Kkotgetang (Korean Crab Stew)

Hello! I am so excited to be back at it with another delicious recipe. Things have been so crazy around here and my schedule has been so busy. I am hoping to get back into posting regularly. If you have any recipes that you think I should try, let me know in the comments. I'm always on the lookout for a fun new dish to try. I love learning about new ways to use ingredients to create something even more wonderful. While a lot of the things I make have similar ingredients, they each have their own unique flavors. It's the combination of the different meats and vegetables that add to the specialness of the dish.
I don't know about you, but for me, cooking is always such a magical experience. I love combining together different ingredients to make a beautiful and whole meal. I love that through cooking you are offering up love and joy. As you are making the meal, you are infusing the food with the emotions you feel as you are making it. Cooking food and eating can seem like a mundane task to some, but I think it is magical. While eating and cooking food is necessary to survive, it doesn't mean it has to be boring. Food and cooking can be such joyous and delightful things. I think that when we take care in preparing and eating food, it can have a positive effect on our lives. When you nourish your body with food that was prepared in a loving manner, you can't help but feel amazing.

Now onto the cooking! This is another amazing recipe by Maangchi. You can check it out here.

Ingredients:
1 Pound of clean Korean Flower Crabs(fresh or frozen), cut into chunks.
7 large dried anchovies, guts removed
5 ounces of peeled Korean radish, sliced thinly
4 ounces of zucchini, sliced
1 green onion, sliced
1 green chili pepper, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 small onion, sliced
2 tablespoons Korean fermented soybean paste
1 tablespoon Korean hot pepper paste
1 to 2 teaspoons hot pepper flakes (optional)
a few chrysanthemum greens.
Rice (optional)

*If you are using frozen crab, thaw them out in the fridge prior to cooking.

Step 1.
If you are making rice, make that first. When rinsing the rice, rinse it once and drain the water. Then rinse a second time and keep the milky white water to use for the stew. You'll need about 3 1/2 cups. Then proceed to rinse the rice and to make it as you normally would.

Step 2.
Put the anchovies in a a bag or tea strainer to keep them together. Add them to the pot along with the radish, soybean paste and hot pepper paste. Allow this to boil for 20 min at medium high heat.

 

Step 3.
While this is boiling. If you haven't already, lightly rinse the crab and cut into small chunks.

Step 4.
Remove the anchovies. Then add in the onion, zucchini, garlic, green pepper, green onion, and the crab. Cover and let it cook for another 15 minutes until the crab is well cooked and the radish looks translucent.

Step 5.
Stir the stew and add in the hot pepper flakes if you want to make this a little more spicy.

Step 6.
Add the chrysanthemum greens and remove from heat. Serve hot with rice and other side dishes.

Thank you for joining me on this weeks adventure! Leave a comment down below and let me know what you thought. Until next time.

XOXO,
Rachel

Dwaejibulgogi (Spicy Pork BBQ)

Hello! I'm so excited to be cooking again. I missed being in the kitchen making these warm, spicy, delicious meals. I am a big fan of spicy pork bulgogi. It is my go to dish when I get BCD. Since I enjoy this dish so much I thought I would attempt to make it. When I saw that this recipe was made with pork belly, I was all in. Pork belly is insanely delicious and is used in a lot of Korean dishes. I often make grilled pork belly because it's pretty simple to make and still has amazing flavor. But this dish blew my mind. It's also relatively simple to make but so full of flavor. It's not over powerfully spicy but still has that nice kick to it. I think this may become my new favorite.

This recipe is from Maangchi and can be found here.

Ingredients:

1. Pound pork belly, sliced thinly into pieces 1/2 inch x 2 inches and 1/8 inch thick. (I used pre-sliced pork belly and cut it into smaller pieces.)

Marinade:

1/4 cup of crushed Korean pear

1/4 cup onion puree

4 cloves of minced garlic

1/2 ts of minced ginger

1 chopped green onion

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs brown or white sugar and 1 1.2 tbs rice syrup (or 2 tbs brown sugar)

a pinch of ground black pepper

2 ts toasted sesame oil

3 tbs hot pepper paste (gochujang)

Step 1.

Cut up the pork belly and place it in the marinating dish.

