Korean Barbecued Beef Lettuce Wraps

My husband is a real lover of meat and potatoes, in a way that I simply am not.  Don’t get me wrong.  If my day includes a hamburger – cooked rare, as god intended – then that is a very good day in my book.  But weeks can go by without red meat, and I don’t feel an absence; there’s too much other stuff to eat to miss it at all.

 Even still, meat hits the dinner rotation slightly more than I would otherwise choose, so I try to come up with new ways to cook it.  It’s spring now, and the days have been getting warmer, so I thought maybe I could make steak lighter.  (Which is an oxymoron, I know, but somehow it all made sense to me at the time.)

 That’s when I thought of bulgogi – it’s a Korean steak dish, where the beef is very thinly sliced, marinated in a chili-soy combo, grilled, and served in lettuce wraps.  (It was the lettuce wrap that was responsible for my thinking I could make steak “light.”)  Usually there is a Korean chili paste called Kochuchang along for the ride, as well as kimchi, and any number of other condiments.

 I kept it pretty simple, though.  My supermarket had tenderloin on sale so I used that, but you could easily use sirloin steak, or flank steak, or whatever looks amenable to tenderizing in a soy bath.  I stuck the steak in the freezer for about an hour, to make it easier to slice, and then thinly sliced that sucker.  (I made sure my husband wasn’t around to witness what I was convinced he would consider a desecration of a beautiful steak.)  I dumped some soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, mirin and rice vinegar in a plastic ziplock bag.  A few hours later, I drained the marinade from the beef, and threw it for a few minutes into a screaming hot cast iron pan, to form some caramelization.  I wound up having to cook the meat in phases, so next time I’ll probably dump it all on a sheet tray and broil it.

 I made some rice, then rolled the rice and beef up in pieces of Boston lettuce – you could use whatever lettuce looks tender, and amenable to rolling.  (I don’t know when there is a time for iceberg lettuce – one of my least favorite food items – but this isn’t it.)

 The result was fantastic, and I have to give partial credit to the loveliness and tenderness of the steak to begin with.  But really, this will work with any number of cuts of meat.  And hell, it’s different from the usual salt-and-pepper treatment, and it left both me and my husband happy.  My kids, of course, wouldn’t touch it, but that’s a battle for another day.

KOREAN BARBECUED BEEF LETTUCE WRAPS

 1 ½ pounds steak

¼ cup soy sauce

1 ½ Tbsp brown sugar

2 tsp sesame oil

1 ½ Tbsp mirin or sherry

1 tsp rice vinegar

1 tsp sriracha (or to taste)

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 inch piece of ginger, grated

4 scallions, sliced

1 ½ Tbsp sesame seeds

 1 head Boston lettuce, or any tender lettuce, washed with the leaves kept whole

Rice

 Directions:

Stick the steak in the freezer for about an hour.  When it is slightly frozen – I know, that sounds a little like slightly pregnant, so you’ll have to use your judgment – slice it as thinly as possible

 Dump the soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, sherry, rice vinegar and sriracha into a ziplock bag.  Add the garlic and ginger.  Then throw in the sliced steak, and marinate anywhere from 20 minutes to a day.

 When you are about 30 minutes from dinnertime, cook the rice according to the instructions on the package, if you’re using it.  Drain the beef from the soy marinade, and quickly cook it in a really hot pan until it is just cooked, with some caramelized spots.  Alternatively, you can throw the beef on a sheet tray and broil it.  Top the beef with sesame seeds and scallions.

To make a wrap, place some rice and some beef in a piece of lettuce, roll it up, and enjoy!