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Tag Archive: Korean Food

Bean Sprout Soup (Kongnamul Guk in Korean)

November 22, 2006 Category: Soup and Stew, Vegetarian

Did you enjoy the Soju party last night? Or are you planning to have one on the weekend? Either way, here is one good and simple recipe for people who have or will have a hang over.

Apparently, Bean Sprout soup helps people recover from a hangover quickly. If I reword it using chemical terms, here it is. “The roots of the sprouts have lots of asparagine which reduces the acetaldehyde, that is formed after drinking alcohol.” Bean sprout soup is also good for recovering from a cold, because it has lots of vitamin C. I could feel my body getting warmer after having this soup. What is more, it is really cheap to make. (If you buy 1 pack of sprouts which is about 1000 won – US $1, you can make soup for 6 people) So it is very popular soup on a regular menu.

Ingredients for 3 people – Though if you have bad hang over, it is just right for 1 day care worth.
(Expected preparation time – 3 minutes, Cooking time – less than 10 minutes)

Sprouts 2 fistfuls
10 dried anchovies (for broth)
Dried kelp 10×10 cm size (for broth)
Squashed garlic 1/2 tsp
1 green chili
Salt 1tsp
Water 6 cups

Preparation

Rinse the sprouts in cold water and discard any bad beans.
Make a long cut in the middle of the chili and wash out the seeds in cold water (Make sure you don’t touch them. Scrub it out with a spoon or knife, if it is necessary. It makes you sting all night if you touch the seeds.) Then thin slice it.

Cooking

Pour the water into the pot and add the kelp and anchovies.
Boil it.
When it boils, take out the kelp and anchovies. (You can discard them.)
Add the sprouts and boil it for 1 minute.
Add the garlic, salt, and chili.

6. In 30 seconds, serve it in a bowl.

For your curiosity, this is the sprouts pack, I am using.

By the way, don’t confuse these with green bean sprouts (Sukju in Korean). I saw some foreigners misusing green bean sprouts, instead of bean sprouts (Kongnamul). Read the label right, it looks very similar from the outside.

Spicy Mussel Stew (Honghap Jjim in Korean)

Spicy Chicken & Vegetable Stew (Dak doritang in Korean?)

Tags: Bean-sprouts, Bean-sprouts-soup, kongnamul, Korean Food, Korean-cuisine, Korean-soup, Soup-and-Stew, Vegetarian

Spicy Mussel Stew (Honghap Jjim in Korean)

November 21, 2006 Category: Seafood, Soup and Stew

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Not that I had a Soju party last night, apparently mussel stew is quite popular as a drinking side dish (with soju). Soju is a type of alcohol made with rice or sweet potatoes, originally from Korea. It has a very strong taste like vodka, I would say it feels like industrial or medical alcohol. You can read more about Soju from wikipedia.

Mussels are very cheap in Korea, you can get 1 kg of unshelled mussels for about 3000 won (US $3.20) What is more, it is the best time to have them now! – Late autumn to early spring apparently.

It took a fair bit of time to clean them for cooking. “Cheap to eat, but hard work.”

By the way, if you buy this dish at a restaurant, it will cost about 12,000 to 15,000 won. (US $12.65-15.80) So it is better to cook it yourself to save a penny.

Ingredients for 2 people (You will need a pot and a wok)
(Expected preparation time (excluding cleaning and soaking) – 5 minutes, Cooking time – about 6 minutes)

Mussel 500g
1 green chili
Garlic 1tsp
Chili powder 2 tbsp
Gochujang 1 tbsp
Soy sauce 2 tbsp
Cooking syrup (or corn syrup) 1 tbsp
Water 5 cups

Preparation Mussel Prep

Clean the mussels individually with a rough cloth or brush.
Soak the mussels in cold water for about 1 hour. (Add some salt)
Drain the mussels.
Thin slice the chili.
Put some water into the pot, boil the mussels.
When it boils, scoop out the white froth if there is any.
Take out all the mussels, and 1 cup of boiled water (broth) from the pot.

You can discard the rest of the broth or re-use it for other cooking if you want.

Cooking mussel stew cooking 1

Pre heat the wok for 10 seconds.
Add some oil and the garlic.
Stir it quickly and add the chili powder and green chili.
Stir it quickly and add the gochujang, cooking syrup, and the soy sauce.
Stir it quickly and add the broth.
Add the mussel and simmer it for 3 minutes.

7. Serve it on the plate. (I didn’t use up all the sauce, if some is left, just throw it away.)

I had this stew as a main dish for dinner. It was good. Soup (sauce) was spicy though, actual mussels weren’t too spicy. (It was spicy around my lips, I wonder why?)

By the way, now I am starting to wonder, how would this dish work out with Soju? So if any of you are going to try this spicy mussel stew with Soju, please tell me. I am dying to know.

Warning

You may sneeze a lot, while you are cooking.

