Showing posts with label Korean Recipes. Show all posts

Spicy Ddeokbokki

There are many ways to prepare this humble lump of rice flour – you can stir-fry it, put it in soup or even make Ddeokbokki skewers and grill it on the barbeque! Today, I made Spicy Ddeokbokki. My recipe’s all vegetarian, but you can use dried anchovies instead of kelp for a sweeter stock.

Step 1: Ingredients!

About 15-20 rice cake sticks 1 1/2 tbsp of gochujang 6 dried kelp knots soaked in water or a small handful of cleaned dried anchovies (ikan bilis) 3 stalks of green onion cut into 5cm strips 2 bowls of water sugar to taste

Step 2: Make a simple stock!

Doenjang Jjigae

Today’s recipe is a very nourishing stew made with Doenjang. Doenjang is fermented soybean and is very similar the Japanese miso. It is said that doenjang is so good for you that having it regularly can help prevent cancer, lower blood pressure, strengthen the liver, aid digestion, keep our skin healthy, and best of all, slow down the aging process. In some sites I’ve browsed, they’ve said that doenjang is also a detoxifying agent (and it’s effective against some snake venom and bee stings!), prevents heart disease and keeps the brain healthy. Wow, this truly is some kind of super food!

Well, I don’t know about the snake venom, but I can tell you this – I have been eating doenjang quite often because it is so simple and quick to make and my skin has become more vibrant over time. I rarely use products on my skin so I’m pretty sure this stuff works.

Doenjang comes in several varieties ranging from light tan to dark chocolate brown pastes. I usually get the ones that range in the middle. The darker the paste, the stronger the flavor.

Step 1: Ingredients! Serves 2 people as a side dish, or 1 person as a main dish.

1 litre of water (3 ½ cups) 3 – 4 heaping tablespoons of doenjang A selection of your favourite vegetables. In my doenjang, I’ve put in –

Carrots (cut into bite sized chunks) Zucchini (cut into bite sized chunks) Onions (thinly sliced) Tofu (cut into cubes) Shiitake mushrooms (chopped)

Garnish with: Chopped scallions A drizzle of sesame oil

Step 2: Dissolve the doenjang! Fill a clay pot or small soup pot with water and incorporate doenjang in water BEFORE turning on the heat. I’ve found it easier this way because with the heat on, it’s a little hot on your hands.

Once the doenjang has completely dissolved in the water, bring the broth to a boil. Do a taste test, you might like to add in more doenjang for a thicker stew.

Step 3: Keep it boiling! When the doenjang broth is hot and boiling, add in the vegetables and ingredients that take longer to cook first (carrots, zucchini, etc) followed by the ones that take less time to cook (mushrooms). Boil stew until ingredients are just about cooked then turn off the heat. Your stew will continue cooking in the hot broth.

Step 4: Garnish and serve! If you used a claypot, just add a handful of scallions and a drizzle of sesame oil and serve, still bubbling and boiling in its pot, with a bowl of hot rice. Yum!

A tub of doenjang

Tip: You can try adding clams or shrimp to your doenjang jjigae. & if you like it spicy, add in some gochujang & freshly cut chilies.

Bulgogi Wrapped in Lettuce

Ingredients for serving 2 people

Thinly sliced beef – 1.23lb (sirloin)
Lettuces -22 leaves
1 cucumber
1/2 a medium carrot
A dash of olive oil
Sesame oil – 1 tbsp

For marinade sauce (mix these in a bowl)

Soy sauce – 5 tbsp
Dark brown sugar – 2 ½ tbsp
Refined rice wine – 1 ½ tbsp
Grated onion – 2 tbsp
Grated pear – 4 tbsp
Minced garlic – 1 tbsp
Ginger powder – 1/4 tsp
Pepper – 3 sprinkles

Dipping sauce ; Sweet Ssamjang sauce (mix these well in a bowl)

Soybean paste (Doenjang) – 1 tbsp
Gochujang – 1/3 tbsp
Honey – 1 tbsp
Water – 2 tbsp
Minced garlic – 1 tsp
Minced green chili (not spicy) – 2 tsp
Sesame oil – 2 tsp
Parched sesame seed – 1/2 tsp

Prep:

Rinse the beef in cold water a couple of times to get rid of the blood.
Add the marinade sauce to the meat & leave it for 1 hour at room temperature.
In 1 hour, add the sesame oil & stir it well.
Rinse the leaves.
Peel the cucumber & carrot’s skin off. Thin slice them (You can use a peeler to slice).

