Korean Spicy Pork BBQ Taco

As I promised, I am going to post another Mexican inspired dish for this week's update.

Have you heard of Korean-Mexican foods? I believe it started from the west coast of the US where Mexican foods are more popular and there is a huge community of Korean immigrants. Thanks to many creative chefs, you can nowadays easily find food trucks selling Korean-Mexican foods.

Spicy pork bbq is a very popular dish in Korea. You can serve this with many other banchans (Korean small dishes) bowl of rice or over the rice. I think this fatty, spicy and flavorful bbq works really well with white tortilla which has sweet toasted corn flavor with chewy texture.

You can assemble the taco ahead of time, but you can also serve the tortilla, spicy pork bbq and condiments separately... so you and can make your tacos.

Korean Spicy Pork BBQ Taco
(Yield: 7-8 tacos / Cooking time: 35 minutes)

Ingredients:
+ 7-8 soft white corn tortillas

Korean Spicy Pork BBQ

+ 0.5lb pork belly, cut into thin bite sizes + 1 Tsp gochujang (Korean hot chili paste) + 2 tsp low-sodium soy sauce + 1/2 tsp sesame oil + 2 cloves of garlic

+ 1/2 tsp sugar + 1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper + a quarter of medium onion + one scallion

I added ground pepper into sesame oil.

Taco Condiments
+ 4-5 lettuce or escarole leaves
+ 1-2 chili peppers
+ 1 radish
+ 1 sheet of roasted seaweed (김 [gim] in Korean, 海苔 [nori] in Japanese), cut into thin strips
+ 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds

Procedures:
1. Slice onion, and cut scallion into about the length of onion slices. And mince two cloves of garlic.


2. Make gochujang marinade for pork bbq. Mix the measured gochujang, low-sodium soy sauce, sesame oil, minced garlic, sugar and freshly ground pepper. With a hand, mix pork and the gochujang marinade to make sure every pork slice is covered with the marinade. Then, add onion and scallions, and mix again. Wrap tightly and place in refrigerator.


While the pork is marinated, let's prepare condiments.

3-1. Lettuce: Cut lettuce leaves into chiffonade, thin long strips.
3-2. Chili peppers and Radish: Slice into thin rings and rounds.
3-3. Roasted seaweed: Slice into very thin strips. Please use kitchen scissor.
3-4. Toasted sesame seeds: If you can find only sesame seeds, toast in a heated dry pan until sesame seeds are slightly browned.

4. Now... finally, cook marinated pork in a heated pan until the pork is cooked and slightly caramelized. And, while the pork is cooking, grill tortillas until tortillas are charred slightly, but still soft.


5. Serve warm tortillas, spicy pork bbq and all the condiments together, then... make your own tacos.


Enjoy~!