Never Had Bulgogi? Why This Korean Dish Needs To Become Your Next Dinner

I do a lot of cooking at home, as you can imagine for a self-proclaimed foodie.

It's not just out of passion, although that is a big part. It's also economical. When you're trying to save as much as you can and limit your spending, prepping meals and cooking dinners for Himself to bring to work becomes a necessity. 

It's also very effective; we have definitely both noticed the difference in our spending on bringing in our own meals to work. I am adamant about the fact that you don't need to feel like you're missing out by brown bagging your meals. In fact, home-cooking is a lot tastier and interesting than eat-out options.

In saying that though, it is easy to fall into a rut, rotating the same tried and tested recipes week in week out. So last week, I did a few hours research and now have a rake of recipes to test out in the dinner rotation. 

Last Friday night, I made one for our date night dinner - Bulgogi.

It's a Korean dish or marinated slices of meat and the name literally translates to "fire meat". But it's not as spicy as that makes it sound, it's more like a perfect melody of savoury flavour. 

While Bulgogi is traditionally made from beef, you could easily use the marinade on pork or chicken depending on what you were in the mood for. While the marinade does require a few ingredients, there's nothing that you won't find in the local supermarket and it doesn't take more than a few minutes to mix them all together.

I used sirloin steak we got from Lidl which I cut into thin strips. I then marinated the beef for 60 minutes at room temperature before cooking. I must confess, as we've just moved into our apartment, I didn't have a grater when making this - so I simply had to slice the garlic and ginger as thin as I could. I'm happy to report it had no impact on the meal! The pear in the marinade acts as a wonderful tenderiser that helps balance the flavours.

I served the Bulgogi garnished with thinly sliced scallion and a mixed rocket salad (for me) and salad and rice noodles (for Himself). 

I plan on making it again over the next week, but I'm going to substitute the steak for beef mince and see how that goes. I have high hopes! I also plan on trying it as a sandwich filling; I think it will be pretty special.

If you're looking to shake up your mid-week dinner, I highly recommend this. It's quick to make (minus the marinating time), literally only taking a few minutes on a hot pan. It's wonderfully moreish and flavoursome. 

BULGOGI 

Serves 2

1 sirloin steak, thinly sliced 

1 tablespoon of sesame oil

3 tablespoon of dark soy sauce

2 tablespoons of light brown sugar

1 teaspoon of grated ginger

1/4 grated pear

1 teaspoon of chilli flakes/powder 

1 clove of garlic, grated 

Twist of salt & black pepper 

1 tablespoon of olive/rapseed oil (for frying)

- Mix all the marinade ingredients together and then add the steak. Allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes (I left mine for 60)

- Heat a frying pan/wok over a medium heat and add oil. Add the steak slices in batches and cook to taste (approx 3 minutes for medium rare). 

- Serve with noodles and salad.