Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Koreanmex tacos

So my  NYC foodie friend Christine called me when I was visiting California. She was raving about my friend's Korean tacos (that is, my friend from California had made Christine Korean tacos once. She didn't cook it for me during my stay in California!) Well, after she told me about it, I made Shua tell me the recipe as I was flying back that same hour to Japan. The whole way home on the plane, I was thinking about the yummy Korean tacos. When I got home, the very next day, I headed out to the nearest grocer,  and cooked away. It was so easy, and so good. My friend got the recipe from another blogger, Week of Menus, I took the recipe and tweaked it since I didn't have some of the ingredients she called for. Well leftovers were eaten up the very next day, we made it like chips and salsa. It was so good. Before you read the recipe, just look at these pictures! Yummmm-O!

The hardest part of this recipe is the meat, but easy to make once you get the hang of it:

Bulgogi
3-4 lbs of rump roast thinly sliced like sukiyaki style. Ask your butcher ( If you don't have rump roast, just get sukiyaki beef.)

15 cloves of garlic, peeled, throw it in a small food processor, and chop it finely.
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of Karo Syrup
1/2 cup of soy sauce
1/4 cup of sesame oil
2 Tablespoon of mirin (sweet wine vinegar) ( if you don't have it, it's okay, you can use sake, or white wine)
1/4 cup of scallions finely chopped.

Combine and whisk everything in a bowl except the scallions
 The meat should be a bit sweet, and salty. 

Soak the meat in cold water in a bowl for 2-8 hours. Overnight is best.
Squeeze out all excess water,  throw in the marinade and work it through the folds of the meat and let it marinade 2-5 hours.

Set an iron skillet on high, once heated, cook the meat in parts, (3-4 parts) allowing the cooked meat sitting on another plate as you are cooking  the rest of the  batch. Make sure to immediately turn the flame down to medium once you put the meat on the iron skillet. Saute them and work quickly to cook them, add the scallions in the end, set aside.



Here is the Spicy cucumber relish (originally with cilantro) but my husband hates cilantro, I took it out.

Sesame Chili Sauce (week of menu recipe),

2 tablespoon of ggochu-garu (red pepper flakes, if you live in a small town and you can't get the Korean red pepper flakes, I would use cayenne)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1teaspoon of brown sugar

Mix all ingredients together. Set aside.


Ginger Cabbage Slaw (first picture , top )
6 cups of red cabbage, shredded. (about 1/2 a head of a good sized cabbage)
1/4 cup of red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup of scallions chopped

Dressing
1/4 cup vegetable oil ( I used grapeseed oil)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 tablespoon honey (I used agave nectar)
1 teaspoon salt
1-2 tablespoon grated fresh ginger 
Pepper to taste

Whisk ingredients of dressing all together. Place the cabbage, onions and scallions in a bowl. 15 minutes before serving, pour dressing over salad and toss.

Now add the meat on the bottom, cucumber relish and top it off with the slaw! Yummy!



Leftovers next day! note: I added cilantro here and Trader Joe's roasted corn (comes in a glass jar!) Ok, so, my friend from CA gave it to me and I flew it back to Japan.