Pan-cooked beef salad (Sogogi chapssal-gui: 소고기 찹쌀구이)

The weather is getting warmer so I want to introduce you to a great beef dish for summertime: pan-cooked beef salad (Sogogi chapssal-gui: 소고기 찹쌀구이). It’s good for summer because you don’t serve it hot, it’s best at room temperature or cold.

This is usually a pretty fancy dish you serve to guests, but I simplified it here to its best parts. When I lived in Korea my friend Sun-Nam told me all about how she likes to make and serve this dish. Her way was similar to bibimbap where in the middle of a platter was the pan-cooked beef, surrounded by colorful ingredients arranged around it: carrot, cucumber, pear, and gyeran-jidan (lightly fried separated egg whites and yolks sliced into elegant strips) among them. It was served with traditional spicy Korean mustard garlic sauce (gyeoja-maneul jang). This sauce is very distinctive and special and you can use it in a lot of other places too, either as a dipping sauce or a salad dressing. It has a great kick!

In my version of this dish I keep the most important and delicious parts: the pan-cooked beef coated in sticky glutinous rice flour (which gives it a bit of a rice cake texture), the white, crispy Korean pear cut into matchsticks, and of course that traditional Korean mustard garlic sauce. This cuts down on the labor of preparing all those other ingredients and these three go so well together they are the best parts of the dish! To give it a nice visual and because I love pine nuts, I sprinkle some roughly-ground pine nuts over top. You can use a smaller amount if you want, or skip them.

You can also substitute cucumber for Korean pear, and use packaged, pre-cut beef for bulgogi from a Korean grocery store instead of slicing your own.

We often serve this dish as anju (a side dish to alcohol), as party food for the family, or when guests come over. It’s pretty easy to make and still feels and tastes special. I hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients

Serves 4

For the gyeoja-maneul jang sauce:

For the beef salad:

For garnish (optional)

• ¼ cup pine nuts, tips removed and minced
• 7 ginkgo nuts, stir-fried for 1 minute with a little bit of cooking oil until they turn green or golden

Directions

Make gyeoja-maneul jang sauce:

1. Combine the mustard powder and warm water in a small bowl and mix well. Let it sit for 5 minutes until the mustard powder’s spicy flavor is well activated.
2. Place the garlic, vinegar, salt, and apple into a food processor and puree. Add to the mustard mixture and stir in the honey and sesame oil.
3. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Prepare the beef:

1. Cut the beef into very thin 3-by-1 inch pieces. You should get about 30 to 35 pieces. Spread out the slices on the cutting board.
2. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper evenly over the fillets. Drizzle the sesame oil over top and lightly massage with both hands to spread evenly. Season only the top of the beef; no need to flip the fillets over.
3. Sprinkle the glutinous rice flour over top of the beef fillets. Flip them over and sprinkle more rice flour to coat both sides.

Cook the beef:

• Heat up a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add about 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (or any cooking oil) and swirl to coat the skillet.
• Place the beef fillets on to the skillet one by one. Cook for about 1 minute, just until they are no longer pink and are  light brown. Turn them over and cook for another minute.
• Transfer to a plate one by one. Wipe off the skillet with a paper towel and repeat with the rest of the beef pieces and vegetable oil.

Put it together:

1. Place the cooked beef on a large plate (or platter). Peel and core the pear, and cut into matchsticks. Add them to the plate next to the beef.
2. Sprinkle with pine nuts and ginkgo nuts (if used), and serve with the mustard garlic sauce in a separate bowl on the side.

How to eat:

You can serve in 2 ways.

1. Mixing all together
   Drizzle the sauce all over the beef and with chopsticks or tongs gently mix it together with the pear. Portion some out to everyone in individual plates.
2. Portion by portion
   Set out a small spoon for the mustard sauce and a series a small plates for everyone. With chopsticks each person takes a single piece of beef, adds some of the pear, and drizzles some mustard sauce over top. Roll up or fold over the beef with the pear and sauce inside and eat. Then make another one.