The other day, I found quite possibly the most luscious watermelon I’ve ever eaten in my life. And to me, good watermelon means one thing: summer is officially here. As much as I gripe about the heat and humidity in Louisiana, I’ve gotta say that I really do love summer–I love how laid-back our days are, I love my kids riding their bikes and jumping through the sprinklers and playing with water guns, swimsuits hanging in the bathroom to dry, and, most of all, summer food. Which for me mostly consists of lots of fruits and vegetables and lots of stuff cooked on the grill.
This traditional recipe for Korean BBQ Beef bears a strong resemblance to Sara’s Orange Thai Beef Skewers. And that’s good because I love the heck out of Sara’s recipe, so if you feel the same way about the orange beef ones, I bet you’ll love these ones as well. I just used a couple of sirloin steaks and made the marinade with stuff I had in the house:
The recipe calls for rice wine, which might be hard to find. You can also substitute pear juice (it’s very mild and neutral, more so than apple juice), but that can also be hard to find. Unless…you get one of those 4 oz. bottles of pear juice from the baby food section of the grocery store. It will cost you about .50 cents and you don’t even have to MEASURE it!
Anyway, you’ll want to slice your steak against the grain into slices that are about 1/4″ thick.
Whisk together the marinade ingredients in a large bowl and then add your steak. Let it stand at room temperature for about 1 hour or you can refrigerate it up to 8 hours.
Preheat your grill to about 400 degrees. Thread the steak pieces onto your skewers (pre-soak bamboo skewers for about 30 minutes before using them). Grill for about 3-4 minutes and then flip them and cook for another 3-4 minutes. You don’t want to burn them or even overcook them because they will taste vaguely like beef jerky.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve immediately–I served mine with jasmine rice tossed with green onions and Kosher salt and some fruit. This serves about 4-6 people.
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Korean BBQ Beef
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4-6
Description
Traditional, simple sweet and savory Korean beef.
Ingredients
1 1/2 pound sirloin steak, cut against the grain into thin (about 1/4″) slices
1/2 cup rice wine or pear juice (One 4-counce bottle of pear juice from the baby food aisle is perfect and cheap)
1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce (regular soy sauce makes it taste vaguely like beef jerky)
2 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon Sriracha chili sauce
1 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
Combine wine or pear juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, chili sauce, and sesame oil in a large bowl. Add sliced steak. Marinate at room temperature for 1 hour or up to 8 hours in the refrigerator. Preheat the grill. While the grill is heating, thread the steak pieces onto bamboo skewers. Cook over medium-high heat for about 3-4 minutes per side, being careful not to let the meat get too cooked. Serve immediately; serves 4-6.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
