Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Indian Eggplaant- andhra spiced

4 medium eggplants
1/3 cup sessame oil or vege oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds, crushed or coarsely ground
2 tablespoons minced green cayene chilles, or to taste
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons minced shallots
1/3 cup coriander leaves for garnish (optional)

preheat oven to 450 ovens. poke with fork and place in rimmed baking sheet/roasting pan and bake until skin is brown and flesh is softened for 45 minutes.

heat 1/4 cup oil in wok or karhai or heavy skillet over medium high heat. toss onion, garlic, cayenne, turmeric, cumin, and stir. lower heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently, until onion is softened and translucent but not browned- 10 minutes.

cut eggplant in half and scrape pulp, discard skin, and mash well with fork.

add chiles to onion mixture and stir fry for a minute, add eggplant and salt and stirfry several minutes, using spatula to blend ingrdeients. before serving, stir shallots and stirfry, turn into bowl and sprinkle with coriander leaves.

Indian Eggplant - Bhurtha

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 eggplant
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 1 medium onion, sliced
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger
  • 1 large tomato - peeled, seeded and diced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
  • 1 pinch ground black pepper to taste
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat the oven's broiler. Rub oil on the outside of the egg plant, or coat with cooking spray. Place under the broiler, and cook until the flesh is soft and the skin is blistering off, about 30 minutes. Turn as needed for even cooking. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise, and scoop the flesh out of the skin. Discard the skin; chop up the flesh, and set aside.
  2. Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add the cumin seeds, and let them crackle for a few seconds and turn golden brown. Be careful not to burn them. Add the onion, ginger and garlic; cook and stir until tender. I don't let the onions get very brown. Stir in the tomato, and season with turmeric, ground cumin, ground coriander, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper. Cook and stir for a few minutes.
  3. Place the eggplant pieces in the skillet, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes so some of the moisture evaporates. Taste, and adjust seasonings if desired. Garnish with fresh cilantro, and serve.

Variation

You can also add peas to this dish. Stir in 1/2 cup of frozen peas when you are simmering the tomatoes.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Uni Bab

Uni bab is a quick, easy and delicious way for Uni-lovers to eat Uni (Sea Urchin) under a budget. It's kinda like an upgraded "Egg, Rice & Soy sauce" but definitely not for NON-Uni lovers. As some of you may know, Uni has a very distinct taste that not all people appreciate. But those who do love it do so with a passion. One of my friends called it an orgasm in your mouth. LOL!

Ingredients:

1 pack of fresh UNI (sea urchin) from Korean Market (around $9-$10)
1 bowl of steaming hot RICE
1 tbsp SOY SAUCE (more or less, according to preference for "jja"-ness)
1 small handful of crumbled GEEM (roasted & salted seaweed paper)

Instructions:

Just throw all the ingredients on top of the bowl of steaming hot rice and eat slowly to savor the Uni.

Tang Gook

This isn't really what tang gook looks like - it doesn't have green onion and the broth is much more brown but it was the closest picture I could find (it's moo gook). For a picture of tang gook, look at the chusuk set up above. This is the traditional soup served on chusuk.

Ingredients:

1 moo (daikon)
1/2 pound beef (I use galbi sal)
6 cups water
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp gook gan jang (soup soy sauce) and more to taste
1 onion
1 tsp pepper
salt to taste
tofu (optional)

Directions:

Slice the moo. Cut beef into bite size pieces. Saute the beef in sesame oil and soy sauce until browned. Add 6 cups water, moo, sliced onion, and pepper. You can also add thin slices of tofu if you want. Bring to boil. Add gook ganjang and salt to taste. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. You can easily increase the ingredients in this soup for larger portions.

Soojaebee (Dough Soup w/ Potatoes & Squash)



Ingredients:

3 cups mil kal rhu (flour)
1 cup of water
1 egg
1/2 ho bak (korean squash)
2 potatoes
few cloves of garlic
1 bunch of green onion
1 bunch of enoki mushrooms
dried kelp (in korean its called dashima, but i got the dashi kombu below just to illustrate it's the same)
dried anchovies (fyi when not using, store in freezer)
black pepper to taste
salt to taste
stock pot 3/4 full of water
gook kang jang (soup soy sauce, seriously, if you gonna make some korean food, you should invest the couple bucks in this soy sauce. Makes that much of a difference.)


