Korean Christmas Cuisine

For this post I decided to make long overdue Korean food, one of my all time favorites. I figured it was about time I explored the rich history, culture and culinary traditions of Korea. During the holidays, there’s always an overflow of breads, cookies, and cakes in our house. So for this meal I decided to switch it up a little bit and add some much needed spice. Korea is known for its sweet and spicy flavors and masterful preparation. The three dishes I decided to cook were bibimbap, beef bulgogi, and spinach salad.

When deciding what to cook, bibimbap was an obvious choice. Not only is bibimbap a widely popular Korean dish, my mother is also obsessed with it. It's one of her favorite foods and I knew I had to try my own hand at it. Over Thanksgiving break my family and I went to a Korean restaurant and had delicious barbecue. Ever since I’d been thinking about the mouth watering bulgogi and had to have another taste. As for the spinach salad, I knew I needed a lighter element to the meal after the bulgogi, and a salad seemed like the perfect choice.

This meal was a little different than others I have made. Bibimbap and beef bulgogi are both amazing stand-alone dishes; so I knew I had to prepare the meal a little differently if I wanted to serve them together. I decided to make a central dish out of bibimbap with bulgogi and the spinach salad as elements of a cohesive meal.

BEEF BULGOGI

Origin:

The origins of beef in Korean cooking goes thousands of years back, all the way back to the Goguryeo era (from the first century BCE to the 7th century CE). The preparation of thinly sliced and marinated beef is thought to have evolved from Neobiani, a soupy beef dish that is often compared to bulgogi. Neobiani was known amongst the nobility and the wealthy as a Korean delicacy. Bulgogi is prepared pretty similarly to neobiani. However, the main difference lies in the cooking style and marinade. Bulgogi gained popularity in Korea around the 1920s with the increased availability of beef. Japanese rule over Korea (1910-1945) caused acute beef shortages in the country, and subsequently, the popularity of bulgogi decreased with it. However, following the Korean independence movement, it quickly made a return to the Korean palette and grew even more in popularity.

Bulgogi arrived in the US through the immigration of Koreans. It has quickly become a staple in the Korean restaurants in the US, alongside other popular Korean dishes such as kimchi. Today, bulgogi is typically served alongside other meats prepared in Korean style, with an array of marinated and grilled meats and known as “Korean barbecue”.

Process:

In our household, we rarely cook with beef, however, knowing just how much my family and I craved beef bulgogi, we decided to make an exception.

I started the preparation by freezing the beef for about an hour so it became firm. Once it reached the desired texture, I cut the beef into ⅛” thick pieces, the perfect size for cooking. While the beef was freezing, I prepared the marinade. Bulgogi is known for its sweet and complex flavor, all thanks to the marinade made up of Asian pear, ginger, and onions. I combined these ingredients in a blender until they formed a smooth, thick paste and set the marinade aside. When I had finished cutting the meat into thin slices, I slathered it with the paste and popped it into the refrigerator so it could truly soak in the flavors of the marinade.

After about half an hour, I took out the meat and slid the mixture into a pan to cook. I quickly realized I had made too much marinade, and had to spoon some out of the pan so as to not overwhelm the taste of the meat. Once the meat had browned on all sides, I took out a piece and cut into it to check if the meat had been cooked all the way through. Once it passed the test, I took out the bulgogi, sprinkled it with chopped scallions and toasted sesame seeds and set it aside to serve!

Taste:

Beef bulgogi is one of my all-time favorite dishes, so I had high expectations. Luckily, it passed the test! The bulgogi was delicious, with a wonderful balance from the flavors of the meat combined with the marinade. However, if I could change anything about the cooking process, I would let the meet marinate longer. Because I wanted to serve the dinner soon, I marinated the meat for just half an hour. This led to the meat being a little bland and underwhelming. In the future, I would leave the beef to marinate overnight so it could truly soak in the flavors of the marinade.

SIGEUMICHI NAMUL

Origin:

Namul is a popular vegetable side dish in Korea, consisting of seasoned vegetables. Vegetables are typically fried or steamed and dressed with sesame oil, soy sauce, and sesame seeds. Namul can be served alone, or it can be incorporated into other dishes. There are many variations of namul, such as sukju namul (made from bean sprouts) and the popular sigeumchi namul (made from spinach) that I made for this meal.

