I've been having fun cooking and eating Korean Food lately! The past weeks I have made delicious chilled soymilk soup several times a week; it's perfect on a hot summer day! The first time I enjoyed this soup was two years ago--this month!––in Korea! I really didn't understand what it was until later, though; I just knew it was GOOD. Then I found the recipe on Maangchi http://www.maangchi.com/ and tried it for the first time this summer! 맜싯는!!! (Delicious!)
In English, it is read as Kong guksoo; chilled soymilk soup ( 공국수 ). Fresh, chilled soymilk is poured over cooled, freshly prepared noodles, and then it is topped with cucumber, ice cubes, and optionally, sesame seeds. It is refreshing, low calorie, and full of healthly ingredients! Today, I'm looking forward to making my own version of 떡볶이 (tteokbokki: pronounced duk-boke-ee)! A very spicy dish with rice cakes, pepper sauce, anchovies, kelp, eggs, and fish cake. I do not have fish cake or pepper flakes, but I have 고추장 (gochujang: hot pepper sauce), so I will wing it. It's usually a little sweet, so I'll either substitute stevia, or leave out the sugar, but I'm not sure, since the sweet balances the heat. It's a popular street food in Korea, and I think the vendors add way too much sugar, but this recipe only calls for one tablespoon. I'll leave it as is. One reason I love Korean food is that it is soooooo healthy, and sooooo flavorful! Kelp, whole grain rice, soy, lots of veggies... Awesome! I also found another website for Korean cooking http://crazykoreancooking.com/ that has a pancake made with mung beans and veggies (빅대떡 bindaetteok), and a side dish (반찬 banchan or 나물 namul ) made with mountain greens 고사리 ; I can't wait to make those too! 안녕히 가세요! Click on the images for full-screen version :-)
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My recent attempt at making grapefruit-apple cider vinegar was wholly unsuccessful: it smelled like a loaf of sourdough. Though perhaps I was successful in creating a sourdough starter, who knows?That's what you get for starting with a difficult fruit vinegar (grapefruit), instead of a simpler one (apple). Today, I read an article in Edible Austin (www.edibleaustin.com) and was reminded of the salutary Turmeric Milk I learned about when I lived at a yoga ashram in 2006-2007. It's a well known Ayurvedic remedy, and most of you should be aware of the anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer powers of turmeric (scientifically documented). I was lucky enough to receive some fresh turmeric a few months back, and hooboy!, did it change my already delicious chai into spectacularly-delicious-and-now-even-more-super-healthy chai. I've noticed a change in my skin as well, since I'm eating about a tablespoon or so of fresh turmeric daily, sometimes more when I add it to my smoothies. [Benign tumor in my shoulder for a decade--gone! Painful skin growth on my forearm that I've had for two years--gone!] Turmeric imparts a lovely golden hue to anything it is added to, and thus the elegant and historical term Golden Milk comes into play. Golden Milk is simple: grate a tablespoon of fresh root into a tiny splash of coconut or plain sesame oil and saute for a minute or so, then add a cup soy, almond, or cow milk and bring to a boil. Pour it in your favorite mug and add some honey, (strain it if you like, but be sure to eat the turmeric: it's crunchy, healing, and has a faint carrot-y taste). I love the rich, unique flavor of dark Buckwheat honey. This is the perfect nightcap, which I will begin drinking instead of a wine nightcap! (click read more, to right) I haven't made any seaweed rice rolls (Gimpab) in years, and never with a bamboo roller. Wow! It makes it so much easier! The first roll was a mess, but the second better. I used purple rice, pickled turnip (yellow), sauteed cod (I made it), fresh spinach, Korean fish cake, and carrots. On the second roll I substituted crab cake for cod. An authentic version would also have cooked egg and mushrooms in addition to the veggies and crab. In Korea, restaurants add tuna salad, beef, fried shrimp, kimchi, etc. Hopefully mine will be as pretty next time! I need taste-testers... any volunteers? ChoBap is one of my favorite Korean dishes to eat and make! It's fun and easy to make, healthy and tasty, and quick! A great snack on the go! I made this every week in Korea for one of my lunches at school!
