Kimchi Fried Rice 김치볶음밥

Another recipe today :D I told you that I would be back more because I'm on holidays at the moment.

Mmm....today I have decided that I will blog about kimchi fried rice or kimchi bokkeumbop (김치볶음밥)You might be thinking "kimchi fried rice? how does that work?" Am I right? Well it was made by housewives who did not want to waste the bits of kimchi left and, you still get the spiciness with delicious fried rice.

Kimchi Bokumbop is a popular restaurant or home prepared dish that is very simple but yet delicious in taste. It can consist of various choices in meat and chopped kimchi, which is then sautéed together along with other vegetables such as onions, garlic and green onions. A dash or more of soy sauce as well as sesame oil are added for seasoning, in addition to kimchi "juice” leftover in the jar. Lastly, an egg is cooked sunny side up and placed on top of this rice dish for taste as well as for decoration.

Usually at home, it's a way to use up kimchi before it gets too ripe to eat, in which case, it can also be used to prepare kimchi chigae. In Korean, bokum means sautéed or fried and bop translates into steamed rice. So essentially, kimchi bokumbop is fried rice with kimchi, and yes, all those stories about Asian restaurants - today's leftover rice is tomorrow's fried rice - is true and totally applies here. There can be infinite variations of this bokumbop dish where beef can be substituted with little bits of galbi, bacon, spam, or even tofu.

Anyways, now that you have got the background, I'll give you guys the recipe too. It really is a simple recipe.

Ingredients
2 cups cooked rice
½ cup kimchi with liquid
½ cup minced pork or ground beef
2 roots green onion
1 tbsp soy sauce
¼ onion
1 clove garlic
1 egg
Vegetable or olive oil
Salt & pepper

COOKING DIRECTIONS
1. Cook rice as directed in a rice cooker or in a pot.
2. Chop kimchi into small pieces. Save kimchi liquid to add to rice, if desired.
3. Dice and mince green onions, onions, and garlic.
4. Season the minced pork or beef with soy sauce, minced garlic and powdered pepper.
5. Sauté the pork (or other substitutes) with vegetable or olive oil in frying pan.
6. When the pork is cooked, add chopped onions, kimchi and cook for 5 minutes.
7. Add minced garlic and green onion. Cook a little more and turn off the heat.
8. Add cooked rice and mix all ingredients well.
9. Add 1-2 tbsp of sesame oil and re-heat again.
10. Add salt and pepper to meet taste.
11. Cook egg sunny side up
12. Put rice on a dish and place a fried egg sunny side up on top.


And there you have it, a delicious lunch or dinner that is simple to make and sure to tickle your taste buds.

Anyways, that is all from me today. I'll try and come back with another recipe in a couple of days. ^^

Pajeon 파전

It is raining today so I was thinking of introducing you guys to dish that is perfect to eat on a rainy day. This is a food that is liked by many Koreans on rainy days, they would often enjoy this with beer or mokkolli. Now it is not like that I can really endorse drinking because I'm not even of the legal age yet...

Anyways, back to the dish. Pajeon is a traditional Korean-style pancake which is a very popular appetiser or snack. It is made with flour batter, eggs, and green onions/scallions, served with a mixture of soy sauce & vinegar for dipping. In translation, jeon (pronounced jun) is the actual battered ingredients and pa means scallions in Korean. The basic type of this dish consists of just scallions along with flour and eggs but endless variation of this dish can exists by simply adding other ingredients such as seafood, kimchi, or vegetables.

To cook, the batter is poured into an oiled pan and fried to a golden crisp on a frying pan. Just like a pancake and one of the key to this dish is the egg which contributed to the crispness in texture. The most popular pajeon dish is the seafood hae-mul pajeon (해물파전), which usually consists of little bits of oysters, fresh baby clams, shrimps and even squids.

Another variety is dongnae pajeon (동내파전) is named after Dongnaesung , a former fortress in the Joseon Dynasty and now a district in the city of Busan. Dongnae was a prominent battleground during the Imjin War and legend says the people of Dongrae threw green onions while defeating the invading Japanese soldiers. Dongnae pajeon was made in honor of the victory.

