Learning to cook Korean

I had the wonderful opportunity to be taught how to cook a Korean dish today by Hilda Shin, the wife of our dive instructor, Robin Shin. Their son, Jarhoon, was also there helping to teach me the Korean dish. Terri and I had been fed lunch by Hilda during one of our lessons. The food was so good, I asked if I could learn--so here I am!

I decided it was only fair to teach them an American dish, so I taught them how I make spaghetti and meatballs (Terri's favorite).

The Korean dish they taught me is called Burgogi (which means 'fire meat' in Korean). Here is the dish as they taught me--its very easy:

beef--about 1 lb, cut up in small pieces

green onion--diced

white onion--diced

carrots--diced

garlic (1 TBS)

ginger (1/2 TBS)

mushrooms

Marinade:

sugar 2 TBS

soy sauce 3 TBS

pepper 1-2 dashes

sesame oil 1 TBS (the sesame oil adds flavor and softens the meat)

white wine 1 TBS

Step one:

mix beef, garlic, ginger, and marinade

let sit for about four hours

Step two:

using regular oil, saute onions and meat

when meat is about ready, add green onions and carrots

add additional sugar and soy sauce to taste

Serve with rice

You can always add additional vegetables for bulk and flavor;

you can also add more soy sauce and corn starch to make a sauce, that is put on top of the rice instead of being served next to the rice.

It is simple, but wonderful. Then I taught them how to make spaghetti sauce--nothing special, but it was new to them.

Next week they want to teach me how to make Korean dumplings!