Process:

I started off by preparing the spinach. I thoroughly washed the spinach and cut the red roots off, leaving only the leaves and stems for cooking. I then blanched the spinach leaves by boiling around 10 cups of water in a large pot and submerging the spinach leaves in it. After a minute or so, I took out the leaves and dunked them in ice-cold water. I then took out the spinach, wrung out the water and cut it up into bite-sized pieces. Finally I mixed the bite-sized pieces with garlic and soy sauce and sprinkeled sesame oil, green onion and toasted sesame seeds on top and set it aside in a bowl to serve

Taste:

The taste of the sigeumchi namul reminded me of sag, a Nepali spinach dish that I’d had growing up. It was a little bitter, but not unlikable. It was a perfect accompaniment alongside bulgogi and the other ingredients of the bibimbap and mixed in well with the egg and beef.

BIBIMBAP

Origin:

Korean culture is based around the idea of balance. Korean cuisine is divided into five “elements”. Tastes correlate to five elements: fire as bitter taste, wood as sour, water as salty, metal as spicy, and earth as sweet. Bibimbap is the perfect balance of these elements. The spinach signifies the bitter taste (fire), the gochujang sauce is both sour and spicy (wood and metal), the bulgogi and egg are salty (water), and the sauce, carrots, and bulgogi all have sweetness in them (earth). On top of the flavor balance, it also needs five-color balance. The five colors being green, red, yellow, white, and black. The green came from spinach and cucumbers, red from the gochujang sauce, yellow from egg yolk, white from egg white, and black from mushrooms (although they could be classified as brown as well).

Bibimbap is widely popular internationally as well. The original concept of bibimbap is simple. Bibimbap means “mixed rice”, and in basic terms, that defines the dish well. However, bibimbap is never boring because there are so many variations. It can be stripped down to rice and vegetables. However, the ingredients in bibimbap are up to the chef (and in my case whatever we had in our refrigerator). Typically vegetables (or namul), eggs, meat, etc. are included in the mix, but with the evolution of bibimbap, the dish can redefine itself every time it is served.

Process:

Overall, the bibimbap took the longest to make because there were so many elements involved in the preparation and each had to be prepared separately. I started off by cutting up vegetables. I decided to use cucumbers and carrots, so I cut them up and set them aside. I also soaked dried shiitake mushrooms in hot water for a couple hours and cut them into matchsticks. Then I cooked bean sprouts, an essential ingredient in Korean cooking. Lastly, I incorporated the namul from earlier.

After the vegetables, I prepared rice. In Asian cooking, for presentation, rice is typically formed into a domed “half-sphere” shape to serve. To achieve this shape I molded the rice into small metal bowls and packed the rice together so it would stay in shape. I then popped out the rice into the center of the bibimbap bowls and organized the vegetables around it.

Once the vegetables had been organized around the rice, there wasn’t much room for the other ingredients that I had prepared, so I decided to make another layer for the additional toppings.

I layered the bulgogi over the vegetables and sliced up a quarter of an avocado for each bowl. I then fried an egg for each bowl and placed it over the top layer.

We always have a jar of homemade bibimbap sauce in our refrigerator. I had helped my mother make some the day before, which came in handy for our dinner. I drizzled some over the rice, vegetables, bulgogi and eggs, sprinkled it with green onion and sesame seeds, and served.

Taste:

I loved the bibimbap, the flavors combining beautifully to make a filling and delicious dinner. The flavorful bulgogi and egg balanced out the more bland vegetables and rice, and when all of the ingredients were mixed together, they made the perfect late dinner. My favorite part was the second layer of toppings. They were warm and flavorful and left me feeling satisfied and proud of the time I spent in the kitchen.

Although it was delicious, I realized that I did forget one big thing. I completely forgot about sauteing the vegetables. The Bibimbap tasted fresh with crunchy cucumbers and carrots, but the mushrooms would have acquired a whole new flavor if I had remembered to saute them first.