The dish was also presented at the king's table and became popular when the Dongnae market flourished in the Joseon era. Dongnae pajeon is usually made from a batter of rice flour, glutinous rice flour, eggs, and gochujang. Soft spring onions, beef, clams, mussels, oysters, shrimp and other seafood are also added.

The dish itself is quite simple, is like Japanese dish okonomiyaki. OR you can look at it as a savoury pancake with some filling added to the batter. Thinking if it like that means that the pajeon batter is just normal pancake batter with some vegetable mixed in.

Now for the recipe to haemul pajeon(해물파전)

RECIPE INGREDIENTS: DIPPING SAUCE
¼ cup soy sauce
½ tbsp vinegar (distilled white)
1 stalk scallion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
½ tsp Korean dried hot chili pepper flakes (optional)
½ tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil

RECIPE INGREDIENTS
2 cups flour (all purpose)
2 cups water
2 eggs
1 bunch scallions
Vegetable oil
Salt & pepper to taste
To make Hae-Mul Pajeon also add:
1 cup oysters
1 cup chopped clams, fresh
1 cup baby shrimps

COOKING DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large bowl, mix flours, water and egg till smooth. Add more flour or water if needed to get the consistency of a thin pancake batter.
2. Stir in half the chopped scallions and season with salt and pepper. Let set for about 10-15 minutes.
3. Heat a pan over medium flame and a little oil.
4. Pour about ¾ cup batter into the skillet, tilting the pan to cover the bottom.
5. Sprinkle over a few of the scallions and let cook for 6-8 minutes until the bottom is lightly browned.
6. For Hae-Mul Pajeon (seafood & scallion pancake): Sprinkle about ¼ cup of clams, oysters, chopped squid, shrimp or other seafood over the batter as you make each pancake.
7. Flip and brown the other side and cook for another 6-8 minutes. Make sure all surfaces contact the skillet with a spatula.
8. Wipe the skillet with the oily paper towel and repeat with the rest of the batter.
9. When ready to serve, cut the pancake into 8 pieces resembling a pizza pie.
10. For its dipping sauce, mix the sauce ingredients together.
Serve pancakes warm.

Doesn't that look delicious? Have a try of it on a rainy day...I'm thinking of having it for lunch myself today.

I'm on holidays at the moment so for two weeks I hope that I can introduce you to more and more Korean recipes.

Mandu 만두

Kekeke, as I said yesterday here is another blog post today. I'm relishing the amount of free time I have at the moment after exams. Anyways...I've been thinking about what to blog about today and I figured that it was about time that I had introduced a staple in Korean Cuisine. Mandus (만두) , if you like or enjoy Chinese food then you are likely to have encountered the Chinese equivalent of this before, dumplings.

Now for a bit of a history lesson: Mandu (만두) are believed to have been first brought to Korea by Mongolians in the 14th century during the Goryeo Dynasty. The state religion of Goryeo was Buddhism, which discouraged consumption of meat. Mongolian invasion of Goryeo relaxed the religious prohibition against consuming meat, and mandu was among the newly imported Mongolian dishes that included meat.

Another possibility is that mandu (만두) came to Korea at a much earlier period from the Middle East through the Silk Road. Historians point out many cuisines based on wheat, such as dumplings and noodles originated from Mesopotamia and gradually spread from there. It also spread east along the Silk Road, leaving many versions of mandu throughout Central and East Asia.

But it doesn't really matter how you look at the history, all you need to know is that these things are delicious. They can be eaten a number of different ways, they can be boiled, steamed or fried. They are really versatile and the fillings are up to you, there are probably 100 different ways to eat them. This is also a popular street food that is eaten by Koreans in winter.