Also, here is a recommendation from me. Lots of people mentioned steamed egg as another side dish along with mussel stew, because it dilutes the spicy tastes. So I made a very simple version of steamed egg, though silly me! I forgot to add some water in it. So the steamed egg turned out really solid, haha. Anyway, I will make steamed egg properly some other time, then you can try too.

However, for people who are eager to know how I cooked, here is the basic recipe (For 2 people).

4 eggs (well beaten)
Water 1/2 cup (which I forgot to add)
Pepper, salt, sesame oil – a little each

Other Recommended Drinker’s Mates

Tuna Pancakes (Chamchijeon in Korean)

Fish Cake Soup (Eomuk-Guk in Korean)

Spicy Chicken & Vegetable Stew (Dak doritang in Korean?)

Tags: Korean Food, Korean-cuisine, mussel, mussel-stew, Seafood, soju, Soup-and-Stew

Spring Rolls in Laver (Gimmari in Korean)

November 20, 2006 Category: Snacks

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Gimmari on the magazine

If you go to the ddeokbokki special shops or mini vans or carts that sell ddeokbokki, you can see this Gimmari there 90% of the time. You can have Gimmari as it is or ask the shop owner to mix it with ddeokbokki. I always prefer option no.2. It is so yummy. I like Gimmari more than anything else from the ddeokbokki dish.

I was going to make this Gimmari with ddeokbokki today, but as you may know, I used up the rice cakes for ddeokbokki the other day (The rice cakes were so fresh, I couldn’t resist cooking them). So I had to cook Gimmari on its own and had it on its own. It was very crispy and filling, also simple to cook (Though I burnt my wok again, more work for me, yeah~ -_-;;).

Ingredients for 16 rolls

(Expected preparation time – Less than 20 minutes, Cooking time – Less than 10 minutes)

Laver 8 sheets
Glass noodles 1 fistful
1/3 a carrot (small size)
10 stalks of garlic chives

-Sauce

Soy sauce 1 tbsp
Salt 1tsp
Sesame oil 1/4 tsp
Pepper 1 sprinkle

-Coating Batter

White flour 1/2 cup
Starch powder 1/2 cup
Salt 1/4 tsp
Water 3/4 cup

Preparation

Put some water into the pot.
Boil the water. While it is boiling thin slice the carrot, cut the garlic chives into little finger lengths.
When the water starts to boil, add the glass noodles. Boil it until the noodles are cooked. – It cooks nearly instantly by the way.
Drain the water.
Cut the noodles into little finger size with scissors.
Put the noodles, carrots and garlic chives into a mixing bowl.
Add the sauce. Mix it well with your hand or chopsticks.
Sieve the flour, starch powder, and the salt.
Add the water and stir it well.
Cut the laver into halves.
Put the noodle and vegetable mix onto the laver.

Gimmari prep2

12. Roll the laver.
13. When you finish rolling, put the rolled laver into the coating batter bowl (I put 4 rolls at a time. If you put too many in, they can squash each other.)

Cooking

1. Pour some oil into the wok. (for deep frying)
2. When it starts to boil, add the Gimmari (rolled laver).

Gimmari cooking

3. When it cooks, put it onto the plate. (on Kitchen paper towel to soak some oil)
4. When all the Gimmari cooks, re-fry them all. (It is crispier that way.)
5. Serve it on the plate.

Gimmari cutted

I made a total of 16 rolls and it was enough as 2 people’s meal (I was surprised about that). We had 11 rolls total for dinner and left 5 rolls for later snacks. It was good for the first couple of bites, but it became a bit oily. That is why, as I said at the beginning of the post, Gimmari tastes best with Ddeokbokki. I missed you, Ddeokbokki! A lot!!

Tips for Sticking Laver

If you put some water on the edge of the laver after rolling it, it will stick better.

For your curiosity I used these noodles.

Chinese noodles

Also, I didn’t use the rolling mat. I thought I would, but I didn’t need to.

Hot Wings

Tags: chinese_noodles, ddeokbokki, Gimmari, glass-noodles, Korean Food, Korean-cuisine, Korean-Snack, Snacks, Spring-Roll

Enoki mushrooms Pancakes (Paeng-ee Beosut Jeon in Korean)

November 17, 2006 Category: Side Dishes (Banchan), Vegetarian

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About 10 days ago, I bought 5 packs of enoki mushrooms, because they were so cheap. I paid 1000 won (US $ 1.05) for 5 packs – Their usual price is 1000 won for 3 packs. However I often forget that it is not a good idea to buy something just because it is cheap without a reason, otherwise you are just going to throw it away without using it. What do you think?

Anyhow, I had used up 3 packs for other meals the other day and now had 2 more packs to go. Here is one of the rescue plans, very easy and simple one.

