Sausage Bokkeum - Stir Fried Sausage

Tender crisp peppers and onions with smoky sausage wrapped in a sweet and spicy sauce.

Sausage Bokkeum - Stir Fried Sausage

Serves 4 - 5

Sausage bokkeum makes a great banchan accompaniment to an everyday meal. I like to serve it along with a meat-free doenjang jjigae and a few additional vegetable side dishes. Though here I’ve prepared the stir fry drier, you can easily make it saucier by following the easy instructions in the Note.

This dish was very familiar to me as it is quite similar to the Italian-American sausage and peppers I grew up eating. The biggest difference between the two is the use of a separate sauce in the Korean version which adds additional flavor as well as helps everything to meld. In this instance, I add the garlic into the sauce to be cooked as minimally as possible to maintain the strong garlic flavor. In the Italian-American dish, the natural juices of the vegetables and sausage in conjunction with olive oil and garlic form a sauce that is often placed in a sandwich of some kind with or without cheese or topped with marinara before going onto a hero or over pasta.

Ultimately, you wind up with a richly flavored stir fry whose strong flavors perfectly complement .rice.

“Recipe Tips:

1. For something a saucier stir fry, add 100ml (1/2 c) water and 0.50 t mushroom bullion to the sauce and simmer for 5 minutes.

*2. You can also use honey mustard if you want the overall stir fry to be a little sweeter.”

Ingredients

Sauce

60g (3 T) ketchup

2 T soy sauce

2 T soju

1 T gochujang

*1 T Asian or yellow mustard

1.5 t gochugaru

2 t sesame oil

1 t sugar

4 garlic cloves, minced 

Stir Fry

2 T vegetable oil

350g (4 links) smoked sausage, cut into chunky batons

454g (1 lb) mixed bell peppers, 0.25 in julienned

454g (1 XL) onion, sliced with grain 0.25 in thick

Recipe Know-how

1.      In a small bowl, combine the sauce ingredients mixing well.

• Taste and adjust seasoning as desired. Set aside.

2.      In a large saute pan, heat 1 T of vegetable oil over medium-high heat.

• Add the sausage and cook tossing occasionally until the sausage begins to brown and is cooked through, about 5 minutes.

• Remove to a plate and keep warm.

• Return the pan to the heat with the remaining oil.

• Add the peppers and onions tossing occasionally until the vegetables just begin to wilt, 5 – 7 minutes.

• Return the sausage to the pan along with the sauce and cook stirring frequently until the sauce is reduced and everything is glazed, 2 – 3 minutes.

3.      Garnish sprinkled with sesame seeds.