Korean Gal's Guatemalan Red Beans with Pork Spare Ribs

Full transparency. I am afraid of pressure cookers. It is a fear instilled in me by my mom, a quiet but effective deterrent meant to keep me at a safe distance—especially when the pressure is being released. Reasonable? Perhaps. I would consider a therapist, but it has been years since I have needed one.

Ceramic bowl was wheel-thrown and glazed by me.

When I saw the Pressure Cooker Guatemalan Red Beans with Beef Short Ribs recipe in The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope, I knew I had to make a version of my own—one that did not require a pressure cooker. I also wanted the ingredients to feel simpler, more accessible. More importantly, I wanted the dish to center the red beans, rather than have them overshadowed by the richness of beef short ribs. This is not a bean stew, but a slow braise—one that relies on the gradual release of moisture from the ingredients themselves.

So, changes were made—and thus, the name: Korean Gal’s Guatemalan Red Beans with Pork Spare Ribs.

What follows is a pared-back approach—familiar ingredients, deliberate substitutions, and a method that trades pressure for patience. The result is a pot of red beans that hold their own, supported—not overshadowed—by the pork.

INGREDIENTS

[serves 3 to 4 with rice or tortillas]

a half pound of dried red beans, soaked for at least 24 hours

one pound of pork spare ribs

one medium-size tomato, diced

one garlic clove, peeled

one dried pasilla chile, chopped

one guajillo chile, chopped

two tomatillos, diced

one red bell pepper, sliced

one-half of a yellow onion, sliced

one teaspoon of allspice

one teaspoon of salt

Drain the soaked red beans and set them aside. Heat a Dutch oven over high heat and add enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom. Reduce the heat to medium and add the red beans. Stir once or twice to prevent them from sticking to the bottom.

Heat a cast iron pan over high heat and sear the pork ribs. Stir the red beans occasionally to prevent sticking while the spare ribs are searing. Once all sides are seared, add them to the Dutch oven. Add the garlic, pasilla chile, guajillo chile, tomato, tomatillos, red bell pepper, and yellow onion. Stir and mix.

Add allspice and salt. Stir and mix. Reduce the heat to low, and let it gently simmer for 90 minutes, tightly covered to ensure moisture is retained, stirring every 20 to 30 minutes to prevent sticking at the bottom. Once the beans are tender, stir, cover, and let them sit for 10 minutes. Serve over white rice or with a side of warmed tortillas.

This post contains affiliate links.

_____

More recipes:

Tôm Rim: Caramelized Prawns

Jeju Linguine al Nero di Seppia: Gochujang Squid Pasta

Korean-Inspired Short Rib Udon

Single Gal’s Kimchi Risotto

Mongolian Beef

ESSAYS | RECIPES | STYLES | IG

Comments

Curated: Ballet Flats for Fashionistas

The ballet flat began, quite literally, with a foot in the theater. Claire McCardell and Capezio helped coax the slipper from studio floor to city pavement in the 1940s, while Audrey Hepburn and Brigitte Bardot later supplied the sort of cinematic endorsement no advertising budget could manufacture. What had been designed for pliés became a shorthand for modern femininity: graceful without fragility, polished without the architectural inconvenience of a heel. at Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France Its staying power lies in that contradiction. The ballet flat is delicate but practical, prim but faintly rebellious—the shoe of a woman who has somewhere to be and no intention of arriving with sore feet. And so, with a small curtsy and considerably better arch support, here are 12 curated ballet flats ready to take their turn in the spotlight. ANCIENT GREEK SANDALS Iro PVC Ballet Flats JavaScript is currently disabled in this browser. Reactivate it to view this content. ANCIENT GREEK SANDALS I...

