Wonderfully sweet and umami Bulgogi is probably the best known and one of the most popular dishes among Korean food. I am a spicy food junkie, but I can never resist this tender mouth-watering beef dish. It is so simple to make, after you prepare and puree the ingredients all you have to do is to marinate and cook the beef in high heat quickly. Ingredients like Asian pear and ginger are known to tenderize the meat as well as adding flavors. It is also essential to use thinly sliced beef, as thin as possible. I use either flank or short rib cuts for shabu shabu.
- Prep time: 1.5-2hrs
- Cooking time: 10mins
- Serves: 2
Ingredients
Beef and others
- 400g. Thinly sliced beef
- 2 spring onions
- 1 tsp. toasted sesame seeds
- 1 tsp. neutral flavored oil such as grape seed or sunflower
Sweet soy sauce
- 1/2 white or brown onion (approx.100g)
- 1/2 Asian pear (approx.190g)
- 15g. ginger
- 2-3 cloves. garlic
- 5 tbsp. dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp. mirin (sweet rice wine) or sweet vermouth
- 2 tsp. sugar
- 1 tsp. ground white pepper
- 1 tsp. pure sesame oil
Prepare ingredients for sweet soy sauce. Puree roughly chopped onion, pear, ginger and garlic in a food processor. Mix with rest of the ingredients and beef. Dark soy sauce is milder in saltiness than light soy sauce. If you only have light soy sauce, use a little less than recipe requires. Leave it to marinate for at least 1 hour, longer if you can.
After beef is marinated, chop spring onions into 0.5-1cm lengths and set aside. In a hot grill or non-stick pan, add beef and cook for 8-10 minutes (depending on your stove heat it could be less), turning occasionally. If your pan or grill tends to stick, add in a teaspoon of oil.
Plate the beef and top it up with spring onions and toasted sesame seeds. Serve it with rice.