Sloppy joes back from Seoul
The same sweet, sloppy sandwich, with fermented chile where the ketchup was.
At a Glance
Story
The sloppy joe is a loose-meat sandwich out of Sioux City in the 1930s, and its whole personality is the sweet-tangy sauce, classically ketchup and brown sugar. Swap in gochujang and you keep that exact silhouette while smuggling in ferment and slow heat, so it reads familiar for a beat and then does not.
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef80/20
- 1 small onionfinely diced
- 4 cloves garlicminced
- 1 tbsp gingergrated
- 2 tbsp gochujang
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- ½ cup chicken stock or water
- 1 tbsp neutral oil
- 4 brioche or potato bunssplit and toasted
- sliced scallions and toasted sesame seedsto finish
- quick-pickled cucumbersfor crunch
- salt
Method
The point of a sloppy joe is that it is a sandwich with no self-control. Lean into it, and give it something crisp on top so it is not all soft.
- Warm the oil in a wide skillet over medium high. Add the beef and a good pinch of salt, breaking it up, and cook until it stops steaming and starts to brown in patches, about 6 minutes. Push it to one side.
- In the cleared space soften the onion for 2 minutes, then the garlic and ginger for 30 seconds until fragrant.
- Stir in the gochujang and tomato paste and fry them into the meat for a full minute, cooking off the raw edge, then the soy, vinegar and brown sugar, which is the sweet-and-sour balance the whole thing hangs on.
- Pour in the stock and simmer 5 to 8 minutes, stirring now and then, until it is glossy and just barely sloppy, thick enough to mound on a bun. Taste for salt and for the sweet-sour tug, adjusting either.
- Pile onto the toasted buns, top with the pickles for crunch, then scallions and sesame.
Serve with a stack of napkins and no cutlery. Anyone eating this neatly has missed the point entirely.
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