Korean Barbeque Sauce

By the start of the weekend it was decided that steak would be the Sunday Roast dinner. I decided that Korean Barbeque would be the flavour. Remembering I had a bottle tucked away, for just incase purposes, I used it because I wanted to get the steaks marinating straight away. Plus I was low on soy sauce.  

I have used this Korean Barbeque sauce before when pinched for time. It is fairly good and the sodium isn't too bad. There is a lot of salt... and sugar out there in products so read the labels and take the lowest whenever possible. I recommend this one if you are pressed for time however I will include a Korean Barbeque Sauce recipe if you would rather try that.  

Since the steaks were on the small side I managed to fit them all into this marinating container. The steaks must have marinated for almost 2 days. Flipping the container every so often.   

The marinating container is from Tupperware. I bought it years ago. There are these little pyramid like nibs on the top and bottom of both sides to ensure flavour flow and even marinating.

The steaks were baked in a pre-heated 400ºF oven for 30 minutes. They were baked uncovered for the first 15 minutes and for the remaining 15 minutes of the baking time I had placed aluminium foil over the baking dish. To avoid the steaks from drying out and  to seal in most of the flavour and juices. 

Even though I did not make my own Korean Barbeque sauce, which is fine. Sometimes there are just more important things that need to be done. I will include this recipe.


Korean Barbeque Sauce
------------------------------------ 
1 cup low sodium soy sauce
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 - 3 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon chile- garlic sauce
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
some ground black pepper

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon water

Stir the soy sauce, sugar, garlic, rice wine vinegar, chile-garlic sauce, ginger, sesame oil, and black pepper together in a saucepan; bring to a boil.

Whisk cornstarch and water together in a small bowl until the cornstarch dissolves; pour into the boiling soy sauce mixture.

Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the sauce has thicken, about 3 to 5 minutes. 

Notes: For a spicier sauce use ground fresh chili paste. Try using coconut sugar. If you do not have rice wine vinegar then use white vinegar or even a malt vinegar it may change the taste slightly however sometimes adding a different ingredient in replace of another can be worth it. Try adding a tablespoon of minced or diced shallots.

Hope everyone had a great weekend! - JD