The meal itself isn’t that unhealthy, its just that
Korean BBQ is so damn good that you just can’t refrain from stuffing
yourself silly. Its also so incredibly easy too – the overnight marinade
does all of the work, and you get all of the credit. There are 2 main
types of beef in the Korean BBQ lineup: Kalbi (short ribs) & Bulgogi
(thin slices of rib-eye). The marinated Kalbi gets thrown on the
super-hot BBQ grill and the Bulgogi is cooked at the table on a portable
butane-powered grill. You certainly could just cook it in your kitchen
and bring it to the table to serve. I also have Kimchee (spicy, pickled
cabbage/carrots) at the table, lettuce leaves and lots of white
short-grained rice on the table.
KALBI are
short ribs, cut on the cross-section (is that the right terminology?)
They are thin 1/2″ slices of ribs that are marinated in soy sauce, brown
sugar, pear juice, garlic, ginger and sesame oil. Every Korean family
has their secret concoction for the marinade.
IngredientsThe Meat
3-4 short rib slices per person
1/4 lb of Bulgogi per person
1 jar of Kalbi marinade
1 jar of Bulgogi marinade
1-2 carrots, shredded or julienned
1 julienned onion
2-4 stalks green onion, sliced in 1″ lengths
2-4 cloves garlic, minced
Method
You
could go to your butcher and ask him to cut the short ribs for you.
Instead of rib-eye, you could use thinly sliced flank steak
or really any type of thinly sliced beef) – Combine marinade, some
carrots/onion/green onion/garlic and Kalbi in large zip-top bag.
Do the same for the Bulgogi. Marinate the meat overnight, up to 3
days – Kalbi gets the BBQ grill treatment – Bulgogi is cooked at table
**Gluten free notes – while
the marinade in the bottle is NOT gluten-free, I tagged this meal as
Gluten-Free because it is easy enough to make your own marinade
gluten-free. Hmmm…yeah. I should have just written the recipe for making
the marinade from scratch….ok, I’ll do that soon. In meantime, just
google for a recipe for the marinade and substitute with gluten-free soy
sauce.
The Rice
Lots of white short grained rice (Korean or Japanese style) – I make
enough rice to have 1-2 cups cooked rice per person. Here is a great 3-part tutorial on Korean Rice.
The Supporting Players
lettuce leaves (leafy, soft), kimchi, other picked radishes, salted
seaweed sheets (you can use seaweed to wrap the meat instead of lettuce) A good hostess never lets a silly thing like a natural disaster ruin a party!. Grab the largest fry pan that you have (or a fancy griddle) – and now you have a table-top grill – everyone can cook their own Bulgogi. The Bulgogi marinade is slightly different from the Kalbi marinade – look at the jars and get one of each.
Step 1: fry a piece of Bulgogi
Step 2: lettuce in palm of hand, add rice, add Bulgogi, top with Kimchee
Step 3: eat Or, you could just skip the wrapping thing altogether:
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