About the Recipe
Bulgogi is one of those Korean dishes that has become very trendy. I hope to show that it is actually quite easy to replicate at home with a few simple ingredients and some patience.
Kimchi is also a dish that people are becoming increasingly aware of and this cucumber kimchi will, I hope, illustrate the diversity within kimchi that is often overlooked.
Ingredients
For the Bulgogi
800g worth of beef steak sliced thin (freeze then thaw for around 1 hour then slice as thin as you can)
2 onions, thinly sliced
2 carrots, cut into matchsticks (aka julienne) or just chopped however you prefer
3 spring onions, thinly sliced
Mushrooms (use either a couple of handfuls of button mushrooms or rehydrated dried shiitake mushrooms, then roughly chop them)
1 apple, very finely chopped or grated (you can use other fruit that are slightly acidic such as kiwi, pear, mango, pineapple - if you use this though, only marinade the beef for 30 mins) you can substitute sugar, but the fruit pectin helps with the texture of the beef
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
10 tablespoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons sesame oil
For the wo-y (cucumber) Kimchi
Packet of mini cucumbers or 1 large cucumber
1 small onion, very finely diced
1 carrot, matchsticks
Handful of chives (not compulsory, I didn’t include them), around 4-5cm long segments
4 large tablespoons of salt
Water
Sauce: 2 tablespoons fish sauce, 4 tablespoons Korean chilli powder, 3 cloves minced/grated garlic, 1 teaspoon sugar (or slightly more if you don’t mind the sweetness but I don’t like it too sweet)
Preparation
For the beef
Mix all the ingredients save for the mushrooms with the beef and marinade for around an hour (or overnight OR IF USING PINEAPPLE 30 MINS)
Once marinaded bring up to room temperature (you won’t need to do anything if you just left it out for an hour) then fry on medium/high heat for 5 mins before adding the mushrooms and fry until cooked (a further 8 or so minutes)
For the wo-y sobagki
Cut the cucumber in 4-5cm long chunks, if using mini cucumbers, skip this step.
Stand the cucumber upright and slice down the middle until 1 cm from the bottom. Turn 90 degrees and repeat.
Pour salt into the open area of the cucumber until each surface is lightly covered. If you need more salt use more.
Leave for around 40 minutes. Then rinse off the salt.
Mix all your sauce ingredients and add to the cucumbers ensuring they get into the surfaces.
I have taken some shortcuts in this recipe so it is not the most authentic (namely as it skips out the more difficult to find seafood ingredients and replaces them with fish sauce) but it gets quite close with reasonable time and ingredients.