South Korea | Beef Bulgogi

CLICK HERE FOR THE RECIPE I USED

I have heard great things about South Korean food but haven’t really had the opportunity to try any. This meant I had a lot of options to choose from when it came to finding a recipe this time around!

I opted to go with Beef Bulgogi because the odds were good that I would be able to find everything I would need to make it at our local grocery store. I did have to substitute a Bartlett pear for an Asian pear but tried to make up for it by using a Honeycrisp apple for the bulgogi sauce. The internet described an Asian pear as tasting kind of like a Honeycrisp apple with floral notes. I really didn’t know what to use to get floral notes so I probably didn’t get the full bulgogi experience but I was able to get everything else.

The sauce took some effort to make and it made a lot more than I needed for one meal. I grated the apple and pear before adding them to the blender with the other ingredients because I thought they would blend better than if I just threw in chunks of apple and pear. My blender doesn’t break things down as much as I would like it to so I try to help it out where I can. (I dream of a Vitamix, one day.) I ended up with a nice smooth, though slightly thicker than I expected, sauce.

I marinated the beef in the bulgogi sauce for about 8 hours. Luckily, I was able to find very thinly-cut steak at the grocery store and I didn’t have cut it up myself, yay! Once everything is marinated, you just throw it in your wok and cook it until done.

It was really tasty! I ate it over rice because I love rice but I think it would be great in a lettuce wrap too! The flavor profile is right up my alley so this is really an ideal meal for me.

Would I make it again? Yes, and probably very soon!

(I have a jar of bulgogi sauce in the fridge that I will not let go to waste.)

I completely forgot to take a picture of the finished product but it looked like the finished product on the linked site.