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Korean Recipes

Stir-fried Beef with Hot Peppers

Feb 17th, 2010
by dave.
2 comments

Stir-fried Beef and Peppers

I had a few friends over for dinner several weeks back and cooked a hodgepodge of Asian dishes. I don’t have a whole lot of experience cooking dinners for more than a couple people and figured it’d be a great opportunity to work on how to get everything on the table while still hot. Unfortunately, that meant that I was busy in the kitchen while everyone arrived but in the end it was well worth the effort.

One thing I’ve picked up is that prepping all of the vegetables, sauces, and marinating the meat ahead of time really helps. This way, you’re never wasting any time chopping garlic when you could be paying attention to the three or four dishes going on the stove! Not to mention, it makes it easier on cleanup too, as the mixing bowls and knives can be cleaned and put away well beforehand as well. And as is with stir-fry, dishes are cooked very quickly so you don’t want to be bogged down with other tasks.

I ended up serving three Cantonese dishes, a Korean dish, and Thai dish. Four things I’ve posted before (Pad See Ew, steamed striped bass, yo-choy, and a seafood stir-fry) and the dish I’m posting about today. I’ve had similar dishes in the past but never tried making it myself. So I figured, what the heck, it’d be a nice dish to try out. This recipe is from Practical Korean Cooking, one of the de facto books on Korean recipes.

A word of caution though. I wasn’t paying attention to how long I had the hot peppers for but they had enough time to get spicier than I remember. One of my buddies was determined to best the spice and I guess he did, but he looked like he was in pain with every bite =P

Stir-fried Beef with Hot Peppers

Time: 25-30 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
– 3/4 – 1 lb beef tenderloin/flank/eye of round, matchstick sliced
– 1 tbsp ShaoHsing rice wine
– 2 tsp Soy sauce
– 1 tsp Sugar
– 1 tbsp Corn Starch
– 3-5 Long Hot Green Peppers
– 3-5 Long Hot Red Peppers
– 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
– 1 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp sugar

Method:
1. Combine meat, rice wine, soy sauce, sugar, and corn starch in a bowl and let marinate for 10 minutes.
2. Julienne the peppers and discard the seeds. They can be soaked in warm water to remove some of the spiciness.
3. In a frying pan or wok, add the peppers and remaining salt and sugar, stir frying for about 1-2 minutes. Remove and set aside.
4. Still over high heat, add a little canola oil and garlic, then after about 30 seconds add the beef. Stir-fry the beef until just barely cooked and then add the peppers back in.
5. Stir fry another minute or so and then serve with rice.

Dukboki – Rice Cakes in Red pepper sauce

Oct 14th, 2009
by dave.
No comments yet

Dukboki

So I’m now on a bit of a diet. I mean, that’s not necessarily going to stop me from eating what I want, but maybe just less of it. Just will have to work out more if I’m going to hit my goals =P

Here’s another pretty quick meal if you have the ingredients on hand. I bought two kinds of rice cakes at H-mart last week with the intention of making a couple different dishes. Dukboki is something I get every now and then at Misono Wok at Super 88 (Usually with ramen or japche mixed in there too) but I’ve never really had a whole ton of success making it myself. But then I stumbled on a couple nice cookbooks and an archived post on My Korean Kitchen and it was off to the races.

The main ingredient needed for the sauce (and it’s used a lot in Korean cooking, I’ve found) is Gochujang paste, or hot pepper paste. Gochujang mixed with a few other household ingredients nets a really tasty sauce that can be used in a whole bunch of different stir-fry dishes. So now I keep a tin of the stuff in my fridge at all times, just in case I need to put something together in a hurry (and without any kind of meal planning in advance).

Dukboki – Rice Cakes in Red pepper sauce

Time : 20 minutes
Serves : 4
Ingredients:
- 1 – 2 lbs rice cakes
- 3-4 fish cakes, sliced
- 1 onion, sliced
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 2-3 scallions, chopped
- 1/2 cup water
- Optional : Hot dog, hard boiled eggs, ramen, cellophane noodles
- Sesame seeds for garnish

Gochujang seasoning sauce:
- 4 tbsp Gochujang
- 4 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp Korean chili powder
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced

Method:
1. Boil rice cakes as instructions dictate. Usually a couple minutes to soften them up a little.
2. Heat a wok over high heat, add some oil, toss in the onions and green peppers and stir-fry for a few minutes.
3. Add in everything else but the scallions. Mix well. Stir fry for another 4-5 minutes or so.
4. Add in the scallions, give a final few stirs, then serve with some sesame seeds.

Cooking catchup!

Jul 29th, 2009
by dave.
No comments yet

Pad Kra Pow
Pad Kra Pow – Thai Basil Chicken

Just a couple things I’ve cooked up lately for this post. The first is Pad Kra Pow – Thai Basil Chicken, I posted this originally back in April but had another couple go-arounds to try to get it tastier. The second being Kalbi Steak Tips, the recipe was posted using short ribs and steak tips are a great alternative for throwing on the grill now that it’s summertime!

