Because the only prep work required for this recipe is throwing some ingredients in a bowl, I didn't do a mise en place photo this time around. Please forgive me this indiscretion! :) For the marinade, you'll need:
4 green onions, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons sugar
3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled, cut into thin rounds
2/3 cup soy sauce
2/3 cup mirin (sweet Japanese rice wine)
1/3 cup Asian sesame oil
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 boned butterflied leg of lamb, trimmed of excess fat (about 5 1/2 pounds)
(I used a leg of lamb that weighed less, since it was only two of us eating)
Now, I know that looks like a lot of ingredients for a marinade but this is pretty simple. Just throw the green onions, sugar, garlic cloves, and ginger into a food processor and blast 'em until finely chopped. You might have to use a spoon or spatula to push down the sides a few times. Once its all chopped up, transfer this mixture to a bowl and add the soy sauce, mirin, sesame oil, sesame seeds and black pepper. Whisk this all together and pour half of it into a container long enough for the lamb to lay flat. Add the lamb to this mixture and flip it around a little bit to coat. Then pour the second half of the marinade over the top. Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours up to one day, which means you can do this one night, let it marinade over night for a week night dinner too!
Okay, so let's fast forward a bunch of hours to dinner-time! I pulled this out of the fridge and got ready to start the rest of the prep work. My husband helped me out tonight by manning the grill outside while I got the rest of dinner together. As he left our apartment for the downstairs patio, I put the sticky rice in my rice cooker
, and hit the "cook" button. I then turned my attention to the Asian Pear Dipping Sauce, which proved to be just as easy as the marinade, with almost as many ingredients. You'll need:
, and hit the "cook" button. I then turned my attention to the Asian Pear Dipping Sauce, which proved to be just as easy as the marinade, with almost as many ingredients. You'll need:1 cup chopped, peeled, cored Asian Pear (about 1/2 large)
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup mirin (sweet Japanese rice wine)
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons Asian sesame oil
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
For the sauce, add the pear and green onions to a food processor and pulse until it turns into a smooth puree. Once that happens, add the soy sauce, mirin, and sugar, and pulse until the sugar is incorporated. Add the sesame oil and pulse again until the oil blends with the mixture. Once the sauce was finished, I put some Korean appetizers into bowls (marinated, pickled cucumbers and a daikon, carrot slaw - both purchased at H-Mart). I also put some Korean red pepper paste into a bowl.
When I knew that the lamb was almost done, and the rice cooker had clicked to let me know the rice was ready to go, I separated the leaves from a head of butter lettuce (for making little wraps) and cut up some jalapenos and garlic cloves to grill for garnish, along with some green onions. We threw those on the grill in a little basket (I didn't have the skewers called for in the recipe) towards the end of the lamb's cooking. (If you decide to go with the same size lamb leg that the recipe calls for, then cook it for about 20 minutes per side, but if you go for a smaller size, you'll have to experiment. We put it on for 10 minutes each side, and it wasn't cooked through - so we cooked it another 10 minutes...we probably could have gone a few minutes less, for a pinker center)
Once the lamb was done, I sliced it all up, and plated it along with the charred green onions, roasted garlic cloves and grilled jalapeno halves. Each of our plates got a scoop of sticky rice and we were ready to eat!
Now, bulgogi can be eaten any way you would like, but my favorite way, and the way they serve it in Korean BBQ restaurants is as follows: Take a lettuce cup and add a little bit of rice. On top of the rice, put a slice or two of meat and top with some red pepper paste. At this point, you can add some of that garlic, or a jalapeno, or a charred scallion - whatever your little heart desires. Roll it all up like a little Korean taco, dip it in that Asian Pear Dipping Sauce and take a nice big bite! Add some of those Korean appetizers to your plate for a nice side to your bulgogi.
Yummy! :)
looks YUMMY!
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