Our lovely readers! Finally, an update! Here is the recipe that we said we would post up ages ago. This dish involves a twist on the traditional Korean Bulgogi wraps. When marinating and making bulgogi, most include sliced onions, carrots, green onions, and other such veggies with the meat. Well, this particular dish is not meant to be in any way a traditional ‘how-to’ on bulgogi. Think of this recipe as a quick way to marinate meat ‘Korean’ style. My dear and inventive mother whipped this up one night, and it was very delicious and different. What made it different was adding other lettuce fillers along with the bulgogi. Specifically, she made onion and bean sprout fillers. YUM! Curious? Read on!
*Note Before Going On…so, like, when my mom was cooking, I was literally taking pictures over her shoulder and trying not to get into her way. She also would NOT stop for me to take decent pictures (argh!), so please bear with me. She also wasn’t so hot on the idea of taking out all the ingredients beforehand, taking pictures of them, and so on and so forth (ahh, mothers..). So, we apologize for deviating from our usual format! 
What You Need:
- 1 pound of beef –read on to what we used
- 1/3 cup Soy Sauce
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 1/4 cup Sesame Seed Oil/olive oil
- A lot of smashed or cut Garlic Cloves
- 1 Kiwi
- A healthy pinch of hon dashi
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
Start with using any type of beef your heart desires. The most classical cut used is thinly sliced rib eye. However, it’s not always possible for us to get that pricey thing (I think we used top round), so what can you do to end up with equally good meat that is tender to eat?
My mom’s answer to that is, “Kiwi.”
Many people like to use pear (used traditionally to tenderize meat). However, kiwi is also good too. According to K: “Natural kiwi fruit possess an enzyme called actinidin which acts to degrade protein tertiary structures (thiol bonds if curious).” ….bless his biochemistry major’s heart. haha. Anyways, the effect is great and is very noticeable. We suggest you try it for yourself =P
You can crush the kiwi with your fist (let all that aggression out), and plop it into the meat. Next, combine the rest of the ingredients in and mix well!
Let the mixture marinate for a couple hours prior to cooking.
Stuffers
What You Need:
- Thinly sliced onion
- Bean Sprouts
- Oyster Sauce
- Sugar
- Olive Oil
- Black Pepper
What to Do:
Thinly slice the onions and place them in a pot over medium heat. Yes, you heard me right. No oil. JUST the onions. Put it on the heat for only about a few minutes. This serves to slightly ‘steam’ the veggies and strain out their juice. Next, transfer the onions onto another pan and put on medium heat. In the mean time, on that old pot you used to steam, do the same thing that you did with the bean sprouts.
On the pan with the onions, drizzle a bit of olive oil in and add in one 1/2 tbsp of sugar and 1/2 tbsp of black pepper. Also, add in a pinch of hon dashi, and saute away.
When the onions have thoroughly browned, set them aside on a plate. Next, take the bean sprouts out of the pot and transfer them onto the pan. Add in a drizzle of olive oil, a good couple squirts of oyster sauce, and a pinch of sugar. Saute away until the sprouts have ‘wilted’ and are brown.
Now you are almost done! Plate the stuffers onto a plate. Then take out your marinated meat, and cook it up!
Set up some lettuce wraps and dip/ssam jang for you to use–refer to our previous entry on Korean BBQ at home for more on this sauce.
and….that’s it! You are done! Not hard at all, huh? It’s incredible how something so good can be so easy to make too! We hope you enjoy it!
Have a tasty one! Bye bye!
