Mother’s Day Korean BBQ

[wilburpan]

My wife came home on Saturday and said, “I decided what I want for Mother’s Day. Here’s the meat you’re going to cook for me.†How could I say no?
 
There was some kalbi and sliced pork belly. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Korean BBQ, check out my previous post. In short, kalbi is beef short ribs, but sliced in a way so that you get one long thin strip of meat hanging off the bone. You can also get kalbi cut across the bone, but this method is much better. Korean sliced pork belly is bacon, but fresh — no curing or flavoring is added to it.
 




I fired up Smaug to steak searing temperatures, and used the lower grate. Cooking the pork belly is straight forward. Do one side, and then the other. I waited until the pork belly released itself before flipping, much like I would do with fish.





For the kalbi, I marinated the meat in kalbi marinade for most of the day. I started the marinade in the morning, and we cooked at dinner time.





Cooking the kalbi was done in a similar manner as the pork belly: one side, and then the other, waiting for the meat to release from the grill each time. Because of how thinly the meat was cut, it only took a couple of minutes on each side.



Here’s the pork belly and the kalbi after all the cooking was done, because who doesn’t like a picture of big piles of meat? No one, that’s who.



Finally, the assembly. We used kitchen shears to cut the pork belly and the kalbi down to smaller pieces. One leaf of romaine lettuce, some rice, and a couple of pieces of meat were put together. For the pork belly, I made a mixture of sesame oil, salt, and pepper, and put a bit on. For the kalbi, I added a little fermented soybean paste, which is much better than it sounds. The lettuce was wrapped around the meat/rice/sauce, and we ate it like a little burrito. Of course, it wasn’t the only serving we had. Altogether, I went through eight of these, give or take.





Delicious! I hope my wife wants this for Mother’s Day next year as well.

[ckreef]

Looks good. A very interesting cook. Never had that before but I would be willing to try.

[MacKenzie]

wilburpan, I can just imagine how tasty that was and that is the leanest pork belly I've ever seen    

[tony b]

Another great looking Korean BBQ, Wilburpan! 

 

I finally found the Kalbi marinade at our local asian market. Don't think it's quite as high in asian pear juice as yours though. I've been a big fan of spicy fermented soybean paste (gochujang) for quite some time. Local market only stocks the 3 stars hot, but I got some 5 stars hot off Amazon. Great Stuff!!

[tinyfish]

Very nice mothers day meal.

[GoFrogs91]

Good lookin Wilbur!

[wilburpan]

wilburpan, I can just imagine how tasty that was and that is the leanest pork belly I've ever seen    

 

The other pieces had more fat. Not to mention that the kalbi was so richly marbled that at some point I was thinking that I was really cooking beef fat with some muscle in it.

[tony b]

Seriously, dude, when I saw that first picture, I would have sworn that it was Wagyu!

[EGGARY]

I like that marinade you used for the ribs.  I like it better than Yoshida's.

[Cookie]

I travel on business to Seoul quite frequently, never miss the opportunity for some Kalbi!  Yours looks great.

[CeramicChef]

Wilbur - as always, beautiful cook.  Wonderful money shots!  Congrats!

[tony b]

Copped 6 lbs of Korean style beef ribs at the market. Put up most in vacuum bags in the freezer. But, I did have some Kalbi marinade left from my last cook, so I marinaded some overnight and onto the KK - lower grate, 400F, direct, about  3 - 4 minutes each side. Sorry, no pics, as I can't compete with Wilburpan's!! 

 

Served them his way, red lettuce leaves, coconut rice, and slather of gochujang. Sides - some yummy grilled corn on the cob, cooked in the husks, direct on the main grill  for about 45 minutes, turned about halfway through. Salad of diced cucumber and tomato with a ponzu/white shoyu/sansho pepper/sesame oil dressing. TASTY!