Chapssal Donuts (Korean Glutinous Rice Ball Doughnuts)

Chapssal Donuts (Korean glutinous rice ball doughnut)

 A new habit of mine since I came back to food blogging is “food ingredients hoarding”. I look around the internet for blogging inspiration or weekly menu planning and when I see some nice photos of food I write down the ingredients immediately onto my weekly grocery shopping list. I always “intend to” make it straight away, of course. But quite often, I get so distracted by overflowing other delicious looking food and my uncontrollable food cravings that my tiny little pantry has been overcrowded by my hoarded food ingredients for some time. So this tin of red bean paste has been squatting in my pantry for about two months now and I thought I ought to send it out finally!

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Fresh Napa Cabbage Kimchi Salad (Baechu Geotjeori)

Fresh Napa Cabbage Kimchi Salad

I’ve been buying 2kg of Kimchi from a Korean grocery store. That usually lasts us for about one month. Now that I’m back to food blogging again, I thought I “ought to” make Kimchi myself instead of buying it. With homemade Kimchi, you get to taste it when it’s most fresh which is a great deal for my husband as he loves eating fresh Kimchi (1-2 days old). I reckon he can eat 1 cup worth of fresh Kimchi on the spot. So I decided to make fresh napa cabbage Kimchi salad (Baechu Geotjeori 배추 겉절이) to fill up my empty Kimchi jar. Though Baechu Geotjeori is normally made with an intention to consume within a day or two in a typical Korean household, if you can’t finish it all like that, just put the remainder into an air tight glass container and eat it as your normal fermented Kimchi.

Fresh napa cabbage Kimchi salad is a particularly popular companion food to Bossam (Korean steamed pork) and Kalguksu (Knife cut noodles with soup). Shall we start making some fresh Kimchi salad then?

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LA Galbi (Thinly Sliced BBQ Short Ribs)

LA Galbi

LA Galbi/Kalbi (엘에이 갈비) is one of my favourite Korean BBQ meats. It’s tender, sweet and slightly salty seasoned meat is quite addictive. Licking each finger as you eat each meat and bone piece is also another entertainment you could enjoy while BBQ-ing this LA Galbi.

I only discovered this delicious dish several years ago just before I left Korea (Unfortunately my mum never made this for me.) I have often seen the name at Korean restaurants in Korea, but I thought LA Galbi is the same as traditional Korean Galbi kind (including the shape and everything), except that the meat is imported from Los Angeles USA.

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