Tag: Vegetarian

Fun food find: Ssiat hotteok at BIFF Square, Busan
BIFF Square gets its name from the Busan International Film Festival. This annual film festival is one of the most prestigious film festivals in Asia. BIFF Square was the original location of the BIFF, which started in 1996.
Although BIFF Square no longer plays hostess to the prestigious film festival — it was moved to the newly built Busan Cinema Center (영화의전당) in 2012 — the square is still a busy place, lined with a wide variety of shops, movie theaters, movie paraphernalia and lots of street food stalls and restaurants.
After arriving in Busan from Daejeon during our recent tasty tour of Korea, Hubby and I scouted the square one weekday mid-morning with a profound craving for some 호떡 hotteok. Thanks to the Internet, we knew there’s something special about the hotteok sold at BIFF Square food stalls.
Like the child of a doughnut and a cinnamon roll, hotteok starts out with a base of wheat flour, water, milk, sugar and yeast. After the dough rises for a few hours, golf-ball sized lumps of dough are filled with a mixture of brown sugar, honey, chopped peanuts and cinnamon. Then it’s fried on both sides to golden brown and piping hot.
Most hotteok stands will set them aside and serve as-is. Buyer beware of the sticky, hot, sweet cinnamon syrupy filling.
However, Busan-style hotteok, called ssiat hotteok (씨앗호떡), or “seed hotteok,” brings a bit more to this street treat. A regular hotteok cake is cut from the side about half-way down and stuffed with a spoonful of pine nuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
Deep fried dough generously stuffed with nuts, seeds, sugar and cinnamon is always good eats. The additional seeds and nuts may give the illusion of healthiness but who eats hotteok for their health?
BIFF Square is pretty easy to find. It’s in the same neighborhoood as the Jagalchi fish market and Nampo-dong shopping area.
BIFF 광장 (Square) Plaza and Flea Market
중구 남포동5가 18 (Joong-gu, Nampo-dong 5-ga, 18)
부산광역시 (Busan), 600-045
Directions: Take subway line 1 to Jagalchi Station. From station exit 7, the plaza is a five-minute walk.
August 1, 2013
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
Korean Carrots (Koreyscha Sabzili Salat)
Korean carrot salad, pronounced Koreyscha Sabzili Salat in the Uzbek language, is ubiquitous throughout the former Soviet Union. The dish was invented by Korean immigrants to Russia’s Far East and the recipe would have stayed there if Stalin hadn’t forcibly deported the Soviet Koreans further west to the Central Asian republics of Uzbekistan and Kazakstan. Stalin’s fear that Japanese spies were infiltrating the USSR via these Korean immigrants spread Korean cuisine into the Soviet Union’s interior.

This is a recipe that begs to be made a day in advance so the ingredients have a chance to get to know each other better.
March 31, 2012
Raspberry Ssamjang
I have this obsession of taking every non-Korean recipe and trying to put a Korean spin on it. When I have a “eureka” moment, the result is published here.
Just a suggestion: Serve this sauce with some grilled Korean barbecue and lettuce or large leafy herb (깻잎 kkaennip/shiso/perilla shown here) for a low-carb lunch or dinner. (Tammy Quackenbush photo)
My current “eureka” moment comes from a recipe by Amy of Amy’s Cooking Adventures. I took her Spicy Raspberry Sauce and transformed it into a Koreafornian concoction Raspberry Ssamjang. (Thanks to the Secret Recipe Club.)
Ssamjang (쌈장) is a spicy paste made from fermented soybean paste (된장 doenjang), red pepper paste (고추장 gochujang), sesame oil and seasonings such as green onion and garlic. Ssamjang is sold in most Korean grocery stores in small or large green tubs. If you don’t read Korean, just look for the green tubs.
Ssam is Korean for “wrapping”; jang, for sauce. So ssamjang is a sauce made for flavoring leaves for wrapping around food.
Ssam show and tell: A kkaennip leaf is smeared with raspberry ssamjang and topped with grilled spicy Korean chicken. (Jeff Quackenbush photo
For barbecued and grilled foods, Koreans will take a piece of or whole leaf of lettuce or a broad-leafed herb such as 깻잎 kkaennip (perilla in English), spread some ssamjang on it, top with meat and rice, and pop it in their mouths like a small bite-sized sushi roll.
