Korean Tacos

On a recent phone call with my cousin, we laughed at how her kids tell her she’s turning into her mother. Of course, my cousin loved her mother dearly, just as I loved mine. However, I also notice little things about myself now, like my mom.

I admire too many things to mention about my mother; if I noticed those things in myself, it would be much better. However, it’s the little things that I remember rolling my eyes at that I see in myself now. I am sure my mother would get a good laugh out of this.

After my mother passed and we were going through her house, I found hundreds of clipped recipes from magazines. I no longer get magazines, but my phone is full of screenshots of recipes! I have a stack of printed recipes, and my question is, why? I have Pinterest and other ways to save recipes and articles I want to return to. At least Mama had an excuse. She never had a computer, and the one time I got her a smartphone, she wanted her “dumb” phone back within a couple of days.

Talking to my cousin made me realize I had to do something about all this clutter. So, last week I started with the printed recipes. I have yet to go through all of them, but as it turns out, most of them went into the recycle bin. I have been saving recipes that I didn’t even want to try.

However, I did keep a few, and this Korean Taco recipe was among them. Greg and I tried this recipe over the weekend, and we loved it. It was such a nice change from our usual meals.

I did a little research and took ideas from several different recipes. These tacos have several components, but everything about this meal is simple. The meat cooks in the crockpot. If you want to save a little time in the morning, have the chuck roast cut into cubes, your onion peeled, and quarter and combine the other crockpot ingredients in a separate bowl. Other things you can do ahead of time to make serving easier is prepare the Korean BBQ sauce and Sriracha mayo. You can even make the Quick Kimchi and warm it before serving. You can also prepare the cucumber and red onion beforehand, but I suggest you chop the cilantro just before serving.

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Korean Tacos

Author Amye Melton

Ingredients

• 2 to 3 pound chuck roast cut into 2 to 3-inch cubes
• 1 onion quartered
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• pinch black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 cup beef broth
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• street-size flour or corn tortillas
• Korean BBQ sauce recipe follows
• Sriracha Mayonnaise recipe follows
• Quick Kimchi recipe follows
• cucumbers
• chopped cilantro
• diced red onion
• sesame seeds

Instructions

• Add chuck roast and the quartered onion to slow cooker.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, black pepper, ginger, brown sugar, soy sauce, broth, vinegar and sesame oil; pour over beef and onion.
• Cover slow cooker and cook on LOW for 8 hours.
• After 8 hours, using two forks, shred the beef in the slow cooker.
• Serve shredded beef on tortillas, top with Korean BBQ sauce, kimchi, Sriracha mayo, cucumber, red onion, cilantro and sesame seeds.

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Korean BBQ Sauce

Author Amye Melton

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoons Sambal Oelek chili paste more or less, to taste
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons water

Instructions

• To a skillet, add soy sauce, water, brown sugar, garlic, vinegar,oil, ginger, pepper and chili paste. Bring to a boil.
• In a separate bowl, combine the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water until cornstarch is completely dissolved. Add cornstarch mixture to sauce and continue to boil until sauce thickens. Remove from heat and set aside to serve.

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Sriracha Mayonnaise

Author Amye Melton

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons Sriracha
• 4 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice

Instructions

• In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, Sriracha and lime juice; set aside to serve.