Oh, do I have a treat for all of you today! Behold the beauty that is Daeji Bulgogi!
As many of you probably know, I have a certain soft spot for Korean food. Basically, I love it. In fact, I purchased a Korean cookbook earlier this week, and I truly can’t wait for it to arrive. Literally. I can’t wait. That’s why last night I up and cooked myself a wonderful Korean dish â€â€Ã‚ the aforementioned Daeji Bulgogi. Up until about two years ago, I was a strictly beef galbi and beef bulgogi guy at the Korean restaurants (check out this post of me making galbi last summer). Then my friend turned me onto the wonderful world of daeji. For the uninitiated, daeji apparently means “pork,” but if you assumed pork bulgogi is just like regular beef bulgogi, you’d be sorely mistaken. Daeji bulgogi has a completely different marinade. Well, it’s not that different, but you’d certainly never confuse the two.
Anyway, when my friend encouraged me to try daeji bulgogi, I was skeptical that it could be as good as galbi or beef bulgogi. I quickly proven wrong. Daeji bulgogi is the shit (pardon my French), and I think I might even like it more than regular beef bulgogi. Can’t say if it’s better than galbi though. Those are fightin’ words.
More daeji adventures after the jump…
Well, before I start with the photos, I’d like to add that not only is this dish super, super flavorful, but it’s really not that spicy either; so for all of you who fear that I make things a bit too intense, fear not. This was a mild experience. Of course, it could have been made spicier without a problem, and chances are I’ll up the heat quotient in future preparations, but for now, it’s just fine.
Additionally, this dish was exceptionally easy to make. There’s only one tricky part, and that’s procuring red pepper paste (gochujang). This is a Korean condiment that is probably not available at the corner store. If you feel like making this dish, you’ll probably have to go to an Asian market or order it online. Beware though: once you start with the red paste, you may find yourself with a debilitating problem: you’ll want to buy more… and more… and more. IT’S SO DELICIOUS. I just discovered the joys of it last night, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to go without it again. Thankfully, there’s a huge Korean grocery store on Western and 1st in Los Angeles where the red pepper paste is in huge supply. I could do a whole post about the many wonders of the HK Market (as it’s formally known), but as much as I’d like to talk about the $4 whole frozen octopus or the $.350 giant bag of dried shiitake mushrooms, I should probably focus on this dish. (Although, I will say that I emerged from the market having bought seven big lemons, a bundle of scallions, a small bottle of sake, a tub of red pepper paste, a large onion, and over 3.5 pounds of MEAT for only $19).
I didn’t really know how to make daeji bulgogi, but thanks to the many wonders of the Internets, I found several recipes, and after cross-referencing them, they all seemed to be the same. Ultimately, I settled on a recipe by this woman, who gives a neat how-to lesson in a video curiously scored with loud Gay Pride Parade house music:
Click here for the written instructions (in the video sidebar)
Anyway, onto my adventures:
Some of the ingredients to start things off: scallions, a yellow onion (fourteen cents!!!!), a small bottle of sake, and the tub of red pepper paste.
I open the gochujang and discover this charming cartoon warning. I have no idea what it means. Maybe the chef wants to fingerbang something. (That was wrong, and I apologize.)
And for the record, the seal did NOT open easily as the diagram might suggest. A fork was needed.
At last, the red pepper paste is revealed!
It looks like ketchup but could not taste more different. I can’t describe it: spicy, salty, savory. It’s just the best.
Anyway, time to assemble the marinade: soy sauce, sugar, sake, garlic, ginger, gochujang, sesame oil, and sesame seeds.
Mix it in the Magic Bullet, and the marinade is ready!
I then chop up my fourteen cent onion and drop it in a bowl with three chopped scallions.
Next I thinly slice up a pound of pork, add it to the bowl, add the marinade, and then mix it all up with my hands. Understandably, I was unable to take pics during this process.
I then let the meat marinate for an hour. I start up some rice in the meantime.
After watching The Real Housewives of New York City, I return to my kitchen and take the pork out of the fridge. Smells great and intense.
I could grill the meat, but I don’t feel like dealing with the cleanup on my fake Foreman Grill. Instead, I heat a wok up on high and then add the meat.
This was actually a better method because my wok gets hotter than my grill, I believe, and so the entire cooking process was startlingly brief.
Four or five minutes later, my pork was done!
Well worth the trip to Koreatown.
The verdict? Aw-sum. Actually, let me qualify that: aw-sum for a home cook making it for the first time. Overall, the dish was super delicious. There were only two minor problems. A) It was apparent that the pork had only marinated for an hour. It was super flavorful but didn’t have that thoroughly intoxicating quality that comes from meat that’s been marinating for hours on end. B) Whenever I’ve had this dish in a restaurant, there’s been a good amount of liquid involved. However, since I didn’t put the whole batch of pork into the wok (saving some for tonight), a lot of the marinade stayed in the bowl, which made this version a bit dryer. Not saying the meat was dry â€â€Ã‚ just the overall style of the final dish. This was a very minor quibble though, and tonight, when I cook the second half of the meat, I’m sure both of these issues will be totally moot.
Anyway, if you have access to the gochujang, definitely buy some and try this dish. It’s a total fast and tasty dinner.