Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Today I made my first bulgogi, which was wonderful, almost as good as the local Korean restaurant, and I put up a batch of maki-kimchi, (AKA easy or chopped kimchi). I'm on quite the Korean kick! Does anyone have any other recommended starter Korean recipes I should try?

--Lisa

Lisa,

I'd love to see your Bulgogi recipe. What kind of fruit do you use?

How about kalbi? Costco's boneless short ribs are perfect for kalbi and even for a simple grilling.

Tim

Hi Tim,

I used this recipe on the recommendation of a Korean friend (it doesn't contain any fruit):
http://crazykoreancooking.com/recipe/bu ... ef-sirloin

I liked the fact that it was scalable to my exact amount of meat. She took me shopping to get the "right" pepper paste and flake.

I haven't made kalbi yet, but I love shortribs, so I may have to give it a try. We don't have a Costco membership, so we may have to use bone in shortribs, but that won't be a hardship. DO you have favorite recipe?

--Lisa

Lisa,

I've been using a CIA recipe I found on Epicurious.com. It uses asian pear but I was told to use kiwi fruit to tenderize and flavor. Your recipe look better. Notice that the recipe suggests pineapple to replace sugar with the options of minced korean or bosc pear, rice wine and kiwi.

Tell me about the pepper flakes and paste. There's a really nice Korean grocery in Arlington Heights, Il, about 4 blocks from my son's house. They have Korean sesame oil, soy sauce and rice wine.

That 28 hour television series, "The Grand Chef" got me hooked on Korean beef dishes.

tim

Lisa, my favorite recipe has almost the same ingredients as yours. It calls for less sugar, but has you sprinkle it on the meat before you pound it thin (I've used short ribs and sirloin and round steak, all good). You then massage the meat with the kiwi juice and then add the other stuff to marinate. I've made it without the kiwi, using pear, and the extra steps, and while it was good, the original was great. I'd never thought of marinating a whole bunch and freezing it.

Our Korean friends made wonderful meals for us, but it was a while back so no clue what else was served. I do remember they dug the kimchi up from the back yard. My ex liked it, I could barely tolerate a polite taste. They had something else similar for us lightweights that was really good, wish I had that recipe.

Tim,

Here are the ones I bought. The red pepper is called gochugaru and there are many different brands. I bought the jar because it was the smallest one they had. It is very, very red compared to other dried chilis I have. Gochujang is the pepper paste version. The one I have is the mild version and it is quite palatable for me. She recommended it for a first timer. The little "2" looking character under the other characters on the label is apparently how you tell it is mild. Personally, I would ask someone at the store.

--Lisa

PS I also learned a valuable lesson. When it says "place container of fermenting kimchi in a bowl" that is because it is going to overflow and pour stinky liquid everywhere.

I wish my youngest grandson could come to your house for dinner. He would love to say the names of the food.

fitzie

I wish we all lived close enough to have a supper club! I don't have any friends who are serious foodies down here except one.

--Lisa

I finally got into the kimchi last night. Asher was out, so for dinner I made myself a spring roll with a bit if frozen tuna and a bowl of hot rice and cold kimchi. It was much, much better than my first attempt. Yum.

--Lisa

Lisa,

Virtual Supper Club using Fedex and Google Hangout?