kogi inspired tacos (december csa)

what's a person to do with an entire savoy cabbage? make a spicy cabbage slaw, i say! but before we get ahead of ourselves here, let me back up a few steps.

i finally made it to the famed kogi taco truck on a recent la visit. and it was good. but you'll notice that it didn't quite make it on the blog. it's not because i didn't deem it blog-worthy, it's just that i was much more motivated by the kogi inspired recipe from serious eats. i had filed it away after first reading it, with plans to attempt it when the time was right. yes, you guessed it. december csa, 1 cabbage, and 1 serious eats recipe calling for said cabbage. so i made it. and it was deeeelicious. and even more delicious because i made it myself and EVEN MORE delicious because i got to enjoy leftovers for lunch all week long. i cook in big batches, ok?


kogi-inpsired almost bulgogi tacos with spicy slaw
adapted from serious eats (originally publishes by lillian cho, chile pepper magazine july 2009)

for the meat or meat-substitute

• 2 tblspns soy sauce
• 2 tspns sesame oil
• 2 tspns crushed garlic
• 1 tblspn brown sugar
• 1 tblspn mirin
• 1/2 tspn black pepper
• 1 pound meat of choice (original recipe calls for ground beef, i used chicken breast cutlets instead but imagine this would also be delicious with tofu or portobello mushrooms)
• 1 thinly sliced onion
• 2 scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces

for the slaw

• 1 pound chinese, red or napa cabbage, thinly sliced (i used my savoy cabbage)
• 1 tblspn salt
• 2 tblspns fish sauce
• 2 tblspns white vinegar
• 1 1/2 tspns korean chile flakes or hot red pepper flakes (i used way less and it still came out significantly spicy)
• 1 tspn crushed garlic
• 1/2 tspn crushed ginger
• 1 tspn sugar
• 1 scallion, thinly sliced
• 1 tspn sesame seeds
• tortillas, for serving

• sprinkle the salt on the cabbage and toss. let stand for 20 minutes.
• in a large mixing bowl, add the soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, brown sugar, mirin and black pepper, and whisk. add the meat (or meat-substitute), onions and scallions then mix gently until the sauce is incorporated into the meat.
• for the slaw, mix the fish sauce, vinegar, chili flakes, garlic, ginger, sugar, scallions and sesame seeds in a bowl.
• bring a pan to medium-high heat, and cook the meat until done and most of the liquid has evaporated.
• rinse the cabbage under cold water, then squeeze the excess water out. in a bowl, toss the cabbage with the fish sauce mixture until well-coated.
• to assemble, spoon the meat down the center of each tortilla, and top with slaw.