Kimchi Jiggae / Kimchi Stew

This is by far my favorite Korean dish.  Spicy, savory, hot and addictive.  Kimchi stew is a very common, humble everyday dish enjoyed by every Koreans.  You can make it with minimal ingredients or add meat, seafood, even more veggies of your choice.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup of chopped kimchi and kimchi liquid, preferably older kimchi

1/2 medium size onion chopped

2 tbsp Gochujang or more if you like it spicy  (Korean red pepper paste)

1/2 of package of tofu, cubed.

*4 oz of pork chopped to small pieces.   (I used pork stew meat) 

2 cups of water

1/4 cup of chopped scallion.

2 tsp of canola oil

1 tsp of sesame oil to drizzle at the end

Directions

Add oil to pan, saute onion till its translucent.

Add pork, saute till no longer pink

Add Kimchi and Gochujang.  Saute incorporating everything.

Stir in water and tofu and bring to boil.  Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add chopped scallion and drizzle with sesame oil and serve with steamed rice.

Serves 2

*Pork is traditional but you can certainly add any meat.  or none if you prefer.

Kale Kimchi

Inspired by my cousin Sujin, I recently made an improvement to the kale kimchi recipe.  I simply added both daikon radish and regular small red radishes and slice them half rounds instead of julienned.  Also used red Russian kale instead of curly kale.  (the radishes were salted for 20 minutes and rinsed before being added to kimchi paste)
Red Russian kale is slightly more bitter which reminds my of chong gak kimchi.  (baby daikon radish kimchi with the greens)  I personally prefer the red Russian kale over the curly kale.

Kale Kimchee

Kale is the new black.

I decided to make a kale kimchee recently, kale has become extremely popular everywhere and I thought why not.
The recipe is just like making a regular cabbage kimchee except that kale does not need to be salted.
It also takes much longer to ferment.  Kale is a very dense and dry green a lot like collard greens.
Few pointers.
* Roughly chop kale in to bite size.
* Remove the vein.

Recipe.

Ingredients
1 bunch of kale.  Roughly chopped and stem and large vein removed.

1/2 Daikon radish. Julienned

1 bunch of chopped green onions. 

Kimchee paste
1 whole garlic peeled and roughly chopped
2 inch piece of ginger peeled and roughly chopped.
Korean pepper flakes. 1 cup. depending on hot spicy you like it.
1 large Korean pear or 1 pear and 1 apple peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 onion roughly chopped.
1/4 cup of sugar
*2 tbsp cup of fish sauce (preferably 3 Crabs brand)  If not using fermented shrimp use 3 tbsp.
*3 tbsp of fermented shrimp.  (optional, they are hard to find, only sold in Asian markets)

Add all the ingredients and puree them in blender or food processor till it
becomes and paste. Should be slightly watery paste. Taste. It should taste like good kimchee.
Add the julienned radish and chopped green onions and kale.

Here is the important part. Use you hands. ( I wear rubber gloves)

I put the kale kimchee inside plastic bag then in the a large container.  It can make the container smell and the smell is hard to get rid of.
Leave it on kitchen counter for 1 week
Refrigerate for 2 week.
It should be ready to eat once it is refrigerated.
Gets better as it ages.

Kale and kimchee fried rice

I've done kimchee fried rice on this blog before but this time I've added sautéed kale to the mix.  I just wanted to show how versatile and delicious kale can be.

Mandoo, Korean pot stickers

I got this fabulous recipe from my cousin SuJin. Super healthy snacks you can keep in the freezer.
I made mine with fish sauce but if you substitute with salt, it will be vegan.
It's better than restaurant or store-bought pot stickers.
This recipe makes about 40 dumplings.  You can freeze them and eat them steamed, fried or
add to soups.  The hard part is folding the dumplings and make 'em pretty.

Ingredients

7 oz. firm tofu (1/2 package of tofu)

 * cubed and wrapped in cloth and all the liquid squeezed out.  It should be dry crumbly.

5 dried shitaki mushrooms, soaked and chopped (any mushroom is fine)

1 1/2 cup of chopped Asian chives

1/2 cup of chopped scallions

1 cup of chopped and cooked bean thread (optional)

 * available in most grocery stores in Asian section.

2 tbsp of fish sauce (substitute 1 tbsp salt for vegan)

1 tbsp of sugar

2 cloves of garlic

Black pepper to taste

Package of wonton wrappers (round ones) 

Dipping sauce

1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
pinch of black pepper

Chop tofu into cubes and put it in a clean kitchen cloth.

Wrap it tightly and squeeze all the water out.  Put in a large bowl.

Put all the ingredients except for the bean thread in food processor and puree until

everything is finely chopped.

Add fish sauce and sugar, pulse 4 or 5 times.

Put into the bowl with tofu.

Add the bean thread and tofu mix well.

Making mandoo

Wet the edges of wonton wrapper with wet finger and add 1 tbsp of the stuffing.

Wet the edges of the wrapper with water or egg wash and seal tightly (pushing the air out with your fingers).  Cover with damp towel until you are done.

Your mandoo will become prettier as you get used to folding and squeezing.

You can freeze them or eat 'em right away.  Steam, pan fry or add to soup.

Freezing tip.  Line them up on a tray without touching for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes you can bag them up and freeze them.

Tips for frying.  Fry mandoo till golden brown, add splash of water and closed lid for 2 minutes.

This gives it soft texture that is another way to eat them.

Duk Guk, New Year Day Soup.

Duk Guk soup is a rice cake soup traditionally eaten on New Years day in Korea.
It's a hearty and delicious soup, great for cold winter days.
It's made with oval shaped rice cake in beef broth served with scallions, eggs and roasted nori as
garnish.  I didn't add the nori because I ran out.

















