Kogi BBQ recipe rip-off: Kimchi Quesadillas

Well hello.
A few months ago I posted a fairly obnoxious showing how to make what I consider to be the
flagship offering from LA’s Kogi taco truck,
the Korean shortrib taco.
This video will show how to make something similar to another offering from the Kogi BBQ truck,
the kimchi quesadilla.
The recipe I’ll show is similar to a recipe published in Gourmet Magazine that was
submitted by Kogi’s chef,
Roy Choi.
Admittedly, this combination sounds really weird, but it’s great.
Even people who don't care for kimchi at all will probably enjoy this.
Preparing the components of these quesadillas actually requires quite a bit
of prep work, so keep that in mind.
These quesadillas can certainly be enjoyed without adding any meat,
but if you have any leftover kalbi or some sliced
leftover bulgogi,
this would be a great way to use it up.
You could even use bacon if you'd like.
I made a really simple chicken recipe with some Korean flavors in the marinade.
The recipe for the chicken marinade is listed in the details section.
Now for the kimchi.
If you make your own, congratulations. I buy it, and I'm sure it's not as good as
homemade kimchi, but I don't care.
I do like to open the jar with a colander underneath, because sometimes
the cabbage and juices will ooze up out of the jar. No such luck this time.
By the way, kimchi has been getting a lot of attention lately for its health
benefits.
I don't know.
Anyway, this recipe calls for one cup of kimchi, drained.
It’s really important that you do not squeeze the juices out, because you’d be putting
a lot of flavor down the drain.
Just a quick shake will do.
The kimchi gets a rough chop, just to make the pieces a little bit smaller.
This will actually get sautéed over medium-low heat in two tablespoons of
butter.
Once the butter starts to bubble,
add the kimchi and spread it around the pan.
You can stir it a couple of times, but the key is to let the cabbage stay in
contact with the pan so that it can start to get a little brown and crispy, like this.
It normally takes about ten minutes.
Once it’s done, put it in a bowl and let it cool off.
Cooking the kimchi like this concentrates the flavors, especially the salt.
Keep that in mind as the other components are prepared.
I’m using low-sodium soy sauce for everything else so that the salt doesn't
overwhelm the dish.
Also,
a couple elements of this recipe call for toasted sesame seeds.
I'm putting three tablespoons of raw sesame seeds into a pan the will be set
to the lowest heat setting.
Give the pan a shake every couple of minutes until the seeds are about the
same color as peanut butter.
This can take a while, but it's worth it.
One optional ingredient for these quesadillas is an herb called peril.
The Korean kind is quite large, and unfortunately I couldn’t find any.
In Japan, they use a type of perilla called shiso,
and the Vietnamese variety is called tia to. And I don't know if I'm pronouncing that
correctly.
All I could find was the Vietnamese kind, which is purple on the underside. It
tastes sort of minty and basily.
It's an optional ingredient, but it's nice to include if you can find it.
This recipe calls for a cup of shredded Monterey jack
and a cup of shredded cheddar.
I guess you could just get a bag of shredded "Mexican blend" cheese, but cheese
really does melt a lot better if you shred it yourself.
I like to serve the quesadillas with a slaw, and this one will be pretty simple.
It starts with a half tablespoon of ginger,
one small chopped jalapeño,
one tablespoon of low-sodium soy sauce,
one tablespoon of rice vinegar, and one tablespoon of those delicious toasted
sesame seeds.
By the way, you could just use a few tablespoons of a soy ginger salad
dressing if you'd like.
And this is just an eight-ounce bag of broccoli slaw, and even though it doesn't
look like there's enough dressing, after this sits for a few minutes the vegetables
will let out some of their own juices.
The Kogi truck serves their kimchi quesadillas with some type of salsa.
Any good taqueria-style salsa, red or green, will probably be fine with these.
I like to use a gochujang-based barbecue sauce.
There is a product available at Whole Foods called Annie Chun’s Gochujang
Sauce, and it would be perfect for this. I would really recommend using that
instead of making the sauce from scratch, but if you do already have a tub of
gochujang paste in your refrigerator, you can find a recipe for the sauce in the
details section.
To assemble these beauties, first lay down a few of the perilla leaves onto a
ten-inch tortilla. If you have the large Korean perilla, you may end up
needing only one leaf.
Then put down half of the cheddar,
half of the kimchi,
and then one tablespoon of toasted sesame seeds. That seems like a lot, but it
tastes really good.
And then half of the chicken or whatever
meat you're using.
And then half of the Monterey jack
Put a frying pan over medium heat for a few minutes and add about a tablespoon
of canola oil before putting the quesadilla in.
You could do it without the oil, but the tortilla gets a little extra crispy this way.
Check the bottom after about one minute, and then flip it if it’s
taking on a golden brown color.
The other side should take another minute, and then it's done.
To serve this,
cut each quesadilla into four wedges,
and then arrange it on a plate.
You can put on some fancy zig-zags with the barbecue sauce,
and then put a nice scoop of slaw on the side.
This is ready to eat. Eat this immediately, because quesadillas become less
awesome every minute after they're removed from the frying pan. There are a
lot of surprisingly good flavors here, So I hope you give this a shot.