Well, when Grant decides to do something, he goes for it! When I asked him what he wanted to learn to cook first, his choice (without hesitation) was Beef Bulgogi. WHAT?????
This summer I found the most interesting cookbook! Heirloom Kitchen is all about immigrant women and the recipes that they love from their homelands. It is filled with amazing stories and delicious recipes. One of the recipes I tried from the book is called Beef Bulgogi (Grilled Ribeye). Grant loved it and has requested it several times since.
As any good cook will tell you (or at least I think they would), a recipe is a great starting point. With baking, you must be more precise to follow the directions, but cooking? Well, I always approach a recipe with a hm....that sounds good. I wonder what would happen if I.....? So, that is how I'm going to teach Grant to cook.
I hope to help him develop a curiosity for
recipes, and how to make them his own.
We read over the ingredients, making sure we had everything we need, and set out to prepare dinner. He wanted all the ingredients on the counter - ready to use and so that is what we did. (I don't usually do this when I'm cooking! But I do see the value...) We also read over the instructions, discussing what we might want to adjust. The actual recipe calls for more sugar than we wanted to use, so we made our decision to cut out a 1/3 of the recipe suggestion.
The recipe calls for toasted sesame seeds, so we began there. As Grant was shaking the pan gently to keep them from burning, he mentioned that one day flipping them in the pan would be fun. I took the pan from him and did it. He decided to try as well....he was a bit gingerly at first, and it's a good thing! He could easily see that with much more gusto we'd be cleaning up sesame seeds from the floor for a week! He decided that skill would be developed at a later date.
After crushing the toasted seeds, we progressed to measuring out the ingredients needed for the marinade. Once we were ready, the garlic mincing began. I taught Grant that the easiest way to peel garlic is to lay your knife flat over it and whack it with the base of your hand. It crushes it slightly, and the peel comes right off. Then we practiced using a rocking motion to CAREFULLY slice the garlic and continue cutting until it was minced. He did great! A tip I gave him was that it is important to choose the heaviest garlic in the grocery store. If you pick it up and it is light, put it back. The heavier head will be fresher.
After the garlic, it was time to work with scallions. He learned to wash them and then slice them carefully. So far - a success!
Next, we began working with the Ribeye. This was a great time to discuss contamination of cutting boards and the importance of keeping everything clean. Grant cut off the bone from the steak and learned to cut across the grain for slices. I reassured him that while it made the steak easier and more tender to chew, he does not need to get caught up in doing everything perfectly as a beginner. There is JOY in cooking and making food for those you care about - even if you don't know all the ins and outs of cooking. And then I gave him another tip! When you want to slice beef easily, put it in the freezer for about 15 - 20 minutes and then the slicing will be so much easier.
Once he had made the marinade and sliced the beef, it was time to put it in a resealable bag to marinate. I shared with him that the extra air should be taken out of the bag to ensure the marinade gets into the meat. Forty-five minutes passed, and we were ready to begin making the rice and broccoli to go along with our Beef Bulgogi.
Making rice was the next step and it is so easy! Grant learned how to use our rice cooker (which I LOVE because I can make a ton of rice when I have a large group of people over for dinner). I taught him to check to be sure no little rocks are in the rice - and l'm glad I did because he found one! He learned to rinse the rice to remove excess starch and as expected, it came out perfectly. Heating the broccoli may have been the easiest part of dinner, but we needed a yummy veggie!
"There is JOY in cooking and making food for those you care about
- even if you don't know all the ins and outs of cooking."
The next thing that had to happen was to cook the bulgogi. Grant was a super star! He heated up the grill pan (which we love to use when cooking inside). We discussed how important it is to have the pan nice and hot before adding the meat. He carefully placed piece after piece of marinated ribeye on the grill. He paid close attention and turned each piece as it was ready - he could tell because the grill marks were present and it was losing the deep red color.
After he cooked a few batches, I had him use a paper towel to clean off the caramelized pieces of marinade that were beginning to stick to the pan and then he finished up the batches. Finally, he poured the remaining marinade in the pan and cooked it before adding to the already cooked steak. It is important to never pour uncooked marinade on foods that have had raw meat/poultry marinating in them. I wanted to be sure he knew this important tip!
Wow. Just wow. The results were AWESOME! I would have to say that Grant's first attempt at making Beef Bulgogi couldn't have gone better. He was very pleased and I was so proud of him.
Here is how we made the Beef Bulgogi:
1/3 cup soy sauce
4 TBSP sugar
1/4 cup mirin
2 TBSP sesame oil
2 TBSP crushed toasted sesame seeds
3/4 tsp. black pepper
2 TBSP minced garlic
3/4 cup sliced scallions
2 pounds of thinly sliced ribeye
Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan. Crush with a glass to release oils. Add soy sauce, sugar, mirin, sesame oil, pepper, garlic, and scallions. Stir marinade til sugar dissolves. Thinly slice the ribeye steak and place in a resealable bag. Pour marinade over steak and marinade for 45 - 60 minutes. Heat a grill pan and grill each piece until done. Remove into a dish and repeat with remaining steak in marinade. When finished cooking pieces, pour marinade into pan and cook until slightly reduced. Pour over cooked steak. Enjoy!
*We adapted the recipe from the Heirloom Kitchen cookbook - which I highly recommend if you like stories, pictures, and amazing recipes!
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