I'm going to show you how to make a simple mandu with a pork and beef filling. The recipe is a bit long and it is split into parts, but I'm going to tell you a short cut at the end of it. OK? Let's go

Ingredients:

1 cup of ground pork
2 cups of ground beef
2 cups of chopped boo chu (Asian chives)
4-5 soaked Shiitake mushrooms
half onion
half package of tofu
3 cloves of minced garlic
salt
sugar
sesame oil
vegetable oil
fish sauce
egg
green onion
mandu skins (60 discs) <-- dumpling skins from the Asian grocer will go

Make filling:

1. Place 1 cup of ground pork and 2 cups of ground beef into a big bowl.
2. Add 1 ts of salt, 1 tbs of sesame oil, ½ ts of ground pepper and mix it by hand and push the mixture of meat on the side of the bowl.
3. Wash asian chives (bu chu), dry well with paper towel or cotton cloth and then chop them to make 2 cups. Add 1 tbs of oil and mix it up. Place it in the big bowl next to the ground meat.
tip: oil will coat vegetables so that liquid would not come out from it
4. Chop 4-5 soaked shiitake mushrooms and half an onion and put it into a small bowl.
5. Add 1 ts of soy sauce, 1 ts of sugar, and 2 ts of sesame oil the small bowl in the last step. Mix it by hand and then transfer it to the big bowl.
6. Squeeze half a package of tofu using cotton cloth or paper towel and put it into a small bowl. Then add a pinch of salt, 1 ts of sesame oil and mix it and put it next to chopped chives.
7. In the big bowl, add 3 cloves of minced garlic and mix all ingredients by hand.

Make Mandu:

1. Place one mandu skin on your left hand and put some filling mixture on the center of the skin.
2. On the half of the edge of the skin, put a little cold water with your fingertips.
3. Fold skin in half over filling and press edges together to make ripple shape.


To Fry
1. Place some vegetable oil on heated pan and add mandu.
2. Lower the heat over low medium and cover the lid of the pan to cook.
3. A few minutes later, open the lid and turn over each mandu. Place 2-3 tbs of water and cover the lid. Cook a few minutes more over low heat.
4. When the mandu is golden brown, transfer it to a plate.
5. Serve hot with dipping sauce (equal parts vinegar and soy sauce).

To Steam

1. Place the mandu in the freezer to harden for an hour or so.

2. Just place a steamer or metal colander over a boiling pot of water.

3. When water starts to boil, place frozen mandu like so. Don't overlap them. They'll stick to each other.

4. Cook about 5-8minutes or until the wrapper has turned a more transparent colour. Tip: If you are unsure you can check the inside and see if the meat is cooked.

5. Serve with soy sauce.

To Boil

1. Bring to the boil a pot of water, enough for the number of mandus you are cooking

2. Carefully place the mandu's in so that you do not scold yourself

3. Cook till the mandu's rise to the surface of the water.

4. Scoop out and serve with soy sauce.

And there you have it, three different ways to eat the same thing. As I had said before to make the dish is actually a bit tedious and long. The cheats way is that you can always go and but frozen mandu from the grocer and just cook them yourself, but isn't it nicer too eat food that you have made by hand?

Anyways, maybe spend this week making a supply of mandu and I'll be back with another recipe next week ^^

Sundae Bokkeum 순대볶음

I'm bacccccckkkkk :D:D

So happy that exams are over and that I get to return to blogging about the things I love, food and especially Korean food. Gosh, there has been so much that I wanted to blog about in the past month but I couldn't blog because I had to study...Now I can blog as much as I like.

Hmm, for my first dish since returning to blogging...I'm going to teach you guys how to cook Sundae Bokkeum 순대볶음.

Sundae Bokkeum is a Korean Noodle dish. It makes use of the famous korean sausage ( Korean dish made generally by boiling or steaming cow or pig's intestines that are stuffed with various ingredients)and serves it with sweet potato noodles known as dangmun in a spicy sauce.It is usually a stir fry of the sundae, noodles, vegetables and gochujang. You may substitute for other noodles if you are unable to get hold of this type, such as starch noodle, but you should be able to fine it in an asian market.

You may have trouble finding sundae because it is a korean food that may not been exported, but if you really can't fine it then I guess a similar type of blood sausage will be ok, but try to stick to the original.

Anyways, for the recipe.

