Fruit and Nut Rice Balls 잡과편 Japgwapyon

So it has been a hell of a long time since I have posted a recipe on this blog, and I'm really sorry. But life has been busy, I've had to work, finalise some things for uni and the main reason would be because I was going away for a couple of days and needed to organise all of that. But I'm back now and I'm going to try and post as much as I can.

Maybe I should have a week of blogging like I used to do. Should I do that?

I should probably do it, I'll start with TODAY!!!!

I guess that this blog post will mark my return to food blogging because I honestly think that it has been a month since I have lost blogged, and I hope that no one thinks that I have stopped, I've just been way to lazy.

So today I was thinking of posting a recipe for something sweet, as a lead up to Valentines day. This week might turn out to be a week of desserts......

Anyways, today's recipe is going to be a Korean dessert that is made from glutinous rice flour, fruits and nuts. Japgwapyon or 잡과편 is something small that can be brought out to the table when guests arrive, they look great and taste amazing. And it will be sure to impress your Valentine if it is wrapped up nicely in a box.

And this year it is the perfect time to make these because the Lunar new year and Valentines day are so close together.

I think that the intro has been long enough, let's get started with the recipe:

Ingredients
2 cups glutinous rice flour
2 dried persimmons
10 chestnuts, boiled and peeled
4 dates
4 Tbsp pine nuts, chopped roughly
3 Tbsp honey
1 tsp salt

Method
1. Dice the chestnuts.
2. Cut or scrape the seeds from the dried persimmons and dates.
3. Finely chop the persimmons and dates.
4. Pound the seeds with a pestle (in a mortar).
5. Mix the seeds with the chopped persimmons, dates, chestnuts and pine nuts.
6. In a mixing bowl, add the salt and about 3/4 of a cup of water to the rice flour.
7. Add a few more tablespoons of water if it seems too dry.
8. Knead dough into 1 inch rounds.
9. In a medium pot, boil the rounds and then rinse in cold water. When they float, the rice cakes are done.
10. Dip the rice cakes in honey and roll them in the mixture of fruit and nuts.

And there you have it, a VERY easy and quick dessert that you can use all year around to impress people with.

I wish all my reader a Happy Lunar New Year!!!!

I hope that you all have a prosperous year of the snake and that all your dreams and wishes may be fulfilled. But most important of all remember to stay happy, healthy and safe.

I shall blog again tomorrow but remember, that there is no reason why you cannot cook something awesome everyday of the year.

Rice Cake Soup Tteokguk 떡국

Hey guys, so there are only two days until the 2012 Lunar New Year. I know that there are a lot of dishes that are prepared for this event, but there is one that everyone know about and is a definite must at this event. Rice Cake Soup or tteokguk 떡국.

This is something that can not be left out of the celebrations because it is believed to grant the consumer luck for the forthcoming year and gain an additional year of life. It is usually garnished with thin julienned cooked eggs, marinated meat, and gim (dried seaweed or laver)

The history of the dish is actually quite unknown. However, tteokguk is mentioned in the 19th century book of customs Dongguksesigi (동국세시기, 東國歲時記) as being made with beef or pheasant used as the main ingredient for the broth, and pepper added as seasoning. The book also mentions the custom of having a bowl of tteokguk in the morning of New Year's Day to get a year older, and the custom of saying "How many bowls of tteokguk have you eaten?" to ask a person's age.

In the book The Customs of Joseon written in 1946 by historian Choe Nam-seon, the New Year custom of eating tteokguk is speculated as being originated from ancient times. The white tteok signifying purity and cleanliness would be eaten as a ritual to start off the New Year for good fortune.

Although tteokguk is traditionally a seasonal dish, it is now eaten at all times of the year.

The broth is generally made by simmering the main protein (beef, chicken, pork, seafood) in a soy sauce-based seasoned stock. The stock is then strained to clarify the broth and long cylinder-shaped rice cakes (garaetteok) are thinly sliced diagonally and boiled in the broth. Garnish is added before serving and it may vary by region and personal taste.

Varieties of tteokguk include: saeng tteokguk (생떡국) or nal tteokguk (날떡국), a specialty of Chungcheong province, where a mixture of non-glutinous rice with glutinous rice is made into small balls or rolled into a garaetteok shape and then sliced into a boiling broth; joraengi tteokguk (조랭이 떡국) from the Kaesong region with the tteok twisted in small cocoon shapes; and gon tteokguk (곤떡국) from the island of Jeju, which uses sliced jeolpyeon tteok rather than the usual garaetteok.

Another variety, tteokmanduguk is literally tteokguk with additional mandu.

I think that is enough about the history of tteokguk and its other varieties. It is time to introduce you to the dish that you will be making is two days time.

Ingredients
300g Diagonally sliced rice cake
100g Beef brisket
1 clove Garlic
2tbs Fish sauce
3 Eggs
1 sheet Laver (dried seaweed)
Green onion
Sesame oil
Black ground pepper

Method
1. Boil 8 cups of water in a pot.
2. Soak sliced rice cake in cold water.
3. Chop beef brisket into small pieces.
4. Prepare 3 eggs in 2 small bowls:
5. In the first bowl, put 2 egg yolk;
6. In the second bowl, put 2 egg white and 1 egg;
8. Add a pinch of salt to each bowl and mix well.
Cooking the Egg
9. Heat up a non-stick pan. Let it get really hot. Add a few drops of vegetable oil, and wipe off the excess hot oil with a paper towel.
10. Turn the heat off. Pour the egg yolk mixture from “bowl 1″ above into the pan and spread it thinly. You want to make a thin yellow paper out of the egg by tilting the pan.
11. When it’s almost cooked through, turn it over and let it sit on the pan to cook the other side.
12. Slice it thinly and set it aside.
Laver Powder
13. Roast a sheet of laver (kim) directly on the stove top. Both sides of the laver should be roasted so that it can be crushed easily.
14. Put the roasted laver into a plastic bag and crush it! Then set it aside.
Finishing off the Soup
15. When the water boils, put in the beef. Boil over low medium heat for 20-30 minutes.
16. Open the lid and add minced garlic and fish sauce.
*tip: the water will boil off but you want to keep it at 6 cups. You can add more water as you need it.
17. Drain the rice cake slices and put them into boiling beef soup. Close the lid.
18. A few minutes later, open the lid to check if rice cake slices are floating on the surface. You can taste a sample now.
19. Pour in the egg mix from “bowl 2″ above, a little at a time.
*tip: Don’t stir it until the egg mixture is cooked a little in the broth
20. Chop some green onion and add it to the pot.
21. Turn off the heat and drizzle some sesame oil and grind a little black pepper.
22. Transfer the rice cake soup to serving bowls. Garnish with the roasted laver powder and the thin egg yolk strips.
Serve hot.





And there you have it, a delicious dish to welcome the New Year and something that you can make on a cold and drizzly day.

That is it for my post today, but I wish you all a Happy Lunar New Year, and I pray that you will all be healthy and safe in 2012. May all your dreams come true and that you will all continue to support my blog as I will continue to come up with recipes.

Happy Lunar New Year!! 새해 복 많이 받으세요!! *BIG bow*