Sakura 3-Tier Bento #57

I hope you enjoy your 4th of July (for you American readers)!

Orange grape tomatoes, cucumber slices, blackberries, cherries, beef bulgogi (recipe below), nori tamagoyaki, seaweed salad, and steamed rice.

I went to a large Korean market for the first time recently. It reminded me of a group of Korean women I used to cook with. Life has taken me somewhere else since then. But if one dish besides kimchi or kimbap reminded me of them, it would be beef bulgogi. The recipe is quite easy, though you need very thinly sliced beef (see below).

Seaweed salad, incidentally, has a way of getting stuck in your teeth. But it's a nice change of pace, and very green.

Beef bulgogi
Serves: 1 or 2

1/3 pound marbled steak, such as ribeye, sliced very thin (see note below)
4 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 3/4 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons chopped scallion (green parts only preferred, but I'm not persnickety about this)
1 garlic clove, minced
2 teaspoons sesame seeds
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
Nonstick cooking spray

Arrange steak in a shallow dish with a lid; set aside.

Mix remaining ingredients except nonstick cooking spray in a small bowl. Pour over beef, cover, and refrigerate for at least one hour or overnight.

Spray nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Add marinated beef and stir, turning beef, until browned on both sides, about 2 minutes.

Serve with rice and you favorite banchan.


A note on steak: I got mine from the Korean market, but you can also find very thinly sliced "sandwich steak" sold in the American northeast; if neither is available where you are, ask your butcher to cut the meat as thinly as possible or freeze it a bit so you can slice it very thinly yourself.