Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Beefy buns... err Korean-Spiced Beef and Cabbage Rolls!

I was originally planning to halve the recipe for tonight's dinner, Korean-Spiced Beef and Cabbage Rolls, since it had a fairly large yield, but after I checked the inventory list of the freezer, I decided to just make the whole recipe so we could freeze the leftovers to have for quick lunches. Boy were we glad that I changed my mind once we finished our plates!

With ingredients like mild green onions, soy sauce, sesame seeds, toasted sesame oil, a shot of dry sherry, a couple teaspoons of sugar, fresh garlic, minced ginger, black pepper and just a dash of cayenne, there was no way this filling was going to be bland! Once whisked together, this powerful list of ingredients is mixed with half a pound of lean ground sirloin. My first thought was "I wonder if this is right as it looks very wet!". Once the mixture is added to the hot skillet, the beef begins to cook and slowly you will notice how it transforms from being a liquid-y mass to moist and glazed crumbles of beef. The volume won't look like much at this point, but we change that when we add a mound of thinly sliced crisp Napa cabbage. Once the cabbage is tender, this mixture is set aside as it needs to cool completely before you work with it again.

Now, you might expect these rolls to be yeast based, but this recipe is a bit different. Instead of the yeast, the recipe calls for baking powder to keep the rolls pillow-like - this also cuts down the total time needed to make the dish allowing it to be a little more reasonable to make on a weeknight. I found the dough to be quite easy to work with, but teetering on being a little sweet for us - I would think about reducing the honey to 3 tablespoons. While you don't need to wait for the dough to rise, you do want to give it a good 5 to 10 minute rest after kneading - this will give the gluten a chance to relax and it will roll out much easier for you.

Once the rolls have been assembled and given a light egg white wash, a scattering of nutty sesame seeds is added to each. Baked until golden, these filled buns were very good warm, but I can easily see them being served as a snack at room temperature. I thought there was a decent filling-to-bun ratio, but I would have liked a little more of the well-seasoned meat mixture.

11 comments:

  1. Beautiful!

    I just saw these in Cooking Light. They were in the contest, right?

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  2. Oh, I much prefer the name Beefy Buns! ;-)

    These look great. I get tons of cabbage in my CSA bag and a lot goes to waste because I usually don't like cooked cabbage (I like it in slaws). I wonder how it would be with cabbages other than Napa.

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  3. Well, with that glowing review, how could I not try to make these? Do you think that they would be okay with regular cabbage instead of the napa? I can never find napa cabbage when I need it.

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  4. Emiline - Yep!

    Tracy and Erika - the original recipe actually called for "green" cabbage, but I used Napa as I had to buy some for another recipe. I am sure it would be just as good with regular!

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  5. I made these last week! I really liked the filling (I did use green cabbage) but I thought there was too much bread. I think with a little tweaking, they would be really good. Yours look great!

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  6. You are so great~! ^_^

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  7. We LOVE Korean food and I am so making these this weekend!

    They look wicked good.

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  8. Oh wow - those look great! Having lived in South Korea a short while, I don't remember seeing those (like some of the other staples I loved so much), but instead they seem VERY similar to bierochs (sp?), a ground beef and cabbage filled dough/roll in the exact same shape (but with yeast-risen dough), that my grandmother used to make to take out the guys in the wheat fields. (Yeaaaars before Hot Pockets came out!) I've actually been wanting to find a good bierochs ("beer-ox") recipe lately - maybe I'll just try making these instead!

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  9. Deborah - Thanks... I do think there is room for improvement as well!

    Teresa - Thank you!

    Barbara - Did you end up making these?

    Jeph - Yeah, I have no idea if they are anywhere close to authentic! I'll have to look those up and see how close they are to what you remember!

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  10. I made these a few weeks ago and thought they were great. I did find the dough a bit resistant to being rolled thin, i'll make sure to give it time to rest after kneading next time around.

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  11. Anon - Glad you liked them... I really need to make another batch to stash in the freezer for lunches!

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