The marinade for this stir fry is an authentic Korean Marinade for Spicy Korean BBQ Pork. It's so jammy and loaded with flavour, it's brilliant for using as a stir fry. I made this with pork but it goes great with beef and chicken too. MARINATING TIME: 30 minutes recommended to overnight, but even no marinating is still delicious as the sauce flavour is so strong.
1/2medium onion, grated (1/4 cup) (brown, white or yellow)
1/2tspfresh ginger, minced or finely chopped
1garlic clove, crushed
1tbspsoy sauce(all purpose or light soy sauce)
2tbspbrown sugar
2tspsesame oil
3tbspgochujang(Korean Hot Pepper Paste) OR see Note 3 for substitution
Stir Fry
1tbspoil
1garlic, minced
1onion, halved and sliced (brown, white or yellow)
To Serve
1scallion/shallot stalk, sliced
Sesame seeds
Rice
Instructions
Cut pork into thin slices. If using pork shoulder, as I did, halve it lengthwise to form two long pieces, then slice the pieces. See photo below.
Combine Marinade ingredients in a bowl. Add pork. Marinate for 30 minutes, or overnight.
To cook, heat oil in a large non stick skillet (Note 4) over high heat. Add garlic and onion, cook for 2 minutes until translucent. Add pork and cook for 5 minutes or until dark golden and caramelised, and just cooked through.
Serve immediately with rice - or for a low carb, low cal option, try Cauliflower Rice! Garnish with sliced shallots and sesame seeds.
Notes
1. Pork shoulder is ideal for this recipe because it's got a bit of fat marbled throughout it. At Korean BBQ, this is made using pork belly which is too fatty for a stir fry like this (in my personal view). It will also work with any pork cuts suitable for stir frying, like tenderloin, but the meat will be leaner.2. This recipe works best with pear, next best with nashi pear and as a last substitute, red apple works great too. The use of pears and apples in marinades is a classic Korean technique which works brilliantly.3. Gochujang is a Korean paste that is used in a lot of Korean recipes. It's spicy and savoury, with a touch of sweet. It's a secret weapon because it's got so many layers of flavour! It can be purchased at Asian grocery stores (~$3), or online here (Aus) or here(US). It's a bit difficult to make your own, but if you are interested, you can read about that here. However! The good news if you are keen to try this and can't get Gochujang is that you can achieve a similar flavour by using the following instead: 2 tbsp sriracha + 1 tbsp miso paste + 1/2 tsp sugar (white or brown). The stir fry does not taste exactly the same but is very similar, with the same sticky spicy slightly sweet glaze with great depth of flavour!Also NOTE! The stir fry will taste very similar but will not come out the same dark colour, it will be paler because the sriracha / miso substitute does not have the same colour. You could compensate for this by using DARK SOY SAUCE instead of all purpose or light soy sauce that the recipe calls for which will make the colour closer to as pictured. Update: As readers note below in the comments, it still tastes amazing! It just looks different!4. I strongly recommend cooking this in a NON STICK pan because the marinade is quite jammy so it will caramelise and stick to the pan. If you do not have a non stick pan, an easy way to clean the fry pan is to fill with some water and bring it to a simmer on the stove. This will loosen the caramelised bits stuck to the fry pan.5. Adapted from this Dwaejibulgogi Korean Spicy BBQ Pork recipe from Maangchi, a wonderful authentic Korean food blog. The original recipe is for Korean BBQ Pork rather than a stir fry, but I find that the marinade is plentiful and comes out beautifully juicy and sticky, making it a perfect base for a simple but flavour loaded stir fry! Traditionally, this is made with thin slices of pork belly then served in lettuce wraps with Ssamjang Korean sauce (recipe link to Maangchi website) - classic Korean BBQ way!6. QUICK PICKLED VEGETABLES: Bring 1/2 cup of rice wine vinegar (or apple cider vinegar) to a simmer with 2 tsp sugar and 3/4 tsp salt. When sugar has dissolved, pour over 3 cups sliced cucumbers and carrots. Cool and bring to room temperature, then chill before serving. I sprinkled mine with red peppers.7. Nutrition per serving, excluding rice. assuming this is made with pork shoulder. If made with pork tenderloin, it reduces to 297 calories per serving.