If you look through my recipe repertoire, it’ll be no surprise to you that I love Korean food. The combination of flavors and textures, and their general love of condiments and extras (i.e. banchan),are pretty much everything I love in a cuisine. The marinades are sweet, the extras spicy and the combinations never seem to disappoint. Such as it is with this Korean bulgogi stew (bulgogi jungol).
Whenever I go out for Korean food, I can’t help but so often get pulled into the same thing: a love a good bibimbop. The beef, the runny egg, the fresh and fermented veggies plus crunch rice is just…UGH. My favorite! However, recently I stepped outside of my box to get the bulgogi stew, and I’m so glad I did.
I love a good bowl of pho whenever I hit up my local Vietnamese restaurant, especially on these colder days and in these colder times, and this hit the spot in the same way. The methods for this recipe came much from My Korean Kitchen, but I used my own recipe for the beef marinade, which is also used to flavor the beef broth base. Heavy on the veggies, and light on the noodles, I add ready-made kimchi from my favorite local Korean grocery which finished it off perfectly, making it just right. If you want to make your own kimchi, this recipe is really the best.
With Korean Lunar New Year just around the corner (tomorrow!), it seemed like a good time to share my favorite hot-pot recipe with you. Lunar New Year, for those that didn’t know, is the first day in the Korean calendar, and occurs in January or February on the second new moon after the winter solstice. Much like Christmas is in the Christian calendar, Koreans visit family, exchange gifts and have a merry ole time. It also usually falls around Chinese New Year.
Side note: The Super Bowl is coming up next weekend and while I’ve got a goodie coming at you just for that occasion, if you wanted to bring a little Korean flair to your party, I’d suggest these bulgogi beef sheet pan nachos and these sweet & spicy Korean wings. Just a suggestion.
Korean Bulgogi Stew
Korean Bulgogi Stew (Bulgogi Jungol) is a glorious hot pot of marinated beef strips with cabbage, mushrooms, tofu and noodles make for a sweet and savory bowl of comfort.
Ingredients
- 1 pound skirt steak, thinly sliced
- ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
- 2 TB granulated sugar
- 2 TB water
- ½ Asian pear
- ½ yellow onion (about ¼ cup sized)
- 1 TB fresh garlic
- 2 TB sesame oil
- ½ TB grated ginger
- 1 red chili pepper, deseeded and sliced
- 5 ounces extra-firm tofu
- 8 ounces mixed mushrooms
- 4 cups beef broth or stock
- 2 green onions, sliced
- 1 carrot, grated
- 1 handful of dry rice noodles
- ½ head napa cabbage, sliced (about 2 cups)
- 1 cup kimchi, to serve
Directions
- Step 1 To a blender, add the marinade ingredients (soy sauce through ginger) to a blender. Puree until smooth. In a medium bowl, add the marinade and the sliced beef, and mix well to ensure all the beef is coated. Set aside to marinate at last 4 hours, or overnight, in the refrigerator.
- Step 2 When the beef has marinated, remove the beef and set aside, reserving 1 cup of the marinade. In a small saucepan, heat the stock and reserved marinade about 10 minutes until very hot, or just boiling. Remove from the heat.
- Step 3 To a large stock pot or a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, arrange the veggies, noodles and tofu around the edge of the bowl, placing the marinated beef in the center. Pour the warmed stock mixture over the beef and veggies and continue to heat until the beef is completely cooked through. Serve immediately, and serve with extra kimchi.