Shrimp & Kimchi Inari

Inarizushi emerged in Japan during the Edo period, when seasoned fried tofu pockets filled with vinegared rice became popular as inexpensive street food. Its name is tied to Inari, the deity associated with rice, agriculture and prosperity, and to the foxes regarded as Inari’s messengers and linked in folklore to fried tofu. Inari, however, has never been Japanese to me. Growing up in South Korea, I knew it as yubu chobap, a meal my mom packed for school lunches and picnics—and one that always felt like a treat. Rather than sushi rice, she filled the tofu pockets with different kinds of fried rice. Perhaps that is why I have never regarded the pouch as something requiring too much fidelity. Shrimp & Kimchi Inari is my homage to kimchi fried rice, only quieter: shrimp and kimchi folded into rice with less seasoning than I would ordinarily use for the fried rice version. The restraint is intentional. The lighter seasoning leaves room for the fried tofu skin, with its distinctive swee...

Oh Snap! BTS Just Made the Grammys Irrelevant

I am not ARMY. The first BTS member to intrigue me was J-Hope, who appeared last year on one of my favorite Korean shows, Chef & My Fridge, with his refrigerator in tow. There, I learned that he had performed at Le Gala des Pièces Jaunes at Paris La Défense Arena at the personal invitation of Brigitte Macron, France’s first lady. Naturally, I found the performance on YouTube. Thirty-five thousand people filled the arena as thousands of voices in France roared the Korean lyric, “adeuri neom jal nagaseo mianhae, eomma.” One need not own a purple light stick to recognize that kind of cultural power. Afterward, I became mildly obsessed with J-Hope and, by association, BTS. Original photo by Sudhith Xavier. Photoshop by ChatGPT. A song currently in heavy rotation on my playlist is SWIM, from their latest album, ARIRANG. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and remained there for three consecutive weeks. During its debut week, its songs occupied the top nine positions on the...

The Art of the Cold Shoulder

The shoulder has repeatedly been treated as one of fashion’s safest ways to be sensual. Most of us give Brigitte Bardot the credit for making the off-the-shoulder silhouette iconic—and certainly, few wore it with more persuasive nonchalance—but fashion history tells a far longer story. Recognizable versions of the neckline appear as far back as the 17th century, when European bodices widened and dipped low enough to reveal both the décolletage and shoulders. By the 19th century, the silhouette had become a fixture of evening dress. Queen Victoria herself wore a broad, shoulder-baring neckline for her 1840 wedding, and through the 1850s and 1860s, off-the-shoulder ball gowns paired tightly corseted bodices with sweeping skirts and bertha collars that framed exposed shoulders in lace, silk, and ruffles. Victorian modesty, it turns out, was considerably more situational than its reputation suggests. Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, Portugal The silhouette continued to surface as fash...

Curated Sunglasses: Shades Without the Mourning

Sunglasses began as utility: a practical defense against glare, wind, and the indignities of squinting. Then fashion claimed them. Frames grew bolder, lenses darker, silhouettes more deliberate, until sunglasses became less an accessory than a small act of self-invention—the quickest way to suggest mystery, polish, or studied indifference. I lose sunglasses the way other people lose packs of gum: casually, repeatedly, and without explanation. After enough expensive disappearances and appropriate mourning periods, I now wear budget-friendly pairs almost exclusively. These 12 curated sunglasses offer the pleasure of a fashion statement without requiring a period of mourning when one inevitably vanishes. The trouble with a small indulgence is that shipping can cost nearly as much as the thing itself—unless, of course, one reaches the minimum. To spare us that particular absurdity, all 12 were curated from Amazon Prime. JOOPIN Oversized Sunglasses ZENOTTIC Retro Square Polarized Sunglasses...

Seafood Jajang Deopbap

Jajang, born from Chinese zhajiangmian and transformed in Korea into the rich, dark sauce made with chunjang, has become woven into the fabric of Korean everyday life. What began as an adapted working-class meal of black bean sauce (jajang) over noodles (myeon) in port cities has evolved into a national comfort food, synonymous with quick delivery, moving days, and casual family meals. Jajangmyeon was the pizza and burgers of my childhood. End-of-school semesters and good test scores were acknowledged with jajangmyeon. My grandparents always had it delivered when I stayed with them during school breaks, a proper opening to days of my grandmother’s home-cooked meals to come. Ceramic bowls were wheel-thrown and glazed by me. Its presence is as cultural as it is culinary: from shared bowls among students and office workers to its symbolic role on Black Day, when singles gather to eat jajangmyeon together. It is the unofficially official meal on moving day. More than just a sauce, jajang r...

