Bulgogi

Bulgogi is a really, really, really popular dish in Korea, and probably one of the best introduction dishes to Korean cuisine. This dish is thinly sliced beef, marinated in various items, then quickly grilled. It is classically served with a dab of gochujangssamjang, some crunchy veggies and wrapped up in a leaf of lettuce or with a lot of rice and kimchi.

Okay? Let’s get marinating.

Ingredients

This is all going into our marinade. We have

• soy sauce
• fish sauce
• sesame oil
• mirin
• rice wine vinegar
• asian pear
• onion
• garlic

(see method re: quantities)

Method

The first step is to get the pear/onion juice.

Core and chop the pear and quarter the onion. Toss in a food processor and blitz until finely chopped up.

Strain through a mesh strainer or coffee filter, and this is what you get.

I never really measure my ingredients to be honest, but if I’d have to guesstimate, it would be about ¾ cup of the pear/onion liquid, a ¼ cup of soy sauce, 2-3 tablespoons of fish sauce, mirin, sesame oil and rice wine vinegar. Mince up 3-4 cloves of garlic and add it in as well. If you like, some salt, pepper, and sesame seeds can be added too.

Edit: This was for about 3 pounds of meat.

Now you need to prep your beef. Some use sirloin or ribeye, I really like using round. It is more toothsome and is a lot cheaper than the usual suspects.

This slice is a bit thick, 1/8” slices (against the grain) are ideal. To get really thin slices, freeze your roast for an hour or until it is quite firm.

Add your meat and let marinate for at least 4 hours, overnight is preferable.

I always forget to photograph the cooking process, but get a wok or whatever pan you have available and crank up the heat.

You don’t need any additional oil. The bulgogi will cook in its own juices.

Fry for just a minute or two on each side, these pieces of beef will cook very quickly.

Add some scallion and sesame seeds and enjoy!

As a note, you can grill this, as is traditional. Also, you can dump out the liquid that is expressed while frying if you like your meat drier. I like it really wet, so I keep all the liquid in the pan as I go. It is great on rice.