Scoffopedia

Tag: mains

  • Bulgogi

    photo of bulgogi

    Bulgogi is a classic Korean dish made from strips of meat – usually beef or pork – marinated in a spicy sauce and then cooked on a special ridged grill plate.

    This is probably one of the most well-known Korean meat dishes outside Korea. It literally means ‘fire’ (bul) and ‘meat’ (gogi) and these are marinated in a sesame and soy-based paste. Originally the meat was barbecued over an open flame but these days it’s quite common to see induction ‘BBQ’ grill pans in Korean restaurants.

    Of course, you can make your own bulgogi paste but there are also some commercial, delicious bulgogi marinades available. If your local supermarket doesn’t stock it, then try an Asian supermarket or buy online. If buying, rather than making, look for a high fruit content in the ingredients as the extra pears in the marinade will enhance the dish.

    Recipe

    Sainsburys Magazine: Bulgogi

  • Coq au vin

    Coq au vin in a casserole dish

    Coq au vin is a French dish of chicken braised with red wine, lardons, mushrooms, and garlic.

    Legend has it that Julius Caesar’s cook created the first coq au vin recipe after the Gauls gave Caesar a tough old cockerel as tribute for his conquering them. Caesar’s cook made the bird into a delicious meal to serve back to the Gauls. It’s an interesting story but it’s more likely that the dish evolved previously without any input from Caesar.

    The term coq au vin is French for “cockerel with wine” and was probably a common peasant dish in previous centuries. Rural families in France commonly kept chickens and a cockerel. The cockerel would be kept until it was too old to perform its duties, and would then be eaten. Old birds, however, were tough and stringy, so the common preparation was to slow-simmer it in wine in order to tenderise the meat and make it more palatable.

    These days it’s usually made with chicken rather than an old cockerel, but if you’re friendly with your local butcher and want to try an authentic recipe you could ask if s/he could order an old bird for you.

    Recipes

    Raymond Blanc’s coq au vin

    Cookstr.com: Anthony Bourdain’s coq au vin