was worth the effort. 

Tamari, Garlic and Ginger marinaded Beef Short Ribs overnight.
Kalbi, curry quinoa and stir fried baby bok choy
Sprinkle sesame seeds and chopped scallions on Kalbi.
Put small bowls of sesame seeds, chili threads, salt to give guests option to add more.
Serve with Stir Fried Bok Choy and Curry Quinoa.

2) Dry spice rub 
This is my preferred method for grilling meat. It does away with long marinade times, ribs are not wet making them tough when grilled and yields BETTER FLAVORS than the overnight marinade.  I literally sprinkle dry spice rub on both sides of Kalbi and grill, that’s it. 

I sprinkled Rufus Teague Spice Rub on Beef Short Ribs and grilled under broiler.
Kalbi, Chinese Broccoli, quinoa, pickles
Sprinkle sesame seeds and chopped scallions to garnish Kalbi. Served with quinoa, stir fried Chinese Broccoli, carrots and side of homemade pickles.

Try both and share in comments which you prefer or if you’re tried making Kalbi and your results. Food is all about personal taste. 

I like the explanation of Kalbi/Galbi here. 

Beef Chart shows all the different cuts…

Kalbi goes well with these dishes…

Curry Quinoa

Curry Quinoa

Mango, Pineapple Salsa

Mango, Pineapple Salsa
It doesn’t matter proportion, whatever fruit you like most, add that
Stir Fried Bok Choy and Mini Sweet Peppers
Stir Fried Baby Bok Choy, Mini Sweet Peppers in my cast iron wok and gas stove setup.
Add dash of tamari and sherry.

Filed Under: blog, Featured, Korean BBQ, meal ideas Tagged With: "Beef short ribs", "grilled ribs", "Korean BBQ", "Korean Style Kalbi", "Wok Star Way", Kalbi

Nearly Homemade Duck Noodle Soup in under 30 minutes

February 4, 2020 By Eleanor Hoh Leave a Comment

While you were all watching Super Bowl, I made this delicious Nearly Homemade Duck Noodle Soup in under 30 minutes! The Yu Choy and mushrooms I got from that new Chinese market, IFresh in North Miami were so good. And roast duck from King Palace.

Nearly homemade duck noodle soup
Nearly homemade duck noodle soup.

Quick and easy! Try it for weeknight especially when it’s a little chilly and breezy. Yes, Miami has had a little spell. I even have this through summer, in my house, we can have soup noodles ANY DAY.

I love the process of making it. It’s very soothing. Then seeing it come together with bright crunchy vegetables and squishy mushrooms.

Often, I’ll use different vegetables for variety on another night, see bottom photo.

I don’t even know why I eat this dish out since it’s so easy especially when you have access to a Chinese restaurant or market that prepares Roast Duck or meats.

Keep Rice Noodles in your pantry so you can whip this up in no time. Here’s how…

1. Start by cooking rice noodles: add boiling water to rice noodles in pot and just cover with lid without stove turned on. Yes, it doesn’t need heat, they “cook” really fast. Check it after only 5-7 minutes, do a taste test for doneness. Just put lid on if you want it softer.

I was in a hurry and overdid it by boiling, oops. Big mistake. They got quite starchy, so I rinsed in colander in cold water to stop from cooking and added few dashes of Sesame oil to prevent from sticking. This is how you treat noodles.

2. Whilst noodles are “cooking.” Chop scallions, cilantro and shred ginger.

3. Using same pot, make soup starting with Kirkland chicken stock, seasonings you already have in your KIT – San-J tamari, sherry, white pepper plus small dollop of Huy Fong chili garlic sauce and Red Boat Fish Sauce. Throw in ginger. Adjust savory, spiciness to your liking! 

Seasonings from your KIT. Tamari, Sherry, Pepper. Add chili & fish sauce.
Seasonings from your KIT. San-J Tamari, Sherry, Pepper. Add Huy Fong chili sauce & fish sauce.

4. Add duck pieces to soup to give flavor and warm through. Set in bowl. 

5. Blanche Yu Choy and mushrooms in soup.

6. Boil hot water and warm up rice noodles in colander and add to bowl. 

7. Boil soup to rolling boil. Pour soup over everything and garnish with chopped scallions, cilantro.  Boom, done!

ENJOY!

Use different vegetables like loofah melon
Use different vegetables like Loofah melon on another night.

Note: if you purchase from my Amazon affiliate links, I will earn a commission.

