Corcoran Street Kitchen: Bulgogi Lettuce Wraps

Technically, this is not really traditional bulgogi. Bulgogi is a famous Korean dish of marinated meat that is grilled in small strips over a specialty grill and then served in wraps. This meal has all of the flavors of bulgogi, but rather than cook the meat in individual thin pieces, I wanted to grill up one piece of meat and cut it. Seems much easier to me and I can use the grill, rather than heat up the house. I've always heard that skirt steak was where it's at. It is suppose to be a very flavorful cut of meat that needs a good, strong marinade to break it down before grilling. This seems right up my alley. I grabbed a skirt steak at the store and set about to marinate it. The marinade is sharp and spicy to really penetrate the meat with lots of flavor before searing it quickly on a hot grill. The skirt steak is quite thin, so you don't want to overcook your meat. Only a few minutes on each side is all you need. We served these in the traditional little lettuce wraps that people use to eat bulgogi. It really works. The lettuce adds freshness and crunch. If you prefer and sandwich roll or wrap, more power to you. A little sprinkle of fresh mint (or cilantro) and you are all set. Mark went totally bonkers for this meal, so I knew it was a winner.

Bulgogi Lettuce Wraps
Ingredients:
1 lb. skirt steak
3 Tbs. soy sauce
3 Tbs. sriracha
3 Tbs. dry sake
2 Tbs. sesame oil
1 Tbs. Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tbs. fresh ginger
2 gloves garlic
Lettuce leaves and mint (for serving)

1. To make the marinade, mince the garlic and ginger very fine. I used my microplane. Then combine all of the ingredients (except the steak, lettuce, and mint of course) in a bowl and whisk together.

2. Place the steak and the marinade in a freezer bag and marinate all day in the fridge or up to overnight.

3. When you are ready to grill, set the steak on a plate and sprinkle both sides with salt.

4. We used our charcoal grill to cook the meat. We heated it up nice and hot and grilled the meat for about 2-3 minutes per side.

5. Wash and dry the lettuce leaves and set them on a platter. Butter lettuce is really ideal for this task, but the butter lettuce at the store looked sad, so I switched to romaine with no real ill effects.