Potato banchan (Gamja jorim)

DH commented that it tastes like those from the Korean BBQ restaurant, so I'd guess this dish is a 'success'!! :)

A simple recipe shared by maangchi

Ingredients
3 medium sized potatoes, diced
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 - 2.5 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp corn syrup
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup water
sesame oil
roasted sesame seeds

Method:

1. Rinse cut potato in running water to remove starch.

2. Heat frying pan with 1-2 tbsp olive oil and add potato.

3. Add garlic and sauté it until the potato look a little translucent, then add the onion and keep stirring it.

4. Add water, soya sauce, sugar and corn syrup. Simmer over medium heat for about 10 min until liquid is evaporated. Add more water if required.

5. When potato is cooked, turn off fire. Add 1 tbsp of sesame oil and sprinkle a pinch of sesame seeds before serving.

Perilla Kimchi (Kkaennip kimchi)

If you like or don't mind the unique taste of perilla (sesame leaves), give this easy kimchi a try. Surprisingly it is quite addictive and spicy (think I was slightly heavy handed with the red pepper flakes me thinks!!); eaten with plain rice!!

Aother recipe by maangchi.

Ingredients
Perilla leaves (135 grams: about 3 cups)
3 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 medium onion, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 stalks of green onion, sliced to 1/2 inch length
2 tbsp carrots, julienned
1 tsp honey (can't really taste it or can substitute with castor sugar)
1-2 tbsp hot pepper flakes
roasted sesame seeds

Method:

1. Wash and drain perilla leaves and put them into a basket. TIP: wash both sides of each leaf in running cold water and shake to drain water.

2. For the kimchi paste - put rest of ingredients into a bowl and mix. Taste, add a little caster sugar if required. It can be quite spicy so put 1 tbsp and taste first.

3. Spread some kimchi paste between the leaves and store in container. TIP tuck in the stems down so that it will soak up some of the kimchi mixture paste.

4. Leave out on kitchen counter for 1/2 day before storing in the refrigerator. Consume after 2 days of refrigeration.

5. Serve with rice and sprinkle some roasted sesame seeds before serving.

posting this picture is making me crave for more, can't wait to have another mouthful!

Also added this vegetable to the kimchi mix. Any idea what is it called in English? It is not spring onion, a kind of local leek perhaps?? The veggie seller told me in Cantonese but by the time I came home, forgot oredi.

Perilla

You might have seen these similar large maple like green sesame leaves before; normally used as garnish on your sashimi platter. In Japanese, they are called sisho.

Koreans also use them, though as I understand, they are from the same vegetable family but different varieties. They called them deulkkae. Koreans love to wrap their food especially grilled meat in them.

They are sold in the Korean mini mart for about RM4 a packet containing about 20 or so leaves. Wonder if they are grown locally or imported?

Say 'aaaaah....' :)

It is slightly bitter with a mild minty finish. Better with grillled meat (compared to salmon) because of the unique flavour.

Some Korean cooking condiments

If you've been reading my recent posts, you may have noticed my keen interest in Korean cooking.

If you like Korean food and want to try cooking at home, its best to use Korean condiments and cooking sauces. You can try substituting with Chinese sesame or Vietnamese fish sauce but it will not taste the same.

I've also noticed that the Korean min-marts (that is where I usually shop for my Korean foodstuff) usually have the fresher herbs like mint leaves, spring onion and coriander. The quality of vegetables such as zucchini and cucumber are actually better (straighter and less seeds inside, do I sound picky??) compared to the ones you could get at bigger supermarkets or even local wet markets, surprise, surprise huh?

Not understanding Korean language and the store keeper's English not fluent (except where it matters most - at the cashier, hehe), found it rather challenging to identify the sauces.

With that in mind, thought this would be a good post to share and hopefully you will be more informed in your next browse and visit at the Korean mini-mart. :)

On the RHS - Corn syrup.
On the LHS - two brands of Cooking rice wine.

Korean fish sauce, two types. Was told that the blue one is usually used to make kimchi as it is less pungent/strong compared to the red cap one.
Its true, having bought both of them.

RHS - Sesame oil (the backbone of Korean cooking).
LHS - Soya sauce.

