Yangbaechu-steak (Cabbage Steak with Ssamjang Cream) · Cha Min-uk

Halve the cabbage, then cut it into slabs 2–3 cm thick — his figure. You want 2 solid steaks that each keep a piece of the core.

Season each of the 2 slabs with 3–4 pinches each of salt and pepper, then tie a length of cooking string around the circumference of each and brush the surfaces with olive oil.

💡 The string is not presentation, it is structure. Cabbage leaves loosen as they soften and a slab will fan apart in the pan — tied, it stays a steak you can turn.

Make the sauce first: melt 4 tbsp butter with 4 tbsp ssamjang in a pan and stir until they come together, then add 300 ml milk and 100 ml red wine and simmer 4–5 minutes on medium — his figures.

💡 Cook the ssamjang in the butter before any liquid arrives. Paste dropped straight into milk stays grainy and tastes raw; fried in fat first, it goes smooth and deep.

Set the sauce aside off the heat. His own note: soju or matsul substitute for the red wine.

Heat a little olive oil in a wide pan, add the 4 whole garlic cloves, and wait until the garlic smell rises before laying the tied cabbage in.

Brush the 2 egg yolks over the top face of the cabbage, then add more olive oil, 1 tbsp of butter and the 6 tbsp of minced garlic to the pan around it.

💡 The yolk is doing what it does on pastry — it sets into a thin savoury glaze that browns, and it gives the melted cheese something to grip later.

Add the 10 cherry tomatoes, crush them lightly against the pan so they release their juice, then lift them on top of the cabbage.

Baste: tilt the pan and spoon the garlic butter and oil over the cabbage again and again as it cooks, until the slab has softened through and the cut face is deeply browned.

💡 He gives no time here, so cook to the cue instead: a skewer should meet no resistance at the core. Reckon on 10–15 minutes for a 2–3 cm slab over medium — that estimate is ours, not his.

Once the top face of the cabbage is cooked through, spoon the ssamjang sauce over it.

Lay the 2 cheddar slices on, pile the 100 g of mozzarella over that, put a lid on the pan and let the cheese melt.

Lift the lid, scatter over the sliced jjokpa and a few more pinches of pepper.

💡 Take the lid off as soon as the cheese slumps. Left on, the trapped steam drips back down and turns your browned crust soggy.

Finish by passing a kitchen torch briefly over the surface to blister the cheese — his own step.

Snip the string off before serving — it is easy to forget under all that cheese — and cut the steak in wedges at the table.