Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: Korean Taco Night April 26, 2009

Korean tacos have taken over Los Angeles brought to the food fiends by the Kogi truck. For this month’s Foodbuzz 24 event I gathered a few of my friends for my own version of Korean tacos.

SPICY PORK TACO

For the pork tacos I used thinly sliced bulgogi-style pork neck and marinated it with gochujang (red pepper paste), garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, and sesame seeds, called doejji bulgogi. I added sliced onion to the mix and let it sit for couple hours in the fridge.

I cooked the meat in a pan and then when ready to serve the tacos I broiled it in one-layer to caramelize and char the edges.

Korean perilla (kkaennip)

sambal salsa

For the salsa part of the tacos I took sambal and added seeded and mostly deveined jalapeno. This came out sooo spicy. I should have added sweet onion to the mix or something.

I warmed up the corn tortillas over the open flames of the stove, topped it with the delicious caramelized doejji bulgogi, scallion, cilantro and perilla (kkaennip). On some I added a cute lil fried quail egg.

SHORT RIB TACO

Next up came the short rib (kalbi) taco. I marinted pre-sliced short rib meat with soy sauce, garlic, sugar, and sliced onion. This meat was super delicious. It was not only short rib meat but the meat that lays right next to the bone. Super flavorful. I pan-fried it, chopped it into little pieces then broiled it right before serving.

Here are the kalbi tacos straight up with just scallion and cilantro.

And then here with the greens, fried quail egg and sambal salsa. Short ribs are such a delicious cut of beef. Super flavorful and it was perfect for the tacos cut up into juicy little chunks.

KIMCHI KALBI QUESADILLA

Having some leftover cheese in the fridge I decided to make a kimchi quesdailla too.

I sauteed ripe kimchi in a bit of butter and olive oil until it was caramelized and sweetened. Mmm, grilled or pan fried kimchi is super delicious. I used fontina for the cheese which was perfect for the quesadilla. I stuffed the tortilla with fontina, caramelized kimchi and chopped kalbi. This was sooo tasty.

Julie brought over such an appropriate drink for the night – Korean beer! Specifically Hite. Crispy and light lager, perfect for Korean tacos.

Fresh Bacon April 23, 2009

I made bacon using once again my Charcuterie cookbook. Bacon is one of those thing in my mind that was always store-bought. I had no idea making bacon at home is so easy. All you need is pork belly, salt, sugar, and pink salt. The pork belly is cured with the salt mixture in the fridge for 7 days or so depending on the size of the meat. Traditionally American bacon is smoked after cured (which is tasty!) but you don’t necessarily have to do that when making your own at home. The book instructs you to cook the bacon in a low oven to 150 degrees, which would be the desirable temperature reached when smoking it.

After cooking the slab bacon in the oven I sliced off a piece and fried it up. It was super delicious – dense, meaty and with that distinctive cured flavor. It was definitely a cool moment in my kitchen eating my very own home-cured bacon.

Chicken Fricassee with Red Cabbage April 2, 2009

The simplicity of Marcella Hazan’s Chicken Fricassee with Red Cabbage recipe blows me away. It calls for just chicken, red cabbage, onion, garlic, red wine, olive oil, salt and pepper. That’s it! From those you develop flavors, meld them together, simmer them. There are basically three steps. First is to cook the cabbage until it’s meltingly tender. Second is to brown the chicken. Lastly, it’s the marriage of those two slowly simmering away in a pot together. Instead of tossing the browned chicken pieces in the dark red cabbage sauce like Marcella instructed  I nestled them and let it simmer with the skin side up.

The chicken became so tender and the saucy red cabbage sweet and savory from the red wine. Pure comfort food. You gotta have mad passion and love to make a dish so delicious from just a few ingredients. Italian food has always been inspiring in this way. It’s simplicity at its best.