Rather than cubes you might try a variant of the traditional Korean method. It requires some handy knife work to accomplish, though. Basically, you cut the meat in a continuous sheet about 1/4 inch thick, by rotating the meat away from the knife as you cut. Then marinate the meat and grill it.
In the traditional version the bone is left on. But you might discard it, and skewer the strips to turn them into finger food. Here's one version of Korean Barbecued
Short Ribs. The recipe is adapted from one by Myung Sook Lee, and appears in the CIA's
The Flavors of Asia.
2 lbs
beef ribs, bones cut 3 inches wide
marinade:
1 Asain pear
6 green onions
1/2 cup soy sauce
12 peeled cloves garlic
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Prepare the ribs as outlined above, removing the bone. Soak the meat in cold water for 30-60 minutes to remove any impurities. Remove from water and dry on paper towels.
Combine the marinade ingredients in a food processor and pulse until just combined. If you process too much the mixture will become too liquidy, which you don't want. Add the
beef to the marinade, making sure it coats all the meat. Marinate overnight.
Preheat the grill on high (or build a hot charcoal fire). Skewer the
beef (two skewers per strip makes handling easier) and cook on the grill, about 3-4 minutes each side.
Obviously, the meat can be cooked in a pre-heated broiler as well as on a grill.
There's another recipe, and drawings of an althernative cutting method, in Bruce Aidel's
The Complete Meat Cookbook. You can find it on pgs 217-219 if you have a copy. Basically, instead of rolling the meat to make the continuous sheet, Aidel makes accordian type cuts to lay the meat out flat. Just image in a hunk of meat. Butterfly it. Then butterfly each half in the opposite direction, keeping the "slices" the same thickness.
It's a lot less complicated than it sounds.
