This recipe is based on a flank steak recipe from the New York Times, but I had some lovely boneless beef short ribs from Costco that I thought would work a treat (they did).
The finished dish was tasty, but I thought the nuoc cham marinade left the ribs a touch too salty, so I ended up finishing them with a bit of my own barbecue sauce.
Authentic Vietnamese cooking? Not hardly; but it was very, very good. I’ll bet this would work a treat on pork, too. Just a thought.
INGREDIENTS
Marinade:
•Zest of 3 limes (1 tbsp, packed)
•Juice of 3 limes (1/3 cup)
•1/2 cup fish sauce
•2 tbsp brown sugar
•3 garlic cloves, minced
•1 Serrano pepper, diced
•1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper
Ribs:
•Boneless beef short ribs
•2 sweet onions, sliced thick
•1 clove garlic, quartered
Add the marinade ingredients to a gallon sized zipper bag and squish around a bit to blend.
Add the ribs and close the bag, squeezing out any excess air. Give the bag a couple of twists and turns to spread the marinade evenly around the ribs, then arrange in a large, flat bottomed edged pan (to catch any drippage) and stash in the fridge for a few hours or – as always more better – overnight; giving the bag a flip and a squeeze when you think to.
When ready to cook, remove from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature while you heat your oven to 350º.
Arrange the sweet onion slices and garlic in the bottom of a baking dish, then add the ribs and the marinade – making sure that the 
ribs are laying flat in a single layer.
Tightly cover the baking pan with foil and pop into the oven for 90 minutes.
Remove the cover, drain the cooking liquid (save the veggies) and again arrange the ribs in a single layer in the baking pan.
Brush with barbecue sauce, top with the reserved veggies from the pan, and return to the oven, uncovered, for 30 more minutes, or until the barbecue sauce has caramelized a bit.
Remove from the oven, let rest for ten minutes, and serve.
We had ours as part of a tasty, kindofa Pan-Asian, dinner with Thai-style tortellini salad on the side; as it turned out, leftover ribs cut into bite sized chunks and tossed with the leftover tortellini made for an even tastier lunch the next day.
All those details coming right up…