Ingredients (Enough for 2 people as a side dish)
(Expected preparation time – 5 minutes, Expected cooking time – less than 10 minutes)

1 egg
1 pack of enoki mushrooms
1/4 an onion
4 stalks of garlic chives
1/4 a carrot (small size)
Pepper – 1 sprinkle
Salt – 1 sprinkle
White flour – 1 tbsp
Sesame oil – 1 tsp

Preparation

Finely chop the onion, garlic chives, and carrot.
Cut the bottom 4-5 cm of the mushrooms off (the roots) and wash the rest for use.
Add the flour and sesame oil onto the mushrooms then roll the mushrooms to coat the flour and sesame oil on its surface thoroughly.
Beat the egg, add the pepper, salt, and all the vegetables, then mix them well.

Cooking

Pre heat the pan.
Add some oil.
Scoop out spoonfuls of the mix with spoon and chopsticks. – you need chopsticks to place the mushrooms properly.
Turn them over when one side is cooked.
When both sides are cooked, serve them on the plate.

Paeng-ee beosut Jeon

It feels like you are chewing some kind of meat. So it can be a good vegetarian food.

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Enoki mushrooms

Squid pancakes (Ojingeo Buchimgae in Korean)

Seasoned sesame leaves pancakes (Kkaenip Jang Ddeok in Korean)

Tuna Pancakes (Chamchijeon in Korean)

Tags: Enoki-mushrooms-Pancakes, Korean Food, Korean Pancakes, Korean-cuisine, Paeng-ee-Beosut, Side Dishes (Banchan), Vegetarian

Boiled Beef and Quail’s Eggs in Soy sauce (Sogogi Jangjorim in Korean)

November 14, 2006 Category: Eggs and Poultry, Red Meat, Side Dishes (Banchan)

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Cooking is such a pain. It took me about 2 hours including waiting time. My neck and shoulders are so sore from peeling the quail’s egg shells. However this dish is Michael’s second favorite side dish after Buchimgae (Korean style pancakes). As the saying goes, “Love is great.”

Ingredients Ingredients for jangjorim

Beef – Top round 250 g (or fore shank, eye round is good too.)
Quail’s Eggs 2 packs (One pack holds 28 eggs)
White radish 4 big pieces
1 small onion (peeled and with the ends cut off)
1 stalk of green onion
Ginger powder 1 tsp
Pepper – 2 tsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Refined rice wine – 2 tbsp
Water – 5 cups
Dried kelp (10*12cm size) and water 1 cup
Soy sauce – 100 ml
Sugar – 4 tbsp
1 green chili

Preparation and Broth Boiling eggs

1. Soak the beef in cold water for about 1 hour. -To get rid of the blood.

2. Soak the kelp in 1 cup of water for about 1 hour. -We only need water from it.

3. Boil the quail’s eggs with 1 tsp of salt.

4. Empty the hot water and cool the eggs with cold water.

5. Put the beef, radish, spring onion, and onion in the pot. Add the 5 cups of water and add the pepper, ginger powder, and rice wine.

6. Boil it for about 15 minutes. Making broth

7. While it is boiling, peel the egg shells. (It takes more than 15 minutes for one person.)

8. Sieve the water. (We will need 2 cups of broth from this and the beef. Throw out the rest of the veggies.)

9. Tear the beef with your hands by following its shape. (I slice the beef with a knife first to tear it easier. It was just to tough for me.)

Boiled meat

10. Rinse the eggs in cold water just in case some bits of shells stuck on them.

Cooking Cooking Jangjorim

1. Put the 2 cups of broth and 1 cup of kelp soaked water into the pot.

2. Add the soy sauce and sugar.

3. Boil it.

3. When it starts to boil, add the quail’s eggs, torn beef, and green chili.

4. Boil it on medium heat until half the sauce disappears. (Stir it every 3 minutes.)

5. Cool it down for about 1 hour.

6. Serve on a dish as much as you are going to eat and keep the rest of it in the container. (I just added parsley on top to give it an elegant look for the photo. )

Sogogi jangjorim

It was my second try in my life, after the first time I decided not to make this again because as I said earlier, it is such annoying work. Especially when you have to peel the quail’s egg alone. However as the saying goes, “The patience is bitter but its fruit is sweet.” It was a really delicious meal. The beef was so tender and the sauce was so sweet. So we used sauce to mix with some rice. It was really nice. Again Michael overate it. Luckily he didn’t get sick.

Michael told me not to post this recipe because it is so tasty (to keep it as my secret recipe), but I decided to share it with you. But you really need some patience when you peel the quail’s egg shells.

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Bulgogi Wrapped in Rice Paper

Marinated Beef (Bulgogi in Korean) -Instant sauce version

Braised Baby Potatoes 1 (Algamja Jorim in Korean)

Tags: Banchan, Beef, Eggs and Poultry, Jangjorim, Korean Food, Korean-cuisine, Meat, Quails-Egg, Red Meat, Side Dishes (Banchan)