Have you had these slightly spicy, chewy and sweet stir fried dried squid strips (오징어채 볶음) before? Wow, it is a real long name in English isn’t it?

I remember when I was in primary school, I shared my lunch with other friends. The lunch box usually consisted of steamed rice, a couple of side dishes, and sometimes soup as well. Sharing your lunch box with friends mean sharing various side dishes with each other, so we can have more variety of food.

One day, I tasted these stir fried dried squid strips from one of my friend’s lunch box and it was so delicious. After school, I had to mention about this food to my mom and also asked if she can make some for my lunch box as well.

I don’t know what it is so special about this side dish but I am sure every kid loves it. I have to say it is very morish too.

(AU$4.10 – available at a Korean grocery shop )

By the way, plain dried squid strips are often served as a drinking snack, especially with some beer at a bar in Korea. However I prefer to have this as a side dish with rice. I love the sweet and spicy taste. Do you?

Ingredients (takes less than 15 minutes total)

Note : The ingredients are enough to make 5 to 7 single side dishes.

• 141 g dried squid strips
• 2 tsp vegetable oil

-Sauce (mix these in a bowl)

• 4 tsp Gochujang
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp honey
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp red wine (or rice wine)

Methods

1. Soak the dried squid strips in cold water for about 10 minutes.
2. Drain the water and slightly squeeze the squid strips.
3. Pre heat the wok for 10 seconds on high heat and add the vegetable oil.
4. Turn the heat down to medium heat and add the sauce.
5. When the sauce is heated, add the dried squid strips.
6. Mix the sauce and the dried squid strips well.
7. Simmer it for about 20 seconds (until the sauce nearly disappears).
8. Serve it on a plate (you can sprinkle some roasted sesame seeds on top).

Related posts:

1. Stir Fried Calamari Rings on Rice (Ojingeo Deopbap in Korean)
2. Korean Kimchi fried rice with squid and tuna
3. Marinatied Pork Stir Fry with Gochujang sauce (Jeyuk-bokkeum)

I don’t like receiving phone calls around meal time, especially when I am busy preparing food. It might sound strange but I believe the more attention the food gets, the tastier it gets. Unfortunately I was on the phone while the eggs were steaming in the pot. It was my sister from Korea, you know what happens then. The long chit chat and giggles.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t concentrate much on the conversation. My mind was with the steaming eggs. Hang up, sis! I need to check my babies. I returned to the kitchen. Da da~! I opened the lid and I saw real gems in pretty cups. I didn’t expect the eggs to rise yet they looked so adorable!

I think the eggs have a joker face. You never know what it is going to be until you serve it. Do you agree? I was so happy to see the well transformed eggs but slightly sad that I missed how they transformed. I hope you don’t miss this.

Ingredients (to serve 3 people)

• 6 large eggs (~70g each)
• 15cm by 15cm kombu (dried seaweed)
• 1 cup of warm water
• 2 tbsp anchovy sauce
• 1 stalk of finely chopped shallot (green part only)
• 1/3 of finely chopped medium size carrot

Prep

1. Soak the kombu in warm water for 15 minutes.
2. Beat the eggs and sieve them two times.
3. Add the kombu water into the beaten eggs (discard the kombu).
4. Add the anchovy sauce, shallots, and carrot.
5. Mix them well.
6. Pour the egg mixture into bowls (up to 80% of the bowl) and cover them with plastic wrap.

Method (It makes it easier if you have a big steamer)

1. Boil the water in a steamer (high heat).
2. When the water starts to boil, add the bowls.
3. Lower the heat to medium to low, steam the bowls for about 15-20 minutes.
4. Serve them.

The raised eggs sink slightly as time passes. Though they still look pretty. It was a perfect match with plain rice. Michael thinks it can be a good entree as well. However eating it on its own can be salty, so you might want to reduce the amount of anchovy sauce to 1 tbsp if you don’t like too much salt taste.

For a variation, you can add other kinds of vegetables or even some meat. I will do another post with those some other time. In the mean time, I also think plain steamed egg would be a good baby’s formula.

