Category: Recipes

Recipe: One Pot Soybean Sprout Rice
In addition to oodles of cold noodles in this sweltering heat, another life saver for meals at home has been one pot cooking dishes which also don’t (or minimally) use open-flame gas ranges.
Soybean Sprout Rice (Kongnamul Bap 콩나물밥) was one of my favorite simple dishes to eat at home while growing up, and I remember eating copious amounts of it with kimchi on the occasions my mom made it for dinner.
Traditionally, or rather when my mother normally made it, she would give the marinated beef a quick cook on the stove while the rice was cooking. Since this is summer, and I would like to keep the stove off as much as possible, this is my simpler recipe which allows everything to cook in the rice cooker.

To eat, add a bit of the sauce, mix it all up, and taste and adjust as needed.
Mixed and ready to eat!
Your one rice cooker meal is now served! It goes wonderfully with some cool and ripened kimchi on the side.
August 22, 2013
[Francais] Rosbif & Kimchi de concombre à la coriandre
Est un ensemble qui va bien avec l’été, léger, simple et élégant. On savoure le contraste entre le croquant du concombre et la tendresse juteuse de la chair, la verdure fraiche et la rose nue. De petits piques espiègles de piment rouge dans le baume douillet de l’huile d’olive gorgée de soleil, un air inspirant le sud.
Idéal pour un déjeuner simple et gouteux, il suffit de découper des tranches fines, arrogez généreusement d’huile olive qui emballe si bien la fraicheur relevée du kimchi que le filet délicate de rosbif. Accompagnez un verre de vin blanc sec, Rully pour moi, ou un rosé, ce sera un repas lévitant, là, faites intervenir un peu de pomme de terre vapeur – encore assez chaud – qui donnera un peu de poids, ce gout de terre, c’est rassurant. Comment ne pas avoir la bonne appétit ?
Oi-sobaggi, kimchi de concombre, est farci habituellement avec les ciboule de Chine (Allium tuberosum). On peut les acheter aux épiceries asiatiques, mais, restons locavores, les verts de poireau assument plutôt bien ce rôle de parfumeur herbacé – la ciboule serait trop forte. La coriandre et le poivron ajoutent des reliefs aromatiques.
Le kimchi est un mets lacto-fermenté se conservant plusieurs jours. Vous pouvez en déguster accompagné du riz, des pâtes ou des viandes rouge ou blanche. Ce kimchi de concombre, spécialité de l’été se mange assez rapidement, vous pouvez commencer à déguster dès le 3ème jours. Différemment des autres kimchis, je vous conseille de ne pas dépasser 1semaine de conservation, ça risque de se ramollir. Cette recette est légèrement interprétée, pour la recette de oi sobaggi classique, voyez ici.
August 20, 2013
Sunday Pork Roast Bossam
I’d been craving an old-fashioned Sunday Roast. I didn’t care what meat. EJ saw that some giant cuts of pork were on sale. She bought two for W10,000. She said, though, that she wanted Bossam. I figured we could compromise. If David Chang can do a roast for Bossam, so can I .
The night before, I dissolved salt and sugar in some warm water in a large zipper back. I put the pork in there and let it brine in the fridge overnight. Around 10:30 the next morning, I removed it from the brine and let it rest and dry a bit on an inverted stainless steel mixing bowl in the sink. I cleaned some root veggies. I put the pork on the raw meat cutting board and scored it in a diamond pattern. Jian helped me season both sides liberally with coarse salt and fresh ground pepper. I cut up some carrots and an onion. I let Jian use the knife to cut a carrot–a very supervised cut. She helps me cover the bottom of a foil-lined pan with the veggies and throw some more seasoning on them. I rolled the roast up to ensure that each side was of even thickness and put it in a 200 C oven for 20 minutes. I then cut the heat down to 150 C and let it roast for two hours.
http://youtu.be/7_H_WHQchnw
For the condiments, I washed some lettuce and put together what we had around the house. I got some MooSsam (pickled radishes dyed green with wasabi), sliced some fresh garlic, spooned out some sliced jalapenos, and even found a use for the leftover giant caperberries from the Game of Thrones pop-up restaurant.
I also made a quick salad with some of the lettuce with some thinly sliced red onions and minari (a type of water dropwort). The dressing was a vinaigrette of yuja cha, thyme honey, Dijon mustard, Balsamic vinegar, and EV olive oil. I topped the salad with leftover wine-stewed prunes from the pop-up.
I rested the pork and sliced it as thin as I could. The last touch was a dollop of Ssamjang from the local grocery store. I just wanted the green tub stuff.
CONCLUSION: Worked. The classic salt-and-pepper roast taste works with the Ssamjang and condiments in a lettuce wrap. I also got out some homemade applesauce for the pork. That worked too.