Step 2.

In a blender or food processor, add the Korean pear, onion, garlic and ginger. Blend until the ingredients are puréed. 

Step 3.

Pour the purée over the pork belly. Then add the green onion, soy sauce, sugar, rice syrup, sesame oil, black pepper and hot pepper paste.

 

Step 4.
Mix the ingredients together with the pork belly until everything is combined and the pork belly is well coated. Then let the meat marinade in the fridge for a minimum of 30 min.

Step 5.

You can pan fry, grill or BBQ the meat to your liking. 

Once it is cooked you are now ready to eat!

You can eat is just like this, or you can take a piece of lettuce, add the meat, a slice of garlic, a green pepper piece and some ssamjang then wrap it up in a little pouch and enjoy. I prefer to do just the lettuce, pork belly and ssamjang. If you aren't familiar with ssamjang, it is a sweet and spicy sauce that is often eaten with meat. It was introduced to me as Korean ketchup. It has a really nice flavor and adds a little something to the pork belly.

Thank you for joining me on the cooking adventure. I love getting to share my cooking experiences with you. I am always looking for new dishes to try. If you have any recipes that you think I should try leave them in the comments below. Until next time. 

XOXO,

Rachel 

Kabayo Cham Bada

Hello! I hope you all have been having an amazing week. I recently went out to lunch with a few friends to try out a new restaurant. What is special about this restaurant is that they have really fresh seafood. I love seafood so this was a special treat. For me, anything related to the ocean is fascinating and I enjoyed getting to experience this type of cooking with such fresh ingredients. Plus who doesn't love watching the food be cooked at the table.

They started off by bringing out some side dishes and salad. Which is perfect because it's nice to have something to eat while you wait for the seafood to be cooked. We also got these delicious oyster shooters. The oysters were marinated in this sauce that was made from soy sauce and few other ingredients. The taste was so fresh and flavorful. We were also given a cooked fish and some abalone to enjoy before the soup.

Then they brought out this large pot filled with fresh seafood.

Doesn't that look amazing! Everything was so fresh. It had octopus, crab, fish, shrimp, clams, etc.

The waiter was so helpful and took out the octopus and cut it up for us to enjoy while everything finished cooking.

Then he removed the clam shells and the crab shell and left us to enjoy our soup.

It was so delicious. There was plenty of food for the four of us. It had just the right amount of seafood mixed with some vegetables and broth. So good!

That's not all. Afterward they brought us this noodle soup to enjoy.

The soup was delicious and I loved the noodles.

To finish off the meal and reward ourselves with a fun treat we went to Cottonhi. Its this cute little ice cream place in Koreatown where you can get flavored cotton candy on top of your ice cream.

The ice cream was so delicious. It had brownie bites and caramel, plus I got coffee flavored cotton candy on top. So delicious!

Thank you for joining me on another food adventure. It was so much fun getting to share this with you. 

XOXO,

Rachel

Bo-ssam (Pork Wraps)

Hello all! I hope you are having a wonderful week. I know my week has been pretty good. My new roommate has arrived from South Korea. I'm looking forward to getting to know her and to have someone new to taste my cooking. As you know I recently made kimchi. Well, what goes better with kimchi than bo-ssam! Bo-ssam is such an amazing dish. I remember the first time I tried it, I was amazed. It was so full of flavor and just melted in my mouth. So good! The flavorful pork belly combined with the slight spice of the sauce and tangy flavor of the cabbage leaves is the perfect combination. It easily become one of my new favorite dishes and now I can make it myself.
This recipe came from maangchi. I love all of her recipes and videos. She makes cooking fun. I love how much she enjoys making this recipes and sharing them with others. Cooking is such a wonderful activity and I would love to make delicious food all the time. Beyond making the food, sharing it with friends and family and having them enjoy the food that I've prepared is always a joy. I think food is something that can bring people together and I think that is why I enjoy it so much.
You can find the recipe that I used here.