Directions:

You can make this stock part way in advance. You can leave the strain broth in a big old kimchee jar and leave it in the frig, you can also reduce down the stock like crazy and make frozen ice cubes that you can dilute later into some boiling water, or just make it on the spot like I did this time.

In a stock pot, 3/4 full of water, I bring to simmer a couple pieces of dashima, a few cloves of garlic and a handful of dried anchovies. Simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes. Strain. Put the strained stock back into the pot. While the stock is simmering, clean and cut up the rest of your ingredients. I cut the ho bak lengthwise then 1/4" slices, same with the potatos, the enokis, just cut off the ends. Set aside.

In a bowl, mix the 1 cup of water with 3 cups of flour. It should feel a bit chunky. work it just a bit. It should be a bit clumpy. I bought my s/o a kitchenaid awhile back and its been one of the most useful appliances in the kitchen. (not the accolade, that ones crappy) I tossed the clumpy flour/water mixture into the kitchen aid to kneed for a few minutes.



Now if you dont have a kitchenaid, its still very simple to kneed into a nice dough mixture. grab the ball of flour and water and on a nice surface like a wooden cutting board or counter top lightly floured so the ball wont stick, press down on the ball with the palm of your hand working from the center out. Do this for a few minutes, wrapping the dough back into a ball when it becomes too stretched out. Don't skimp on the kneeding. This makes the dough tastier. Don't ask me why, how.. it just does. Once dough becomes smooth rather than clumpy, set aside for a few minutes.

Now in your stock pot of broth start adding in the ingredients. I added the potatos first because they take the longest to cook. A few mintues later the ho bak. Grab a handful of the dough. You should notice right away the consistency of it has dramatically changed. Kinda smooth, silky, yet when you pull at it, it retains some strength. With a ball of dough in your hand, start to pull of chunks of dough. Remember, this dough will expand a bit when cooking so make the piece small and thin. I'd say quarter sized pieces about a couple credit cards thick.



FYI, like I said, this was my first time making this dish, now know, MAKE THE DOUGH THINNER. Add in the remaining dough. Add a couple tablespoons of gook ganjang and a spirinkle of salt. I like my food a bit salty. Adjust to your taste. Just by looking and tasting, you should be able to tell when the dish should be done. If i had to guess, I say four mintues after the last piece of dough. So, a minute before everything looks like its done, toss in the diagonal cut green onions and enoki mushrooms. Then slowly add in one egg. Think egg drop soup. You want small slivers of egg, not chunks. to do this, its simple. Crack open an egg, whisk it in a bowl, and slowly add to the soup while stirring the soup.



Enjoy with kimchee, actually, you HAVE to have kimchee with this. Happy cooking.

Sogogee Gook (Beef Soup)

I made my favorite gook for dinner tonight. I pour it over a bowl of rice with some kimchi on the side and I have a complete meal - no banchan needed. There are no bean sprouts in this picture because my crappy local market doesn't carry them. They really make the gook more shee-won-heh though.

Ingredients:

1/2 pd beef (I use galbi sal, but you can also use unmarinated galbi with the bone in, or stew beef)
1 tb sesame oil
4 tb gook ganjang (soup soy sauce)
1 tb gochugaru (chili pepper flakes)
6 cups water
2 cups moo (daikon or radish)
1 tb minced garlic
1 onion
3 stalks green onions
1 jalapeno
1 cup bean sprouts
salt and more gook ganjang to taste

Directions:

Chop onion and moo into 1 inch squares. Slice jalapeno. Set aside. Cut beef into bite size pieces. Heat sesame oil in pot. Saute beef for a minute or so until lightly browned. Add water, moo, onion, jalapeno, garlic, gochugaru, and soy sauce. Bring to boil. Add green onions and bean sprouts. Add salt to taste. Simmer for 15 more minutes.