Tôm Rim: Caramelized Prawns

Inspired by Anaïs Aa Dao Van Manen’s Vietnam, the cookbook published by Phaidon , I set out to cook Vietnamese food for myself. There is a certain satisfaction—a quiet, private sense of achievement—when we learn to cook within a familiar cuisine that our hands have never actually prepared. I did not realize, until drifting through the pages of Vietnam , how central caramelized sugar is to the cuisine—often referred to as a caramel braising sauce. After my first failed attempt at following the Tôm Rim recipe from the cookbook, I turned inward to develop a version that simplifies the process while preserving the dish’s essential tension: the salinity of fish sauce meeting the sweetness of caramelized sugar. INGREDIENTS [serves one with rice] fourteen whole prawns, shells on, slit along the back and deveined two tablespoons of vegetable oil one tablespoon of sugar one tablespoon of fish sauce one tablespoon of Cambray onion, white part only, diced one tablespoon of red onion, diced one cl...

Pasta al Tonno: A Korean Gal’s Ramyeon in Pasta

Growing up Korean, ramyeon was the reliable quick meal: intensely satisfying, reliably filling, and unlikely to leave much of a dent in the bank account. It was a cheap thrill, the sort of thing we were regularly warned was not particularly healthy while continuing to keep it stocked in nearly every Korean home. That contradiction was built into its history. Korean ramyeon was introduced in 1963, with government financing, as one possible response to South Korea’s severe postwar food shortage. Ceramic bowl was wheel-thrown and glazed by me. Once regarded largely as budget food, ramyeon now commands a global following that could almost compete with BTS. ARMY, please hold the hate mail. Pasta al tonno may not share ramyeon’s austere, mission-driven origin, but it occupies a similarly dependable place in many Italian kitchens, particularly among younger cooks and college students. It is quick, inexpensive, and deeply satisfying without putting an unnecessary dent in the wallet. Humble ...

Do Angelenos Really Believe Their Own Politics?

Los Angeles has proudly shouted ICE Out. The slogan is morally uncomplicated. Immigration is not. At the Dodger's Stadium, April 2025 I cannot join the chant—not because I excuse the Trump Administration’s conduct, but because I believe in the rule of law. It must bind everyone: those living in this country without legal status, the officers charged with enforcing immigration law, and the federal government that gives those officers their authority. Removal can be a lawful consequence of lacking legal status when it is ordered and carried out through lawful process. During the Obama Administration, more than three million people were formally removed from the United States. More than two million others were returned, generally without formal removal orders. Large-scale immigration enforcement is not new to this country, nor is it unique to Donald Trump. What is different—and indefensible—is a federal government violating the rule of law in the name of enforcing it. I beli...

The Devil Wears Jumpsuits

From rail yards and factory floors to cockpits and controlled descents, jumpsuits have carried a stubborn practicality that resists ornament while quietly absorbing it. What began as protection in the early 20th century became a uniform across aviation and wartime labor, particularly for women, then a symbol, and eventually a choice—one that moves between utility and presentation without fully belonging to either. That is what keeps them relevant: a garment that insists on function even when placed in spaces built on image. At a private screening. The photograph was edited to clean the background, shadows, and reflections using AI. Jumpsuits, in their most honest form, do not try to impress. They enclose the body with a kind of certainty: structured, utilitarian, unconcerned with polish. And yet, once placed within fashion’s gaze, even they are not immune. The silhouette tightened, the fabric softened, the fit became more intentional. What was once purely functional began to carry in...

Exhaling Life

Search This Blog