Buhr blog: Korea: Cooking Class and Recipes, by Aimee

On June 23, we went to a Korean cooking class. In the cooking class we cooked two popular Korean dishes: beef bulgogi and kimchi. Beef bulgogi is a Korean dish that is marinated beef with mushrooms and onions. It is really good. Kimchi is a very popular Korean dish that is eaten at every meal as a side. It is fermented cabbage and white radish with chili sauce and other spices. It is really spicy and it takes a brave person to eat kimchi as the smell and taste are a bit unusual. We started out with marinating the beef for the bulgogi and pounding the spices for the kimchi. We added all the ingredients and spices plus chili paste between the layers of the fermented cabbage leaves. Then we wrapped the kimchi up in a plastic bag and then put it in a container to ferment some more. After that we fried the beef for the bulgogi and mixed it with the other ingredients. At this time we were all really hungry so when the bulgogi was cooked we sat down to have the late lunch / early dinner. The cooks who helped us also prepared Korean rice and kimchi pancakes for us. They showed us how to eat the bulgogi. You wrap the beef in a lettuce leaf and add a bit of Korean barbecue sauce which was a mix of soy paste, chili paste, and vinegar. Then you eat it. It was super good when all the flavors combined. The kimchi pancakes and rice were also super good. Overall, it was a great meal and what made it better was that I made it!

Recipes:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/100606/beef-bulgogi/ (beef bulgogi recipe)

http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-easy-kimchi-at-home-189390 (kimchi recipe)

P.S. (Note from mom) Aimee made kimchi pancakes for us one of our first days that we were back in Malaysia; they were great!