Beef Bulgogi

Questions About Beef Bulgogi

The Method for Beef Bulgogi

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1. Half-freeze the beef for 45 minutes, then slice it as thinly as you can against the grain.

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2. Blend or grate the pear and mix with the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, mirin, garlic, ginger and pepper.

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3. Combine the beef, sliced onion and marinade, massaging it in. Marinate for at least 30 minutes, or up to 8 hours refrigerated.

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4. Heat a heavy pan or griddle over the highest heat until smoking, then add the oil.

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5. Add a single layer of beef, shaking off excess marinade, and leave undisturbed for 60 seconds until the edges char.

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6. Toss for another 60 to 90 seconds until just cooked and caramelised, then remove. Repeat in batches — do not crowd the pan.

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7. Add the spring onions to the last batch for the final 30 seconds.

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8. Serve with rice, lettuce leaves for wrapping, ssamjang and kimchi, and let everyone build their own ssam.

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Related guides: Prep, cook and total time · Choosing rice.

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Worth Getting Right

• Do not marinate longer than 8 hours; the pear enzymes will make the beef mushy.
• A screaming-hot pan and small batches. This is the whole technique.
• Bulgogi is best eaten wrapped in a lettuce leaf with rice and a dab of ssamjang.

Common Substitutions & Variations

• Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
• If you only have ground ginger, a quarter-teaspoon for each tablespoon of fresh is the ratio usually given; it tastes warmer and less bright than the fresh root.
• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

What to Serve With It

Soju, or a cold Korean lager · Serve with rice, kimchi and lettuce for wrapping · Finish with Korean pear

Storage

Refrigerate 3 days, or freeze the raw marinated beef for 2 months. Reheat hard in a hot pan, never a microwave.

What's in a Serving

Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: the marinade or brine is counted in full, though some is discarded; a cooked weight is worked out with raw figures, so those lines run high; part of the energy comes from foods, or weights per item, with no recorded source. How the figures are worked out.

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