my golden hour

This was a fun and extremely easy way to use up mushrooms and bulgogi (Korean-marinated sliced ribeye).  I took many liberties with this, as I didn’t use a recipe and tried applying my previous knowledge of other jungols (stews) to put this together and crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

It was very good!  Next time, I wouldn’t put the leeks in, as I didn’t enjoy the flavor of leeks combined with the mushrooms and spices as much as I thought I would.  I would put in tofu next time.  Also, I would add some watercress to put on top since I love the crunch and fresh flavor of watercress in jungols.

I apologize that I don’t have pictures of how to make bulgogi, which should be an entire post on its own.  But here is a temporary placeholder, which I have also pasted below, from my favorite Aeri’s Kitchen blog.  I haven’t tried it, but I trust that it’s delicious, just as much as her other recipes.

You can either make this on a table-top electric-heated pot, or on the stove in a regular pot.  I suggest if you are entertaining, assemble all the ingredients up to step 7 and then bring out to the table so everyone can admire, and then cook the remaining five minutes at the table.

Soohee’s Mushroom Casserole Stew

10-12 pieces of dried kelp (used for seafood flavoring)
2 tbsp dried Korean anchovies

6 cups of water

2 onions, sliced

1 tbsp vegetable oil

5 cloves of garlic, minced

3 tbsp red hot chili pepper

1 tbsp red chili pepper paste

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 packages of enoki mushrooms, around 1/2 lb. total (I LOVE enoki mushrooms.  Their texture almost served as noodles in this dish..so delicious!)

5-6 large King Oyster Mushrooms, sliced

1 red chili pepper, sliced finely

1 green chili pepper, sliced finely

3 carrots, sliced thinly at a diagonal angle

2-3 cups of prepared raw bulgogi

3 green onions, minced

1. Combine kelp, anchovies, and water in a pot and bring to a rapid boil.  Boil for about 10-15 minutes, then drain and reserve the liquid. This base will serve as the soup stock.

2. Heat 3 tbsp of garlic with oil in a pot on medium-high heat.  Add 1 of the sliced onions, and saute until fragrant and translucent, around five to seven minutes.

3. Add soup stock to the pot with the onions and bring to a simmer.

4. Combine the red hot chili powder, paste, rest of the garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, and pepper in a bowl and mix well.  It should be the consistency of a paste. Taste it, if you want it to be spicier or saltier, adjust according to your tastes.

5. Add the red chili paste mixture to the soup stock and bring to a boil.  Taste, and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Lower the heat to medium, and boil for 5 minutes.

6. Prepare your mushrooms and chili peppers.  I like to slice my king oyster mushrooms into slices, around the thickness of steak-cut french fries, and I just cut off the solid root bottoms of the enoki mushrooms.  (Is there any use for this fungus bottom?  If you know of one, I would love to find SOME use for it, as I feel so wasteful throwing it away.)

7.  Add mushrooms, chili peppers (be careful, if you can’t handle spiciness that well, perhaps only put a little chili pepper), remaining sliced onion, and green onion to the pot.  Then, carefully top the center of the pot with your prepared raw bulgogi.

8. Admire, and then mix the mushrooms and bulgogi into the simmering broth below. Simmer altogether for five to eight minutes, and then serve into individual bowls.

9. Enjoy!

I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did with a bowl of hot white rice.

Bulgogi Recipe from Aeri’s Kitchen (Modified slightly to fit this recipe a little better, for full version click on the link)

Main Ingredients

• 1 to 1.5 lbs (3 cups) of thinly sliced rib-eye (can be found at Korean grocery)
• 1 onion, sliced thinly

Sauce Ingredients

• 6 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 3 Tbsp Sugar
• 3 Tbsp Cooking Wine
• 3 Tbs Green Onion
• 1½ Tbsp Garlic
• 1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds
• ¼ tsp Black Pepper
• 1 Tbsp Sesame Oil

1. Combine soy sauce, sugar, cooking wine, garlic, sesame seeds, black pepper, and sesame oil in a bowl and mix well.

2. Add sliced rib-eye meat and onions, and mix together until the marinade is evenly dispersed throughout.

3. Marinate for at least three hours, up to a day in the refrigerator.