We had some young men over for dinner recently. They are living and working in our area serving as missionaries for our church. We as members take turns feeding them and in return we get some special dinner conversations and we believe extra blessings in our home.
The night we ended up having them over for dinner, Joseph and I had both completely forgotten and so were had pawned off the little kids on grandparents after the bigger kids had all made their own plans. 5pm.. Knock... Knock.... We looked at each other with terror in our eyes.
I had been cooking things for the blog for most of the day already, so I had containers and containers of roasted beets, swiss chard for salad, half of a foot long french bread extra meat hoagie.
Joseph too pity on the young men and gave them each a huge slice of the sandwich, I asked them if they liked beets.
They were very kindly interested in what I did and I tried to explain it to them. (It is a little hard to explain) and then we talked about dinners with families. I was very excited to ask them what their moms and dads made for their families that they loved.
One of the young men talked about how much he and his siblings loved tuna noodle casserole growing up. He said his parents weren't too fond of it nowadays, but that he and all his siblings still loved it. He also mentioned that it was a really special meal when his dad would make Korean Bulgogi. His dad also served a mission as a young man and this was something that he learned to make and his family adored it. I made it for my family, and they really really liked it - yours is going to as well.
1 lbs beef rib-eye or tenderloin, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 medium sized onion
2-3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon green onion, chopped
2 tablespoons rice cooking wine
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 cup of grated pear
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds (optional)
Broccoli or carrots, thinly sliced (optional)
Mix everything else but the beef in a bowl or tupperware to make the marinade.
Add the beef and marinate for a few hours or overnight for best results.
Grill, BBQ, or pan-fry until meat is cooked. I cooked mine in small batches in a skillet and 4-5 slices of meat took less than 3 minutes to cook.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve!
notes and variations:
The pear, is what is used to tenderize the meat. You'll read a lot of recipes that use Coke, but try the pear, it is healthy and gives it a really great flavor.
Before you add the beef, taste the marinade to make sure it fits your tastes. Add more sugar or soy sauce to make it sweeter or saltier.
Next time I am going to double or triple the recipe to make a large batch, so we can enjoy it anytime with little prep time involved! We'll just portion it out, and freeze, and thaw overnight when we’ll be eating it the next day.
The quality of the meat is really important! We tried to make this with other types of beef, and it tasted pretty terrible.
Ask your store Butcher where you buy the meat if they can slice it for you. Should be about 1/8 inch.