RHS - Vinegar drink (to promote health). Similar to apple cider. Flavours available are blueberry and pomegranate. Personally prefer the pomegranate one.
LHS - Apple flavour cooking vinegar. If things are not confusing enough, they also have plum and lemon flavoured ones.

RHS - Soya sauce for cooking soup. It is less salty compared to normal soya sauce.
LHS - Normal soya sauce.

Kimchi - what you should always have, stashed in the darkest corner of your fridge! :)

From the top LHS - Korean coarse sea salt, instant anchovy granules and local dried anchovies.
The coarse salt is usually used for making kimchi. The dried anchovies are used for boiling soup/stock.

From the top LHS - gochujang (hot peper paste), doenjang (soya bean paste), gochugaru (red pepper flakes), roasted sesame seeds (white or black).

From LHS - dangmyeon (glass noodles made from sweet potato starch) wheat noodles and instant noodles.

From LHS - Korean fish cake and rice cakes.

Ingredients to make kimbap or Korean sushi roll.
From top LHS - crab stick, Korean ham, yellow pickled radish, seaweed for sushi, roasted seaweed and instant pre-mix aburrage to make yubuchobap or inari sushi.

Vacuum sealed instant rice (hatban) - comes in a few flavours, normal white rice, sprouted brown rice and black rice! Just warm up in microwave for about 2 mins.

Disclaimer - NOT my fridge.

Top shelf - soju. For a colourless distilled liquor, do not underestimate it as it is quite 'hard' with a sharp after taste. I get totally giddy by the 3rd shot glass!! Korea's equivalent to vodka (not my favourite drink) but goes well with grilled meat.

Bottom shelf - makoli or rice wine. Tried but perhaps I didn't get the right brand, personally do not like it that much.

Inari sushi (Yubuchobap)

Inari sushi is one my favourites. Just love the light sweet tofu pouches filled with rice.

Made this using a pre-mix kit found at the Korean mini mart. The kit contains of seasoned fried tofu pouches, vinegar based sauce packet and some dried rice condiment mix (carrot, black sesame, egg and seaweed). With the kit, it was pretty easy to make this, all you need is to cook some rice, mix in the vinegar and dried ingredients and stuff them into the tofu pouches.

Decided to add more flavour into the filling by adding some chopped spring onions, coriander, yellow pickled radish and roasted sesame seeds.

The radish added a nice crunch to the yubuchobap and the herbs added a refreshing favour.

Mix it all up - doesn't it look good? Other alternative fillings could include tuna, cucumber and carrot.

Stuff the rice filling into the tofu pouches. Remember you need to gently squeeze out the liquid from the tofu pouches before using them.


TIP - keep your hands slightly dam while making this to 'tame the rice' from sticking everywhere.

If you want more ideas, mosey over @ Maangchi.

Instead of commercial pre-mix packet, you might want to make your own. You will need to season them first before using. Below is Bentopet's recipe :

10 pcs aburaage
2 cups dashi
4 tbsp shoyu
5 tbsp sugar
8 tbsp mirin

Method:

1. Remove oil from aburaage by rinsing in hot water.

2. Add all ingredients into a pot, cover with a drop-lid or cover with aluminium foil and simmer until liquid is almost dry.

3. Squeeze dry the aburaage so that all the remainder liquids are removed.

3. Cut the aburaage into half and gently open it up so that you can stuff the sushi rice into it. Keep seasoned aburaage in refrigerator up to 10 days.

Spicy Rice Cake (Tteokbokki)

If you are a K-drama follower, this is one Korean snack you just need to try. The closest taste I can think of is our local chee cheong fun, but instead of rolled rice noodles with sweet brown sauce and with fried shallots, our Korean counter part have theirs with a fiery red spicy sweet sauce.

Needless to say, its fun to eat, especially more sharing them with friends as it can be rather filling.

Adapted recipe from aeriskitchen.

Ingredients
2 cups (15) rice cake sticks
2 pieces fried fish cakes
1 cup cabbage
1 small onion
1 small carrot
1 spring onion

Anchovy stock:
2½ cups water
6 pieces kelp (1×2 Inch)
1 dried anchovy pack (Optional)

Sauce Ingredients:
3 tbsp red pepper paste
1 tbsp red pepper powder
2 tbsp corn syrup
½ tbsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
½ tbsp minced garlic
Some sesame seeds for garnish

Method:

1. Slice ½ cup worth of an onion into quarter inch pieces. Cut ½ cup worth of a carrot diagonally. Cut 1 green onion into ½-inch pieces. Cut ⅔ cup worth of cabbage into quarter inch pieces.

