
I’m the kind of person who likes to live seasonally.
As in, I like to live during only some of the seasons.
Winter, for instance. It’s not for me. Winter is insidious too, because you can feel bad for weeks and months without realizing the cause. You’re like “maybe depression has finally found me” but in fact it’s more “the world is literally dark and cold and inhospitable and all things have their season and the thing during the winter season is feeling bad about everything, I guess”.
So anyway: winter makes everything worse. Everything I want to eat this time of year is a grilled thing because I can’t have it. In the summer, I’m like “WHAT ABOUT BRAISES” and in the winter, I’m like “NIC CAN YOU GO OUTSIDE AND GRILL BULGOGI WHILE I STAY ON THE COUCH WEARING HEAD TO TOE SWEATER”.
A good compromise are these bulgogi meatballs I invented this week. Meatballs are a perfect food. Endless combinations of flavors, easy to make/freeze/cook, everyone likes them. Anyone who doesn’t enjoy meatballs I would encourage to undertake some soul searching. Is the problem that you won’t let yourself be happy? Think about it.
Bulgogi Meatballs
1 lb ground pork
1 lb ground beef
1/2 a ripe pear, peeled and grated
1/2 an apple, peeled and grated
1/2 a small onion, diced finely
2 cloves of garlic, minced finely
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon gochujang (if you don’t have it, buy some, it’s worth it and you can use it in a lot of things. If you don’t have it and can’t buy it, use sriracha instead. If you don’t have sriracha, what on earth are you doing reading this blog)
3 green onions, sliced, reserved to sprinkle on top
Bulgogi Sauce
1/2 a ripe pear, peeled and grated
1/2 an apple, peeled and grated
2 cloves of garlic, minced finely
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon gochujang
2 tablespoons rice vinegar (or white vinegar or apple cider vinegar)
a couple tablespoons of water
Method:
So you’re making meatballs and a sauce for the meatballs. Luckily, it’s a lot of the same ingredients. What I do is get out a big bowl I can mix the meatballs in, and a saucepan that I’ll use to cook the sauce on the stovetop. As I grate the fruit and mince the garlic, I can just put half in each container. For the meatballs, dump all the ingredients together and form your hand into what I have named Meatball Claw and fold the two meats and other ingredients together gently but thoroughly. The idea is to incorporate everything together without working the meat too much and making it tough. Basically there should still be pretty visible flecks of fat when you’re done mixing. Form the meat into roughly golfball sized balls (or whatever meatball size you prefer) and set them on a plate or something. If you want to freeze some of them, which I strongly encourage, you can set the balls out on a cookie sheet so they’re separated, then freeze the whole sheet. Once they’re frozen, transfer the meatballs to a big ziplock bag to keep in the freezer and cook whenever.

Freeze them! Also, you should dice your onions smaller than I did. DON’T BE LIKE ME.
At this point, you can cook the sauce too. Set the saucepan full of stuff on medium heat on your stove. Cook it until it boils, then reduce the heat to low and let it simmer gently until you’re ready to eat.
For the meatballs, I use a cast iron pan. You should also use a cast iron pan. If you do not have one, any saute pan is ok, I guess, but you should know that cast iron pans are like $15 and can be found at Goodwill for even cheaper than that. Put a really good glug of cooking oil in the pan (a few tablespoons of vegetable, olive or avocado oil) and turn the heat to the low side of medium. Let the pan heat up for 5 minutes. Then put a layer of meatballs in the pan, however many will fit, so they are close but not touching each other. Let the first side cook until you see the balls browning, 6 minutes or so.

They’re browning! And the angle of the shot doesn’t show that it spit drops of oil literally all over my stovetop. Glamorous!
Turn the meatballs over and cook until the other side is browned too, another 7 or so minutes. I turn my meatballs a third time at this point and cook them on a third side for 3 -4 more minutes. After that, remove the meatballs to a plate and let them rest for a couple minutes. Pour the sauce over them, sprinkle with the sliced green onion and serve with some stir fried vegetables (I made roasted mushrooms, brussels sprouts and broccoli).

I ate these for breakfast, because I actually cooked them for dinner last night, but you gotta have daylight for passable pictures. Thank the gods for unemployment.
– Cat