In another effort to get out of my cook the same thing over and over again rut, I made another new dish last night. It was Beef Bulgogi from the Everyday Food Cookbook. Mr. Fruitychick and I don't usually cook a lot of asian style dishes; I'm not usually a huge fan of the flavors but this one looked pretty tasty, even to my occassionaly boring and shy tastebuds.

It was surprisingly good and it was done in around 30 minutes. It probably would have been even faster if I had remembered to put the rice in before I did. As for prepping, I ended up dirtying a ridiculous amount of dishes because I put all the marinade into a dish that was way to small to accomodate the amount of beef.

I followed the recipe nearly to the letter, though I opted for serving it over a bed of brown rice rather than the boston lettuce leaves for rolling suggested in the recipe. Next time though, I would probably change a few things: the beef really would have been better if it had spent a little more time in the marinade (like overnight). I'd also add an additional green pepper but thats probably just because I really love peppers.

All in all, its a good winter dish. It calls for green peppers and onions as the only vegetables and those are readily available (if sadly puny in size) throughout the winter. I really liked the combination of garlic and ginger, which really came through in the taste of onions. The rice was a nice touch that really cut the saltiness of the soy sauce in the marinade and the beef was nice and tender.

Mr. Fruitychick loved it and I give it a solid B.

Beef Bulgogi
from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast

Serves 4 in about 30-40 minutes.

1 1/2 Pounds Rib-eye steak, trimmed of excess fat
1/4 cup soy sauce (I used low sodium)
1 tblsp hot chile sesame oil
2 tblsp dark brown sugar
6 garlic cloves, minced (next time, I'll use my garlic press)
1 tblsp finely grated peeled fresh ginger (you can throw this in the garlic press as well)
2 medium red onions, sliced in 1 inch wedges (I did mine a little thinner)
1 green bell pepper, cut in 1/2 inch strips

Vegetable oil
1 head Boston Lettuce (or Brown Rice)

1. Freeze the beef for 20ish minutes; transfer to a clean work surface. Slice across the grain into thin (1/8 inch) slices. In a large bowl (enough to hold all the beef), whisk together the soy sauc, sesme oil, brown sugar, garlic and ginger. Transfer half of the marinade into another bowl and combine with the onions and peppers. Toss the steak with the remaining marinade. Set aside for 15 minutes.

2. Heat 2 tsp of vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high. Add the veggies and cook until softened. Transfer back to the bowl.

3. Add some more oil to the pan and add the beef. Turn often to brown (do this in batches if necessary--dont overcrowd your pan!) Once the beef is browned and cooked through, add the veggies back and toss together.

Serve with lettuce or rice.