2. To make the broth, boil 2½ cups of water, 6 pieces of kelp, 2 pieces of fish cake, and 1 dried anchovy pack together for about 10 minutes. The dried anchovy pack is optional.

3. Remove the kelp, fish cakes, and anchovy pack from the broth. Keep the fish cakes for later and discard the kelp and anchovy pack.

4. Cut the cooked fish cakes and the sticky rice cakes into 2 inch pieces.

5. In the broth, add 3 Tbsp of red pepper paste, 1 Tbsp of red pepper powder, 2 Tbsp of corn syrup, ½ Tbsp of sugar, 1 Tbsp of soy sauce, and ½ Tbsp of minced garlic. Depending on your taste, you can make your tteokbokki sweeter or spicier by changing the amount of sugar or red pepper paste. If you can’t eat too spicy food, skip the red pepper powder. You can use sugar instead of corn syrup. Cook it for 5 minutes on medium-high.

6. Add the rice cakes, carrot, onion, and cabbage into the broth.

7. Cook it for about 5 minutes until the rice cakes become soft on medium-high.

8. Add the fish cakes and cook for 1 more minute.

9. Add sliced spring oinion cook for another minute, and then turn off the heat.

10. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top of TteokBokKi to serve.

Kimchi Fried Rice with leftovers

Kimchi fried rice with bacon.


This dish is super easy and super quick to make, ready to eat in less than 10 min. Needless to say, its the kimchi that plays the backbone to this yummy rice.

All you need are some simple ingredients (feel free to add any other leftovers you may have in the refrigerator, such as carrots, zuchinni, egg, tuna etc.). As you can tell, I didn't have very much in my fridge!

Ingredients
old kimchi
cooked rice (leftovers are the best)
bacon or any leftover meat
sesame oil (to drizzle)

Method:

1. Fry kimchi with a little oil for about 3-5 min.

2. Add rice, some kimchi juice and meat, cook for another 3-5 min until all the food is heated through and well mixed.

3. Turn off heat, drizzle some sesame oil.

4. Serve warm with a sprinkling of chopped spring onion as garnish.

Kimchi fried rice with leftover meatloaf.


Kimchi fried rice with leftover roast chicken.

Kimbap (Korean sushi)

After talking about it with my family for weeks, I finally made them!! So easy that I made it twice in a row, for lunch and then for dinner. Best to make 10 rolls as that is how many sheets of seaweed there are in a pack.

There is no hard or fast rules with making sushi, you can use any filling you like. The classic popular ones are crabstick, cucumber, yellow pickle radish, carrot and avocado. Others include fried omelet, tuna, cooked beef and spinach. For this kimbap I used Korean pre-cooked ham, spring onion and a few sprigs of coriander - the combination was very refreshing.

Have you wondered what is the difference between the Japanese and Korean sushi? For the latter, they add roasted sesame into the rice and also rub sesame oil on the seaweed skin of the completed sushi roll. Being more accustom to Japanese sushi I have often wondered why they do that. Am told that it gives a nicer gloss to the sushi with added flavour of sesame oil. As you can probably guess by now, Koreans love their sesame oil!

Unfortunately, Master Prince is not keen on sesame oil nor is he a fan of sesame seed. So I had to make separate ones for him. Made his first then added the sesame seed into the rice and rolled up the rest.


Ingredients
Dried seaweed sheets
Crabsticks, sliced
Korean pre-cooked ham, sliced
Cucumber (sliced lengthwise, soaked in some sea salt for about 5 min and then rinsed)
Fried omelet, sliced
Yellow pickled radish, sliced
Spring onion and a few sprigs of coriander
Some sesame oil for rubbing

Sushi rice
3 cups calrose rice
3 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp scant salt
1 tbsp sesame oil (optional)

In a bowl mix mirin, sugar and salt. Microwave for about 20 seconds or until sugar and salt has melted into the mixture. When rice is cooked, stir in mirin mixture quickly and set aside warm sushi rice for about 10 min. Used my thermal pot cooker for this and it worked well especially keeping the rice nice and warm. When ready to assemble sushi, mix in some sesame seeds and 1 tbsp sesame oil (optional).