Filed Under: blog, Cooking Tips, meal ideas, weeknightdinner Tagged With: "Chinese food", "meal ideas", "roast duck", "noodle soup", homemade, weeknightdinner

Stuffed Squash a la Wok Star Style

December 7, 2016 By Eleanor Hoh Leave a Comment

The three elements to delicious food are flavor, texture, color in that order and this Stuffed Squash a la Wok Star style is the perfect dish! Impress your friends with this dish…
Stuffed Squash go with anything! Yummy with these bacon wrapped scallops.
TECHNIQUE IS KEY…
So, I wanted to do a festive dish for the holidays and of course squash came to mind. I love the orange color of the squash and lends itself to so many different ways of preparing it. I immediately surf the net for how to make a stuffed squash, my go to site is The Kitchn, I love this site, it’s all about technique.
If you’ve read my blogs, you’ll know I don’t follow, use or teach recipes. Cooking for me has always been about creating a dish from scratch and building on those three elements I mentioned. Recipes are good for inspiration, possibly ingredient combinations and new flavors. Technique for me is the most important element to cooking.
SHAPE YOUR BRAIN TO COOK…
Last night as I was cooking, I was listening to a TED Talk by Dr. Lara Boyd, her talk solidified my philosophy totally!  She described how neuroplasticity gives you the power to shape the brain you want! This means, the more you do something, the easier it becomes and you’re exercising your brain.  I found this so fascinating because it’s what I’ve been promoting all these years. If you keep training your brain to create a dish, you’d be amazed what dishes you come up with. It’s also a lot of fun because you come up with something new every time, no repeats.
TIPS FOR ROASTING SQUASH…
I find out you have to roast the squash first BEFORE you put your stuffing in. I wanted my stuffing to still have crunchiness and colors, so naturally, stir frying them is the answer!  I find when you roast vegetables, the colors are more grey and dull. Do you see where I’m going with this? Don’t just follow a recipe blind and do everything they say.
A good example of this is most Chinese recipes will ask you to make a ‘flurry’, a mix of cornstarch and water to give your dish a nice glaze but I find it’s just one extra step, so I include the cornstarch when I make sauce. Ta Da, eliminated a step.
USE RIGHT CHEESE…
A mistake I made was using hard goat cheese. My husband uses goat cheese in our omelets and it melts beautifully but it didn’t melt as well in this dish.  I suspect the heat wasn’t hot enough, only 350.  Use cheese like cheddar, Parmesan or any sharp cheese.
VERSATILE DISH…
You can make it totally vegetarian or even vegan and leave out the cheese. It’s a great side dish to go with anything! Add meat to it and you’ve got a one dish meal. If served as a main, you will need a half per person.
You can use whatever vegetables you have lying around but try and get a contrasting color in there to make it pop. Even leftover roast potatoes or rice.
I loved putting together the stuffing for this dish because I had many ingredients I thought would be perfect.
celery for color and texture
chestnuts for festive component
mushrooms for flavor
cooked quinoa for texture, protein and good for you
multi colored bell peppers for color
cilantro for color and flavor
WokStar-StuffedSquash-collage
HERE’S HOW TO DO THIS STUFFED SQUASH…
1. Cut squash in half, swish a little olive oil, salt and pepper on the inside. Place on baking tray and roast at 350 for 45 mins. – 1 hour depending on how big your squash is. Give a little fork test to see if it’s soft enough.
2. Chop all your vegetables and leave on chopping board. Grate your cheddar cheese ready
3. Stir fry chopped vegetables with usual, grape seed oil, garlic and ginger, dash of tamari and sherry, I added Flavor God’s dry rub, Everything Seasoning, you can add dried herbs but not both, too much.

4.  Remove squash and crank up to 425.  Fill squash with chopped stir fried vegetables, add cheese on top and return to oven. Squash is ready when cheese has melted and smells amazing in there! You’re welcome.

I found half was way too much to eat in one dinner, so you might want to even only have a quarter of it. I cheated and grilled some bacon wrapped scallops to go with it, yummy!
There you have it, looks colorful and festive!  Stuffed Squash Good a la Wok Star Style! It’s a great dish to serve as a side or a main when you have guests for dinner.
Here are some other festive dishes for the Holidays to try…
Wok Charred Brussels Sprouts
Ginger Honey Brussels Sprouts
Grilled Duck with Stir Fried Brussels Sprouts

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

WokStar-StuffedSquash-redplate
Stuffed Squash a la Wok Star Style!

Filed Under: blog, Cooking Tips, meal ideas, vegetables, wok cooking Tagged With: "one dish meals", cast iron wok, stir fry, tips, wok cooking

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