Ingredients:
For cabbage
- 1 pound napa cabbage leaves, washed and drained
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 3/4 cup water

For pork
-3 pounds pork belly rinsed and drained
- 1 large onion, cut into quarters or sliced
- 2 tablespoons ginger, sliced thinly
- 12 garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons Korean Fermented soybean paste (doenjang)
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon instant hazelnut-flavored coffee
- 10 cups of water


For oyster radish salad
- 1 pound Korean radish, peeled and washed
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 green onion, chopped
- 8 ounces frozen shucked oysters, thawed out in the fridge for an hour
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons hot pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds

For shrimp sauce
- 1 tablespoon saeujeot (fermented salted shrimp)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
- 1 green onion, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 2 tablespoon water
- a pinch of sesame seeds

For Cabbage
Step 1.
Combine sugar, vinegar, salt and water in a large bowl. Mix well until it turns into a clear pickle brine.

Step 2.
Add the cabbage and mix well by hand.

Step 3.
Let it sit for 15 minutes, then mix well and turn it over so the leaves pickle evenly. Repeat this every 10 to 15 minutes for 1-2 hours, until the cabbage leaves get soft and withered.

Step 4.
Squeeze out the excess water and refrigerate until ready to serve.

For Pork
Step 1.
Add the pork, onion, garlic, soy bean paste, brown sugar, hazelnut coffee powder, and the water to a large pot. Cover and cook for 1 hour over medium high heat.

Step 2.
When it boils vigorously, turn the pork over with a wooden spoon or tongs.

Step 3.
After 1 hour of boiling, turn down the heat to low and cook for another 15 minutes.

Step 4.
Take out he cooked pork and let it cool down until ready to serve.

For spicy oyster radish salad
Step 1.
Cut the radish into matchsticks and put them in a bowl. Mix with the salt and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Step 2.
Squeeze out the excess water and put it back into a bowl.

Step 3.
Take the the oysters out of the fridge and wash and drain.

Step 4.
Create a seasoning mixture by combing hot pepper flakes, fish sauce, sugar, garlic and green onion in a bow. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

Step 5.
Add the seasoning mixture to the radish and mix well by hand. Add the oyster and mix it in gently. Add the sesame seeds.

For shrimp sauce
Step 1.
Combine the fermented salted shrimp, sugar, hot pepper flakes, green onion, garlic and water in a small bowl. Mix it well with a spoon. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

To serve,
Step 1.
Slice the pork into 1/8 inch thick pieces. Put them on a large platter.

Step 2.
Add the cabbage, spicy oyster radish salad, and shrimp sauce side by side nicely. Sprint with sesame seeds and serve.

*Korean people often serve with Korean booze: soju, makgeolli or even beer.

How to eat
-Take a pickled cabbage leaf, add a piece of pork on top of it, add some of the oyster radish salad and some of the shrimp sauce. Make sure it is small enough to fit in your mouth all at once. Wrap the leaf into a small pouch and eat it whole.

Well there you have it, bo-ssam! It does take a few hours to make but it is so delicious. This is a great meal to enjoy with friends. I hope you enjoyed this recipe. I'll see you soon for my next dish.

XOXO,
Rachel

Tongbaechu-kimchi (Napa Cabbage Kimchi)

Hello! Long time no see. Things have been so busy. I have a lot of projects going on at work, my roommates just moved to Iowa and I'm getting into the groove with one of my new roommates while waiting for the other one to arrive from Korea. But with all that going on I have had the opportunity to cook some new dishes. Both of the dishes I have made recently are considered more difficult dishes to make. I am really proud of how both of them turned out. So lets talk about the first dish that I made, kimchi.
I love making Korean food but I was always intimidated by kimchi. I wasn't intimidated by the amount of work that goes into making it but the fermentation process. In order to make kimchi you need to ferment it and considering I have never done this, and I was always told leaving food out overnight is very bad, I was a little nervous. But when I read on Maangchi's recipe that if you can make this kind of kimchi well, then you can consider yourself good at Korean cooking I was determined to make it. I felt that if I didn't make kimchi then my Korean cooking skills would never be complete.
That being said, I really enjoyed making kimchi. It is a long process but I loved every minute of it. From buying the ingredients, to salting the cabbage leaves, to spreading the mixture on the leaves, it was fantastic. That's why I enjoy cooking so much. There is so much care put into making each dish. When I hear my roommate talk about her mothers cooking and how she worked very hard to make really delicious and nutritious food for them, it makes me want to strive for that with my cooking. It's seeing the enjoyment when people taste the food I've prepared that makes it all worth while.

