A Week of Sandwiches: Bulgogi Sandwich

Bulgogi is Korean for grilled, marinated meat, but what makes it distinctly Korean is the delicious marinade.  It is easy to make, and I highly recommend it.  

We mixed up this marinade one evening last week and then let it do it's thing overnight.

Pork Bulgogi

(Serves 2)

Very thinly sliced pork (approx. 1 lb) (*easier to slice when partially frozen)
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 T sesame oil
3 T white sugar
1/2 Korean pear, peeled and chopped (or regular if you can't find Korean)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 white onion, minced
2 green onions, with white parts, thinly sliced
2 T sesame seeds
1/4 tsp Korean red pepper flakes
2 pinches black pepper
1 tsp ginger, minced

Marinate overnight.  Grill or fry in sesame oil on medium heat when ready to eat.

Since we are living on sandwiches these days, we used this pork to make bulgogi sandwiches.  In addition to the pork and bun, we also put Gochujang on it for the sauce (you buy this as a paste in any Korean aisle or grocery store ... you can add water to thin it if desired), and a Korean coleslaw.

Korean Coleslaw

(Serves 2)

1/4 cup kimchi, pureed
1.5 T vegetable oil
1.5 T rice vinegar
1 T soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp white sugar
1/8 of head of napa cabbage, grated (regular is fine too)
1/2 Korean pear, julienned
1/3 cucumber, julienned
1/4 cup kimchi, chopped

Toss together.  Amounts of veggies are estimates, and don't really matter - the sauce makes it :-)

The smell of the meat cooking was incredible, and it tasted even better than it smelled.  It was very tender, and paired perfectly with the slaw.  We used a very soft bun, and Gochujang as the sauce. 

This sandwich has a party of flavours going on!  We had enough filling for 1 sandwich leftover and it was just as good the next day for breakfast ;-)

Have you ever had bulgogi?  A bulgogi sandwich?

 If you were going to eat variations of one type of dish for a week, what would you choose? (soup? salad? macaroni?)