July 1, 2013
Korean Kitchen Hacking: Lasagna almost totally from scratch
Korea has gotten much better for finding foreign products than when I started this blog. But some stuff is still difficult to find. One thing I have never made in Korea is lasagna. That already requires a good bit of work even if you do have ingredients on hand. What got me started was finding lasagna noodles at Home Plus. They’re partnered with Tesco in the UK, so they have lately become the best bet for finding western products at a decent price.
So I had the pasta. I also have an oven, which admittedly, isn’t as common as you’d think in Korea. One of the best investments I’ve ever made. Since ovens aren’t common, oven accessories aren’t that common either. It wasn’t until I decided to make lasagna that I realized how hard it was to find something like a Pyrex dish. I looked in Home Plus, E-Mart, and New Core Department Store. No luck. We went on G-Market (like Amazon). It took some searching, but we found Pyrex dishes. I bought one that would suit my purposes.
The following is not a recipe. It’s a journal entry of what I did. Here goes.
I first had to make the ricotta. You can get ricotta at the supermarket now–for around W10,000 for a tiny tub. I didn’t want to spend W75,000 to make this lasagna, so I got some heavy cream and made my own. (recipe here)
There we go!
Next I made some Italian sausage. Why use plain old hamburger beef when you can do sausage? Besides, pork is much cheaper than beef in Korea. I based mine on this recipe. If you have any fennel around, which you can find at the foreign markets in bulk, you can make Italian sausage with ground pork from the Korean butcher. I just replaced the paprika with gochugaru.
While the flavors were getting to know each other in the sausage, I roasted some peppers for the sauce.
This is the easiest way to make tomato sauce. I threw the roasted and peeled peppers in a food processor with a couple canned tomatoes, garlic, and onion. Gave that a whir.
Browned the sausage. House started smelling good at this point.
Added the tomato sauce and some oregano. Seasoned it, and let is simmer for an hour or so.
While that was simmering, I whipped up a simple bechamel (brown some olive oil and flour, add milk, salt, and a little nutmeg, whisk constantly on medium heat until it bubbles and turn it off).
Grated some Romano I found at the supermarket.
Gave the noodles a boil.
Then I layered all the bits together.
Added a few packets of “pizza cheese.” Then I put it in the oven for 45 minutes.
And here it is.
A little for me.
And Jian liked it, too.

If you really want to know, the whole thing took five hours from start to tummy.
February 7, 2013
Recipe: Chamchi Jeon (Korean tuna cakes)
Many keep some cans of tuna in the pantry as an inexpensive source of protein. But for a number of Americans, the only purpose for canned tuna is tuna salad or cat food.
Veer from the deep-rutted tuna salad trail with this easy recipe for 참치전 chamchi jeon. These little, two-bite-sized tuna cakes are seasoned simply with salt, pepper, onion and a little garlic. That helps them pair well with bolder, spicier main dishes or kimchi banchan (pickled vegetable side dishes).