Ingredients
500g of Korean Sundae
1/4 Cabbage
1 Carrot
1 handful of sweet potato noodles

1 handful of rice cakes
1 tablespoon of gochujang
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon of red pepper powder
1 tablespoon of sugar

Method
1. Begin the dish by boiling the noodles and rice cake in a saucepan.
2. Slice the cabbage and cut the carrot in to chunks and fry in a frying pan, carrots in first until well cooked.
3. In a bowl mix gochujang, soy sauce, red pepper powder and sugar with about 1/2 a cup of water to make a sauce.
4. Cut the Korean Sundae in to slices and add this and the sauce to the frying pan and cook for a few minutes, and then reduce the heat. When the noodles are cooked drain and add to the frying pan and mix well and cook for a final few minutes.

Serve on a plate and enjoy straight away!

So that is that. It really isn't hard to make, I think the most difficult part will actually be finding the sundae.

Until tomorrow...another past tomorrow ^^

Jajangmyeon 자장면

I know that this dish is not strictly a Korean dish because it was derived from a Chinese dish, but for the sake of this post let us pretend that it is purely Korean. The dish is quite easy to make, it is almost as simple as making pasta. With the twist being
that is is Asian and not Italian.

Jjajangmyeon was first created in the city of Incheon, where early Chinese migrants to Korea began to settle in the late 19th century. The dish was arguably first developed in a Chinese restaurant called Gonghwachun (공화춘; 共和春 - meaning Republican Spring) in Incheon around 1905. The city of Incheon sponsored the "100 year anniversary of the birth of jajangmyeon" in 2005.

The dish originated from zha jiang mian (炸醬麵, literally "fried sauce noodles") in China's Shandong region. The pronunciation of the dish's name is nearly identical to that of its Korean counterpart. But Korean jajangmyeon differs from Chinese zha jiang mian, as Korean jajangmyeon uses black Korean chunjang including caramel, and onions that Chinese zha jiang mian does not use. Korean-style jajangmyeon has also been gaining popularity in China recently.

Noodles
Jjajangmyeon uses thick noodles made from white wheat flour. The noodles, which are made entirely by hand and not by machines, are called sutamyeon (수타면; 手打麵) are praised in South Korea as an essential ingredient of good jjajangmyeon.

Sauce
The sauce is made with a dark soybean paste called chunjang (춘장). The paste, which is made from roasted soybeans and caramel, is called chun

jang when unheated, while the heated sauce (containing vegetables and meat or seafood) is called jjajang (literally "fried sauce"). Chunjang is stir-fried with diced onions, ground meat (either beef or pork) or chopped seafood, and other ingredients. When cooking the sauce, usually meat stock is added to reduce the salty taste of cooked chunjang, and potato starch or cornstarch is added to give the sauce a thick consistency. The sauce is served hot over noodles, sometimes with sliced raw cucumbers.

Accompaniments
Jjajangmyeon is always served with a small amount of danmuji (단무지). The dish is often served with a small amount of sliced raw onions, seasoned with rice vinegar, accompanied with a little jajang sauce. The diner eats the noodle with danmuji and onions dipped in jjajang sauce.

There are a number of variations available for the dish.

Including ganjajangmyeon (간자장면), which is jjajangmyeon served with the jajang sauce without the starch, with the sauce and noodles being served separately in different bowls, and samseon jajangmyeon (삼선자장면), which incorporates seafood such as squid, shrimp, sea cucumber, and others (but never fish). Samseon ganjajangmyeon (삼선간자장면) consists of noodles served with sauce, which contains seafood on the side.

Instant jjajangmyeon is also popular in South Korea. Dried noodles is boiled in the same manner as instant ramen with dried vegetable bits, drained, and mixed with jjajang powder and a small amount of water and oil.

Now for my version of the dish.

Ingredients:
Cooked Noodles (Thick in size and chewy) 300 g
Pork 50 g
Onion 1/2 of a whole
Potatoes 50 g
Zucchini 30 g
Ja-jang sauce 3 Tbs (available in all Korean grocery stores)
Cooking oil 3 Tbs
Corn Starch 1 Tbs
Water(or Broth) 1/2 Cup
Ginger, black pepper, sesame oil

Preparation:
1. Cook the noodles in boiling water and rinse them off with cold water.

2. Cut the onions, zucchini and potatoes into pieces, approximately 0.5 cm in length.

3. Also cut the pork in the same fashion (0.5 cm in length).

4. Slowly stir the ja-jang sauce in cooking oil at a simmer. (The cooking oil should shrink the ja-jang sauce in half in content.)