To assemble:

1. Place bamboo mat flat on table with a piece of seaweed (shiny side facing down).

2. Scoop 3-5 tbsp of rice and spread out evenly in the middle of seaweed, about 4 inches, leaving the top and bottom of the seaweed at least 1-2 inches free of rice.

3. Place desired fillings in the centre (but not too many - remember that less is more), gently roll up sushi, from the bottom up. Once you have a completed roll, give the roll (still in bamboo mat) a few firm but gentle squeeze to make sure the kimbap filling is secure.

4. Repeat until all the seaweed or fillings are used up. When all the seaweed rolls are completed into logs, put a little bit of sesame oil on your palm and rub the surface of the seaweed logs. [TIP: use disposable gloves or a clean plastic bag - you'll thank me for it! :) ]

5. Slice them into bite size, about 0.5 inch in thickness. [TIP: always keep your knife slightly dam for a cleaner cut. Alternatively oil your knife with a little sesame oil. This is to keep the rice from sticking to your knife while slicing up.] Keep covered until ready to serve. Best eaten the same day, otherwise keep in fridge and warm up in microwave the next day.

Spicy Kimchi Stew (Kimchijigae)

One of the first dish that comes to mind when someone says let's have Korean (other than grilled meat) - it'll be this yummy dish, erm soup.

Unfortunately in my family, I seem to be the only one who likes this dish. Unlike Korean men, the ones I know do not like the taste of fermented sour spicy cabbage aka. Kimchi.

So this dish is more for me - not complaining as that means more for me since I don't have to share - totally satisfying especially on a cool rainy or cold day.

Adapted recipe from beyondkimchee's blog

Ingredients
1/4 head of fermented cabbage kimchi (about 1 lb), stuffing removed and sliced
2 1/2 cup anchovy stock* or water
1/3lb pork belly or pork butt diced
8oz firm tofu, sliced
1/2 large onion, sliced
1 garlic, chopped
2 tsp Korean soy sauce
2 tbsp rice wine, divided
1/2 cup Kimchi juice
1 tbsp Korean chili flakes
6-8 rice cake slices (optional)

*Anchovy stock:
5-6 large dried anchovies
3 dried sea kelp squares
3 cups water

Method:

1. In a bowl toss pork slices with soya sauce, 1 tbsp rice wine and garlic. Set aside.

2. In another small bowl, combine Korean chili flakes with 2 tbsp of kimchi juice and 1 tbsp rice wine and set aside.

3. In a shallow pot, spread onion on the bottom, layer kimchi slices, the pork, and the tofu slices on top. You can add rice cakes if you want to. Drizzle the Korean chili flakes mixture over. Pour the rest of kimchi juice and the stock (or water) over everything.

4. Cover and bring to boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for 25-30 minutes, covered, until the cabbage gets soft and tender. Garnish with green onion if you wish. Serve hot with rice.

For the anchovy stock:
5. Soak kelp in water for at least 30 min.

6. Fry anchovies in a little oil for 5min until slightly crispy.

7. Bring anchovies, kelp, and water to boil. Before water starts boiling, remove kelp, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. If you let it rest for a few minutes the stock will have better flavor. Strain the stock and discard anchovies.

Korean spicy anchovies (myulchi bokkeum)

Was excited to give this recipe by Ju a go since it looked pretty easy and tasty! :)

While this side dish (banchan) does taste nice, personally still prefer our Malaysian crispy spicy assam pedas ikan billis - there is just no substitute.

Ingredients
1 cup (about 55g) dried anchovies (ikan bilis)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)
1/2 tbsp corn syrup or honey
4 tsp water
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp sesame seeds (I upped to 1 tbsp cos I love it!)

Method:

1. Heat up pan and dry-fry sesame seeds briefly. As soon as they turn light brown, remove from pan and set aside.

2. Stir 1 cup of small dried anchovies in a heated pan for 1 minute.

3. Add 1 tbsp oil and stir it until crispy and set aside.

4. Make sauce by mixing 1 tbsp hot pepper paste, 1 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp minced garlic, 4 tsp water, 1/2 tbsp corn syrup (or honey) in a bowl, and then pour into pan.