Easy to make, hard part is getting the ingredients.

Ingredients, serves 2
*2 cups of rice cake
*1/3 of dried anchovies  (optional)
1/2 pound of beef brisket thinly sliced.
3 garlic cloves
1/3 cup of scallion, diced
3 eggs, 2 of the eggs yolks separated, whip both.
3 Tbsp of fish sauce.
6 cups of water
1 sheet of nori (roasted seaweed used for wrapping sushi)
6 cups of water

* Available in Korean markets.

Soak rice cakes in cold water.  Enough water to cover the rice cakes.
In a large pot bring 6 cups of water to boil.

Prepare eggs.   ( yolk only)

1. On a medium heat, add 1 tbsp vegetable oil or cooking spray on a non-stick pan.
2. Pour the egg yolk mixture into the pan and spread it thinly. Flip cook both sides.  Like making a crepe.  
3. Transfer to cutting board let it cool and slice thinly.  Julienne. Set it aside.

For Nori.
     1.  roast 2 sheets of nori on gas burner lights.  crush in to small pieces and set it aside,

Soup

In a pot with boiling water, add sliced beef brisket and cook for 30 minutes.
Add garlic, fish sauce and drained rice cakes.
Simmer for until rice cakes are floating.  taste the rice cake to chewy but silky smooth texture.
Add green onions and drizzle remaining egg mixture in to boiling soup.  Do not stir the eggs.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Serve in a large bowl and garnish with sliced egg yolk and crushed nori.

(Beef brisket is very lean meat and there wont be any fat to skim)

Jjajangmyun (blackbean noodles)

Jjajangmyeon is a Korean version of Chinese dish.  It's a very common dish served everywhere in Korea.  It's cheap, fast, easy and delicious.

My version is left-over veggies from the fridge and pantry.  This dish has no meat, but traditionally it always has small strips of pork. You can add any type of vegetables.   Potatoes, frozen peas, broccoli and etc.  I personally like it with lots of raw veggies on top.  The crunch adds really nice texture and freshness to the dish.

 

Recipe:

Noodles– I used Soba noodles 'cause that's all I had.  Any kind is fine–even spaghetti works.

Enough for 2 servings.

Vegetables

1/4 diced red peppers

1/2 julienned red peppers

1 small cucumber julienned

1 small carrot julienned

1/2 small onion diced

1 clove garlic chopped

1 tbsp grated ginger

1 scallion diced

1 tsp of red pepper flakes (optional)

sauce

5 Tbsp of Jjajangmyun sauce (click here to find out where to get it)

1 cup of water

1 tbsp of corn starch

1 tbsp of sugar

1 tbsp of canola oil

Directions:

In a large skillet or frying pan heat oil:

Saute all the vegetables that are diced.  About 7 to 8 minutes till soft. ( Julienned vegetable will be added raw when the dish is done) 

Also add red pepper flakes.  (optional)

combine water and cornstarch together, make sure all the cornstarch is dissolved.

Add Jjajangmyun sauce to vegetables, 

Stir in water/cornstarch mixture and stir.

Bring to simmer and let it simmer for 5 to 7 minutes.

The sauce should be gravy consistency and shiny.

Meanwhile boil noodles until done.

Move to plate or bowl, top it off with generous amount sauce and garnish with lots of raw fresh julienned vegetables and scallion.

Its delicious with kimchi of course!

Kimchi Fried Rice!!!!!

The ultimate Korean comfort food.  My mom and my grandma used to make this for me after school.

Every Koreans have their own version.  Some use butter, some add some leftover meat, some even use lunch meat,  (Spam is always good)  additional vegetable and etc.  This is very basic version.  Add to it whatever turns you on.

Recipe

1 cup of kimchi with some of the juice.  ( I use Kitchen shears to cut kimchi in to small bite size)

11/2 cup of left over rice.

1 fried egg

1 scallion chopped

1 tbsp of canola oil.  (I prefer canola over olive oil.  less flavor.  Most Korean dishes are finished off with drizzle of sesame oil which has a very strong flavor and aroma.

Splash of soy sauce.  (Its like salt, add to taste.)

drizzle of sesame oil.

Directions

On a non stick frying pan heat canola oil.

Add kimchi and let it fry till kimchi is toasted looking.

About 5 minutes.

Add rice and stir well and cooked thru.  6 to 8 minutes.

Add splash of soy sauce and drizzle of sesame oil.

Garnish with scallion move to plate or bowl.

Finish off with 1 fried egg on top.

Its great with miso soup on the side.

Korean pork BBQ/Daeji Gui

 I am big fan of pork.  This is my favorite pork dish.  It's also delicious as a sandwich.

Ingredients.

1 Pound of Pork thinly sliced.  (I used pre sliced pork shoulder available at Korean Market)
* To thinly slice any meat, freeze the meat for 20 minutes or until firm and slightly hard. This should make it easy to slice

1/4 Cup of gochujang.  Use more if you like it spicy  (Korean red pepper paste)
1/4 Cup of soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp of rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp of sesame oil
1/2 Inch of ginger grated
3 Garlic cloves finely chopped
2 Tbsp of sugar
1/4 Tsp of black pepper.
1/4 Cup of green onions for garnish.

Mix all the ingredients together well and marinate in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 hrs.
Grill on a med/hot charcoal grill for 2 to 3 minutes each side or until it cooks.
Serve with steamed rice, red leaf lettuce, and other popular Korean side dish of your choice.

* If you are wondering about my grill in the photo, it's a bakers rack for cooling cookies and cakes.
It works great for vegetables as well.  It keeps your food from falling into the charcoal between the wires.