Related posts:

1. Boiled Beef and Quail’s Eggs in Soy sauce (Sogogi Jangjorim in Korean)
2. Omelet Rice (Omurice)
3. Spicy Mussel Stew (Honghap Jjim in Korean)

What is Jangsanjeok (장산적)? As the title describes, it is broiled meat patties (these are called Seopsanjeok) that are simmered in teriyaki like sauce. Well, it may not look like traditional Korean food from the picture (Michael keeps saying that it looks like a rissole), but it is a Korean food. I gave it a slightly different look, which I want to call “fancy”, whether you want to agree or not. I also added extra ingredients for the sauce compared to the traditional methods that were served to the Kings of the Chosun dynasty.

You can serve Jangsangjeok as a side dish, as a main meal, as a filing for a burger or at a BBQ. It is quite convenient, in that unlike other kinds of side dishes it can be frozen, so you can preserve it for later.

Ingredients

For patties (enough to make 8-9 round patties, with a diameter of 9cm)

• 440g beef mince
• 440g pork mince
• 190g tofu (squeeze it in a straining cloth to drain the water)
• 6 tbsp finely chopped onion
• 2 tbsp finely chopped shallots
• 2 tbsp Korean sesame oil
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper

For sauce (for 4 patties) – mix the following in a bowl

• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsp red wine
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1/4 tsp ginger powder

Optional

• 1/2 thin sliced onion
• 1/2 stalk of chopped shallots (green part)

Prep

1. Add all the patty ingredients in a big bowl then mix it well.
2. Think how big you want to make the patty first (in my case, I aimed at medium size patties and got 8 of them) then knead the patty to the size you want.
3. Leave the patties out that you are going to cook and seal the rest of the patties with plastic wrap and store them in the freezer.

Method

Part 1 (You will need a frying pan)

1. Pre heat the frying pan on high heat.
2. When it is heated enough, add some oil (I started using rice bran oil and it works great).
3. Add the patties and cook both sides on high heat for a short while.
4. Reduce the heat to medium to low and cook the inside of the patty.

Part 2 (You will need a sauce pan)

1. Pre heat the sauce pan.
2. Add the bowl of sauce and onion.
3. Stir it a little bit then add the patties.
4. Simmer them well.
5. Serve them on the plate (if there is any sauce left, pour it out on top of the patties – it is tastier).

Some products I used for this recipe

Related Posts

BBQ Grill Plate

Royal Rice Cake (Gungjung Ddeokbbokki in Korean)

Related posts:

1. Simmered Lotus in Soy sauce (Yeon-gn Jorim)
2. Marinated Beef (Bulgogi) – Natural Sauce Version 1
3. Soy sauce Boiled Tofu (Dubu Ganjang Jorim in Korean)

It’s been just over 2 months since I made my failed Kimchi mandu (김치만두). Do you remember that post? I learnt a lot of lessons that day. I read my chronicle on How to make “successful” mandu two times thoroughly just before I gave it a second try. My second time trying it turned out really well. I shared the work with my two sisters, so it made it a lot easier but I still spent half of my day on making these.

The main point of making good mandu is

• Squeezing dry the ingredients completely if it is possible.
• Spreading enough flour on the board where you roll the dough each time and the dish where you put the mandu, so it is easy to separate.

Unfortunately, I got a lot less mandu than last time. I used a similar amount of ingredients but I got half less mandu. I think hand made mandu needs more stuffing than the ones made with a mandu shaper (You need to fill them fairly well to make cute looking mandu for hand made ones, but if you add too much stuffing for mandu shaper ones, it won’t close properly).

Ingredients for 25 dumplings

-Dumpling skins

• All purpose white flour – 3 cups
• Warm water – 1 cup

-Dumpling stuffing

• Kimchi- 1⅔ cups
• 1/2 an onion
• Mung bean sprouts – 200 g
• Tofu – 275 g
• Minced pork – 130 g
• 1 egg
• Minced garlic – 1/2 tsp
• Salt – 1 tsp
• Sesame oil – 1 tsp
• Pepper – 3 sprinkles

Preparation (You can click the picture to see the bigger image)

1. Sieve the flour, add the water, then knead it (my sister kneaded it for nearly 30 minutes).
2. Finely chop the Kimchi, onion, tofu, and pork.
3. Par boil the green bean sprouts and chop them finely too.
4. Squeeze the bean sprouts, tofu, onion, meat, and Kimchi, separately in a straining cloth.
5. Mix all the squeezed ingredients in a big bowl and season it with the garlic, salt, sesame oil, and pepper.
6. Add the eggs and mix them well.

