How to cook Korean barbecue at home – and some side dishes to serve with it
- While table-top barbecues are fun, at home, your meat may be best cooked in the kitchen or on an outdoor grill
- Serve the marinated beef with an array of leaves, condiments and side dishes so diners can pick and choose their own seasoning
When people outside Korea are in the mood for Korean food, tabletop barbecue is usually the first thing that comes to mind. Korean food is a lot more varied and complex than just barbecue. It’s one of the healthiest cuisines; Koreans were fermenting vegetables and other ingredients as a way to preserve them long before lacto-fermentation became a trend.
But there’s a reason Korean barbecue is so popular – it’s delicious, and makes for a relaxed and convivial meal as the designated cook good-naturedly (or not) puts up with everyone else’s comments on when to take the meat off the grill.
It’s a fun meal to prepare at home, although you may want to cook the meat under the grill in the kitchen, or outside on the barbecue, rather than on the tabletop, unless you like grease splatters on your dining room lights and for your home to smell like barbecued meat for days.
Serve an array of leaves (lettuce, sesame leaf, seaweed), condiments, kimchi and banchan (side dishes) so everyone can wrap and season the pieces of meat as they wish.
Korean barbecued short ribs
Korean meat markets usually offer two cuts of short ribs for barbecue: sliced through the bone into a thin strip, or butterflied, so the meat unrolls into a long strip with the bone at one end. Use whichever you prefer.
I like the meat marinade to be a little less sweet than usual, but if you would like yours to taste like the beef served at Korean restaurants, add more corn syrup.
