Korean Bulgogi recipe by Hed Chef
Hedy Khoo | The New Paper | Mon May 28 2012
Singapore, May 28, 2012
EATS - HED CHEF
This classic Korean dish is one that you can easily pull off in your home kitchen, even for those not familiar with cooking.
Korean Song Teh Og, who is in her 50s and a permanent resident here, shares a recipe for the dish she learnt from her mother.
Madam Song, a housewife who is married to an Indian Singaporean and living here since 1985, says she cooks curries more often than she cooks Korean food.
But bulgogi remains one of her favourites whenever she hosts guests.
She learnt to cook only in her 20s, when she lived in Germany with her husband for two years between 1980 and 1982.
Says Madam Song: “Before I left, I did not ask my mother for any Korean recipes as I thought I wouldn’t miss Korean food like bulgogi.”
As it turns out, she did miss Korean cuisine badly, so she called her mother for recipes.
“But it was difficult getting some ingredients.
I could purchase soya sauce from the Chinese supermarket and my mother even sent me some Korean ingredients by post, but I was unable to get fresh ingredients such as spring onions.
Only garlic chives were available, so I used that instead,” she recalls.
Madam Song says “bul” in Korean means fire and “gogi” means meat, so bulgogi literally translates to “fire meat”.
She says that bulgogi can be stir-fried or barbecued.
But if you are planning on a barbecue, Madam Song advises that the beef be cut into thicker pieces.
She says: “In Korea, bulgogi is usually made from beef. But the same marinade can be used for chicken or pork.
“Koreans will usually add Korean chilli pepper if using the marinade for pork.”
Her recipe differs from her mother’s in that she grinds up the onion to make the dish more palatable for guests who don’t fancy eating too much of it.
Koreans usually serve bulgogi with raw garlic or sliced green chilli on the side.
The best way to enjoy bulgogi is to wrap it with a touch of Korean chilli paste in a lettuce leaf and pop the entire package in your mouth.
Or you could have it with rice.
It’s the perfect choice for a house party as the hardest work is the preparation of the marinade.
Frying it is easy, she says.
Madam Song prefers the Kikkoman brand of soya sauce as she finds it most similar to Korean soya sauce.
Adjust the amount of sugar and soya sauce to suit your own taste buds, she advises.
Have a taste test of the marinade before you pour it over the beef.
I suggest having a piece of the nashi pear before mixing your marinade to get a better idea of how much to adjust for the overall sweetness of the marinade.
I added Korean corn syrup to give a stickier texture to the marinade.
But if you don’t have it, sugar will do.
INGREDIENTS
1kg of beef
1-2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cooking wine
4-5 soya sauce
10 stalks of spring onion
5-8 garlic cloves
1/2 nashi pear (Asian pear)
1 medium-sized onion, sliced into
0.25cm pieces
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp white pepper
METHOD
Freeze beef until the meat is hard enough to slice. Slice thinly.
Grind garlic, onion and the pear together.
Put the mixture in a bowl.
Mix in the soya sauce, sesame oil, white pepper, cooking wine, sugar, sesame seeds and spring onion.
Marinade for at least half-an-hour, but preferably a day, or overnight.
Portions can be kept in resealable bags and stored in the freezer for later use.
Heat a pan until hot.
Do not use oil.
Place beef in the hot pan and lower the heat slightly.
Once the beef turns opaque, turn it over to allow the other side to cook.
Remove from pan. Garnish with more sesame seeds and spring onions.
Best eaten wrapped with lettuce leaves, or served with rice.