I haven’t always been gentle when I’ve written about Bill Kim’s food. I’ve long been of the (immensely unpopular) opinion that the former fine-dining chef behind the immensely popular BellyQ (and erstwhile Urban Belly and Belly Shack) tends to oversaturate his food with too many disparate influences.
That being said, this was a busy week, so I wanted something simple, settling on grilled skirt steak and asparagus with a gochuchang-based sauce. Not so fast. The steak relies on two of Kim’s master sauces, one of which relies on two others. All told, steak-and-asparagus night required me to prepare a total of seven different recipes from his book.
Bill Kim’s Korean Pesto Okay, I know you’re wondering what pesto has to do with Korean barbecue. But pesto doesn’t have to be exclusive to Italian cooking. It’s just a combination of nuts and oil and herbs and other ingredients, and it can be used in anything from a dipping sauce to a soup to a marinade. So I took Asian versions of these ingredients—like kimchi instead of cheese for a little fermented element—and created a similarly balanced sauce that is distinctly Korean. It adds intensity and will elevate the flavors in your food.
¼ cup Nuoc Cham Sauce (see below)
¼ cup Lemongrass Chili Sauce (see below)
1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce, plus 1 tablespoon adobo sauce
¼ cup kimchi, homemade or store-bought
¼ cup dry-roasted peanuts
½ cup fresh basil leaves, firmly packed
¼ cup olive oil
PREP TIME 10 minutes
MAKES 2¼ cups
Combine the garlic, ginger, lemongrass, chili sauce, fish sauce, sambal oelek, and oil in a bowl and whisk until blended. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks or freeze for up to 2 months (see note).
NOTE This sauce won’t fully harden when frozen, so you can spoon out as much as you need whenever you want to use it.
