Bulgogi Recipe

I post all the recipes for the dishes that I make for Recipe Club over on its own blog. However, where there’s a recipe I expect to make again, I’ll also post it here to ensure I can easily find it down the track. In this case, we made a Korean-style beef bulgogi again the very next night after I made it for Recipe Club, I liked it that much! It’s largely based on the recipe by Ben O’Donoghue in his book Ben’s Barbecue.

It serves enough portions to feed 6 as an entree, or 3 as mains.

Ingredients

  • 500g rump steak
  • 3 tablespoons (60mL) brown sugar
  • 125mL light soy sauce
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • salt
  • 100mL mirin
  • 2 tablespoons (40mL) sesame oil
  • 1 bunch spring onions
  • sunflower or vegetable oil
  • 1 medium carrot
  • leaves of 1/2 iceberg lettuce
  • mint leaves
  • ~200g kimchi
  • other korean sauces that take your fancy

Method

  1. Trim the beef of fat and slice thinly. Chop the garlic cloves finely. Slice the spring onions finely.
  2. Combine the sugar, soy sauce, garlic, salt, mirin, sesame oil, and spring onions to make the marinade, and mix the beef slices through.
  3. Leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight.
  4. When it comes to cooking the beef, bring the beef mix to room temperature, then heat a BBQ hotplate to medium-hot.
  5. Chop the carrot finely while waiting.
  6. Oil the hotplate, and begin frying the meat. Once they’ve begun warming, then add the carrots, and fry everything together. It takes only a few minutes to cook so it’s tender.
  7. Transfer bulgogi to serving dish and place on table together with lettuce leaves, kimchi, mint leaves, and any other tasty Korean sauces that take your fancy. Before eating, place everything on a lettuce leave and wrap into a delicious parcel.

Alternatives

  • Instead of serving on lettuce, it would work also served on rice.
  • Sesame seeds can be sprinkled over the top of the beef before serving, or toasted and included in the marinade. However, with the sesame oil it already has a nice sesame taste.
  • According to Ben’s original recipe, instead of rump steak, sirloin can be used, instead of brown sugar, palm sugar can be used, and instead of mirin, rice wine can be used.