She geum chi Namul (Seasoned Spinach)

Posted by request! Even if you use a lot of spinach this shrinks into a tiny bit of banchan. That's probably why I rarely make it - I'm too greedy!

Ingredients:

1 bunch spinach
1 tb soy sauce
1 tb sesame oil
2 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp minced garlic
salt to taste

Directions:

Wash spinach very thoroughly. Bring pot of water to boil. Blanch the spinach by putting it in boiling water for 1 minute. Remove and rinse in cold running water. Squeeze out excess water. Chop spinach coarsely and place in a bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix by hand. Taste and add salt if needed. You can also try using garlic salt instead of minced garlic (but I've never tried it before). If you do let me know how it turns out!

Shabu Shabu (Korean Style)

This crowd pleaser is easy to make and you can add any vegetables or meat you like. I've listed the ingredients I used, but you can try enoki mushrooms, carrots, zucchini, onion, asparagus, odeng (fish cake), even dduk (rice cake)! You can also try pork or use seafood instead - shrimp, scallops, mussels, imitation crab, baby octopus/squid. This dish can be divided into 3 courses: 1) meat and veggies, 2) udon, and 3) jook (rice).

Ingredients:

portable stove
8 cups chicken stock
1 piece kelp
1 lb shabu shabu beef
napa cabbage
spinach
bean sprouts
green onion
mushrooms
chrysanthemum leaves
tofu
dang myun or udon noodles

Dipping Sauces

Option 1
Ponzu Sauce (available at most Asian markets)

Option 2
Memmi Sauce (Noodle Soy Sauce)

Option 3 - Ghetto Style
Soy Sauce diluted with water

You may add wasabi to any of the above sauces and/or grated ginger.

Directions:

Arrange vegetables on a big platter. Place meat on plate. Create individual dipping sauces. Add chicken broth and kelp to saucepan. Bring to boil and then simmer. Remove kelp. Add dang myun first, then vegetables, then the beef - it will cook very quickly. Eat beef and veggies with dipping sauce. If you are using udon, you can make it after eating all the beef and veggies. Add udon to broth - adding more broth if needed. Cook 5-10 minutes and serve noodles. (I omitted this step and used dang myun instead because I'm not a big udon fan)

The final (and my favorite) course is jook. Leave about 1/2 cup broth and add rice, egg, and 1 tb sesame oil. Cook for 5 min. Add crumbled seaweed and serve.

Seng Sun Jun (Fried Fish Patties)

In honor of chusuk, this is one of the most commonly prepared dishes on this holiday. I don't have a picture of this recipe, but you can see it on the chusuk spread here.

Ingredients:

Any white fish (flounder, halibut, snapper, etc)
Flour
Eggs (beaten)
Salt

Directions:

Thinly slice the fish meat into pieces about half the size of your palm. Sprinkle it with a little salt. Dip it in flour on both sides. Dip it into the egg mixture. Heat oil in a pan and fry until fully cooked. Enjoy!

Easy sam geh ttang

ngredients:

1 cornish game hen
1/2 cup cchap sal (sweet rice)
6 cloves garlic
1 tsp ginger
salt, pepper to taste

Optional:

Chopped Green Onion

Directions:

Soak the sweet rice in water for at least 15 minutes. Meanwhile, wash the hen thoroughly inside and out. Remove the giblets if they're inside. Stuff the hen with the sweet rice. Place in pot and fill with enough water to cover the chicken. Add 6 whole cloves garlic and ginger. Bring to boil. Skim all fat off surface. Simmer about 30 min.

Serve whole chicken with chopped green onion if you like. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Note: This recipe is easily doubled. I usually make 2 chickens at a time.

