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Dinner Tonight: Korean Burritos

Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, February 27, 2009 at 5:00 PM

Spurred by the recent coverage of Los Angeles-based food truck Kogi BBQ, which sounds quite like heaven to me, I've been thinking a lot about this Korean-Mexican marriage. And I like it.

I wanted to taste it firsthand, but couldn't find many related recipes. I decided to start from scratch. I knew I wanted pork, so I picked this Korean-style pork recipe which quickly marinates a thinly sliced pork tenderloin. I added kimchi, rice, sliced romaine, and lime-marinated onions.

It's an incredible feast of flavors: slightly spicy from the kimchi, a little sweet from the marinade, and all much lighter than those overloaded gut bombs that some burritos have become. It's still kind of a mess, but then again, aren't all great burritos? Make sure to wrap these up in aluminum foil, Chipotle style, so you can eat with one hand without all the guts falling out.

Korean Burritos

- serves 3 to 4 -
Adapted from TriFood.com

Ingredients

1 pound pork tenderloin, very thinly sliced
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ginger, grated
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons red pepper sauce
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
4 large flour tortillas
2 cups kimchi, chopped
2 cups cooked rice
1 onion, minced
Juice of 3 limes
Romaine lettuce, chopped

Procedure

1. Whisk together the soy sauce, garlic, ginger, brown sugar, red pepper sauce, red pepper flakes, rice wine vinegar, and sesame oil in a bowl. Add the thinly sliced pork and set aside for at least 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, cook the rice if you haven't already. Toss the onion with the lime juice and set aside.

3. Heat a large iron skillet over high heat. When very hot, dump in the marinated pork along with the marinade. Stir constantly until browned and cooked through. Remove the meat and continue cooking the marinade until thickened, maybe another minute.

4. Warm the tortillas on a large skillet set over medium heat for about 10 seconds per side. Then construct. Start with a scoop of rice, a handful of lettuce and kimchi, a sprinkling of the onions, and finally however much meat you'd like. Spoon on some of the thickened marinade. Wrap up the burrito. Here's a handy guide from About.com.

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Tags: burritos, kimchi, Korean, Mexican

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