When Challenge #2 was posted for the Next Food Blog star I knew exactly what I would be making, an authentic Korean dish. We have three people in our lives that have a passion for sharing Korean food. I thought it would be a great way to honor those friendships by trying to recreate a authentic Korean dish to celebrate all the wonderful flavors and culture. The last time we were in Chicago our friend Ivy, who grew up in Korea, spent the afternoon making us her favorite Korean dish and telling us stories about the food. Ivy made a traditional beef dish called Bul Go Gi that had sirloin, apples, onions with just a hint of sweetness. It was so tender and flavorful and I knew I needed to make something just like that!
I immediately contacted my friend Cathy for a recommendation on some website and her favorite dishes and I came across Korean Spicy Marinated Pork or Dae Ji Bool Gogi and figured I would find a dish that I could pull off and that would have those strong flavors that reminded me of other dishes that I have tried. Korean food is known for spices, fermented paste, meat, salad and a main course of meat with lots of small side dishes. They focus on using fresh local with lots of heat. Most of the ingredients were at my local grocery store but I did to head to an Asian market to find the Gochujang and when you have no idea what you are looking for and most of the labels were not in English it was a bit of a struggle. But we were able to find the hot pepper paste and it had quite the strong smell.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/2 cup gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)
- 3 tablespoons minced garlic
- 3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger root
- 2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 3 tablespoons white sugar
- 3 green onions, cut into 2 inch pieces
- 1/2 yellow onion, cut into 1/4-inch thick rings
- 1 (2 pound) pork loin, cut into 1/4 inch slices
- 1/4 cup canola oil
Directions
- Stir together the vinegar, soy sauce, hot pepper paste, garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, black pepper, sugar, green onions, and yellow onion in a large bowl. Mix in the pork slices, mixing well until completely coated. Place into a re-sealable plastic bag, squeeze out any excess air, seal, and marinate in the refrigerator at least 3 hours.
- Heat the canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork slices in batches, and cook until no longer pink in the center, and lightly browned on the outside, about 4-5 minutes per batch.
Clifford really wanted to be involved in the taste testing and cooking, he was walking around the kitchen sniffing all the great aroma’s. We invited our neighbors over and their two kids to be our official taste testers. I figured if two kids would eat the Dae Ji Bool Gogi then we had a winner!
Cathy recommend serving the dish with rice, salad and fresh veggies. I cooked up some brown rice, you know I had to make it just a bit healthier! The salad was organic mixed greens, broccoli, snow peas, carrots, dried cranberries, and some shaved parmesan on top. Even the kids had salad 
Some French cut green beans drizzled with just a bit of sesame oil were the veggie of choice for the evening.
The six of us sat down to try the Dae Ji Bool Gogi and to my surprise everyone liked it! Matthew had 4 pieces and even Gabby had 2, I was impressed with the kids willingness to try something new. The pork had a nice spicy flavor, it was very juicy from marinated for 6 hours and the nice good sear helped even more. We will definitely be making this again. I bet the Cathy and Ivy would really like this dish. Maybe next time they are over for dinner I will surprise them with my new found Korean cooking skills.
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