Last week I made bibimbap for the first time. My Korean cooking skills are almost nonexistent but my expert sister Jan walked me through it over the phone. Among other things, I made bulgogi to go on top of the bibimbap. (Yeah, I was cooking for 2+ hours.)
This is the bulgogi recipe that my sister uses. It has a few more ingredients that other recipes I've seen, but it's really delicious. (I made a huge batch so I would have extra to freeze. You might want to halve this unless you're feeding 10+ people)
Ingredients
- 4 lbs. beef chuck roast, sliced thinly (I get the butcher to slice it about 1/8" thin.)
- 1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
- 3 Tablespoons of Garlic, crushed
- 1 kiwi, peeled
- 1/2" piece of ginger, peeled and then sliced (slicing prevents it from being stringy when blended)
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 ripe Asian pear, peeled and cored
- 1 cup Korean soy sauce
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions, green parts only
- sprinkle of roasted sesame seeds
Directions
- Add all ingredients except for green onions and sesame seeds to blender or food processor and process until well blended.
- Put sliced beef into a couple of gallon Ziploc bags, add marinade, and mix to coat. Refrigerate for approximately 1 hour (According to Jan, if you marinate the meat for too long, the acid in the marinade can "make the meat mushy.")
- Cook beef (in batches if necessary) in large skillet over high heat. Add green onions towards the end.
- Garnish with sesame seeds and serve with rice (and lettuce if desired).
When I made the bulgogi, I was struck by how easily and quickly it came togther. It only took about 30 minutes to peel/rough chop everything and throw it into the food processor for the marinade. And cooking the meat went very quickly as well because it was sliced so thinly. I'm going to try and make it for dinner more often.Labels: food, Korean, recipes