This isn’t the first ssamjang I’ve made that excluded the basic doenjang, gochujang and sesame oil combo. In May I developed Peanut Ssamjang. Now, with the Raspberry Ssamjang, I have the makings for a weird peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
The combination of the pectin in the raspberry jam and the cornstarch thickened the sauce nicely, thick, yet spreadable. If you leave out the cornstarch it would still be thick and saucy enough to cling to your lettuce wrap.
September 27, 2011
Black Kong Guksu
In the last few days, the weather has wearily cooled down with frequent rain. Uncomfortable humidity makes it feel hotter than weather reports want you to believe. As much as I feel the days are moving fast-forward to greet the autumn, August still belongs to the summer season.
So before the season’s over, I want to squeeze in a couple more summer dishes in the coming posts, including today’s black kong guksu (콩국수), literally meaning bean (콩; kong) noodles (국수; guk su). It is one of the most popular summer dishes and regarded highly for its nutritional values. In its simplest form, you will find somyeon (소면; white wheat noodles, thin like angel hair) in chilled soy milk, often freshly made by boiling crushed soy beans with water and seasoned only with salt. You might find some garnish of sliced cucumbers and an accompaniment of tangy kimchi, but not much else.Over time, the dish has evolved and now you can find a variety of kong guksu. From the simple original version to the ones that use more nuts, such as pine nuts and peanuts to enhance the flavor and mask beany flavor that some people complain about kong guksu. There are also different black kong guksu versions in which the soup is made with black beans (instead of soy beans) and other ingredients added for flavor, color and nutrients, such as black sesame seeds and whatever nuts you like.Making this dish at home can’t be easier. Feel free to make your own soy milk, but I often use soy milk or regular milk, already chilled and conveniently located in my refrigerator. If you are buying soy milk for this recipe, stick to unsweetened soy milk with no additional flavoring, so that you can use it for this savory dish.If you want to deviate from the usual kong guksu and find out how a healthful combination of black beans, black sesame seeds and milk come together as a surprising, flavorful simplicity, try making this. It refreshes you, it cools you down, then the remaining muggy heat isn’t so bad anymore.I usually have a batch of black beans in the refrigerator ready to go for my morning smoothie, so you can soak a bag of black beans overnight and boil them to try both my smoothie and black kong guksu. Any leftover beans can be refrigerated for about a week or frozen for later use. Otherwise, feel free to use canned black beans. Rinse them lightly and just be careful with seasoning as those usually come already salted.Ripe kimchi with a slight tang is a great compliment to chilled kong guksu and, not surprisingly, it is the most common side dish served with kong guksu. Just a thought about an image of a dish that is mostly black and white…Would it matter if the picture of the dish shows only black and white colors? Would the black and white image help because, now, it focuses on the simplicity of the dish? Or because colors are so important in food, even if the dish is mostly different shades of black and white, does it now look less appetizing? A random thought of the day…By the way, I just got back from Korea Day in Central Park. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re in NYC ~ great food, fun music and DYI Korean food experience until 7PM tonight. I hope you can make it! I’ll have a full report later.KOREAN WORDSbean 콩 (kong)sesame seed 깨 (ggae)
August 19, 2011
Korean Pear Charoset
Korean pear charoset paired up with some matzah, romaine lettuce and horseradish spiked with beet juice, for the perfect Hillel Sandwich. (Tammy Quackenbush photo)
Last year, I posted a recipe for charoset that was decided non-Korean. This year, I decided to rectify that by making a Korean-style charoset for you. I took my new charoset recipe to our annual Passover seder and it was a big hit.
As I said last Passover,
The traditional Ashkenazi Charoset features apples, raisins, cinnamon and walnuts. I can’t put my finger on the reason that this version of Charoset sets my teeth on edge, but I don’t find it remotely appealing. …I don’t like raisins at all. No amount of cinnamon, sugar or walnuts can change that. I call them “shriveled up, dead fruit.” I’m also not a big fan of apples, at least as the main actor, either.
I still dabble in apples, only in extreme moderation (usually drenched in peanut butter), so this charoset does not use apples. Instead, the Korean pear holds center stage.
