A Recipe from Korea: Bulgogi (Korean Grilled Beef)

by Noeul Kang

(This is the bulgogi that I made for my family. On the left side of the table there is some lettuce and dried seaweed. On the right side, you can see soybean paste, kimchi, sliced onions with soy sauce, and wasabi. All can be eaten with bulgogi along with steamed rice) Picture by Noeul Kang

Korean food has a variety when it comes to taste. We have almost every flavour like: sour, sweet, savoury, spicy, and so on; we need different tastes in one meal. That’s why we have many side dishes along with main dishes. Compared to simple Canadian food, Korean food requires more diverse dishes.

Moreover, we love spicy food. There are different kinds of spiciness in Korean food such as regular spiciness, super spiciness, suicide bomb spiciness, but I decided to share a non-spicy Korean recipe for those who can’t tolerate Korean-style spiciness.

At first, I didn’t like cooking Korean food because whenever I tried to make something for my Korean family members, they were always dissatisfied with my food. Therefore, I gave up cooking Korean food for a while. I got a chance to cook Korean food for my mother-in-law a year ago. I was nervous because I’ve never gotten any good comments on my Korean food in the past, so I called my aunt to ask for her recipe for bulgogi so that I could serve the best tasting version of the dish to my mother-in-law. I prepared the ingredients in advance, following all the steps of my aunt’s recipe. It was hard for me to follow her recipe because it was so vague. In her recipe, she used these words “little bit, not too much, put a lot or enough” instead of using measuring words.

Anyway, it turned out that my mother-in-law loves the bulgogi I made. She said to me, “It is very good.” To speak frankly, I almost burst into tears. This recipe means a lot to me because it restored my confidence in cooking Korean food, and I believe that you would love to enjoy bulgogi once you have it in your mouth. Here is the recipe:

You will need a few appliances:

- A mixing bowl

- A frying pan

- A mixer

- A wooden spoon

- A knife (for cutting meat)

- A peeler

For the bulgogi marinade sauce: (If you want to make it easily, you can buy bulgogi sauce at Loblaws.)

-6 Tbsp soy sauce

-4 Tbsp sugar (if you put a whole onion, you can put only 3 Tbsp sugar)

-1 red apple or Asian pear or both

-1/2 onion

-1 Tbsp minced garlic

-1 tsp minced ginger

-1/8 tsp ground black pepper

For the bulgogi:

-800g rib eye or top sirloin or any beef cut (thinly sliced)

-1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced

-1/2 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced

-1 Tbsp sesame oil (I recommend Korean sesame oil, but if you don’t have some, any sesame oil is also fine.)

-1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

-1 Tbsp cooking oil (canola, corn, or any other oil is fine, except for olive oil)

-You might need white Calrose steamed rice (any rice will be good with Bulgogi)

How to make bulgogi

-Blend the marinade ingredients in a mixer.

-Place meat in a mixing bowl and pour the marinade sauce. Mix them.

-Add the sesame oil into the meat.

-Cover the bowl with cling wrap and marinate the meat for at least 1 hour in the fridge. (If you have more time, you can also marinate it for a day.)

-Preheat a frying pan on medium high heat.

-Add the cooking oil

-Add the meat and vegetables

-Cook it until the meat and vegetables are well-cooked

-Sprinkle the sesame seeds and stir them

Important vocabulary for this recipe:

■ A frying pan

■ A peeler

■ Marinade

■ Mince

■ Blend

■ place

■ Preheat

■ Cling wrap

■ Sprinkle

■ Stir