Sam Gye Tang (Chicken Soup)

Ingredients:
  • one game hen.
  • a cup and half of sweet rice
  • a few dried dates
  • a few dried ginseng
  • a few dried chestnuts
  • a few cloves of garlic
  • a couple teaspoon of malt syrup.
  • salt and pepper to taste

im lucky enough to have access to fresh, not frozen game hens. the local market for some reason has plenty of these fresh foster farms game hens. i love it.


these game hens are great in this dish, as they dont turn out all rubbery. if you are using frozen, thaw them out completely. rubbery boiled chicken is not good.

also, most korean market will sell "sam ghe tang kits" i usually stick with those. im lazy. however, note that i dont ever use the entire packet of sweet rice provided. they always package too much rice.

be sure to get malt syrup, not corn syrup. everyone has garlic in their house.

see now, this is euges sam ghe tang, not yo mamas. i make mines a bit different. traditionally, the game hen is stuffed with the all the ingredients and boiled. thats how i started to make mines year ago, but through trial and error, i came up with this method.

you start off by halfing the hen and removing the back bone.

using kitchen shears, cut along one egde of the backbone and cut all the way down. then again on the other side. once you have the hen butterflied, just one swift chop of the kitchen knife and you have halfed the hen.

clean these very well, removing whatever organ bits that might be inside the cavity, small feathers still stuck on it, etc. add the two halves to a pot of boiling water. at the same time, start heating up another pot of water, about 5 - 6 cups and add in the ginseng. then when this pot reaches a boil add in the chestnuts.

back to the orignal pot, you want to boil off some fat and bleed the hens. i don't like a brown broth for sam ghe tang, i like a clean tasting broth. a few minutes should be about enough to render some fat off and bleed the hens throughly.

take the two halves, clean off any brown bits of blood that might be stuck on it and add to the pot with the ginseng and walnuts. simmer this, a very slow boil. add some salt to season. add the peeled garlic cloves. cover the pot. you want to simmer this for a fairly long time. i like to simmer for at least a minium for thirty minutes. about half way into the amount of time you have allocated to simmer for, i add in the dates and the malt syrup.

while the pot with the hen is simmering, i address the sweet rice. traditionally, you wouldnt have to worry about this because you got the rice cooking inside the hens cavity. but i like my sam ghe tang similiar to a soup like consistency and my sweet rice like jook. cooking the sweet rice seperately lets this happen.

now if i had plenty of time, i would simmer an extra few cups of water in with the hens and dried ingredients, but most of the time i dont, so i cheat. swanson organic chicken broth aint too bad and with a few extra steps, makes a great sweet rice jook.

in a large fry pan, slightly toast the sweet rice, barely enough to brown it slightly. add some chopped garlic and toss for about a minute over a med high flame.

add in a little chicken broth at a time, think risotto. for some reason i got stuck on making all jooks this way, risotto style. im sure im just imagining it, but it taste better to me. by the time you added enough chicken stock to the sweet rice to get a good jook, the hens should be done. add a few ladles of the hen broth to the sweet rice.

serve separately. you have to have a bit of salt and pepper to season both things. you should also have a small dish of salt and pepper for the chicken meat. when prepared this way, your chicken and broth actually looks like soup.

and your sweet rice jook, looks like jook.

this meal is completed by kimchee, radish kimchee to the exact.

good korean comfort food.

this meals more medicine than food, but it taste pretty damn freaking good. more than that though. when you make this, its special. it takes a farily long time to prepare than your average meal and you make this with the intent of making someone better.

Ramen

10-ramen.jpg

Sorry for the lack of updates... I've been camping. A ramen recipe you ask? Why yes of course - everyone eats it, everyone loves it, and it's the easiest, fastest thing to make. And it tastes especially good when you're camping (see below). My personal favorite brands are shin ramen and samyang ramen. And the instant yookyejang bowl noodle. I also like the Nissin/Maruchan chicken flavored noodles you can buy at any market made with egg and a bunch of tabasco.

Ingredients:

Boiling water
1 package ramen
1 egg

Directions:

Bring water to boil in a pot. Add ramen noodles and soup flakes. Cook for 2 minutes. Add soup base. Add egg popping the yolk with your chopstick and mixing it into the soup. Cook 1 more minute (or longer if you like the noodles more cooked). I like my noodles pretty undercooked because they'll continue to cook a bit after you transfer it to a bowl. Serve. Mix in a bowl of rice with your soup after you eat all the noodles.

This is the way I usually make my noodles, but sometimes I spice it up by adding 1 tb of gochujang, green onion, and onions. You can also add spam if you like or even a slice of American cheese on top. Here's a link to a ramen recipe database. How do you eat your ramen?

