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!!

Some laughs

If this doesn't make you smile or laugh your seat off, you are a tough stoic person.



This is one of many, you need something to cheer you up (?) - go to youtube and search for 'Jo Kwon dance'. Jo Kwon is a member of a Korean boy band called 2AM and they sing songs which are predominantly ballads.

In this video, Jo (on your screen, left) is mimicking (or should I say exaggerating on purpose) the dance moves for the song 'GEE' by SNSD (Korean girl band).

Can I dub Jo Kwon as the dancing version of Mr Bean?? He obviously loves the attention but must give him credit as he is able to pull it off hilariously well and with a cool poker face (remaining oblivious to the ruckus he just caused)!

Here's another, same dance.