5. Mix the corn starch with water. (1 Tbs of corn starch to 2 Tbs of water is fine).

6. Cover the frying pan with oil and cook the pork with chopped ginger until the pork is completely cooked. Then add in the chopped vegetables and stir-fry some more. Then add one cup of water and let it come to a boil. Add in the corn starch/water mix and let it come to a boil.

7. Place noodles on a bowl and pour the ja-jang sauce over the noodles.

I know that it doesn't look the appetising from the photos, but it is REALLY hard to take photos that look good when you have a lot of black sauce on top. But it does taste amazing so I hope that will make up for the bad photos. This dish is also not spicy so it is something that everyone should try, it is really filling too.

Anyways, that is all from me. I hope you guys have a great week. And I might not be posting for a while because I have exams coming up in two weeks and I need to study. We'll see what happens though.

Patbingsoo 팥빙수

It is still quite warm in Korea now (even though I'm in Australia I think anything over 25 is just too hot), so I thought that I would see what summer dish I could think of. I know that I have already done samgyetang and naengmyeon (삼계탕 and 냉면) so I had a little help from the Korean Tourism site.

You all know the name of my blog "PATBINGSOO" but I have never made a post on the actual dish itself. I think it is about time for that, to show you guys one of the most common and popular dishes to have in summer in Korea.

Patbingsoo or 팥빙수 is a popular dish in Korea that is eaten in summer to cool down from the humdity and sweltering weather temperatures. This snack originally began as ice shavings and sweetened azuki beans (known as pat, 팥). It was sold by street vendors.

In contemporary culture, it has become a very elaborate summer dessert, often topped with ice cream or frozen yogurt, sweetened condensed milk, fruit syrups, various fruits such as strawberries, kiwifruit, and bananas, small pieces of tteok (rice cake), chewy jelly bits, and cereal flakes.

That was my introduction for it, but I'll also give you the one offered by the Korean Tourism Board

"During summer, besides eating ice cream, there’s quite a popular dessert, which Koreans are found eating with friends, families, coworkers, and lovers, called ‘Patbingsu’, which is a big swirl of yogurt or sherbet mounted on some ice and garnished with sweet red beans called ‘Pat’ or fruit. There a various creations and sizes to enjoy with a group or by yourself. The best part of eating this dessert is that you don’t have to worry about calories or watching your weight unlike ice cream. It’s a guilt-free dessert, and one, which is considered a healthy snack.

I highly recommend ‘Green Tea Patbingsu,’ not only is it considered a well-being food, but its shop (O’sulloc Tea House) specializes only in green tea, making all its food from this ingredient. In the west, ‘green tea’ is still a novelty, which is mostly considered a beverage. It’s a great opportunity to treat two new things- green tea and patbingsu- if you haven’t already. Patbingsu reminds me of a glorified snow cone, but much, much better than a regular snow cone.

Another great franchise to eat fruit bingsu is at a place called “Ice Berry”. It specializes in fruit yogurt desserts with ice and fruit. There is an assortment of different kinds of fruit toppings to choose from such as watermelon, kiwi, peach, strawberry, as well as cereal and vanilla ice cream. If you share with a group of people, it’s best to order a large size bowl called “Jangpan bingsu”. It’s a sumptuous treat to eat in the summer as well.

Tip: Make sure before you eat patbingsu or fruit bingsu, to mix it thoroughly. The taste is much better! Also be careful, don’t just eat the ice by itself. A big spoonful of it may make your brain freeze."

[Source: http://visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=260552 ]

Now you guys should have a wholesome understanding about patbingsoo. Now just so you guys know, what the tourism board says I can't make a comment about the places that it tells you about because I have never been there before...let along heard of it. BUT to put you out of your misery, I'm going to show you my version of patbingsoo.

