Tangsuyuk is a Chinese dish which is very popular in Korea.
When I was young, this dish was always my number one choice at a Chinese restaurant. When I passed my middle school exam, my father took me and all my family members and some of his friends to celebrate it. He asked, “What would you like to eat, my smart girl? I would buy whatever you want!” I answered before he finished his sentence, “Tangsuyuk! And jjajangmyeon!” It’s very crispy fried meat in a jelly sauce and colorful vegetables, overflowing a huge plate.
I sometimes order Tangsuyuk at either a Korean restaurant or Chinese restaurant. It’s known as “sweet and sour pork” (or beef), but my satisfaction with the dish always is different.
There are 2 important factors to make this dish stand out: the crispiness of the meat and the taste of the sauce. I’m releasing a few priceless tips to all of you now!
4-6 servings Ingredients:
600 grams (1.3 Lb) of beef, starch powder (2 cups and 2 tbs), vegetable oil, egg, Turbinado sugar 1 cup (brown or white sugar is ok too), salt, ground black pepper, 3 tbs vinegar, apple, pineapple, 5-7 wood ear mushrooms, onion, cucumber, carrot, and water
Soak ¼ cup of dried wood ear mushrooms in warm water (about 5-7 mushrooms) for a few hours.
To make the coating batter, mix 2 cups of starch powder (either corn starch or potato starch) with water (about 3 cups) and let it sit for a few hours until the starch sinks in the bowl. Then remove the water by pouring it into the sink. *tip: after draining the water, the starch will be solid and stiff.
Cut beef into thin strips (5 cm long, 1 cm thick, 1 cm wide) and put it in a bowl.
Add ½ ts salt and ½ ts ground black pepper to the beef and mix it well with your hand. Set it aside.
Add the beef strips to the starch, and 1 egg white (or yolk) and mix it well with your hand.
Heat vegetable oil in your wok and fry the beef strips for about 5 minutes until they look golden brown and crispy. It’s very important to coat the beef strips with as much starch batter as you can. Try to use all of it. Then put the fried crispy beef strips into a strainer. *tip: the beef strips should feel crispy through your tongs as you handle them
Next, let’s make delicious sauce!
Slice ¼ medium size onion.
Slice 1 or 2 apples (you can replace apples with plums).
Slice carrot and cucumber thinly (several slices are needed).
Drain the soaked wood ear mushrooms and cut them into bite sized bits.
Cut some pineapple into chunks.
Put 1/2 tbs of vegetable oil on a heated pan. Add the sliced onion and stir it up.
Add wood ear mushrooms, sliced carrot to the pan. Stir it for 1 minute.
Pour 2 cups of water into the pan and boil it.
When the sauce boils, add 1 ts salt, 1 ts soy sauce, 1 cup brown sugar and stir it well.
Add 3-4 tbs vinegar and water starch (mixture of 2 tbs starch and 2 tbs water).
Add pineapple chunks and sliced cucumber to the pan.
Your sauce will look like light jelly but it will also be sizzling. Be sure to put a few drops of sesame oil in at the last minute!
Now you made your fried beef strips and sauce! If you’re waiting for your family or guests, just take a break and do the next steps just before serving.
Ok, it’s time for you to serve it now?
Reheat the oil and fry the beef strips again, until each strip becomes very crispy.
Put the fried beef on a large platter
Reheat the sauce for a minute and pour it on top of the beef strips.
Serve it hot with dipping sauce (mix 2 tbs soy sauce and 1 tbs vinegar)
Soak 5 shiitake mushrooms in warm water for about 4-6 hours.
Soak short ribs in cold water in a large bowl for at least 30 minutes and change the water a few times.
Boil water in a large pot. Put in the short ribs. Boil for 5-10 minutes.
Take out the ribs from the boiling water and wash them with cold water to remove unnecessary fat or floating bubbles.
Throw away the boiling water and clean the pot.
Place the clean beef short ribs in the pot.
Prepare a bowl to make seasoned water by mixing 2 cups of water, 4 tbs soy sauce, 8 cloves of minced garlic), ½ sliced onion, 1 tbs rice wine, and 1 tbs brown sugar.
Add it to the short ribs in the pot.
Boil it over medium heat for 20 minutes.
While it boils, you can prepare the other ingredients:
Cut carrot and radish into 5 cm-size cubes and round the edges to make several balls (the size of the balls should be like ping pong balls )
Cut the soaked shiitake mushrooms into bite size. *tip: You can add several skinned chestnuts and gingko nuts
Open the lid of the pot and add all ingredients (carrot, radish, shiitake mushrooms) to the pot. Let it simmer for about 1 hour over low heat. *tip: Stir the ribs and other ingredients with a wooden spoon from time to time. Pour the liquid from the bottom of the pot over top of the meat
Open the lid and check if the meat is cooked fully. Use your chopstick to poke the meat. When it is smoothly going through the meat, the meat is tender enough.
