When I was a child, I sometimes went hiking with my mom and we picked up some dropped acorns in the hills. I didn’t hike to the very top but on the way back the basket of my bicycle was full of acorns. At that time I didn’t know how they could be eaten by us, humans, because I always thought that they are for squirrels.
In my memory, I don’t think I liked the seasoned acorn jelly that much because of its bitter taste, but now I love it, it is like an adult appreciates good food more than a child. It has a slightly bitter taste from the acorn jelly and a slightly sweet and salty taste from the sauce, which I love, and this recipe is like that.
Hoping you can get the acorn jelly where you live, here is how the recipe goes.
Ingredients (enough to serve 6-8 people as a side dish) : 5 minutes to serve
- Acorn jelly (도토리묵) - 420 g
- 2-3 lettuce leaves
- 1 green chili (non spicy)
Sauce (mix these in a bowl)
- Soy sauce - 6 tbsp
- Dark brown sugar - 1 tbsp
- Sesame oil - 1 tbsp
- Finely chopped spring onion - 2 tbsp
- Parched sesame seed - 1 tbsp
- Chili powder - 2 tsp
- Minced garlic - 2 tsp
Prep
- Slice the acorn jelly (1 cm -1.5 cm thickness).
- Take the seeds out from the chili and thin slice it.
- Thin slice the lettuce (thickness doesn’t really matter, but mine was close to 1 cm).
Method A) - Better presentation
- Put the sliced acorn jelly on the plate.
- Add the sliced chili on top.
- Decorate the plate with the lettuce.
- Spread the sauce on the top.
- Serve it on the table.
Method B) - My mom’s way (it may season the acorn jelly and lettuce better)
- Put the lettuce, chili and acorn jelly in a mixing bowl.
- Add the sauce and lightly mix it.
- Serve it on the plate.
By the way, a pack of acorn jelly is more expensive than tofu (I thought it would be cheap). It was 3,000 won (US $3.20) for 420 g in Korea. I also bought a pack of acorn powder to make acorn jelly from scratch and it was 6,6oo won (US $6. 30). It was requested by one of my readers. I know I really need to make it soon but apparently it requires continuous stirring for nearly an hour without any break, so I gave up for then. 
Don’t worry! beloved, I will definitely do it. 
Related Posts
Soy sauce Boiled Tofu (Dubu Ganjang Jorim in Korean)
Tofu Kimchi (Dubu Kimchi in Korean)
Simmered Lotus in Soy sauce (Yeon-gn Jorim)
Side Dishes (Banchan), Vegetarian
Yum! This looks delicious. I have always loved getting dotorimuk muchim in restaurants. The cool slipperiness of the acorn jelly with the flavor of the sauce is great, especially if you are eating hot or spicy food and want something to balance.
Your presentation looks beautiful. This has inspired me to make some at home.
I love dotorimuk. thanks for the good idea of putting them on lettuce.
I remember dotori muk was a surprisingly expensive dish to order in Korea, but I really like it.
When preparing it at home, because the presentation was so simple when I had it in Korea, I’ve never seasoned it with much more than sesame oil and soy sauce, and usually I just put it in a small bowl without much in the way of garnish. I’m glad there’s some other interesting ways to present it… if I’m not eating Korean dishes several days in a row, I sometimes sacrifice some of the dotori muk because I can’t eat it all before it starts to deteriorate a bit.
In Seattle I’ve seen the dotori muk relatively cheaply made locally, but it’s still more expensive than the plain white muk.
First time I know this ingredient called Acorn Jelly! Cool!
One hour of continuous stirring!?! Yikes! I did not realize that. I was hoping it was going to be similar to the method for
청포묵 which takes only about 10 minutes. Well, actually I may have told you I tried to make it the same way I make 청포묵 but obviously, it was a big flop.
Well, I won’t hold you to posting the recipe from scratch. I would completely understand if you didn’t want to spend an hour of your time doing that!!!
THANK YOU so much for posting this recipe. I will save it in the hopes of moving near a Korean market someday.
The name “Acorn Jelly” can be off putting to the uninitiated. Yet this is one of my favorite dishes.
I understand that acorn jelly can be more expensive because harvesting and processing them is very labor intensive. That’s why most cultures don’t harvest acorns, according to the book “Guns, Germs, and Steel.”
With it being so labour intensive to collect acorns, I hope it never disappears as food.
But it is good to see that so many of you are appreciate it.
very intriguing dish!
One of my favorite dishes, too. It is also very good side dish for Makgeolli or Dongdongju.
Many Thanks for the delicious posts.
this is one of my favorite dishes, my mom would call it acorn tofu. she actually collects acorns, shells them, and sells them to her friends for extra cash. she made this for thanksgiving, it was a hit and all of her friends said she went through to much trouble for them. it was their way of giving her love.
Oh… I had it when I went on a tour to korea. I love this dish! I can’t tell if there is any bitterness at all…. Yummy….
Can’t find it here though…
I had never heard of acorn jelly but the way you’ve put it together makes it sound oh so interesting!
i don;t live far from a korean market. perhaps i will look for some acorn jelly
You changed your template again…I don’t have to turn my head to left now to read your post.
JiMong,
I rarely drink, yet those drinks are what came up in my mind too when I made this.
James,
I hope your mom gets paid well for the acorn jelly. I once saw my mom make this from scratch. It seemed real hard work.
BuddingCook,
I hope you can find it. It will be an interesting dish for you.
Ari,
I didn’t realized how rare this acorn jelly is in other countries too.
Rasa,
People seemed to like this template more, so I changed it. More work for me to adjust though.
Hi Sue, I usually eat those that are translucent in color ones, are they acorn jellies as well ? Why are these browned ? Pardon my ignorance as I have certainly no knowledge of korean foods except enjoying them
Cheers !:)
Hi MeltingWok,
I think those translucent jellies are called, green bean jelly.
That’s OK. I don’t know everything about Korean food either.
Sue, oh my, you are so modest
Well, all your recipes are not just convincing, yummy and wholesome indeed :)Thanks for clarifying my doubts on the jelly thing, cheers !:)
Hi everybody! Does anybody know about the calory content of muk? Thanks in advance.
It’s got about 45 calories per 100g (w/o the sauce and extras)
Also, that sauce is terrific. I just made some last night! Good job, I loved it!
I made this last night (with some extra veggies added in) - it’s great! My first experiment with acorn jelly, but not my last. Photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15586812@N05/2361818439/