Tag Archives: potato

Korean Potato Pancakes (Gamja Jeon: 감자전)

Korean Potato Pancakes (Gamja Jeon) with soy sauce

It’s been a very hot sizzling summer season this year. I’ve been wishing for a decent heavy rain and my wish was granted late last week. But perhaps I should have specified how much rain for how long I wanted it for. It’s been miserably raining with strong wind constantly blowing for around 5 days in a row and now I am wishing for the sunny blue sky again. Will you please come back soon?

Blowing tree branches and constant rain drops woke me up this morning. As soon as I opened my eyes, I knew I had to have some pancakes. But what do I have in my fridge and pantry that doesn’t need me to go out to fetch fancy ingredients? I had two potatoes, some onions and green chilies on hand. Then it was easily determined that I am going to make some Gamja Jeon:감자전 (Korean potato pancakes).

Do you have any food you crave on a rainy day? What’s your craving food?

Korean Potato Pancakes (Gamja Jeon) 1

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Braised Baby Potatoes 1 (Algamja Jorim in Korean)

After cooking these baby potatoes, I was seriously thinking whether I should post this recipe or not. Because they didn’t look exactly how I expected.

However I didn’t want to waste all my effort to cook these braised baby potatoes by not posting the recipe. It was really hard work to rinse and scrub these little baby potatoes. So here is the recipe, but I am also planning on making a better version of this dish some other time, so check for that recipe as well.

Ingredients for 35 potatoesBaby potatose

  • Baby potatoes
  • Water
  • Cooking syrup (corn syrup or sugar cane syrup) – 2 tbsp

-Sauce (Mix them well in a bowl)

  • Soy sauce – 5 tbsp
  • Rice wine – 2 tbsp
  • Sugar – 2 tbsp

Preparation

1. Rinse the potatoes thoroughly – use soft scrubber to remove dirt if needed. (We are going to cook unpeeled potatoes.)

CookingAlgamja jorim cooking process

1. Put all the potatoes in a pot. Pour the water to cover half of the potatoes.

2. Boil it until the potatoes are 80% cooked.

3. Add the sauce in the pot and mix. Simmer them gently in the sauce on medium heat.

4. When the sauce is almost boiled away, add the cooking syrup, then lightly mix it well and turn off the heat quickly.

5. Serve it on the dish.

Algamja jorim

6. Put the rest of the potatoes in another container to eat later.

Spicy Chicken & Vegetable Stew (Dakdoritang in Korean?)

Apparently “Dak doritang” isn’t standard Korean language. Dori means chicken or bird in Japanese, Dak means chicken in Korean. Therefore Dak doritang means chicken chicken stew.

In recent years, Koreans have been trying to get rid of Japanese words that are still around in Korean culture from the colonial era. There are still lots of people who say dak doritang instead of the correct word. As you know, it is hard to change once things become your habit. Anyhow, its official name is “Dak bokkumtang” or “Dak maeuntang”.

Most people use one whole chicken for this meal. But I didn’t want to fiddle with bones and skin, so I used chicken breast instead. It is a spicy meal (but I used half less spice than other common recipes) though you can’t imagine how delicious it was.

Ingredients for 4 people

dak doritang ingredients

-For meat and marinating

  • Chicken breast 5 pieces (About 500g)
  • Pepper 2 sprinkles
  • Ginger powder 2 sprinkles
  • Refined rice wine -2 tbsp

-For vegetables

  • 4 medium potatoes
  • 1 onion
  • 1 carrot
  • 12 sesame leaves

-For sauce (mix all sauce ingredients in a bowl, except water.)

  • Gochujang -2 tbsp
  • Chili powder -1/4 tsp
  • Soy sauce -1 tbsp
  • Sugar -2 tsp
  • Corn syrup or sugar cane syrup-2 tsp
  • 1 squashed garlic
  • 1 dash of sesame oil
  • 2 cups of water


Preparation

dak doritang ingredients after cutting
  1. Rinse the chicken in cold water and cut it into medium to big pieces.
  2. Marinate it with pepper, ginger powder and refined rice wine. (for about 15 minutes)
  3. Rinse the vegetables and peel them as needed.
  4. Cut the potatoes, carrot and onion into big pieces. (I cut each of them into 4 pieces and 8 for the carrot.)
  5. Slice the sesame leaves.


Cooking
dak doritang cooking process1

  1. Pre heat the wok.
  2. Put some oil into the wok.
  3. Put some potatoes and carrots into the wok and stir it for a while.
  4. Pour the water into the wok.
  5. Add the chicken and onion, then stir it a bit. Add the sauce.
  6. Stir. Boil it until everything is cooked.
  7. When it is ready, add the sesame leaves. Then boil for a very short time.
dak doritang cooking process2

8. Serve it on the plate.

dak doritang on the plate

Most people have this meal with some rice. I recommend you to do the same thing, otherwise it might be too spicy for you. Most people share the food from the same plate and have their rice separate.