Add 2 tbs of moolyeot (corn syrup), 1 tbs sesame oil, ½ ts black pepper, and heat it up over high heat. Mix it well until liquid evaporates
I made bulgogi and kimchi stir fried rice (Kimchi bokkeumbap) tonight.
Bulgogi recipe:
Slice 1 pound of beef thinly
Mix these ingredients to make marinade sauce:
3 tbs of soy sauce, 3 tbs of water, 2 tbs of sugar, 1 tbs of honey, 1tbs of sesame oil, 1tbs of toasted sesame seeds, 2 chopped green onions, 3 cloves minced garlic, 1 ts of black pepper
Marinate for at least 2 hours and keep it in the refrigerator.
Cook it on a pan or a grill, and transfer to a plate or a cast iron plate to serve.
Sprinkle chopped green onion and toasted sesame seeds
Lettuce, carrot strips, and dipping sauce called ssam Jaang. Ssam jaang recipe is under my grilled beef cooking video recipe. Wrap a piece of bulgogi in lettuce and a little bit of ssam jaang and eat. You can dip carrot or cucumber strips into the ssam jaang.
Kimchi bok keum bap I made this kimchi stir fried rice using left over bulgogi juice in my pan. After transferring bulgogi to my cast iron plate, the bulgogi juice was still left on the pan.
On a heated pan with a little bit of bulgogi juice (no matter even if you don’t have bulgogi juice), put chopped kimchi (1 cup) and stir it and cook about 3 minutes.
Add 1 tbs of hot pepper paste in the kimchi in the pan and 2 bowls of rice and stir it with a spoon
Cucumber kimchi is made by turning a cucumber into a pocket and stuffing it with vegetables and kimchi paste. It’s delicious, and goes well with radish soup. I’ll show you how to make both of them for one perfect, well-balanced, low-calorie meal.
Wash cucumbers and cut them in half. Make pockets out of cross slits. Don’t cut them all the way through. Put them in a big bowl
Sprinkle a half cup of salt onto the cucumber pieces, mix them carefully, and wait for 30 minutes
In a big bowl, place a quarter cup of fish sauce, a half cup of hot pepper flakes, 2 cloves of minced garlic and 1 tbs of sugar, and mix them with a spoon.
Chop Asian chives 1 inch (about 2 cm) in length (2 cups) and cut 3 green onions diagonally as the same size as the chives, shred some carrot (1/4 cup) , slice the onion (1/4 cup) thinly and place all this into the mixture of the seasoning paste. Mix it up with a spoon.
Wash the cucumbers and drain them. Stuff the seasoning paste into the slotted cucumber and put each cucumber into an airtight container. You can wear rubber gloves while stuffing, if you want to protect your hands.
Right after making it, you can eat it. But keep the leftover kimchii in the refrigerator.
Radish soup with beef (for 2-3 servings)
Ingredients:
Cut radish into diagonally and thinly (about 2½ cups) and put it into the pot and cook it over medium high heat
Chop beef brisket (150 grams) into small chunks and mince 3 or 4 cloves of garlic
When the soup starts boiling about 10 minutes after, add the chunks of beef and garlic and boil it about 15 minutes more over medium heat.
Skim the bubbles or stuff off the surface and add some fish sauce(depending on your taste) and put chopped green onions and cook 5 or 10minutes more over medium heat
Barley rice
Ingredients:
1 cup of uncooked rice, 1 cup of barley and 2½ cup of water.
Rinse the mixture of rice and barley in a pot.
Put 2½ cup of water and cover the lid of the pot.
Heat it over high heat until it boils, and stir it with a spoon a few times.
In a big pot, add beef brisket, 14-15 cups of water, and half an onion, then boil it for 40-50 minutes over high heat.
Cut the green onions, celery, and fern brakes (kosari) into pieces about 7 cm in length. Put them all into a big bowl.
Put 3 tbs hotpepper flakes, 1 tbs of sesame oil, 1 tbs of vegetable oil, 1 tbs soy sauce, 1 tbs of salt, and some grounded black pepper into a small bowl and mix it. This is your hotpepper oil sauce.
Put the hotpepper oil sauce into the vegetables mixture and mix them all up.
When the beef is well cooked, take it out and set it aside to cool down.
Add the mixture of vegetables and hotpepper oil sauce into the boiling beef stock. Boil it for 20-30 minutes.
Slice the beef thinly and add it into the boiling soup. Cook it about 5-10 minutes more.
Korean style grilled beef is served with green onion salad, a mixture of bean paste and hot pepper paste called “Ssam Jaang”. You wrap it all up into a leaf of lettuce and pop it into your mouth. You can dip some pieces of cucumber and carrot into the spicy paste.
Cut beef into bite-sized pieces, ½ inch in thickness, and put them in a bowl. Add 1 ts of salt, a pinch of ground black pepper, and 1 tbs of sesame oil and mix it with your hand. Set it aside when you’re done.
Make ssam Jaang (dipping sauce) by mixing the following ingredients: 1tbs of hot pepper paste, 2 tbs of bean paste, ½ tbs of sugar, 1 clove of minced garlic, 1 tbs of chopped green onion, 1 tbs of sesame oil, ½ tbs of toasted sesame seeds.
