Korean style BEEF TARTARE - "yokhoe"

Beef Tartare is a dish consisting of raw beef and various garnishes, i.e. raw egg yolk, onion and pickled vegetables. In Norway we eat beef tartare with egg yolk, onion, pickled red beets, capers and pickled cornichon. Usually the beef is added some worchestershiresauce, salt and back pepper to taste.

This Korean style beef tartare is marinated and suitable as a first course or as a perfect lunch in a lowcarb diet, or why not when you're craving some proteins!

You get umami from the meat, soy sauce and fish sauce. Garlic and vinegar enhances development of free glutamate in the small meatstrips as well.

This is a recipe for 4 persons as a small appetizing first course.  

Use best quality fresh ingredients, preferably sirloin beef, cut in julienne (matchstick sized strips).

INGREDIENTS:

250g ½ pound sirloin beef from grassfed beef

1,5tbs soy sauce

2ts fish sauce

1 ts fluid neutral tasting honey  

2tbs sesamy oil (roasted)

1/2ts rice vinegar

4 cloves garlic, crushed and finely minced

Pinch of chilipepper to taste

Pine nuts or sesame seeds- roasted

Crunchy lettuce as plates

(4 egg yolks from quail with some added salt, optional)

METHOD:

Roast pine nuts or sesame seeds in a dry pan over medium heat.

Rinse salad leafs to use as plates and keep chilled in frigde or ice cold water

Chop beef in matchstick sized strips

Mix ingredients of marinade and add beef, seeds/nuts and serve immediately with a raw egg yolk as topping.

Enjoy!  

COMMENTS

If you have to roast sesame seeds yourselfes, be patient.  It might take you 10 to 15 minutes so why not roast a bigger portion. You can store them in the frigde for later use anyway!

FISH SAUCE - UMAMI IN A BOTTLE

 A bottle of fish sauce 

I'm very impressed by the taste enhancing properties of fish sauce. Fish sauce is as important in asian cooking as salted anchovies are in italian cooking, and both of them are full of umami from free glutamate.

The bottle you see on the photo is a common brand in Norway and I've also bought the same brand here in Turkey. Fish sauce is a staple condiment in my kitchen. I use it instead of salt and to add saltiness and umami in all my soups like the Tom Yum Gai, a tablespoon or two pr.litre/2 quarts in any soupstock is a magic twist.

Fish sauce is produced in several Asian countries and has about the same amount of free glutamate as the even more famous soy sauce. 900mg/100g, and  approx. 25% salt.

PRODUCTION OF FISH SAUCE
Fish sauce is made from fish i.e anchovies or sardines. The fresh fish is added salt that allows fermentation up to one year for high quality fish sauce. Enzymes in the fish as well as the salt break down the long protein chains into amino acids, where free glutamic acid is the main substance to create the savoury umami taste.  When the fermentation is done, the liquid is strained and has a transparent brownish red colour.  When you buy fish sauce, find a brand which is "naturally brewed" without any added taste enhancers.


SEVERAL WAYS TO USE FISH SAUCE
Here's one tip from Michael Rulhman,  in cookingbook "Ruhlmans TWENTY". There he shares a magic twist with 1tbs fish sauce added to the bechamel for macaroni & cheese. I tried this recipe and loved the taste, but macaroni & cheese has so much carbohydrates, I feel like gaining two pounds just by writing this down.    

I would  like to share more ideas and uses of fish sauce in western dishes with my blog readers. Do you have a creative way of using fish sauce in a dish? I can't wait to learn about that.