5. Heat up the sauce and simmer until the sauce looks shiny and has thickened a little.

6. Return anchovies back to the sauce and turn the heat off.

7. Add 1 tsp sesame oil and sesame seeds. Toss and mix everything well.

Cucumber Kimchi

Yesssh, I finally made this *skips in glee*

The steps might seem a little lengthy but its actually very easy to make. Am quite happy that this recipe taste almost the same as those bought at the stores.

Special thanks to aeriskitchen for sharing on youtube this recipe though I twigged it a little by adding the Chinese pear and carrot.

Ingredients

10 Japanese cucumber
½ cup coarse salt
5 cups water
2 cups garlic chives, cut about 2 inches
½ cup spring onion, cut about 2 inches
½ cup carrot, finely cut about 2 inches
½ Chinese pear, skin removed and julienned (add 1 tsp sugar to keep it from browning)

Sauce ingredients
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
½ cup Korean chilli powder (gochugaru) or to taste
3 tbsp Korean fish sauce
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp caster sugar

Method:

1. In a large pot bring to boil the water and coarse sea salt.


2. In meantime, was cucumber and cut both ends and divide into 4 equal pieces (depending how long or short you want them to be) and then with each mini cucumber cut a ‘cross’ or ‘T’ starting from the top of the cucumber until about 2cm from the bottom, making sure that you do not slice all the way through. Each mini cucumber is suppose to be like a mini bite size kimchi cup.

3. Place prepared cucumber into large bowl or pot.

4. By now the water would be boiling, turn off heat and pour hot water into your bowl or pot of cucumber. Set aside for at least 50 min.

5. In meantime, prepare the other vegetables and the sauce ingredients in a separate bowl. Mix to combine well.

6. After 50 min, rinse cucumber in fresh water and squeeze out excess water and dry them with paper towels.

7. Wearing a pair of disposable gloves, stuff some of the vegetable mix into the cucumber, rubbing the outside of the cucumber with the mix too.


8. In a container, leave the stuffed cucumber at room temperature overnight to enhance the flavour before refrigerating.

9. Best eaten well chilled. Consume within a week.

Javapot's KDS One-Bowl Mixed Rice

Seem to be on a KDS and Korean food Xtravaganza roll! So please bear with me.

If you are a K-drama follower, there will be a typical scene where the actress will be mixing in a very large bowl some rice, kimchi and other ingredients (gochujang and sesame oil)....almost like Bibimbap but not that complicated.

Have you ever wondered what they are mixing? Ever wondered how it taste like? Looks pretty tasty doesn't it as the actress shoves in spoonful after spoonful?? Or is that all just pure emotional rage eating?

Whatever it is here is my simple & quick version.

In a LARGE bowl, add:

hot cooked rice

kimchi, cut into bite size

bean sprout banchan

spinach banchan

1 tbsp gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste) (to taste)

1 tsp Korean sesame oil (to taste)

Get R-E-A-D-Y and M-I-X.

There you have it....a very satisfying, fuss-free & wholesome KDS meal!

Can add a sunny side up egg if you wish or a side dish of meat for a fuller meal. But this bowl of veggie mix rice is good enough to satisfy my crave while I'm watching my favourite K-drama series!

Have a good weekend.

Spinach Banchan

Sharing another super easy Korean banchan!

Ingredients
300g spinach leaves, washed
3 cups of water
2 tbsp soy sauce (or to taste)
1 spring onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp Korean sesame oil
1 tbsp lightly toasted sesame seeds

Method:

1. Bring water to boil and blanch spinach for about 30 seconds. I used baby spinach but can use normal spinach too – hold leaves together and blanch the stalk first for about 1 min before plunching in rest of the leaves into the hot water.

2. Rinse spinach under cold water. Drain and gently squeeze out excess water from spinach.

3. Mix all the other ingredients in a large bowl. Add blanched spinach and toss until well combined.

4. Cover the sesoned spinach and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.


Bench note – If opt to use baby spinach, the longest time spent would be cleaning it!