That’s it! You made a very nice dipping sauce!
Make seasoned green onion (“pajuhri”)
Slice 8 green onions thinly, in 5 cm lengths. Cut them into thin strips
Rinse the sliced green onion in running water. Drain it and set it aside.
Make sauce by mixing 2 tbs of soy sauce, 1 tbs of hot pepper flakes, ½ tbs of sugar, 1 tbs of sesame seeds, and 1 tbs of sesame oil.
Add the green onions to the sauce and mix it up with a spoon.
Are you ready to cook?
Slice up a dozen of cloves garlic (each clove should be sliced 3 or 4 times) and place them in a small bowl.
Cut carrots and cucumbers into bite-sized sticks for dipping.
On a heated grill or pan, drizzle some sesame oil to prevent meat from sticking onto the grill and to give it good flavor.
Add chunks of meat and sliced garlic using your tongs and cook.
When it’s cooked, wrap a piece of beef and garlic in a leaf lettuce. Add some dipping sauce and pop it into your mouth. All you can do is chewing and enjoying the delicious taste! Don’t forget to think about me while enjoying the food!
*tip: Beef can be replaced with thinly sliced pork belly which is called “samgyupsal gui”
Bulgogi is a popular Korean dish, which many people translate as “Korean Barbeque.” But it is more than that. There are a lot of vegetables, too.
This is two recipes, one for bulgogi, a barbecued or grilled beef, and the second one is for bulgogi stew (“jungol”). If you just want a barbecue, stop after making bulgogi from these recipes. If you want to make the stew, first make bulgogi, don’t cook it, and then continue on to the second recipe.
Make marinade sauce for 2 pounds of beef by mixing following: ½ cup soy sauce, ¼ cup sugar, 12 cloves minced garlic, 1 medium size onion (crushed), 1 small size of Asian pear (crushed), ½ cup of water (can be replaced with cooking wine), and 1 tbs of honey. *tip: Using a food processor is very convenient.
Prepare a large stainless bowl and pour the marinade sauce in it.
Slice the beef thinly, against the grain, to make it tender. *tip: Keep the beef in the freezer for a few hours beforehand, then it will be easier to cut.
Place the sliced beef into the marinade and add 1 or 2 tbs of sesame oil and some toasted sesame seeds. Mix it by hand and keep it in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
After 3 hours, you can grill the meat on charcoal bbq, broil it in oven, or grill it on pan.
Bulgogi stew (bulgogi jungol)
Ingredients:
marinated bulgogi (the recipe from above), mushrooms, green onions, tofu or noodles, and green chili pepper.
4-6 servings
Prepare a big shallow skillet. Place colorful vegetables (mushrooms, carrot, and green onions cut into bite-size pieces) round the outside with tofu, and place the bulgogi in the center.
Cut up a green chili pepper and place it on top of the bulgogi on the skillet.
Mix 1 can of beef broth and 1-2 cans of water and add on the skillet.
Close the lid and cook it about 5 -10 minutes. Open it to spread the bulgogi around, and then close the lid again
Cook another 5-10 minutes over high heat and serve it. *tip: To eat it, use a serving spoon or dipper to fill individual bowls of the stew.
"Thank you so much for your advice Maangchi :D"
- Debbie in Kimchi and Kaktugi December 27, 2008
"oh its my plesure actually you are the only one which i have to thank that you show so much nice vds and with details thnks so much and wish you a very very very Happy..."
- Nishu in Black bean paste December 27, 2008
"Debbie, You can skip oysters, but if you don’t add rice flour porridge to your kimchi paste, the paste will be too thick. Then it will be difficult for you to..."
- Maangchi in Kimchi and Kaktugi December 27, 2008
"Nishu, oh, thank you very much. I am going to post the information on the forum then. Thanks a lot."
- Maangchi in Black bean paste December 27, 2008
"lilian Ph, oh, I’m sorry to hear that! Next time, use more water and cook longer. Don’t give up! : )"
- Maangchi in Rice cake (gyungdan) December 27, 2008
"pimky, mostly it’s used in side dishes such as seaplant salads, radish salads…"
- Maangchi in Apple vinegar December 27, 2008
"Hello! Maangchi, I am from Singapore, thank you so much for sharing your Korean recipes… I love love Korean food. I just have a question, I make my kimchi..."
- Debbie in Kimchi and Kaktugi December 27, 2008
"hey maangchi i am not able to send information there so i m sending here adress of korean store in New Delhi ,India {A-Mart korean grocery store} A-1 Mahipalpur..."
- Nishu in Black bean paste December 27, 2008
"i tried making it before but at the end the dough is un-cook in the middle. and it turn out hard"
- lilian Ph. in Rice cake (gyungdan) December 26, 2008
"i want to know what is the use of vinegar in korean food? for example in salad, rice???"
- pimky in Apple vinegar December 26, 2008