I used common canned tuna in my version of this recipe. However, if you are able to get your hands on the Korean canned tuna commonly sold for making kimchi jjigae, use it. It’s pre-marinaded in spicy gochujang and will add some spice and excitement to your tuna cakes.
If you want to eat them western style, you can serve them with tartar sauce, spicy mayonnaise or tzatziki. I served them with a couple of Korean dipping sauces: vinegar spicy pepper sauce (식초 고추장 shikcho gochujang) and vinegar soy sauce (초간장 cho ganjang).
Based on recipe by Naomi Imatome-Yun.
August 20, 2012
Recipe: Cho Ganjang (Korean Vinegar Soy Sauce)
Cho ganjang is one of those recipes that is so basic and fundamental, I can almost make the recipe in my sleep. It is a quick, flavorful dipping sauce that complements “dippable” dishes. That includes fried foods such as 감자전 gamja jeon (Korean latke) or 부추전 bu chu jeon (chive pancake) as well as fish and 김밥 kimbap (rolled sushi).
Sometimes I just have to get back to the basics. Creating new recipes invigorates the brain and brings excitement and wonder into the kitchen. At some point, I run out of ideas or the ideas I come up with are so far off the path that there’s very little hint of Korea in them.
When I feel like I’m starting to stray too far from the fundamentals of Korean cuisine, I come back to the tried and true recipes for a while before I head back out into uncharted territory.
August 14, 2012
Adzuki Bean Brownies
Adzuki are small red beans commonly used in Korean, Japanese and Chinese confections. Called 팥 pat in Korean, these beans have a natural sweetness uncommon in legumes. Added sugar or honey during boiling to make the bean paste accentuates the sweetness for use in a number of East Asian desserts.
Based on archaeological findings, Asians have been cooking adzuki beans since 4000 BC. That’s more than 6,000 years of culinary history. How I wish I had a cookbook from back then.
Black bean brownie recipes have been around for some time, especially here in California. Most versions are flourless, which is helpful for those on gluten-free or Celiac disease diets.
Every time I would talk to people about black bean brownies, I’d scratch my head at why anyone would use black beans when red beans seemed a more logical confection choice. In my culinary world, it’s just a given that the black beans had to go and red beans should take center stage.
August 13, 2012
Korean Onion Relish
The onion does not have an ancient connection to Korean cuisine. But you wouldn’t know that, based on how popular the root vegetable is now in Korea. That’s in sharp contrast to the milder green onion, which has been a part of Korean cuisine for hundreds, even thousands of years.
Onions were introduced to Korea just over 100 years ago and were not grown on a large scale there until the 1960s.
This recipe for Korean onion relish is an excellent partner for your next Korean barbecue. Just grab a large piece of lettuce or a big 깻잎 kkaenip/shiso/perilla leaf, put a little of the onion relish on the leaf and top with a slice of your favorite Korean grilled meat (불고기 bulgogi, 갈비 kalbi, 닭갈비 dakgalbi, whatever).
If you aren’t on a low-carb diet, add a small spoonful of rice to absorb some of the vinegar brine. Any leftovers would have fun in a bowl of 비빔밥 bibimbap (mixed rice and vegetable dish with or without meat or dubu/tofu) or 김치볶음밥 kimchi boggeumbap (fried rice).
If you aren’t on a low-carb diet, add a small spoonful of rice to absorb some of the vinegar brine. Any leftovers would have fun in a bowl of 비빔밥 bibimbap (mixed rice and vegetable dish with or without meat or dubu/tofu) or 김치볶음밥 kimchi boggeumbap (fried rice).
August 9, 2012
Gochujang Pasta
Gochujang (고추장) is one of Korea’s most important “mother sauces.” It is the backbone of many popular recipes: 닭갈비 dakgalbi, 김치찌개 kimchi jjigae and 떡볶이 tteokbokki. It’s also used to make 쌈장 ssamjang, the quintessential barbecue condiment.
Gochujang‘s fermented yet sweet demeanor can also add some spicy backbone to your favorite marinara meat sauce.
Take note with this recipe: The sauce-to-pasta ratio is more Italian than American. Americans like lots of sauce on their pasta. Italians prefer lots of pasta for their sauce. This recipe leans towards the Italian style.
August 3, 2012
Israeli Couscous Salad With Korean Radish and Pine Nuts
Israeli couscous is couscous on steroids. It’s much larger than the familiar North African version. Comparatively, Israeli couscous has a nutty flavor and is chewier. Israeli couscous also lends itself to salads better than its diminutive cousin.
I came up with this recipe the other night by combining that pumped-up pasta with a little kitchen craziness and some fresh 총각무 chonggakmu (Korean ponytail radish) from my garden.
One of the most crucial ingredients is lemon juice. Hopefully, lemon prices have sweetened in Korea after souring with the Master Cleanse craze some time ago.
Also important is boiling Israeli couscous in a flavored broth. Those little toasted balls of semolina will easily soak up the flavor.
July 11, 2012