The Traveling Epicurean

Korean Beef Bulgogi on CT Style with Teresa Dufour!

Korean Beef Bulgogi on CT Style with Teresa Dufour!

This week I was excited to show you how to make an easy and delicious dish on CT Style for the new year! The marinade for this Korean Beef Bulgogi recipe is so versatile you’ll find yourself going back to it over and over for these luscious flavors.

Cooking with Teresa Dufour on CT Style couldn’t be more fun! She is such a professional in her field, all awhile being her natural down to earth self! When we are going live for the camera’s it feels as though we are just hanging out in one anothers kitchen, laughing and cooking it up.

The marinade for this Beef Bulgogi is delicious on any meat, scrumptious chicken and pork.  Really easy to bring these wonderful flavors of the soy, toasted sesame oil, garlic and green onion to whole pieces of chicken breasts and thighs, beef london broil and ribeye, and pork tenderloin with out all the prep of slicing.

Let’s not forget the sugar in this marinade, a key player working hard as a natural tenderizer! In Korean cooking, sometime’s you’ll find grated asian pear in the ingredient list. An enzyeme in the asian pear called calpain naturally tenderizes the meat while giving it a hint of sweetness.

This marinade alone will make a great addition to your cooking repertoire! Below are a few of my high viewing recipe shows on my YouTube channel that you should check out.  Some are even into the 100,000’s viewing range. Remember to SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube Channel too. Enjoy and lets make this 2020 the best year ever!

BEST Buffalo Chicken Dip at 144,000 views, my Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies at 80,000 views, my Braciole at 34,000 views and a recent release already at 14,000 views is my BEST New England Chowder!

 

 

 

INGREDIENTS For Beef Bulgogi

  • 2 lbs. top sirloin or ribeye steak, thinly sliced
  • ¼ c. white sugar
  • ¾ c. low sodium soy sauce
  • ¼ c. sesame oil
  • 2 bunches green onion thinly sliced, saving ½ c. for garnish
  • ¾ c. toasted sesame seeds, ¼ c. for garnish
  • 4 garlic cloves put thru garlic press
  • ¼ c. vegetable oil
  • 2 bunches steamed broccoli
  • 6 c. cooked long grain rice

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Add sugar to sliced meat to begin tenderizing the meat
  2. Mix in a small bowl soy, sesame oil, green onion, crushed garlic and sesame seeds
  3. Add this soy mixture to the meat, cover with plastic wrap and put into the frig for 1 hour to over night
  4. Add 2 tbsp. corn oil to a hot cast iron pan or Korean stove top grill pan and sear in 4 batches so as not to crowd pan
  5. Sear for 4-5 minutes, remove and repeat
  6. When all the beef is cook serve with rice and broccoli, garnish with toasted sesame seeds and sliced green onion
  7. OR serve in lettuce leaf wraps and a Ginger/Soy Dressing for dipping

My MasterChef Sauces

My MasterChef Sauces

masterchefpicThe creation of these MasterChef sauces. a spicy, sweet and sour mango and a ginger-peanut sesame sauce, all began while surfing the net a few weeks ago, I accidentally ran into the MasterChef homepage advertising “Casting calls are coming soon to a city near you”.  My kids, Reilly and Bella were there at the time and enthusiastically shouted, “you should do it”! I think what sealed the deal was reading the “Come and meet the MasterChef casting team for your chance to be on the show!” The excitement started to seep in and I began to seriously consider going to the New York City MasterChef open call. If anything, I knew it would be a step in the right direction and a great learning experience let alone the adrenaline of it all!

After sending in their required online pre-registration form and printing out the nine page hard copy form to be submitted at the casting call I thought it would be a good idea to look over the FAQ page. The FAQ’s certainly had a list of what to do and what not to do. The “to do’s” started off like this:  First, bring one prepared dish to serve to their food judges. Second,  we would be given 3 minutes to plate our dish at their casting call location and for some reason I had initially thought I had 5 minutes to plate so that was a bit of an eye opener! Third, there wouldn’t be a kitchen to cook or warm our dish up so we were to come prepared! Fourth, we are to supply our own dishes, utensils, etc.

The “do not do’s went like this:  no air mattresses, no alcoholic beverages, no animals (unless health related), no candles, no cans or bottles (except water bottles), no chairs that do not fold (i.e. lawn chairs, chaise lounges, molded plastic chairs), no digital or still cameras, no fireworks, no hair dryers, no illegal drugs, no tents, no video, cameras or camcorders of any kind, no weapons of any kind, no children under the age of 13 years are allowed at the audition venues. There you have it!

Well OK,  I had a little organizing to do and a plate to figure out for my MasterChef casting call debut! I really wanted to wow them! The part about the “NO kitchen” and “come prepared” got me to thinking that a cold dish of some sort might be a wise way to go! An appetizer is probably the most logical then, right? Yes that’s it, it came to me.  I would make my “Fresh Shrimp and Chive Rolls” with the new MasterChef sauces that I have created which I can decorate the plate with. A julienne of daikon radish, carrots and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds with micro herbs for some pizzaz would add in the finishing touches. I also thought I needed to add in some height so I came up with baked egg roll shells that I form in a cup cake pan. I got this idea from my “Bloody Mary shrimp and Mango-Curry Shrimp in Wonton cups at Nancy’s Show” except I decided to use egg rolls shells instead of won-ton because they are a little bit lighter.