Potato Salad (Korean Restaurant Banchan Style)

Ingredients:

1 lb. potatoes
1 apple (my own addition)
3 large slices of sandwich ham (should be about 2 mm thick)
1/2 cucumber
1/2 small white or yellow onion
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp mustard
salt/pepper (for taste)

Directions:

Boil the quartered unpeeled potatoes. Meanwhile, cut the cucumber lengthwise and remove the seeds. Cut the cucumber into thin slices and place them in a small bowl. Add one teaspoon salt and mix well. Cut the onion into thin slices and soak them in cold water until you're ready to use them. When the potatoes are done, remove the skins and cut the potatoes lengthwise, then cut them into pieces about 1 inch wide. Wash the cucumber with water and squeeze the water out. Also squeeze the water from the onion. Place the potatoes, cucumber and onion slices, ham, and the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

Om Rice (Omelette Rice)

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I was in the mood for om rice so I just threw it together. I ran out of ketchup so the squiggle is crooked on the second half of the egg above. I only had carrots and onions on hand, but normally I would put some meat and maybe some mushrooms in it. You can add any meat (beef, ground beef, chicken, ham, spam) and veggies (potato, zucchini, peas) you want. Kids love this dish!

Ingredients:

2 tb butter
3 eggs
1 serving rice
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 carrot, diced
2 mushrooms, diced
1/3 cup beef
2 tsp soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste
ketchup

Directions:

Melt 1 tb butter in a pan. Saute meat for a couple of minutes. Add veggies and saute until cooked through. Add rice and soy sauce, mix well. Set aside. Melt butter in pan. Beat three eggs and add salt and pepper to taste. Pour eggs into pan and cook both sides until done. Place egg onto a plate and spoon in rice. Fold over the egg and put ketchup on top. You can also saute the rice in ketchup instead of soy sauce if you prefer. Serve with kimchi.

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Ojinguh Bokeum (Squid Stirfry)

Ingredients

2 squids
1 jalapeno
1 onion
3 green onions
1/2 carrot
1/2 tsp chopped ginger
1 tb sesame oil
1 tb soy sauce
1 tb gochujang (red pepper paste)
1-2 tb gochugaru (red pepper flakes)
1 tb sugar
1 tb garlic

Directions:

Chop the green onion into 3 inch lengths. Chop the onion into 1/4 inch squares. Slice jalapeno. Slice carrot. Chop ginger. Set vegetables aside. Wash squids, remove guts, peel off skin. (I bought pre-cleaned squid so I omitted this step.) Chop the squid into 2 inch strips. Heat the sesame oil in a pan, and add the squid. Saute for 2-3 minutes, then add the vegetables and saute for another 2-3 minutes. Add the remaining spices (soy sauce, gochujang, gochugaru, sugar, garlic) and cook until done.

Optional:

Boil mak gooksoo, and serve on the side. It mixes great with the spices. You can also use udon noodles if you like, but I prefer the gooksoo.

I add ginger it if I have it. I didn't have carrots last night, so I omitted those as well. My cooking style is fast and easy. When I'm tired and hungry, I just use what I have on hand and frequently use substitutions, omissions, etc. Don't worry - it'll still turn out fine.

Oh-ee Neng Gook (Cold Cucumber Soup)

This refreshing side dish is great in the summer. I like to put in a whole tray of ice - the colder the better! I don't know how to make mool kimchi (water kimchi), so this is a quick and easy substitute.

Ingredients:

2-3 cucumbers
1 jalapeno (I like it spicy)
1 green onion
2 tablespoons gook ganjang (soup soy sauce)
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 teaspoons gochugaru (red pepper flakes)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3 cups water
ice cubes

Optional:

minari or miyuk (seaweed)

Directions:

Slice the cucumbers in half and then into thin strips. Chop the green onion and jalapeno into small pieces. Put all veggies in a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and allow to marinate for about 5-10 minutes. Add water and ice. Taste and add more soy sauce if it isn't salty enough. Miyuk is often added to this dish, but I never use it. I tossed in some minari in here, but it's not for everyone - it has a very strong taste. Enjoy!