Beef bulgogi

Before you start

• 30 minutes in the freezer to slice the beef thin, or ask the butcher to do it
• a pan or griddle you can get properly hot, and cooked in two batches

Ingredients

Serves 2 · dimmer marks are storecupboard

• 300gbeef sirloin — sirloin or ribeye — it wants a little fat running through it
• 140gshort-grain rice
• 1pear or apple — grated — this is the tenderiser, not a sweetener
• 3 tbspsoy sauce
• 1 tbspsugar
• 1 tbspsesame oil
• ½ tbspoil
• 4garlic cloves
• 3spring onions
• 1 handfullettuce leaves
• to tasteblack peppercorns

Method

7 steps

1. rest · 30m walk away

   Beef into the freezer until it is firm at the edges but not frozen through. Half an hour is usually right, and it is the difference between slices and shreds.

2. chop · 10m

   Sliced as thin as you can manage against the grain, then the pear grated, garlic crushed and spring onions cut on a long angle.

3. fold · 4m

   Everything but the lettuce and half the spring onion turned through the beef with your hands until each slice is coated.

4. rest · 1 hour walk away

   An hour in the fridge, and no more than four. The pear keeps working the whole time, and left overnight it takes the meat past tender into mush.

5. boil · 15m walk away

   Rice rinsed and on, lid, lowest heat.

6. grill · 10m

   Pan as hot as it will go, half the beef in a single layer and left alone until the sugar catches and blackens at the edges, then turned. The second batch goes in only once the pan has come back up.

7. finish · 3m

   Piled onto the rice with the remaining spring onion, lettuce leaves alongside to wrap it in.