Bulgogi (Korean Barbecued Beef)

               Way back when, when I lived in New York, there was a Japanese restaurant my parents and I frequented.  That's where I was introduced to bulgogi.  Yes, bulgogi is Korean, but this Japanese restaurant was serving it.  I remember the first time I had it.  I thought it was delicious.  It probably ended up being the only the I ever ate there.  Of course I grew up and moved on and far away from that little Japanese restaurant that served this amazing Korean dish. 

                In case you don't know, bulgogi is thinly sliced beef that is marinated and then grilled.   The Korean meaning of bulgogi is "fire meat".



                Since we had been studying Korea, making bulgogi seemed like a must do. I had never made this dish before, so I did some research and went on a bunch of different food sites like Food.com, Foodnetwork.com and epicurious.com.  I combined several recipes due to ingredients I had on hand in the house.

                When it came to making the marinade, since I knew what flavor I was looking for I was able to tweak the ingredients to my liking.

Ingredients

1. 2 lbs sirloin steak
2. 2 tsp brown sugar
3. 1 small onion
4. 1 small gala apple
5. 1 tsp fresh ginger
6. 2 cloves of garlic
7. 1/4 Cup of low sodium soy sauce
8. 2 Tbl sugar
9. 1 Tbl sesame oil
10. 1 Tbl cider vinegar (if you have rice wine vinegar, use that instead)
11.  Scallions (I didn't have any on hand, but I'll tell you when you should use it if you want to incorporate them)

First you need to place the steaks in the freezer so it is easier to slice them.  If you happen to live near a Korean market, I am told that you can get the meat pre-sliced. I don't of course so I had to slice the meat by hand.  I sliced them about 1/4 of an inch.  Surprisingly it wasn't difficult.  Place the sliced meat in a large zip top bag.

Sprinkle 2 tsp of brown sugar over the slices and try to incorporate the sugar throughout the meat.

For the marinade, peel and core the apple and add it to a food processor(chopping blade attachment), along with the ginger and garlic.  Chop these ingredients so that the pieces get minced.

Then add the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, and cider vinegar.  Combine the ingredients to form the marinade.  Taste for seasoning.  It should taste salty, sweet, and have a slight tang.

Now pour the marinade over the meat.  At this point I closed the zip top bag and made sure I mixed the meat and marinade really well.  (If you have scallions, you can slice them and then place them in the bag as well.)  Then I placed the bag in the fridge.  I let the meat marinade for 8 hours.

I took my grill pan and heated it up on high heat.  I sprayed it with non stick cooking spray.  When the pan was hot enough I placed the meat, as neatly as I could on the pan.

When the meat was browned on one side, I turned it over and let it cook until the meat was cooked on the other side.  As soon as it's done, take it off the pan.

Serve this with rice.  You can also serve it up as lettuce wraps.

We really enjoyed this and it brought back good memories for me.