Last Christmas, so my first xmas with my in-laws, my mother-in-law kindly asked me to make some Korean food. Now, it may sound simple, but believe me, it was not.

My in-laws know very little about Korea - they had no reason to until *this* one came along.
And one thing about Korean food, is that it's spicy. Most Korean dishes are not complete without a spoonful of chili powder and I wasn't sure how my new nephew nieces were gonna handle it.

So I was on my quest to find non-spicy yet traditional Korean food that is easily approachable and also easy to make, just in case my mother-in-law wanted to try out the recipe herself.

The first thing that came into my mind was Galbi.
This particular recipe is Galbijjim(갈비찜- 'jjim' means steamed)and I have not found a single person who did not like this recipe.

This is my go-for recipe whenever I am asked to make some Korean food for those who hasn't tried Korean food before, and with little help of Korean BBQ marinade which you can now find in most grocery stores in their Asian section, this dish is very easy to make.

For those who can not get Korean BBQ (Galbi) marinade, my favourite Youtuber Mangchi has a video making Galbijjim from scratch so you can check that out.

For those of you, with excess to cheat sauce can now proceed to finding ingredients

For this recipe you will need:
1 lb Beef for stew (or cubed chuck)
1 medium size onion
2 medium size potato
1 carrot
1 Tbs sesame oil
1/2 Tbs sesame seed
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cup Korean BBQ marinade
(Optional)
1 bell pepper
1 cup of chopped broccoli

*Oh and also white rice to serve this dish with!!

This recipe is one of those where you can feel free to through in any scrap vegetable you might have and in my case, I thought I might use up some frozen veggies so I added broccoli and bell pepper.


2. Once your beef is marinated, heat a pan (large high rise skillet or pot would work) with oil, and toss in your onion and beef to brown.

3. Once beef is brown on the surface, add in your vegetable. If you added more vegetable than recipe has suggested, feel free to add more marinade with water (I added 1/4 cup since I like lots of vegetable for my Galbijjim) and stir well.

 6. Now it's done!

On the day of Christmas, the day I was supposed to make Korean food for everyone, I prepared
this Galbijjim(갈비찜), Dduckguk (떡국 Rice cake soup for new year), Fish cake soup(오뎅탕), and Cucumber Kimchi (오이김치). Without a surprise, this was an obvious winner of the dinner whilst all dishes had their own fans.

This is an easy dish to throw on the stove if you wanted to taste something Korean and do definitely try out. You will love it.

xDaughter-in-law