A Tijuana touch turned Korean galbi jjim (braised short ribs) into an extraordinary dish.
This happened at the Top Chef Korean Food Challenge held recently in San Diego. The contest was sponsored by the Korea Tourism Organization, which is promoting Korean culture through its new website, buzz KOREA, and produced with the cooperation of the Korea Herald newspaper in Los Angeles. The host was Cathlyn Choi of the TV cooking show "Cathlyn's Korean Kitchen."
Three teams of two chefs each drew rolled slips of paper that revealed what they had to prepare. Cooking time was 30 minutes, not much for anyone unfamiliar with Korean food. And not one of the competitors was Korean.
The teams were executive chef Bernard Guillas and chef Ron Oliver of the Marine Room in the La Jolla Shores Hotel; executive chefs Brian Hirsty and Graham Norton of the Bluewater Grill in Tustin, and Tijuana celebrity chef Javier Plascencia and sous chef Adria Montano, representing Mision 19, which is the newest restaurant in the Plascencia group.
It was Plascencia (with Montano, above), who drew galbi jjim, which normally takes hours to prepare.
"It sure was a challenge to make it in 30 minutes," he said. His solution was to slice the meat very thin, marinate it briefly with sugar and sesame oil, saute it with chopped onion and garlic and then grill it to get a slight char and smoky taste.
Then he added the meat to a pot of vegetables along with soy sauce, mirin, ginger, green onions and garlic and cooked this over high heat until syrupy.
From the basket of ingredients provided, Plascencia had picked out sweet peppers, carrots, jujubes (Asian red dates), pine nuts and daikon. For spicy heat, he stirred in a dash of Korean red pepper paste.
Inspired by Tijuana street food, he spooned the mixture into bowls lined with banana leaves, topped it with shredded daikon, shot it with a gun loaded with wood smoke and covered the bowls to seal in the aromas.
The effect was intricate and colorful, with a great balance of flavors. You'd never find anything like it in a Korean restaurant, but with luck, Plascencia might adapt it for Mision 19 in Tijuana.
"I was very pleased with my result," he said after the contest. "I had a lot of fun, and it got me really interested in Korean cuisine."
You can watch Plascencia and the other chefs (above) cook their Korean dishes and see which team won April 7 at 9 p.m. on the SoCal PBS station KOCE.
.
Recent Comments