Kogi-style Korean short rib taco

As tradition built it

Kogi-style Korean short rib taco

Documented Korean and Mexican convention, not a primary published Kogi recipe

Ingredients

The method as the tradition gives it, with the ingredients named. Quantities follow as we verify them, lead dishes first.

For the marinade

• roughly equal parts soy sauce and brown sugar, by volume
• a generous measure garlic, minced
• a generous measure ginger, grated
• half the volume of the soy sauce toasted sesame oil
• to taste black pepper
• half a pear Asian pear or kiwi, grated
• 1.5kg (3lb), bone-in, sliced thin across the bone short rib

For the salsa, slaw and to serve

• 2, doubled corn tortillas, doubled and warmed
• tomato
• onion
• cilantro
• lime
• chile
• napa cabbage
• Korean chile-sesame vinaigrette

Method

1. Marinate the short rib in soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, black pepper and grated Asian pear or kiwi for its tenderising enzyme, at least a few hours and ideally overnight.
2. Grill hot and fast over direct heat until charred at the edges, then slice thin against the grain.
3. Serve in a warmed, doubled corn tortilla with a bright, fresh Mexican-style salsa of tomato, onion, cilantro, lime and chile, and a napa cabbage slaw dressed with Korean chile-sesame vinaigrette, finished with a squeeze of lime.

Notes

The marinade is standard, well-established Korean short rib technique and the salsa and slaw are documented Mexican and Korean convention respectively, combined in the format Choi's own truck made famous, rather than transcribed from Kogi's own kitchen: no primary published recipe with exact Kogi quantities was found.

What a modern chef changes

High, direct fire and a reduced glaze

Rung 4: Live fire as a controlled-imprecision instrument

Ingredients

• salsa tomato and chile, for dehydrating and grinding

Method

1. Grill the marinated short rib on a Big Green Egg over direct, very high heat, the closest domestic equivalent to the intense flat-top or open flame a food truck runs.
2. Reduce the leftover marinade separately in a saucepan until syrupy and use it as a finishing glaze brushed on just before the meat comes off the heat, rather than only as a raw marinade discarded after use.
3. Dehydrate a portion of the salsa's tomato and chile and grind it into a fine, shelf-stable seasoning dust, dusted over the finished taco alongside the fresh remainder.