Now that I knew what I was going to make I thought I would practice my plate decorating with my MasterChef Sauces by shooting it in this weeks show so I could share this fun experience with all of you! It was definitely a lot of work to do this and go to the casting call but I did it! It was an awesome experience being there and the “MasterChef team” was pretty dynamite. They had everything down to a science and moved around with ease offering up a very warm welcome to all the competitors. I am super glad that I took Reilly and Bella’s advice on going for this.

I kicked you know what with my dish and the plating. I went there and did exactly what I set out to do with my presentation with 8 or so seconds left before they yelled “TIMES UP”! That part I have to say was such a RUSH because it reminded me of chopped!!! I was then the first to be called back in with 8 others for that first plate presentation part from our first group of 30 plating competitors.  I might be over thinking all of this a little, but I was so tired from preparing the food and shooting the show I feel as though I forgot to prep myself on what exactly to say about “me” when they pulled us 8 into interview. Although, I had them laughing a bit. I got the feeling what was more important to them was the person who said the right things in that second interviewing, more character not food ability. Gods only knows I do have lots of that so if it doesn’t work out this time I NOW know what they want next time around! I still have to wait until the end of October to see if I hear from them (they are still traveling to other states). I had an incredible time and will keep you all posted. Thank you all for your support, it means a lot! Hope you enjoy “My MasterChef Sauces” Show! 

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Ingredients for Ginger-Peanut Sesame Sauce:

  • 3 tbsp smooth peanut butter (Teddy’s All Natural)
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
  • 1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 1/2 tsp wasabi powder
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1/2-1 tsp Siracha (can find this next to Tabasco products)
  • 1 whole lime
  • 1 tbsp corn starch dissolved in 3 tbsp pineapple juice – Use 1 1/2 tsp of this 
  • 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
  • 2 tbsp half and half

Directions for Ginger-Peanut Sesame Sauce:

  1. Add all of the ingredients to a large bowl (EXCEPT corn starch mixture) and whisk
  2. Squeeze only 1/2 of the lime in at this point
  3. Add to medium pan over medium/high bring to a low simmer – whisking constantly this will be about 2-3 minutes
  4. When this begins to thicken turn down to med/low and add in 1 1/2 tsp of corn starch mixture and keep whisking- this will be about 3-4 minutes
  5. Remove from stove and cool
  6. When cooled add in 2 tbsp half and half and a squeeze of the other half of the lime and whisk briefly til smooth
  7. Add to ramekins for a dipping sauce or put into squeeze bottle to decorate plate with

Ingredients for Spicy, Sweet and Sour Mango Sauce:

  • 1 cup pineapple juice
  • 1/2 cup mango
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp ketchup
  • 1 tsp fresh grated ginger
  • 1 tsp Siracha
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp corn starch dissolved in 3 tbsp water
  • 1 lemon

Directions for Spicy, Sweet and Sour Mango Sauce:

  1. Add all of the ingredients to a large bowl except the corn starch mixture
  2. Whisk til combined – use juice from 1/2 lemon here
  3. Add to a medium size pan over med/high heat and bring to a low simmer to melt sugar – 3 minutes
  4. Add in corn starch and keep whisking at a low simmer til the mixture is transparent again and thickened – 5 more minutes
  5. Mash Mango pieces into sauce with a fork
  6. Remove from heat and press thru a sieve into a bowl and let cool completely (can add a little squeeze of the other half of the lemon if too thick)
  7. Pour into ramekins for dipping or put in a squeeze bottle to draw on plates …have fun decorating!

Thai Slaw

Thai Slaw

This is definitely not a boring old cole slaw. It has 2 cabbages, sweet and green onion, carrots, crunchy peanut butter, ginger, soy, fresh lime juice, and a few other seasonings. I have used both napa cabbage for this slaw and regular green cabbage and I have to tell you that the green cabbage holds up so much better while the napa gets mushy quickly. This Thai slaw is packed with flavor so you may want to pair this with something on the more simple side of things like grilled salmon, or steak, sautéed chicken or sea bass. Then a chocolate-avocado mousse or pavlova with fresh pineapple & berries could do the trick to end the meal well.

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Ingredients:

    • 4 cups thinly sliced green cabbage
    • 2 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
    • 1/2 cup thinly sliced Spanish onion or Vidalia onion
    • 1 cup shredded carrot
    • 1/2 cup thinly diced green onions (6 of them)
    • 3 Tbsp fresh zested ginger (on micro planer)
    • 1/2 cup Helman’s mayo
    • 3 Tbsp crunchy peanut butter
    • 1/4 cup sugar
    • 2 tbsp olive oil
    • 2 Tbsp rice wine
    • 2 Tbsp cider vinegar
    • 2 Tbsp reduced sodium Kikoman soy sauce
    • 1 Tbsp sesame oil
    • 3 dashes tabasco
    • juice from 2 limes
    • 1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds plus 1 Tsp for the garnish

Directions:

  1. Toast sesame seeds on medium heat in a small pan shaking the pan periodically back and forth
  2. This happens quickly once they heat up…it will only take about 3-4 minutes so it’s best not to leave the pan or the stove so they turn golden evenly
  3. Once the sesame seeds are golden remove from the pan, place in a ramekin and set aside
  4. Add sliced green cabbage, red cabbage, Spanish onion, green onions, shredded carrot and zested ginger to a large mixing bowl
  5. Then add in peanut butter, mayo, soy, vinegar’s, oils, fresh lime juice, sugar, Tabasco, sesame seeds and toss together to mix thoroughly
  6. Serve in a large bowl and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds