Beef and Kimchi Pepper Rice | almost Pepper Lunch|

Hey guys, I finished all of my exams yesterday and I am back from a day of shopping to bring you a new blog post. I hope that you guys will enjoy this, and I really loved the idea of sharing this because I had something similar at lunch.

The inspiration for today's recipe comes from today's lunch which was at Pepper Lunch. They are really awesome and you should check out one of their stores if there is one near you. I don't work for them and this recipe is based solely on my own experience and ideas.

So the main idea that is reoccurring in all the dishes from the store is that there will be raw meat and rice that is brought out on a hot plate so you have to 'cook' it yourself. It is practically do it yourself teppanyaki.

And now to my version of this dish... I don't know if this will work because I can't try it out at home (no hot plates.... :( ) If you have tried this please do comment below and tell me how it went and whether I should change anything.

Ingredients
200g of beef skirt sliced thinly (any lean cut will do)
1/4 can of corn kernels
1/2 tsp of crushed pepper (not ground)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cooking oil
1 tsp butter
2 tsp chopped spring onions
1 cup cooked rice

Method
1.  Make sure that the beef is entirely thawed and sprinkle salt and mix.
2.  Oil a hot plate and heat it until there is smoke
3.  Put the rice in the middle of the plate while still hot.
4. Turn off the heat and scatter the meat around the rice forming a ring around the rice.
5. Top the rice with the butter (this is the key to a tasty meal)
6. Then top with the corn, pepper and spring onions.
7. Serve immediately

NOTE: 
- I know you want to eat it but please do be careful because it is VERY hot at the beginning. And don't forget to hurry up and mix the dish up because the meat will burn and stick.
- I think that if you don't have a hot plate you could try and use a wide bottom Korean stone pot, like one used for dolseotbap. It should be able to work the same.

And there you have it, my take on the popular pepper rice dish.

AND if you want to try it with kimchi then cut up 1/2 cup of kimchi and put it on top of the rice after the corn.

(all images are taken by me) 
And there you have it, a at home version of the popular Pepper Rice dish.

I hope that you enjoyed the post because I certainly had fun writing it as my first post after I finished my exams.

Hopefully you guys will stay healthy, happy and safe until my next post.

Traditional Ginger Cookies 매작과 Maejakgwa

Hey guys, I'm sorry that I didn't post again on Sunday. I couldn't find the time to :(

But I'm back today ant I also have some news that I want to share with you guys. But first of all I will get into the recipe.

So today I thought that I would have a post on a Korean dessert because it seems that it has been a while since I last posted a Korean dessert. So today the dessert that I am going to be introducing you to is called ginger cookies or 매작과(maejakgwa)

The cookies are a traditional Korean cookie that’s really popular. It is a variety of hahngwa, or Korean traditional confection, consisting of wheat flour, vegetable oil, cinnamon, ginger juice, jocheong, and pine nuts. It is also categorized as a form of yumilgwa. You may remember that I have also posted recipes for other traditional Korean desserts that are in the same category. You can find it here: Yugwa

The ingredients are very simple yet the flavour that you get in the end is AMAZING. The best thing about this cookie is that it’s very crunchy! So without any more talking let's get into the recipe:

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon gingerjuice
2 tablespoons pine nuts
1/2 cup water
cinnamon powder
vegetable oil

Method
1. In a large stainless steel bowl place the flour, salt, sugar, ginger juice and water and knead it for 20 minutes. OR you can use a food processor for about 2 minutes.
2.Put the cookie dough in a plastic bag and set it aside at least for 30 minutes.
3. Chop pine nuts to garnish the cookies. Set aside.
4. Take the dough out from the plastic bag and roll it out with a rolling pin, into a roughly rectangular shape (about 50 cm x 40 cm, and 2 mm – or 1/16 inch - thick).
5. Cut sheets of cookie dough into 2cm x 6cm rectangles
6. Put the leftover dough edges into a plastic bag to protect them from drying out.
7. Make 3 slits in the middle of each piece of dough.
8. Push one end of the dough through the centre slit to make a ribbon shape
9. Take the leftover dough out and spread it on the cutting board with the rolling pin. Cut it into any of your favorite shapes: triangles, squares, whatever – or use a cookie cutter.
10. Heat up vegetable oil in a wok or frying pan. *tip: Put a sample of the cookie dough into the heated oil to check if it’s the right temperature. The dough should float slowly on the surface of the heated oil.

For the syrup -->
1. Place ½ cup sugar and ½ cup water into a pot and bring to a boil over low heat for about 20 minutes. About half of the water should evaporate, so the syrup is nice and thick.
2. Turn the heat off and add 1 ts cinnamon powder and stir it well.
3. Gently toss the cookies with the syrup to lightly coat them.
4. Sprinkle with chopped pine nuts whist the syrup hasn't set.

And there you have it, a crunchy traditional Korean dessert that you can serve any time. When you have guests over or even when you feel peckish.

I hope that you guys enjoyed that recipe, because I really do absolutely LOVE it.

And now to the news that I had to share with you guys. Because I will be finished with exams after early next week I have decided that I will start a YouTube channel where I can also post up videos of the recipes that I post on this blog. I probably won't get started cooking until a few weeks later, I have't even decided on a name for the channel just yet. But When I do have it all up and running I will put a link to it all here on this blog. 

So that is it from me today. I don't think I will be posting again till the weekend after my exam on Friday. I hope that is ok with you guys. And until then please remember to stay safe, healthy and most important of all happy :)

Sweet Potato Twigim 고구마 튀김 Goguma Twigim

Hey guys, so it has been a really LONG time since I last posted up a recipe. But I have been having my MAJOR exams, and my last exams ever for high school for the past couple of weeks so I've been studying  I'm currently on a one week break from exams so I though that I might post up a couple of recipes this week. Maybe two or three.

I thought that I would keep it simple since it is my first post in a a while.

Sweet potato twigim or 고구마 튀김 (Goguma Twigim) is fried sweet potato pieces. Very much the sweet potato version of chips or fries.

Twigim is just batter-dipped items that include various vegetables, meat, seafood and kimbap - just about anything that with have batter stick to. It is the same concept as tempura, expect Korean.

The recipe is extremely easy to follow and in the end you get fluffy sweet potato encased in a crisp batter. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients 
1 lb Korean Sweet Potato
⅔ Cup Frying Mix (Batter)
½ Cup Water
¼ Cup Frying Mix (Coating)
3 Tbsp Potato Starch (or Cornstarch)
1 tsp Sugar (Optional)
⅛ Generous tsp Salt 

Method
1. Wash the sweet potato and remove any bad parts on the skin. Cut it into ¼-inch slices. You will get about 25 pieces. Korean sweet potatoes have a different taste and texture than American sweet potatoes. They are sweeter and have a firm texture. So please use Korean sweet potatoes for this recipe.
 2. Sprinkle salt evenly on top of the sweet potato slices. Set them aside what you are preparing the batter. This will help boost the sweetness of sweet potato later. Preheat your oil on medium-high.
3. Combine frying mix, cold (or ice) water, potato starch, and sugar. Mix everything together. Cold water is one of the secrets for getting crispy food. You can skip the sugar if you want.
4. Put frying mix in a plastic bag and add the sweet potatoes. Shake the bag to coat the sweet potatoes with the frying mix. This will help the batter stick to the sweet potatoes better.
5. Dip the floured sweet potatoes into the batter. Cover both side of the sweet potatoes with the batter.
6. Drop a little bit of batter into the heated oil to check if the oil is hot enough. When the batter floats right away, the oil is ready. Put the battered sweet potatoes into the hot oil. Deep-fry them on medium or medium-high, depending on your stove’s power.
7. Fry them for 5-6 minutes, or until the sweet potato slices are completely cooked, and the outside is golden brown. The easy way to check if a slice is cooked is to poke the center of it with a folk or chopstick. If your chopstick go through smoothly, it is done.
8. Place some paper towels on a tray and put the fried sweet potato slices there to cool and loose some of the grease.

