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Food May 2, 2022

Eva Pilgrim's mom shares her recipe for galbi, Korean-style short ribs

WATCH: Eva Pilgrim shares how to make her mom's galbi

To celebrate Mother's Day, "Good Morning America" is sharing recipes from our moms.

"GMA" weekend co-anchor and ABC News correspondent Eva Pilgrim asked her mom, InSook Kim Gayle, to share her recipe for galbi -- Korean-style short ribs -- which are a family favorite.

PHOTO: Marinated Korean short ribs cook on the grill.
Marinated Korean short ribs cook on the grill.

Eva's mother is Korean and emigrated from South Korea to the U.S. with Eva and Eva's American-born father when Eva was a baby.

MORE: 'On Their Shoulders': ABC News' Eva Pilgrim on growing up where 'everybody looked so very different from me'

Check out the full recipe below and recreate Eva's mom's dish to share with friends and family.

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Galbi aka Korean short ribs

PHOTO: Galbi, Korean marinated short ribs.
ABC News
Galbi, Korean marinated short ribs.

Ingredients
30 Korean-style cut beef short ribs

For Marinade (up to 30 ribs):
1/2 Asian pears (Large - grapefruit size)
3/4 cup of soy sauce
1/2 mirin or rice wine
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1/4 cup firmly pack brown sugar
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 small onion
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
10 to 12 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup water

PHOTO: Ingredients for a Korean short rib marinade.
Ingredients for a Korean short rib marinade.

Directions

Prep meat:
Wash, rinse and cut short ribs.
Soak ribs in bowl of water for 1 hour.
Use a meat hammer/tenderizer to tenderize ribs. Hammer both sides until thin.
Cut off excess fat as needed.

Prep marinade*:
Combine pear, onion, garlic and ginger into a blender. Blend until smooth.

In a separate bowl, mix soy sauce, mirin, sugar, black pepper and sesame oil. Stir until combined.

Add blended pear mixture to soy sauce mixture. Use 1/2 cup water to rise out the blender and add to the mixture.

Marinate meat:
Dip each short rib in the marinade mixture. Use your hands to massage marinade into meat.

Place ribs in Tupperware or baking dish. Alternate ribs in the dish so they are even coated and lay flat.

Put remaining marinade over the top.*

Marinade overnight**

Cooking
Short ribs are typically grilled. If a grill isn’t available, these can be fried in a frying pan or put in the oven.

You will grill, fry, broil each rib until they caramelize. Roughly 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Each grill, range or oven cooks at a different pace. You are looking for a nice brown caramelization on the outside.

*Marinade can be divided and frozen if not cooking 30 ribs. Simply divide and freeze flat in the freezer bag. Marinade can be used for a variety of meat including chicken and pork. Same marinade can be used to make bulgogi as well!

**The longer you marinade, the more tender and flavorful the short ribs will be. If in a time crunch, marinate for at least an hour!

Homemade Kimchi

Eva shares memories of her halmoni, or grandma, making kimchi with her mother.

Gayle said that banchan -- Korean side dishes -- help complete the meal and shared a simple kimchi recipe below.

Ingredients
Cabbage
Half cup of salt
1 cup lukewarm water
1/2 cup of hot pepper
Half cup of starch
Radish
Half an onion
1 tablespoon of ginger
8 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons of Anchovy sauce
1 tablespoon of salty shrimp
1 Asian pear

Directions

Cut cabbage in half. Add half salt to water.

Add half of the salt to cabbage halves.

Add cabbage to salt water and do this for all cabbage halves.

Mix hot pepper into paste with water and starch.

-Cut up green onion and put into bowl with radish. Cut up onion.

Add onion and cloves of garlic, anchovy sauce and salty shrimp to blender.

Add mix to the mix of green onions and radish.

Chop up Asian pear and put to the side to mix into bowl with rest of ingredients.

Use hands to mix all together in the bowl