The package contains a sweetened vinegar sauce, a mix of dehydrated veggies and sesame seeds, and the tofu/soybean curd "pockets". Simply take 2 cups of rice ( I used purple and white rice), mix in the packets, form into balls and stuff in the tofu. When I want to make this quickly, I scoop the rice up with a spoon and stuff it into the pockets, then my hands stay un-ricey-gooey. The taste is the slightly sweetened flavor of rice. I love them! My variation of traditional Indian Chai. Super easy to make in the morning, and a healthy way to get off the coffee habit! Fresh ground spices are best, but at least ensure they are non-irradiated and organic!! Cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, clove. (Use 1:4 ratio, meaning more cinnamon) Fresh grated/sliced ginger and turmeric ( or powdered if unavailable) Black tea Whole milk/soymilk Sugar/stevia In a covered pan, add a coffee cup full of water, 2 tea bags, spices, and sweetener. (Never cook honey, only use raw!). Bring to boil for a minute or so. Add 1 coffee cup full of milk. Return to boil, then remove from heat. Makes two cups of nourishing, healthy chai!! Add honey to taste if you like. Fresh spices are nourishing and each of the above has healing and beneficial properties. Look them up! I learned this recipe for traditional Chai in our Indian/Ayurvedic kitchen at the yoga ashram where I lived one year. I tweaked it by using stevia, soymilk, and cardamom. Love and light from The Goddess's Kitchen! 맛있는 Korean "fast food". Open carefully, as the wrapping separates the rice from seaweed, so the seaweed is crisp and fresh! Yummy, healthy fast food!
The container of kimchi Mrs. Jeong gave to me last winter ran out weeks ago! Ack! But I finally got some more from 할머니 Halmoni (Grandmother). For certain, if you are Korean, you never have a meal without rice, and so it follows, you can't have rice without kimchi! Yum! I must be Korean, because I eat rice daily, always miss it at any meals where I don't have some, and always want more kimchi!!! Well, at least Jeong says I'm Korean! :-) 김치 주세요 Kimchi Jusayo!!! (Please give me kimchi!) Koreans make massive batches of kimchi once a year, using 200+ heads of cabbage. The whole family is involved in this process (well, at least all the women. (Hehe, Just like Thanksgiving in the States!) Then it's stored to continue fermentation and eaten all year! Yum!
I was surprised on the ride home by Ms. Jeong and her family, who insisted I join them for dinner. I think they were shocked and appalled to see me riding along the highway for a portion of my ride home (not many big "risk takers" here, and climbing and biking along in traffic are definitely seen as risky!). That 1 mile highway portion is an avoidance of the 20% grade I have to climb on the alternate route! After over 2000 ft. of elevation gain over the previous 19 km., avoiding that last hill home is a relief! I rode directly to the restaurant, declining the offer to put my bike in their trunk for a ride home. I arrived sweaty and exhausted. I admit to drinking some of that Coke, because I needed fluid so badly! The "meat restaurants" so popular here serve pork or beef, which you grill at the table, along with other veggies, and the multitudinous side dishes: kimchi, cabbage, soup, shrimp, stingray, salad, and about 5 more! Yum! The server brings the hot coals to the table, and an exhaust on a swinging arm is kept over the roaster, so the restaurants are never smoky or smelly! You grill the meat and garlic, place a piece in a sesame leaf or lettuce, with or without rice, but with the red sauce or kimchi. It really is so delicious!! The only time I eat meat is when I'm out with others, but I enjoy it occasionally. This restaurant happens to be owned by the uncle of one of my students. No, it's not a prize winner or even out of the ordinary. Sweet zucchini squash is normally this big! I've said it before, living in Korea offers the benefit of fresh produce from farmer's markets, and they are not a weekend occurrence. Farming is alive and well in Korea: all the veggies, fruits, and rice come from all around and all over. On my bike rides, I pedal past fields of rice, spinach, cabbage, corn, etc. etc. I am so lucky to have fresh food, uncontaminated, unmodified; grown by grannies and grampas and other farmers. I don't have to go to a specialty food store like Whole Paycheck and pay outrageous prices for wholesome, healthy food. In fact, sometimes it comes to my door... there's the melon man, selling his sweet Korean cantaloupe-like melons out of the back of his truck, driving down the road. Gotta go! I decided I need more iodine in my diet. What am I going to do with all this kelp!!! And there's several pounds more in the bag; 3-4ft. long pieces!!! ($3)
I also bought 5 lbs of spinach ($3), and some giant carrots, 멸치, and giant apples. Need more veggies in the diet! |
iGallivant......can't get enough Korean Food!!! :-)) Archives
March 2022
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