Korean barbecue kalbi with ssam jang sauce recipe
This dish is always a serious crowd pleaser. It is best cooked on a charcoal grill but if you don’t have access to one, a grill pan works almost as well. The longer you marinate this beef, the better it will taste. Everyone will be coming back for seconds and thirds and asking you for the recipe. For someone’s first taste of Korean food, this dish is a must and the ingredients are relatively easy to find.
Tip: LA- or flanken-cut short ribs are ribs that are cut into slices across the bone. If you are serving the meat with bones still attached, trim the strip of bones off, then snip the meat into bite-size pieces with kitchen shears. Gnaw on the bones like a true Korean.
Prep time includes two hours of marinating.
Ingredients
- 1 lbs Korean short beef ribs, trimmed and cut thinly into ½cm thick slices
- 2 pears (use a semi-hard sweet variety like conference or barlette) OR 1 Asian pear, peeled and grated
- 3 cloves garlic, grated
- 3.5 tbsp dark brown sugar
- 4 tbsp tablespoons soy sauce
- 2.5 tbsp roasted sesame oil
- 2 tsp grated ginger
- 8 grinds of black pepper (adjust to taste)
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 1 spring onion or scallion, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, grated
- 4.5 tbsp Korean fermented soy bean pasta (dwengjang)
- 3 tbsp roasted sesame seeds
- 2 tbsp Korean chilli paste (gochujang)
- 2 tbsp mirin
- 1.5 tsp roasted sesame oil
- 1 bowl cooked medium-grain white rice
- 1 handful green leaf lettuce leaves
- 1 handful sesame leaves (optional)
Details
- Cuisine: Korean
- Recipe Type: Main
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 140 mins
- Cooking Time: 5 mins
- Serves: 2
Step-by-step
- To make the ssam jang sauce, mix all of the ingredients together. Put in a small bowl and serve later with the kalbi.
- Place the beef into a large re-sealable plastic bag. Add all of the other ingredients and massage into the meat well. Chill and let marinate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.
- Heat up a grill or griddle pan until very hot. Shake off any excess marinade from the meat and grill the beef strips until desired doneness, for rare about 30 seconds each side.
- Serve immediately with white sticky rice, green leaf lettuce, sesame leaves (optional) ssam jang sauce (recipe follows). Place a small scoop of rice, a smear of ssam jang sauce and a piece of beef into a lettuce leaf. Wrap and enjoy.
Judy Joo features in Korean Food Made Simple, which airs at 6.30pm 26th January on Food Network UK Freeview channel 41, Sky 248/250, Freesat 149/151, Virgin 287.
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