Bean Sprout Salad (Banchan)

Another super quick and easy side dish. Because of the garlic, I think this goes well with meat dishes especially if you are having Korean BBQ/grilled meat!

Ingredients (source Periplus books)

300g bean sprouts, washed with tails removed
1 spring onion, sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp roasted sesame seeds
2 tsp sesame oil
½ tbsp Korean chilli powder (gochugaru)
1 tsp salt
4 cups water

Method:
1. Think there is an error in the book on cooking the bean sprouts - requiring it to be boiled in hot water for 7 min. I like my sprouts with a little crunch and not totally limp. So I'd suggest in a pan of hot boiling water, add the bean sprouts and salt, cover the pot and off the flame. Set aside for about 4 min.

2. In meantime, add in rest of ingredients in a bowl.

3. Drain bean sprouts well and toss with other ingredients in the bowl until well combined. Allow to cool. Have a little taste and if slightly bland, add in a drop of soya sauce.

4. I prefer this chilled so, once it reaches room temperature, cover with sarang wrap and keep in refrigerator until ready to serve. Make this early so that the flavour can develop further.


P.S.
If you watch KDS, normally there would be a scene where the actress would be mixing (usually in frustration) in a big bowl some rice & kimchi and stuffing their face like it was the best food in the world. Discovered that in a large bowl (bigger than your normal chinese soup bowl), put in some warm/hot rice together with some of the above bean sprout salad and thinly sliced kimchi, 2 tsp hot pepper paste (gochujang) and a drop of Korean sesame oil, mix it all up & well and.....ta-da-da. Almost exactly what you get on the soaps! The ingredients can be adjusted according to your taste.

It taste pretty yummy and can't wait for the weekend (as I'm all out of kimchi at the moment) for my next KDS veg 1 bowl fix/mix!!

Cucumber banchan (Oninamul)

Banchan (also spelled panch'an) refers to side dishes of food served along with cooked rice in Korean cuisine.

Got this from Perpiplus cookbooks. A gem of recipe since its really quick and easy to make. And yes, it tastes pretty good and refreshing too.

Ingredients

4 cucumber, remove skin and sliced

1.5 tbsp coarse salt

1 spring onion, thinly sliced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp Korean sesame oil

1.5 tbsp roasted sesame seed

1-2 tsp kocharu or Korean red pepper chili flakes (to taste)

Drop of soya sauce and Korean fish sauce (optional)

Method:

1. Soak cucumber slices in cold water and salt for 30 min. Reason for this is to keep texture of the cucumber crunchy.

2. In meantime, prepare sauce by mixing rest of the ingredients in separate bowl.

3. Rinse cucumber slices with fresh water and squeeze out excess water.

4. Mix properly cucumber and sauce, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Note that mixture can be prepared at least a day ahead.

Bench note - If living in humid country, best to store kocharu in an air-tight container in the refridgerator as otherwise it may get mouldy.

Kimchi Pajeon or Pancake

No surprise since I've been on a KDS buzz (but its wearing out slowly I've noticed). As you know kimchi is a must with every Korean meal. This savoury pancake is best when the sides are hot, crispy and accompanied with some spicy dipping sauce (mixture of soya sauce, drop of sesame oil and gochujang chili pepper flakes).

The basic ingredients are flour, kimchi, egg, liquid (kimchi liquid or water if you prefer it less spicy) and spring onions. You can vary it by adding some seafood (squid or prawns), meat or other vegetables like onions/carrots.

Here's my version enough for one small serving.

Ingredients

1/2 cup all-purpose flour, shifted to avoid lumps

1/2 cup cold kimchi liquid (or water if you prefer it less spicy)

1 medium egg

1/2 cup kimchi, sliced

1 sprig spring onion, cut into roughly 4-5cm strips

Tiny drop of sesame oil

Method:

1. Beat egg and add in liquid.

2. Whisk in flour - you should get a thicker pancake mixture consistency. Add more flour if too liquid and likewise more liquid if too thick.

3. Add in kimchi and mix well to combine.

4. Heat up pan or wok with 2-3 tbsp vegetable/olive oil. If you want it crispy you need oil!

5. Pour kimchi batter onto hot pan and spread out mixture. Scatter evenly spring onions on top of mixture.

6. Flip mixture carefully when bottom side is done. Continue frying until other side is nice and golden brown.

7. Transfer to a plate, slice up like pizza slices and serve warm with some spicy sauce and beer!

Homemade Kimchi

Its probably just a matter of time before I started making some homemade kimchi right? Hence my earlier post on the Korean ingredients here.

