Defrosting Beef, Grandma Carmen Style

You can't exactly tell from this angle, but this was a HUGE pot of marinating Korean BBQ.

Preparations for our weekend feast began as soon as we arrived at Grandma Carmen's house. My mom packed 20 lbs. of beef short ribs to bbq at Tita Carol and Tito Jim's house along with a couple trays of chicken drumsticks. We figured the long drive would be enough time to defrost the beef, but when we removed the butcher paper, the beef was still frozen solid. While my mom, Colleen, and Sean ventured off to the local Asian market, Andrew and I were left with the daunting task of defrosting the massive beef carcass.

I sat in the living room reading Grandma Carmen's big stack of People magazine (she's an avid reader of celebrity gossip) while the beef took a long carousel ride in the microwave. Then Andrew walked in with a look of horror on his face.

"Grandma Carmen's pouring hot water all over the frozen beef. She's cooking it, and I don't know how to stop her."

I went into the kitchen to see if I could convince her to leave the preparations to us. I told her to relax and let us do all of the work.

"Oh no, my dear. I don't like to be always sitting down. I need to work, don't you know I'm always the hard worker, not like my sister Gloria. Whenever it's her turn to cook and wash dishes she will say, 'Oh!! I cannot work, Sister, I am too sickly!' Ay apo, my God..."

(I feel that typing "Oh!!" does not do justice to that familiar Ilocano shriek that I've come to know as a Querido sister trademark)

When her hot water defrosting technique failed, she pulled out a 13-inch knife and started stabbing into the frozen block of meat with all of her 90-year old might. Scary. I was terrified that she'd stab either herself or me.

In the end the meat finally defrosted and tasted great even though a few pounds were slightly boiled in a hot water bath before marinating.