And there you have it, super simple sweet potato twigim that will be ready in minutes. The fluffy centre and crisp coating is perfect to eat right now in the Autumn and Spring weather.

I hope that you guys liked that recipe, and I will try to post again on the weekend. Until then please stay healthy, safe and happy!!

Heart Egg Omelette 하트 계란말이 Heart Gyeran Mari

Hey...so I've been studying or trying to study for the past however long so I haven't been able to post a recipe yet. But here I am today. This will probably be the last time I will post in a month because my exams start in a week. Eeeekkkk

Because I have exams I am going to go with a quick but still delicious recipe. If you like Korean food you will know about their doshirak boxes (packed lunch). The dish today is usually used as a component of these lunches. Gyeran Mari (계란말이) rolled omelette, and is typically round and taste like a fried flat egg. But today I will be including vegetables in the mix, and I will also show you a quick and easy way to shape the eggs into a heart shape. This is a super easy dish to make, and kids will LOVE it.

This is super quick and easy to make, so let's get started:

Ingredients

4 Large Eggs

1 Tbsp Green Onion

½ Tbsp Carrot

¼ tsp Salt Some

Oil

Method 

1. Break eggs and stir them gently. For interesting yellow and white color swirls, do not completely mix the whites and yokes together.

2. Set aside 2-3 Tbsp of the egg mixture to be used later.

3. Finely chop green onion and carrot. This gives the dish colour.

4. Add salt into the egg mixture and mix well.

5. Add some oil in a small bowl or plate. Fold a small piece of a paper towel, and soak it in the oil.

6. Use the towel to lightly grease the pan. Cook on medium heat.

7. Drop a little bit of the egg mixture into the heated pan; if it starts to cook, the temperature for the pan is right.

8. Pour about ¼ of the egg mixture into an 8-inch pan.

9. When the surface of the egg starts to cook, begin to fold it about one inch.

10. Continue to fold it. You can use either chopsticks or a spatula.

11. Push it to the other end of the pan and add some more oil in the pan.

12. Pour the same amount of egg mixture into the pan. Fry and fold it the same way.

13. Repeat the process for the remaining egg mixture in two steps.

14. Cool it for about 1 minute before you cut it. This helps the egg keep its shape when you cut it.

15. Cut the fried egg into a half-inch thickness. And there you have it, perfectly cooked egg omelette.

And now for the heart shaped eggs:

1. Cut the egg across diagonally

2. Put the diagonal sides together and you will form a heart shape.

3. To seal the shape dip the omelette into the reserved egg mixture and cook both sides.

And there you go, a simple and cute way to serve eggs to the kids and for yourself to enjoy. I hope that you guys enjoyed that post because it has been a VERY long time since I posted and I felt bad, but exams are seriously my priority right now. But I promise that when I come back in a month I will be posting so much that you will want me to stop for a bit.

So to everyone out there, I hope that you will all stay healthy, happy and safe and wait till I post again. To anyone else with exams the best of luck to you, and remember to keep a healthy diet!!

Korean Fried Chicken 양념 통닭 Yangnyeom tongdak

So, like I promised yesterday here is another recipe today. Yesterday we had pork, so today I will be introducing you to a dish with chicken. You all know the standard friend chicken we get in Western countries right? Well the answer is KFC. Well today I will be posting about Korean Fried chicken.

Yangnyeom tongdak (양념 통닭)is a popular dish especially around the time of sporting tournaments, much like KFC. But this chicken is flavoured to suit Korean tastes by being slightly spicy. Today I will be showing you how to have it plain or seasoned, but both as still delicious. The chicken in this recipe is nicely battered and fried with a slightly sweet and spicy sauce. And now to the recipe:

Ingredients
Main Ingredients
1 kg Chicken (About ½ Chicken)
⅛ Cup Milk
¼ tsp Salt
⅛ tsp Black Pepper
1 Pinch Ginger Powder (Optional)
Batter Ingredients
¼ Cup Potato Starch or Cornstarch
¼ Cup Frying Mix or Flour
½ Tbsp Korean Curry Powder
2 Pinches Salt
2 Pinches Black Pepper
Sauce Ingredients
¼ Cup Ketchup
3 Tbsp Red Pepper Paste
2 Tbsp Corn Syrup
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 Tbsp Minced Onion
½ Tbsp Soy Sauce
½ Tbsp Minced Garlic
½ Tbsp Cooking Oil
1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds

Method
1. Combine chicken, milk, salt, black pepper and ginger powder in a bowl. Marinate it for about 10 minutes. This step (especially the milk) helps to reduce some of the bad chicken flavor.
2. If you don’t want to use milk to get rid of bad chicken flavor, here is another way to marinate the chicken; mix the chicken with 1 tsp of minced garlic, ¼ tsp of salt, ⅛ tsp of black pepper, and 1 pinch of ginger powder (optional). Add 2 Tbsp of water or cooking wine for some moisture.
3. To coat the chicken, mix the batter ingredients in a large bag. Shake the bag to mix everything together.
4. Add all of the marinated chicken to the flour mix and shake the bag: so the chicken will be evenly covered with the powder.
5. Take out the chicken from the bag and set the pieces aside while the oil is heating. You will have some leftover flour mixture in the bag; save it for later.
6. Pour the cooking oil in a deep frying pan and heat it on high.
7. By the time, the oil becomes hot, the flour coating of the chicken will be soggy. Coat each piece of chicken again with the remaining flour mixture right before frying.
8. Drop a little piece of the flour mixture to the heated oil, if it floats immediately, the oil is hot enough to fry the chicken. Carefully put the chicken into the oil.
9. Fry the chicken on high for several minutes (8 to 10 minutes) until the pieces become light brown. We will fry them twice, so you don’t have to fry them too long in this step. Take out the chicken, drain the oil, and set the pieces on a kitchen towel.
10. For the second frying, fry the chicken in hot oil again for several minutes (5 minutes) until they become golden brown. This time, make sure that the chicken is completely cooked. You can take out one piece and cut it in half with a knife to check if it is cooked.
11. Meanwhile, add all of the sauce ingredients together in a pan, except for the sesame seeds and cook it on medium.
12. Once the sauce starts to bubble, cook it for one more minute. The sauce amount is enough for only half of the chicken, so mix in half of the fried chicken into the sauce. Turn off the heat and cover the chicken with the sauce. If you want to season all of the chicken, double the sauce recipe.
13. Lastly, sprinkle 1 Tbsp of sesame seeds on top and mix.

And there you have it a recipe for seasoned and not seasoned Korean fried chicken that is delicious however you decide to eat it.





I hope that you will enjoy that dish because it is pretty much fusion food. The Korean take on Western food.

I can't promise when the next time I blog will be because I have got major exams in a month and they go for about a month. The next two months may be a bit quite, but I will try my best to keep on posting when I find the time.

So until next time, be happy, safe and healthy everyone!!!!

Pork Kimchi Jjigae 돼지고기 김치찌개 Dweji Gogi Kimchi Jjigae

It has been a LONG time since I have last blogged here. At least I think that it has been a while. A lot has been happening lately, I'm going to graduate in a week and in a month I have my uni entrance exams. Life is getting hectic but fum fun right now so I'm sorry for not posting in a while.

To make up for the lack of posts recently I will post a recipe today and tomorrow. So today I'm going yo start off with a simple but amazing Korean dish called Pork Kimchi Jjigae 돼지고기 김치찌개 (Dweji Gogi Kimchi Jjigae), you much remember the tuna one that I talked about before and even before that the one with tofu. Well if you don't...go and check them out.

Pork kimchi jjiage is the most popular kind of kimchi soup in Korea. The well-fermented kimchi, tender pork, and savory broth taste very delicious together, and is perfect for eating with rice as the temperature continues to drop as Autumn moves into winter.

Because I have posted about kimchi jjigae before, I will move on to the recipe.