Now onto the recipe! This one came from Maangchi and can be found here. You will need a couple very large bowls for the cabbage and some large containers with lids for the Kimchi. They have special plastic and glass containers made for Kimchi at Korean grocery stores. You will also need a large strainer.

Ingredients:
For salting cabbage:
-6 pounds napa cabbage (3-4 medium size heads of napa cabbage)
-1/2 cup Kosher salt.

Porridge:
-2 cups water
-2 tablespoons sweet rice flour (glutinous rice flour)
-2 tablespoons turbinado sugar (brown or white sugar)

Vegetables:
-2 cups radish matchsticks
-1 cup carrot matchsticks
-7 to 8 green onions, chopped
-1 cup chopped Asian chives (buchu), optional (substitute with 3 green onions, chopped)
-1 cup water dropwort (minari), optional

Seasonings and spices:
-1/2 cup garlic cloves (24 garlic cloves), minced
-2 teaspoons ginger, minced
-1 medium onion, minced
-1/2 cup fish sauce
-1/4 cup fermented alter shrimp with salty brine, chopped
-2 cups hot pepper flakes (gochugaru)

Prepare and salt the cabbage.
1. It the cabbage core sticks out too much, trim it down.
2. To cut the cable in half cut a short slit in the base of the cabbage, enough to be able to grip each half, then gently pull the halves apart until the cabbage is split.
3. Cut a slit through the core of each half, about 2 inches above the stem. You want the leaves to be loose but still attached to the core. (Don't pull apart, leave them with just the slit)

4. Dunk the cabbage halves in a large basin of water to get them wet. Don't worry about rinsing or cleaning just yet. Then sprinkle the salt between each leaf. Make sure the get the whole leaf, paying extra attention (more salt) to the stems, where the leaves are thicker.
5. Let the cabbage rest for 2 hours, turning it over every 30 minutes, so that they get well salted. You can also ladle some of the salty water from the bottom of the basin over top of the cabbage when you turn it.

6. After 2 hours, wash the cabbage halves under cold running water. Make sure to wash them well to remove the salt and any dirt. As you wash, use the slits to split the halves into quarts. Cut off the cores, and put them in a strainer over your sink so they can drain.

Making the kimchi mixture.
*While the cabbage is salting, make the porridge as it will need time to cool.
1.Combine the water and the sweet rice flour in a small pot.

Mix well with a wooden spoon and then let it cook over medium heat until it starts to bubble. (about 9 minutes) Then add the sugar and cook from 1 more minute, stirring. Remove from heat and let it cool completely.

2. Cut up all of your vegetables except the onion, garlic and ginger.

3. In a blender or food processor add the onion, garlic and ginger and blend until everything is a minced texture.

4. Combine the cool porridge, the garlic, ginger and onion mixture, fish sauce in a large bowl. Scoop the salted strip out of the jar (brine and all) and squeeze out the brine into the mixture you just made. Then cut up the shrimp finely and then add them to the mixture. Add in the hot pepper flakes, if you want less spicy kimchi then only use around 1 cup. I like mine spicy so I used 2 cups. Mix well, until it becomes a paste.

5. Add in the radish, carrot, green onion, Asian chives and water dropwort. Mix well. The radish has a lot of water so the mixture will become thinner.

Making Kimchi
1. Take each cabbage quarter and spread the mixture between all of the leaves.

2. When each cabbage quarter is well coated, wrap it around itself into a spall packet and put it in your container.

3. Make sure the container is well back and press the kimchi down before sealing the container.
*You can eat the kimchi now or let it ferment.

Fermenting the kimchi.
1. Leave the kimchi out at room temperature for a day or two depending on the temperature and humidity of the room. The warmer and more humid it is, the faster the kimchi will ferment. Once it starts to ferment it will smell and taste sour, and pressing on the top of the kimchi with a spoon will release bubbles from beneath.
2. Once it starts to ferment, store it in the refrigerator and use as needed. This will slow down the fermentation process, which will make the kimchi more and more sour as time goes on.