Cooking the Meat:

Pre heat the wok for 10 seconds on a high heat. Add a dash of olive oil.
Put the meat into the wok. Stir it until it cooks. (it takes less than 5 minutes)

Spicy Shrimp

Back in the day, I used to frequent a certain cafe in K-town that had this spicy shrimp dish. The cafe is no longer there, but I figured I could try and replicate the dish. First wash and peel about half a pound of shrimp.

In a small bowl, mix together to following: 1TB red pepper paste, 1/2TB red pepper powder, 3/4TB honey powder, 1TB rice wine, 1/4TB minced garlic.

Turn up the heat in a wok and add some sesame oil. Add the shrimp and cook until almost done.

Remove the shrimp from the heat and clean up the wok.

Add another 1TB of sesame oil to the wok and then throw in whatever vegetables you prefer. I used onions and mushrooms.

Next, add your spicy mixture and keeping mixing around.

Throw in the shrimp and mix well.

Keep cooking until the shrimp is all done!

You're now ready to serve!!!

Seafood Kalgooksoo

My friend and I were dining at Moo Dae Po II (I wonder why it got such a bad review on yelp?) the other week and they had this seafood noodle thing that they gave us at the end. They used thinner noodles at the restaurant, but kalgooksoo noodles is what I had in my pantry so it had to do. Next time, I will definitely use the thinner noodles like they did at the restaurant, but for today it hit the spot.

From top to bottom: I used clams, shrimp, dried anchovies and dashima to make the broth.

First start off by boiling your noodles about HALFway done in a pot.

Rinse the noodles in cold water and let drain on the side.

Meanwhile defrost about three shrimps and six clams.

In about 7 cups of water, I added the anchovy and dashida packet. I probably used about 10 big anchovies and a 2 inch think piece of dashima (dried sea kelp).

While everything is boiling, get your kalgooksoo sauce ready. Click here to get the recipe.

I then transferred the broth to a larger pot and strained it through this. I wanted to make sure none of that white foamy stuff went into the broth.

Throw the seafood in.

Then the noodles.

Top it off with some veggies such as: mushrooms, squash, red peppers, and green onions.

Let everything come to a boil until the noodles fully cook and you're ready to serve!

Add some kalgooksoo sauce to your liking and dig in!

Rice Cake & Dumpling Soup

First off defrost some mandoo (dumplings). This mandoo was homemade by my husband's aunt. According to the MR, her family is known for their wonderfully delicious mandoos. He was right! They are absolutely divine. I wish I could make mandoo like this. I've made mandoo at home numerous times, but I can't quite seem to get the flavor of the older generations.

Defrost some dduk (rice cakes) and let it drain out as well. This is about half a bag. This recipe won't have EXACT measurements, so please don't kill me.

This time I used flank meat. This is the meat you would use to make yook gae jang. I've already boiled the meat once and thrown out all the guck (give me a better word!). I then added more water to make some beef broth.

Meanwhile start getting your veggies ready. I julienned carrots and squash (about a cup each). Slice up 1/2 onion very thinly and slice 1 large mushroom thinly as well.

Let the beef broth boil for about 30 minutes or so.

No *real* measurements here. I added about 1/2 TB of sesame oil, 3 TB of gook ganjang, and 1/2 TB of minced garlic. Turn up the heat...

And then dump in all the veggies and stir away!

Meanwhile, remove the meat from the broth and rinse it under cool water (so you don't burn your fingers like I did) and start ripping the meat off. It should be very easy to pull apart. This is exactly what you would do to make yook gae jang.

You want to achieve this. You can place this on top like a garnish when you're done with the dduk gook.

When your vegetables start looking like this...

Add ALL the beef broth.

No, I do not know how many cups of water I used. =/ I use this Le Creuset pot (yes, it's worth the $$$) when I cook and I just eyeball it. I add just enough water so that everything won't boil over. So...4 quarts? I added MORE water after I took this picture. There wasn't enough beef broth.

Go ahead and add some green onions and since I'm lazy, I threw all the meat in there as well! Continue to let everything boil.