Korean beef shish kebabs

We first experimented with this recipe a few weeks ago.  We didn't have much to eat in the house except a frozen steak, and on our daily "what should we do for supper?" phone call, I told Slim to pull it out, chop it into chunks, and I'd figure out something to marinate it in. 

 

I don't have a lot of experience with red meat:  Slim likes to buy steak once in a while, and he takes care of cooking it.  I'll eat a bit of it-- off the end, the overcooked bit-- but I'm usually happy to focus on whatever else we're eating (Potatoes, usually.  Salad.) Anyway, chicken, I know:  A little olive oil, a little garlic, something to tenderize ... some lemon or lime, usually.  Maybe a little paprika, maybe not.  Beef, I don't know, and so if I'm throwing something together I usually end up focusing on soy sauce-based marinades.  I found this recipe searching for "beef marinade" on epicurious.

Some things that I noted: 

• I misread the recipe, at first, and used rice vinegar instead of rice wine (saki).  D'oh!  But d'you know what?  It was delicious, and I haven't gone back. 

• The recipe calls for kalbi, which I haven't bought since President's Choice (seems to have) stopped selling them.  They still sell the Korean marinade, though, which I guess is essentially what this recipe is for.  It makes me happy to find a(n easy) recipe that tastes just as good as a store-bought one full of ... I don't know, preservatives and other things we're supposed to avoid if we can.  The marinade worked just fine with chunks of steak.

• The original recipe also calls for a pureed kiwi, which is supposed to tenderize the meat along with the marinade.  (I see that other recipes, like this one, are fruity too.) I generally don't have kiwis sitting around my fridge (No reason.  We just gravitate towards limes and apples and sometimes grapes as our go-to fruit.) so I skipped that part, and it was fine. 

• I did sprinkle the meat with brown sugar, though, which is new for me.  I don't know what the sugar does that it couldn't do from within the marinade, but I'm happy to go along with it. 

• I have no idea how many pounds of beef I used.  The original recipe calls for 1 pound. 

Korean Barbequed Beef Marinade

 Found at epicurious, and originally excerpted from Dok Suni: Recipes From My Mother's Korean Kitchen, by Jenny Kwak

• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons crushed garlic
• 1 tablespoon rice wine (sake)
• Pinch of black pepper

Sprinkle the sugar on the beef, and let sit for 10 minutes.  Throw the marinade over the beef, and let it marinate for ... well, the recipe says 2 hours, but 15 minutes is just fine, if that's all you've got.  (If you're going to try the kiwi-- and please let me know if you do!-- you'd "massage" the beef with it before adding the marinade.

I skewered the beef-- along with red peppers-- and Slim barbequed them.  We ate it with barbequed potatoes.

I mean, look at how easy this recipe is:  2 teaspoons of nearly everything.  Last time I made it, Bee was hogging my laptop, playing computer games.  I grabbed it, scanned the recipe, and made it "blind".  Seriously - you can't forget this recipe.  Next time you're trying to think of a marinade recipe, all you need to remember is soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic and brown sugar.  Wanna' bet you could substitute white vinegar if you had to?  Or white sugar instead of brown?  (I actually have no idea if that would be a good idea, but it seems logical to me.)

Comments

[Amina]

FYI- This recipe works well even if you A) Don't read it all the way through and add the brown sugar to the marinade instead of massaging it into the beef B) You don't even have the energy to put the meat and peppers onto kebab sticks so you just make a stir fry and C) you don't have a bbq anyway. Thanks Alisa! 2 of 3 children ate it.

PS Did I ask you about Anzac cookies and that's why you found them??? You rule!