Well there you have it, kimchi! I am so excited to be able to make my own kimchi. I love fresh, spicy, well ripened kimchi. Making it was a huge accomplishment for me and I think it went really well. Next recipe will be bo-ssam. Bo-ssam. Kimchi and Bo-ssam are two dishes that go really well together. When my roommates family gets together to make kimchi, they also make bo-ssam to enjoy after. Stay tuned for my next post where I'll show you how I made it.

XOXO,
Rachel

Ham Ji Park

Hello! How have you been? It has been so long since I've posted and I apologize for that. Work has become increasingly busy and I haven't devoted as much time to writing and cooking as I would like. I'm hoping to get into a much better routine where I can begin writing and cooking weekly and possibly even more. Living in Koreatown is still amazing. I'm learning so much and my Korean is really starting to improve. When I feel more confident I may try writing some here.
This past Saturday I had the fortune of going to Ham Ji Park with my friend Alexandria. Ham Ji Park is one of my favorite restaurants! The dwaeji galbi is magical. It has this amazing sweet and tangy flavor. Its not as smokey as American style ribs. Its sweeter but not overly sweet. It's the perfect combination of flavors.

Don't they look amazing! I especially love pairing the flavor of these ribs with this spicy lettuce dish. I think the flavors blend well together. 

I think this side dish may be my favorite. I love the slight spiciness paired with the crispness of the lettuce. We also ordered kimchi jjigae to enjoy. 

I'm not usually a soup person but this dish is one of my favorites. It is so spicy and delicious. Maybe it's because it reminds me of Basque soup. Growing up in Bakersfield I ate a lot of Basque food. If you've never had it I highly recommend it. One of the main Basque dishes that I would eat all the time was Basque soup. It is a cabbage soup that is served with salsa and beans to add to it. While it is definitely different that kimchi jjigae it still has that cabbage and spice elements that, for me, make them similar. 

Overall it was an amazing meal. The food is so delicious and encompass all the right flavors. Next time you are in Koreatown I recommend taking a trip to Ham Ji Park. I hope you have a wonderful week! 

XOXO,

Rachel 

Dakgalbi (Spicy stir-fried chicken with vegetables)

Hello! I hope your week has been wonderful. I've had so much going on lately. I am working a lot, learning Korean and keeping up with all the holiday and social events going on. Before I had moved to Koreatown most of my spare time had been spent cooking. Now my time is spent eating, going out with friends and learning Korean. I thought I would be doing much more cooking. Instead I am eating and enjoying all the wonderful Korean food around me. I hope that as I take in more delicious flavors it will pave the way for much more delicious cooking.

I have always loved food. It was always a sense of comfort for me. Every since I discovered Korean food it has become so much more to me. It still a source of comfort but it has also become a source of enjoyment. With Korean food it becomes a social occasion. I am so used to eating alone. Especially since moving out of my parents house. Even though I had roommates most of my food was prepared and enjoyed only by me. Now I have friends that enjoy going out to eat. We talk and enjoy delicious food together and I find that this has a great effect on my mood. I feel happier and more fulfilled getting to share these moments with such wonderful people and enjoying just amazing food.
Recently me and a couple friends went to this restaurant called Mapo Galbi. It was a small restaurant but comfortable and parking was pretty easy to find. I love when places have good parking, especially in LA. This was my first time eating dakgalbi. I hadn't even heard of this dish before going there. As with many Korean restaurants the food is cooked in front of you. I love that! I enjoying seeing all aspects of a meal being prepared. It starts off with marinated chicken, tteok and I believe a type of potato.

They allow this to cook for awhile before adding some cabbage and a spicy sauce.

Then they add some perilla leaf and cook it some more.

 

Everything continues to cook until all the vegetables and chicken are done.

The whole dish was amazing. It is very flavorful. I love how the chicken, tteok, perilla leafs and sauce all come together to give this dish amazing flavor and texture. Then afterward they make rice with the left overs.

I really enjoy how nothing is ever wasted. All of it can be used to make this really delicious food. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post. I enjoy getting to share these experiences with you. I hope to have more consistent posts for you soon. Have a wonderful week!

XOXO,

Rachel