Now, the Thai Basil Chicken had been a dish that was confounding me for quite some time. I could never get the sauce just right, no matter how hard I tried. But then, one day, eureka! I added 1.5x the sauce and cut out some of the extra vegetables. I didn’t really think about it at the time, but the extra vegetables will soak up a ton of the sauce AND dilute the sauce to boot! So, using only half an onion and half a red pepper, this edition was the closest I’ve gotten to the stuff I’ve eaten at Rod Dee, Dok Bua, and S&I To Go!

Kalbi Steak Tips
Kalbi Steak Tips

On the other hand, the Kalbi marinade I found a while back turned out to be just about right. I end up making it about once a month and absolutely devour the stuff. Lately, I’ve been applying the marinade to steak tips and bringing them to other BBQ’s, and they’ve been an absolute hit! Add that with some peppers, onions, and a little bit of cheese, and this was a pretty good meal for the summer.

Kalbi – Korean Marinated Short Rib

Feb 12th, 2009
by dave.
2 comments

Kalbi

I’m actually extremely proud of this recipe. No, I didn’t make it up, but I’m sure glad I found it anyway! And I’m glad I made enough for 4 extra meals. :)

I always wondered how Korean restaurants got the marinated short rib so tasty and what the right mix of sauces/spices was. And every time I asked someone, there was a different answer. Lots of sugar, a can of coke, mirin, and whatnot. But one thing that seemed the most common was the Korean/Japanese/Asian Pear. Now, I’d never heard of Asian Pears before last year, and even then, I’d never actually seen one of these mythical pieces of fruit. Essentially, it’s a pear that looks like an apple. A yellow apple.

But anyway, they’re super sweet and add a really nice taste to the marinade, along with some freshly chopped garlic and scallions. Marinate overnight and throw on the grill (or grill pan in my case) and wham, tasty…tasty kalbi.

I found the original recipe somewhere on some blog on the Internet and in my haste to copy it down, forgot the site it came from. So if I could provide a link-back I would but despite my most earnest efforts, I failed. I did find another recipe (and several others) on CityMama that was similar to the one I used so I’ll link that instead for now.

I didn’t have the traditional thin sliced short rib across the bone, but I did have some short rib from Whole Foods in the freezer that I picked up on sale a couple weeks back, so that was going to have to do.

Kalbi – Korean Marinated Short Rib

Serves 6-8 with rice and side veggies
Time : Overnight to marinate, 15-20 minutes to cook

Ingredients:
- ½ cup light soy sauce
- ½ cup sweet vermouth or dessert wine
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- few grinds of black pepper
- 2-3 scallions, chopped
- drizzle of honey (optional)
- 1 asian pear, grated
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- 3 lbs short rib (bone or boneless), sliced thin
- 2 scallions, chopped, for garnish

Method:
1. Mix the marinade together with the sliced short rib in a sealed bag, set aside overnight.
2. Add some oil to a skillet or wok, stir fry beef in batches.
3. After the beef is finished, leave the marinade in the pan for a few minutes longer until it starts to get thick. Pour over the beef.

Notes:
- The portions can be halved or quartered as you see fit. This recipe makes a LOT
- The marinade can be cooked beforehand as well.
- The marinade may be too much for that amount of meat, some of it can be saved but it doesn’t really preserve well

Pork Kimchi

Nov 23rd, 2008
by dave.
1 comment

Pork Kimchi

A few posts ago I wrote about Misono Wok in Super 88 and one of my favorite dishes there is Pork stir fried with kimchi. It’s definitely been one of the tastier dishes I’ve had, and it’s a very home-style type dish (especially because it’s quick too!). So after asking around for some tips, I decided to give it a shot and make it myself!

I bought kimchi from John’s Market in Allston to use with the pork belly from super 88. Now, making the pork kimchi was already adventurous enough for me so there was no way I was going to try to make kimchi as well :P Maybe next time! But anyway, John’s makes fresh kimchi and packages it with a date so that you know the freshness. They also sell all sorts of other goodies for Korean cooking and even will provide thinly sliced meat and such, perfect for Korean BBQ or hot pot!

So, with some pork belly, kimchi, an onion, and gochujang, I set off to my task! The verdict? It was good, but I think I used too much kimchi and next time, I’m going to use pork shoulder instead of pork belly. Now I love pork belly…but it’s pretty fatty and didn’t really fit the dish I don’t think.

Pork Kimchi

Serves 4-6
Time:20-30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 lb pork (shoulder or belly), sliced thin
- 1 tbsp rice wine
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp Gochujang
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp sugar
- ¼ tsp chili powder
- ½ tsp ginger powder
- 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp sriracha
- dash sesame oil

- Kimchi – close to a pound
- 1 medium onion
- 2 stalks green onions, chopped

Method:
1. Marinate the pork in the rice wine and black pepper. Set aside for 20-30 minutes
2. Mix together the Gochujang through the sesame oil into a paste. Mix the paste with the pork.
3. Heat a wok with some oil. Add pork and stir fry, shouldn’t take too long because the pork needs to be sliced thin.
4. Add onions, and green onions. Stir fry quickly for a couple minutes
5. Add kimchi and rice cakes. Stir to mix well. Add ¼ cup water and steam for a few minutes. Add some more chili sauce or gochujang if you want it spicier.
6. Serve over rice