A Basic Korean Style Marinade

So I looked around at some of the ingredients I had on hand, and said, "It's Korean week!" And so it was. This marinade was milder than I expected, given the list of ingredients, and the long marinade was important to actually impart the flavour. I used tofu, as the picture shows, and no doubt that contributed to the mildness of the dish. It was good though; and I served it with a few little banchan (side dishes) that provided more in the way of oomph.

I based the recipe on the one I found here, taking into consideration the comments as well. Nobody said it, but I can see this being very good with chicken too. 

It's still winter cooking, but I managed to scrounge a little green onion from the garden. In between snow storms, gahhhhh.

enough marinade for 4 servings
15 minutes prep time
24 to 48 hours marinade time
15 minutes cooking time

1 apple
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons thinly sliced, peeled ginger
3 to 5 cloves of garlic
freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 green onions
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Peel and core the apple, and put it in a blender or food processor with the other ingredients, except the green onions and sesame seeds. Process until smooth.

Use this to marinate about 500 grams (1 pound) of thinly sliced beef (beef ribs are traditional) or tofu. Add the trimmed and very thinly sliced green onions. Marinate the meat or tofu in the fridge for 24 to 48 hours before lifting it out of the marinade and grilling it in a hot pan with a little oil. It will cook quite quickly (I suspect the tofu actually took longer to get a nice crust than it would have taken beef to cook) and pouring anywhere between a quarter cup and all of the marinade into the pan for the last few minutes of cooking, then continue until it cooks down and basically disappears.

Serve with rice.




Last year at this time I made Lion's Head Cabbage Rolls.

Posted in: Ontario Food