April 23, 2011
Creamy linguine with leeks, corn and sesame leaves
A recipe for creamy fettuccine with leeks, corn and arugula near the back of the June 2010 edition of Real Simple magazine could have been written by one of those corn-obsessed Korean foodies.
Koreans try to sneak corn in everything: pizza, potato salad and even ice cream. Nutritiondata.com reports that one cup of corn kernels provides 25 percent of the recommended daily allowance of iron. Is there a hidden anemia epidemic to explain the kernel corn craze?
So the cup of those ubiquitous sweet corn kernels already gave this recipe Korean moxie, as did replacing the arugula with sesame leaves.
Here’s my spin on the Real Simple recipe:
1 pound linguine (I use high-protein pasta by Dreamfields to reduce the glycemic level of this meal.)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 leeks (white and light green parts, thinly sliced)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup corn kernels
1/2 cup dry white wine (use drinkable wine, not cooking wine)
1 cup sesame leaves, julienned
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup grated pecorino Romano cheese
salt and pepper to taste (I used 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper)
1. Rinse the sliced leeks to make sure there’s no dirt between the layers.
2. Cook pasta according to the directions on the box.
3. Heat the olive oil in skillet on medium high heat.
4. Add leeks, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of pepper and cook for approximately three to four minutes, stirring occasionally until they are tender.
5. Add the corn and wine. Allow to simmer for two to three minutes until the corn is tender.
6. Add the cream and stir in.
7. At this point, add the pasta and season with a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper and stir to combine.
8. Fold in the sesame leaves and sprinkle with the grated pecorino just before serving.
May 26, 2010
A meal fit for a Buddha: Posotbap (mushrooms and rice)
Buddhism has flourished in Korea for more than 1,600 years. Korean Buddhist temple cuisine, a fusion of Buddhist dharma to North Asian culture, is distinct from foods eaten by other Buddhist sects.
Buddhist food generally doesn’t contain animal products such as meat, fish, eggs and fish roe. But traditional Korean Buddhist cuisine also excludes certain vegetables, including onions, green onions (scallions), baby garlic, leeks and chives. It is believed these whet the sexual appetite, which is forbidden for celibate monks.
Some of the hallmarks of Korean temple food are simplicity in the use of seasonal herbs and vegetables and judicious seasoning. The food might seem bland compared with more popular Korean dishes such as samgyeopsal or dakkalbi, but experimenting with Korean temple cuisine can help you get your recommended five servings of vegetables per day.
Because Buddhist cuisine is vegan, here’s a vegan recipe that features one of my favorite ingredients: mushrooms. Since the Buddha was born in India, I’m using basmati rice in this version.
Posotbap (버섯밥, mushrooms and rice)
1-2 cups rice (makes 2-4 cups cooked)
8 ounces shittake mushroom or other mushrooms, finely diced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
water (according to instructions on your rice cooker)
Clean off the mushrooms with a damp kitchen towel and wipe off as much dirt as possible. If you are using dried mushrooms, soak them in warm water for 10-20 to rehydrate. Once the mushrooms are rehydrated, squeeze as much water out of them as possible before dicing. Save the mushroom water and put it into your rice cooker to cook your rice.
Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat until hot. Add the mushrooms and soy sauce and sauté for six minutes, or until the mushrooms are cooked through. Add the sesame oil, mix well, and set aside.
Put the rice in the rice cooker. Pour the mushroom water — if you used dried, rehydrated mushrooms — into your rice cooker and top off with regular filtered water, if necessary. Set the cooker to cook white rice.
After the rice is cooked, fluff it with a wooden spoon and then serve into bowls. Top with mushrooms and serve with vegetarian banchan, (Korean side dishes) such as Buddhist temple-style watercress.
May 20, 2010
New Start Vegetarian Restaurant 뉴스타트 채식 레스토랑
Cuisine: Vegan
Reservations: No Reservations
Suggested Items: W12,000 Buffet
Other Amenities: The front counter is also a small shop, selling a range of vegan produce.
Phone: 02.565.4324
Location
Within walking distance of Seolleung subway station on line 2
Take subway line 2 (green) to Seolleung station and go out of exit 2. Walk straight out and up the small ‘hill’ and take the first conspicuous left (there are lots of restaurants on this street). It’s on the second floor opposite Holly’s coffee.
The restaurant is within 200m of the subway station, so don’t walk too far.

March 2, 2010