Meat Jun Recipe:
Meat Jun Recipe:
My all-time favorite plate lunch entree is meat jun, a Korean fusion steak cuisine from Hawaii. Steak is marinated for the entire night in a mixture of sweet and soy sauce, then battered and pan-fried. It’s excellent and really simple.
Every week while I was a high school student in southern California, my friends and I would go out to $10 AYCE Korean BBQ. Yes, it is correct. Each and every week. We would overindulge in cheap slices of meat and then meet up in the school bathroom the next day to deal with the fallout. You understand what I mean.
I’m trying to eat a lot less meat these days, but I do occasionally indulge in meat jun. This beef is AMAZING. Continue reading if you’re unfamiliar with meat jun; it’s definitely worth learning about!
Meat Jun: What is it?
Meat Jun Recipe:
Meat jun, a delicacy from Hawaii, has Korean elements. It is produced using a very thin steak marinated in a blend of sweet soy sauce, then battered and fried. The very description should make you drool. It’s not deep-fried, though you could fry it that way if you’re very adventurous. And there’s no breading, just an egg batter. The result is a delicate, sweet-and-salty beef with a crust akin to tempura. Typically, you would slice it into strips like a katsu and serve it over rice.
Meat Jun’s Favorite Cut of Meat:
Meat Jun Recipe:
When bought, beef jun is relatively thin in Hawaii. Presliced beef that is sliced into these large but tender chunks is what you would ideally buy. I’ve heard that Asian markets in Hawaii carry thinly sliced beef that’s perfect for meat jun. However, in my truly decades-long hunt across California and Washington’s mainland grocery stores, I have rarely found meat that slices well.
Instead, everyone I know cooks using flank steak. Even yet, flank steak isn’t always available at my neighbourhood market. This meat bun is made with flank steak rather than thinly sliced steak.
Now, my mom told me that if you still wanted the meat to be really thin, you had to ask the butcher at your grocery store to put the flank steak through their meat tenderiser machine twice. Regretfully, my local supermarket and butcher don’t always carry flank steak. Even without a butcher, I managed to tenderise the flank steak that is the subject of this blog article by myself. Flank steak is usually found at Trader Joe’s.
Suddenly, I was in a Safeway and saw that they were selling eye of cow round in really thin slices. Naturally, I leaped at the chance to get some meat quickly. But really, I’ve searched the Safeways around my house for this cut, and I can’t find it! So I guess you just have to be really lucky with your grocery stores if you’re from the mainland like me.
Remarks regarding the Marinade:
Meat Jun Recipe:
If you don’t have any mirin, you can substitute sake for it in the marinade. Simply allocate space in your kitchen cabinets for one or the other if you don’t have either. Sake and mirin are required in all of my teriyaki, sukiyaki, and yakitori recipes. If you enjoy preparing Hawaiian and Japanese food, you should always have mirin and sake on hand. Sake and mirin are found in the same aisle as other condiments and soy sauce in the Asian market. Another possibility is Amazon.
And lastly, about the marinade, I get asked a lot on social media if the amount of sugar may be reduced. Of course, you can cut the sugar to the exact amount you want. However, I think that one characteristic of Hawaiian (and Japanese) cuisine that sets them apart is the balance between savoury and sweet flavours. If you want your food to taste as fantastic as it does in Hawaii, don’t cut corners when it comes to the sugar.
Here’s the REAL last word on the marinade: it’s best to marinate overnight! If, like me, you forget the night before, you can manage with at least thirty minutes.
Advice on Baking Steak:
Meat Jun Recipe:
Unlike other fried meats that are popular in Japan and Hawaii, meat jun does not have a panko breading. Instead, the meat is swiftly fried after being dipped in flour and then egg batter.
The fried batter would always slip off the meat when my mother made this dish when I was a kid. I found that patting the steak dry with a paper towel before dredging it in flour helps the crust stick to it much better.
How to Present Meat in Jun:
Meat Jun Recipe:
A fantastic plate lunch option is meat jun. Cut it into katsu-style strips and serve it with a few side dishes and rice.