Ingredients
2 Generous Cups Well Fermented Kimchi
2 Cups Water
½ Pack Tofu
¼ Cup Kimchi Broth
½ Cup Green Onions
⅛ Cup Red Hot Pepper (Optional)
1 Tbsp Hot Pepper Powder
½ Tbsp Sesame Oil
½ Tbsp Cooking Oil
1 tsp Garlic, Minced
¼ tsp Salt
1 Cup Pork
1 tsp Garlic, Minced
1 tsp Cooking Wine (Optional)
2 Pinches Salt
2 Pinches Black Pepper

Method
1. Chop 1 cup of pork it into bite-sized pieces.
2. Combine all the ingredients for the pork together - minced garlic, cooking wine, salt and black pepper. Marinate for about 10 minutes while you are preparing the other ingredients.
3. Obtain about 2 cups of well-fermented kimchi and chop it into 1cm pieces. It is important to use good kimchi for delicious kimchi soup.
4. Slice ½ pack of tofu into 1cm slices. Cut ½ cup worth of green onions into 1cm lengths. Cut ⅛ cup worth of red hot pepper thinly. If you do not want very spicy soup, skip the hot peppers.
5. Obtain ¼ cup of kimchi broth. Kimchi broth is the liquid from your jar of kimchi. If you do not have enough kimchi juice, add more kimchi, hot pepper powder, and water for this recipe.
6. Fry the marinated pork with ½ Tbsp of sesame oil in a heated pan on medium-high for about 3 minutes.
7. About 3 minutes later, the pork will lose its pink color. Then add the chopped kimchi, 1 Tbsp of hot pepper powder, and ½ Tbsp of cooking oil. Fry for another 3 minutes on medium-high.
8. Add 2 cups of water and ¼ cup of kimchi broth. Once it starts to boil, add 1 tsp of minced garlic and ¼ tsp of salt. Depending on the saltiness of your kimchi, adjust the salt amount for this recipe. Cook covered for about 10 minutes on medium-high.
9. Place the sliced tofu on top of the kimchi and cook covered for another 5 minutes. Occasionally pour some of the soup over the tofu so that the tofu will be flavored.
10. Add the chopped green onions and hot peppers. Cook covered for 2 minutes and then turn off the heat.

And there you have it, a delicious savory pork kimchi jjigae to serve with your rice.





I hope that you liked that recipe, because I absolutely do. It is perfect for the weather now which is not too cold but not too hot.

This will be all from me today, but like I said before I will be posting another recipe tomorrow. Look forward to it. And until next time, stay warm, healthy and happy.

Job's Tears Yulmu 율무

Hey guys, so it seems to have been a while since I last posted a recipe hasn't it? Well I only have 3 weeks for school left before I graduate and then there are exams that I really need to study for. So I am sorry for the lack of posts ><

Anyways, today I have an interesting recipe that I want to share with you guys. The recipe if for a drink. This drink is quite unique and peculiar, especially it's English name. The drink is called Job's Tears or Yulmu (율무).

Known as “Job’s tears” in English, the grain is contained within a hard, tear-shaped shell about the size of a pea (hence the name). The shells arethe size of beads and were good for making jewelry and bracelets, including rosary beads. It was in the monasteries of southern Europe where the rosary beads made from this plant came to be known as “Job’s tears.”

In Korea, they use the dried grains from the plant to make a thick tea known as yulmu cha (율무 차) or Job’s Tears tea.

There isn't much that I can say about the drink because it is mainly just a powdered drink that can be mixed with water produce a creamy grain drink.

Ingredients
2-3 tbsp of Job's Tears (yulmu 율무)
2 cups of water
pine nuts for garnish

Method
1. Wash and drain/dry a handful of kernels.
2. Brown on medium heat, stirring frequently for about 20 min; when it starts giving a pop sound, it's done.
3. Grind the grain in the food processor.
4. Put 2 cups of water into a saucepan and add 2 tbsps of the powdered Job's Tears. 5. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 30 minutes.
6. You can add milk/honey to taste and pine nuts to garnish.

And there you have it, a healthy drink that you can indulge in on a cold day, or after you finish cooking it let it cool and serve it cold.

And sorry that I don't have photos today, but I can't fins any to my liking. Sorry xD
Anyways, until the next time that I post I hope that you all keep safe, happy and healthy.