Can’t really tell which is easier, making Nonya Acar or kimchi because I haven’t made the former before either. A lot of Malaysian’s tastebuds tend to prefer acar – guess we grew up with this dish so its a more familiar taste and the ingredient which I think makes this dish so flavourful is the roasted crushed peanuts. Funnily, I’m only so-so with acar. Definitely have a softer spot for kimchi – its sourish and spicy taste makes any meal more appetising.

The process is not difficult but a little tedious. Anyway, felt very accomplished at the end.

The recipe used is largely based from sunflower’s blog. Other references I found equally as useful if not inspirational are foodloverscreation and davidlebovits.com who used white vinegar in his mixture. Since I've tasted very vinegary kimchi before (not his fault since it was bought from the night market and prepared by someone else), it wasn't the same taste I wanted to reproduce.


Ingredients

2 small napa cabbage
1/4 cup sea salt

1 small daikon, grated
1 Chinese pear, grated
half a carrot, grated

1 large bunch of spring onions, cut into large but equal pieces

40g glutinous rice flour
5-8 tbsp Korean chili powder (gokchugaru) , less if you think its too spicy
1-2 tbsp Korean chili pepper paste (gochujang), more for the red colour

A couple of dashes of fish sauce - used Thailand brand, more if you prefer

1 cup liquid - reserve juice from pear and daikon + water if required

1 small nob fresh ginger, about size of your thumb
3 pips garlic
40g Korean salted shrimp

Method

1. Rinse and wash the cabbage properly before cutting them into quarters. Some people prefer to cut the kimchi into bite size pieces, I prefer to retain the centre core heart as I think it looks much prettier. Found a few unwelcome wiggly guest so wash well ok!!

2. Take small handfuls of sea salt, sprinkle in between each layer of the base and leaves. Soak the cabbage in a large deep bowl of water for at least 1 day. Make sure they are submerged by covering with a heavy plate. At the end of this process the leaves should be a little limp and you are able to bend the stem back gently without breaking.

When ready to use, rinse again with fresh water, getting rid of excess salt. Gently squeeze out any excess water and set aside until paste is ready to be applied.

3. To prepare the kimchi paste.

a) Cut the spring onions into equal lengths.

b) Grate the daikon, carrot and pear. Gently squeeze the juice out from the daikon and pear and set aside. Keep the juice.

c) In a small saucepan, pour 1 cup of vege-juice or top up with some water to make one cup. Stir in and dissolve 40g of glutinous rice flour. Using low heat cook and continuously stir this mixture until slightly thicken, about 3 min. Set aside and cool slightly.

d) Pound or blend ginger, garlic and shrimp together. The shrimp adds a better flavour instead of using white vinegar but its a good substitute if you can't get your hands on the preserved salted shrimp.

Mix thoroughly the flour mixture with the pounded shrimp paste, 1-2 tbsp hot pepper chili paste, 5-8 tbsp of hot chili powder (didn't taste that spicy to me), 1 tbsp sugar and a couple of dashes of fish sauce, add more fish sauce if required.

4. In a large bowl mix together the kimchi paste with the grated pear, daikon, carrot and spring onions. With this mixture and using a pair of gloves, layer into each leave section of the cabbage rubbing all over before dividing and storing them into containers.

If you are using bite size pieces of cabbage, add them all to the mixture, making sure that they are well coated with the kimchi paste.

5. Leave marinated cabbage in room temperature for 4 hours or up to 24 hours for a deeper and more pungent flavour before storing them into the refrigerator.


Note that newly marinated kimchi is a little 'dry', ie. no juice but don't worry because of the ingredients used, some liquid will appear later as the vegetable 'sweats'. You can also start consuming right away, no need to wait unless you want a deeper flavour.

The refrigerated kimchi will continue to ferment slowly in the refrigerator over time, becoming more sour and flavorful with each passing day. As long as you use clean utensils to take out the required portions you want to consume, it will keep up to a month.

Kamsahamnida