My sister worked so hard being a hand model for this recipe, especially squeezing all those ingredients. It is quite hard work if you want to do it properly. Thanks again Hyunji!

Steps

1. Spread some flour onto the board and plate.
2. Slice a dough piece off.
3. Roll the dough into round shapes, not too thin not too thick.
4. Put the rolled pastry on one hand and add filling on top (you need to fill it with an adequate amount of the stuffing to make a good looking mandu).
5. Seal the pastry then place it on a plate (You can seal it into whatever shape you want, I fold it in half then wrap the ends round to touch each other)
6. Repeat steps 1 to 5 until you use up all the ingredients.
7. Put some kind of cloth on a steamer and put the mandu on top.
8. Steam it for 5-10 minutes.
9. Serve it on a plate with dipping sauce (a mix of; soy sauce – 1 tbsp, sugar – 1/2 tsp, chili powder 1/4 tsp, a dash of vinegar and a dash of sesame oil).

I also made some mandu soup (만두국) with the rest of the mandu (the ones that I didn’t steam), but steamed mandu tasted better.

Related Posts

My Failed Kimchi Dumplings (Kimchi Mandu in Korean) and What I have learnt

Dumpling Pastry Pizza (Mandupy Pizza in Korean)

Rice Cake and Instant Dumpling Soup (Ddeok Mandu Guk in Korean)

Related posts:

1. My Failed Kimchi Dumplings (Kimchi Mandu in Korean) and What I have learnt
2. Instant Dumplings (Mandu in Korean)
3. Tofu Kimchi (Dubu Kimchi in Korean)

( Garlic Chives and Baked Garlic Salad with Grilled Pork)

Do you like garlic? I don’t like eating raw garlic but I love eating baked garlic. It is delicately flavoured and has a savory taste, what is more it doesn’t smell as bad as raw garlic. Some naturopaths seem to think that once the garlic is baked, it is not as beneficial. Yet, some Koreans seem to believe that when the garlic is baked what it mostly loses is the bad smell and the good enzymes still remains. What do you think about this?

While I was wondering around Internet the other day, I found this very simple dish and it turned out to be a wonderful salad, which includes some baked garlic and garlic chives. I think this salad goes well with red meat, especially with pork or as one of the side dishes with rice. It has a slightly sour taste and the flavour and smell from the baked garlic is just so nice. Later, I wished that I had added more garlic.

Benefits of the garlic are ;

• Supports the immune system
• Helps digestion
• Delays aging
• Enhances blood circulation
• Lowers cholesterol

Ingredients (for a 2 people serving)

• Garlic chives – one fistful (about 40 g)
• 8 cloves of fresh garlic
• Olive oil – 2 tsp
• Salt – 1/10 tsp

Dressing sauce (mix these in a bowl)

• Soy sauce – 2 tsp
• Apple vinegar – 2 tsp
• Olive oil – 2 tsp
• Dark brown sugar – 1 tsp
• Pepper – 2 sprinkles

Steps

1. Thin slice the garlic.
2. Put the olive oil and salt in a small bowl.
3. Add the garlic and mix it well.
4. Bake the garlic for 10 minutes at 180 ℃ (My oven is mini by the way) .
5. While you are waiting, clean the garlic chives and cut them into 6-7 cm lengths.
6. Put the baked garlic and garlic chives in a mixing bowl.
7. Add the dressing sauce and lightly mix them with chopsticks.
8. Serve them on a dish.

This post has been submitted to WHB (Weekend Herb Blogging) hosted by Kalyn’s Kitchen. I don’t know how often I am going to participate in this blog event, but I think it is good to share some health beneficial food with you from time to time.

Related Posts

Pork Belly BBQ (Samgyeopsal Gui)

Tuna Salad Sushi Rolls

Related posts:

1. Pork Belly BBQ (Samgyeopsal Gui)
2. Deep Fried Chicken in Garlic Sauce (Ggan Pung Gi in Korean)
3. Soy sauce Boiled Tofu (Dubu Ganjang Jorim in Korean)