Seriously, you can eat it however you want and with any combination of toppings. Here goes:

Ingredients
- 2 cups of ice
- 1/2 cup of cut-up fresh fruit (kiwis, strawberries, bananas, pineapple, peaches, mango, any berries, watermelon, melons are all good) or fruit cocktail.
- 1/4 cup of chapsal dduk, sweet rice cake (you can use mochi if you can't anything else)
- 1/3 cup of sweetened canned red bean, called 팥
- 1/4 cup of condensed milk OR scoops of ice-cream <-- I prefer this

You should be able to find everything at your local asian grocer or even supermarket

Method
1. Grind up the ice using a mixer or ice grinder and put it in a bowl (clear bowls are nice to eat out of)

2. Pour the condensed milk or ice-cream over the crushed ice in the bowl. Put the red bean topping over the ice and milk, and then sprinkle the fresh fruit and dduk over the whole thing (you can be artistic and arrange the fruit prettily, or just dump it on top and eat).

3. EAT

The Korean style of eating patbingsoo is 섞어섞어, or "mix mix". You take a spoon, mix everything together so that the toppings and ice blend, and eat! But personally, I prefer leaving the toppings intact until the very end. It is more pretty that way.

That is the recipe for basic patbingsoo...there are a lot of other varieties that you can try, such as green tea patbingsoo and misutgaru patbingsoo (미숫가루 팥빙수)



I hope you guys enjoy that in the summer heat. It looks absolutely delicious....but it is too cold to eat here...maybe I'll just go and have some ice-cream now ^^

Next week = another recipe. Look forward to it

Hwajeon 화전

Hey guys, here is another dish for this week. I'm kinda sad that I haven't shown you guys a spicy dish in a while. but for the past week I have been having stomach problems so my parents have forbidden me from eating spicy things. Usually I will show you guys what I have eaten, so once again this week it is not spicy.

But something else that I absolutely love is sweet things. So I'm gonna show you guys a sweet Korean dish. This one is quite unique, and I think that it is a really pretty dish. It is not that hard to make, there are only a few steps and if you do it properly it will turn out really nice.

The dish is going to be Hwajeon 화전, or sweet flower pancakes.It is a really great springtime dish to make, which is perfect for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere. I'm sorry for all of you in the Northern part though, I promise there will be something for you later on in this post.

The dish is actually traditionally eaten during hwajeon nori (화전놀이), a traditional custom held since the Goryeo dynasty (918-1392). According to this situation the dish is only eaten in spring, however it can also be eaten in the autumn as long as in-season flowers are used, such as chrysanthemum flowers. However it is then called gukhwajeon (국화전).

I think it about time the history lesson ended and I will start to show you how the dish is made.

Ingredients
Sweet rice flour OR glutinous rice flour
salt
water
sugar
vegetable oil
edible flowers

Method
1. Place 1 cup of sweet rice flour and a pinch of salt in a large bowl.
2. Add ½ cup of hot water little by little. Mix it well with a wooden spoon as you pour in the water.
3. Knead the mixture for 5 minutes.
4. Cut the dough into 12 pieces and roll each piece into a ball.
5. Cover the dough with a wet cloth so it doesn’t dry out. Set it aside.
Make syrup:
6. Place ¼ cup of sugar and ¼ cup of water in a small pot. Simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes, then remove from the heat.
7. Heat up a non-stick frying pan over low heat. Drizzle some vegetable oil on it (½ tbs).
8. Press each rice cake ball into a disc about 5 cm in diameter.
9. Place each disc-shaped rice cake on the pan and cook it.
10. When the bottom of the rice cake is cooked, turn it over to cook the other side. It will take about 3-4 minutes to cook.
*tip: flatten it out on the pan with a spatula to make it larger
11. Place an edible flower on the top of the rice cake, then flip it over so that the flower gets slightly cooked and sticks to the cake.
13. Cook each one and put them on a serving plate.
14. Drizzle the syrup on top of the pancakes.
Serve with green tea or rose tea.

NOTE:
There are a couple of points I want to point out about the dish
- It is important you only cook it right before serving
- Be careful about how much oil you use to cook it, it make turn out too oily if you use too much (the hwajeon in the first picture is a bit too oily)





I hope that you guys all enjoy the dish, it does turn out really pretty if you make it right. I hope that you guys have fun making it and eating it. And take care of your bodies because the weather is starting to change.

And now for the Autumn dish that I promised. Next week :) Look forward to it!