Korean Beef & Nut Patties, the Dduk-Galbi will drive you nuts!

Aren't you feeling beef tonight? I do. And when I crave beef, I crave Korean beef such as Galbi, or Bulgogi. I do love them a lot, especially grilled in charcoal.

Today I want to show you a slight different way of enjoying Korean beef. It is called Dduk Galbi(떡갈비) but different than Galbi. This is a quite popular among Koreans and there are many restaurants specializing this dish. Authentically they take the meat from the rib and mince them, then add marinade to the meat and attach back to the rib bones. Grill and serve! Some people add chopped rice cakes to it (the name Dduck came from the rice cakes). It might sounds complicated but actually not. I am using sirloin beef instead of rib meat and add walnuts and pine nuts to drive you nuts even more. Ha, ha...!

However the job can put you to work out to tone your arm a little bit. You need to smack the beef to chop them. Don't let this scare you. It takes a couple of minutes to do that. Besides it is a good stress relief activity. You can substitute the meat with ground beef if you don't want to chop yourself but I highly encourage you to chop your own beef. You will get much, much better texture on the meat.

Oh, I'm feeling beef tonight!
I'd better get busy...

Here are the beef crew.

Sirloin beef, Asian leek(Daepa), onion, garlic, pear, walnuts, pine nuts, soy sauce, sugar, Mirim(sweet rice wine), pepper, sesame seeds, and sesame oil.

Trim off the fat from the meat.

Thinly slice the meat across the grain and spread them around your cutting board.

Make sure your cutting board is on the stable counter top without anything fragile nearby.

Here is the fun part. Smack them with your knife!

Stressed out? No problem. Smack harder!

Smack them in different directions.

If you have the Chinese cleaver knife, you are the lucky one!

 Turn over the meat to the other side occasionally and continue to chop.

It only takes 2-3 minutes to do this job. 

You don't want to chop them too fine like ground beef.
Just enough to break down into chunks.

The texture will look like this.

Finally slice the entire batch here and there to loosen up.

Feeling any better?

Time to work on your biceps now.

Grind or puree the pear.

Same goes to onion. Just enough to make 2 Tbsp.

Beautiful puree and 

even more beautifully toned upper arm of yours!

Place the meat in a bowl.

Add the pear and onion puree, and the Mirim (or rice wine).

Mix well thoroughly. Set aside.

Chop walnuts and pine nuts. Set aside.
I am driving you nuts today. aren't I?

Chop Asian leek(Daepa) and

chop Mr. Garlic as well.
Tired of chopping yet?

The wise man once said, "No pain, no gain..."

Add leek, garlic, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, pepper to the beef mixture.

Mix well. Squeeze the mixture here and there so the meat can soak up the marinade.
The longer, the better!

Add the nuts to the bowl and mix well.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1hr.

When ready to grill the meat,
make a basting sauce by combining soy sauce, honey, and sesame oil.
Set aside.
This is an optional step to bring nice shine to the meat.

Heat grill pan(sprayed with oil) over Medium high.
Scoop up a spoonful of the beef mixture to the pan.

Flatten it down with your fingers, about 1/4" thick.
Sear the meat for 2 minutes.

When you see the juice forming on the surface,
Flip the meat carefully to the other side.

Do you see the nice grill mark?
That's what you want.
Continue to cook for another 1-2minutes.

When done, baste with the sauce to add more flavor and shine.

Skip the gym today.

You had your work out on your arm.

Let's feed our body with a good protein.

Wrap these beef in lettuce, dot with a chili sauce(gochujang).

Open your mouth as wide as you can,

and just put the whole thing in your mouth and savor it!

The beef, the nuts, the onions, the slight sweetness of soy sauce flavor.

Life feels much better when you get rewards after the hard work.

And this is the reward!

Korean Beef & Nut Patties
serves 4-5

1 1/4lb(500g) beef sirloin

2T Mirim(sweetened Korean rice wine)

3T pear pureed

2T onion pureed

1/2C walnuts finely chopped

3T pine nuts finely chopped

1/2C Asian leek (Daepa) chopped

1 garlic chopped

4T soy sauce

2T sugar

2t sesame oil

2t sesame seeds

3/4t pepper

Basting sauce

2T soy sauce + 1T honey + 1T sesame oil

1 Trim off the fat from beef and slice thinly across grain. Spread the beef slices around cutting board. Place cutting board on sturdy counter top. Smack them with knife in different directions. Turn over to the other sides and continue to chop the meat until you see them into small irregular chunks.

2 Place beef in a bowl and add pear and onion puree. Mix them well. Set aside for 10 minutes.

Add nuts, Asian leek, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and pepper to beef in a bowl.

Mix them thoroughly by squeezing or kneading them many times so the beef can soak up the marinade, about 5 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and let it chill for at least 1 hr.

3 Heat your grill or grill pan over medium high heat. Spray with some oil. Scoop up the beef mixture with spoon and place it on the pan, flattening with your fingers, about 1/4" thick. Sear for 2 minutes and turn over to the other side. Continue to cook for another 1-2 minutes until you see the nice grill marks.

4 Before serving baste with the basting sauce to add shine and more flavor to the meat.

Serve immediately with some lettuce and Korean chili paste (gochujang) or ssamgjang.

Printable recipe