Vegetarian & food

(The other recipe in this video is miyeokguk – seaweed soup)

Miyeok-muchim is made of edible seaweed, which is rich in iodine and calcium and many people eat it to lower their cholesterol. This is a delicious side dish that has a real taste of the sea!

Ingredients:

• 7 cups of soaked miyeok (about 2 cups of dried seaweed)
• 6 tbs of soy sauce (more or less depending on your taste)
• 1 tbs of sugar
• 1 tbs of minced garlic
• chopped green onion
• 4 or 5 tbs of vinegar
• sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Soak 2 cups of miyeok in a bowl for at least 30 minutes. Drain.
2. Add the miyeok to a pot of boiling water. Stir with a spoon for 30 seconds .
3. Take out the miyeok and rinse in cold water. Gently squeeze the miyeok to get rid of any excess water.
4. In a big bowl, put the miyeok and add the soy sauce, vinegar, minced garlic, sugar,  and chopped green onion. Mix it up by hand.
5. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on the top and serve cold.

I’m going to introduce a beautiful Korean rice cake today. It’s called mujigae-tteok (무지개떡). Mujigae means rainbow, so my ancestors must have got the idea for the name from a rainbow! I love it! This is an example of how they incorporated natural beauty into their everyday life. Even though the name of the rice cake is “rainbow rice cake,” it is usually made with only 3-5 different colored layers. That’s why this rice cake is sometimes called “colorful rice cake” (색떡, saektteok).

In this recipe, I am using 5 different colors from bottom to top: brown, green, yellow, pink, and white.

This rice cake is made on special occasions like a baby’s 1 year old birthday, or a wedding. As you see in this video, making this rice cake takes a lot of effort and time, even though the ingredients are comparatively simple. However, if you make this rice cake for someone very special in your life, you wouldn’t care much about time and effort. : ) You may wish this while you’re rubbing the rice flour with your palms:

“I wish my baby becomes healthy, smart, and a good, warm-hearted person!”

“I wish my parents have healthy and long life!”

“To show my love for my lovely husband (or wife) !”

Leave a comment and let me know what you wish when you make this!

A note about short grain rice flour: the flour you buy at your local store or the flour you make may have more or less moisture in it than the rice flour I use in this recipe. This is because of many different things like how long it’s been in the freezer in the store, or the atmospheric conditions where you live. You may need to steam more or less, depending on how dry or wet your short grain rice flour is.

Cooking time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients:
A 2 pound package of frozen rice flour (or make it at home), sugar, salt, water, liquid food coloring (green, pink, and yellow), lemon, mugwort powder (ssukgaru 쑥가루), cocoa powder.

Cooking utensils:
Steamer, sifter, 8 inch (20 cm) ring or springform.

Directions:

1. Thaw out frozen rice flour package and put it into a large bowl.
2. Sift the rice flour.
3. Add 10 cups of water in the bottom of a steamer, and place a wet cloth over the rack.
4. Place the 8 inch cake ring in the center of the rack.
   

Brown layer (the bottom layer):

1. Place 1 cup of rice flour in a medium sized bowl. Add 1 ts cocoa powder, a pinch of salt, 2 tbs of white sugar, and 4 ts of water.
2. Mix it all up and press out any wet lumps by rubbing the lumps gently between your palms.
3. Put the mixture into a sifter and sift into the center of the ring.
4. Flatten out the mixture so it sits level in the ring.
   *tip: a business card works well
   
   

Green layer:

1. Place 1½ cup of rice flour in a medium sized bowl. Add a pinch of salt, 2 tbs sugar, and 1 ts mugwort powder (ssukgaru).
   *tip: you can replace mugwort powder with green tea powder
    
2. Put 2 tbs of water and 1 drop of green liquid food coloring into a small bowl and mix well.
   *tip: Use a chopstick to get a very little amount of the food coloring
3. Add the green water to the rice cake mixture and mix it all up. Press out any wet lumps by rubbing the lumps gently between your palms.
4. Put the mixture into a sifter and sift into the center of the ring.
5. Flatten out the mixture so it sits level in the ring.

Yellow layer:

1. Place 1½ cup of rice flour in a medium sized bowl. Add a pinch of salt and 2 tbs sugar.
2. Put 1tbs lemon juice, 1 tbs water, and 1 drop of yellow liquid food coloring into a small bowl and mix well.
3. Add the yellow water to the rice cake mixture and mix it all up. Press out any wet lumps by rubbing the lumps gently between your palms.
4. Put the mixture into a sifter and sift into the center of the ring.
5. Flatten out the mixture so it sits level in the ring.

Pink layer:

1. Place 1½ cup of rice flour in a medium sized bowl. Add a pinch of salt and 2 tbs sugar.
2. Put 2 tbs water and 1 drop of hot pink (fuchsia) liquid food coloring into a small bowl and mix well.
3. Add the pink water to the rice cake mixture and mix it all up. Press out any wet lumps by rubbing the lumps gently between your palms.
4. Put the mixture into a sifter and sift into the center of the ring.
5. Flatten out the mixture so it sits level in the ring.

White layer (the top layer):

1. Place 1 cup of rice flour in a medium sized bowl. Add a pinch of salt, 2 tbs white sugar, and 4 ts water.
2. Mix it up and press out any wet lumps by rubbing the lumps gently between your palms.
3. Put the mixture into a sifter and sift into the center of the ring.
4. Flatten out the mixture so it sits level in the ring.

Now let’s garnish!

1. On the top of the cake place 5 dried cranberries to make flower petals. Put a few pine nuts in the center.
2. Cut a dried apricot into a thin strip, and place it as a flower stem.

Finally, let’s steam it:

1. Close the lid of the steamer and bring to a boil for 30 minutes over high heat.
2. Turn down the heat and simmer another 5 minutes.
3. Take out the rice cake and let it cool down. Serve with tea or coffee.
   

Rice cake is very familiar food for Koreans. Whenever special occasions come, the first thing my mother and grand mother planned was to make rice cake. However these days people are more likely to buy rice cake than make their own. I am going to make gyeongdan, rice cake balls and show you it can be a good gift.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of sweet rice flour (Mochiko powder)
• 1 cup of boiling water
• salt, sugar, brown sugar
• 1 cups of red beans
• 1 ts of cinnamon powder
• black sesame seeds powder
• mugwort powder
• toasted yellow soy bean powder, and 1 or 2 cups of flour

Step 1:
Make red bean paste

1. In a pot, place 1 cup of washed red beans and 4 cups of water and heat it over high heat for 10 minutes.
2. Lower the heat to low medium and simmer for 50 minutes.
3. Check if the beans are cooked fully. Remove extra water from the beans and crush them with a wooden spoon.
4. Add 1 cup of brown sugar, ¼-½ ts of salt, 1 ts of cinnamon powder into the red bean paste and set it aside.

Step 2:
Prepare 3 bowls where 3 different kinds of powder will be placed for the rice cake balls

1. Black sesame seeds:
   • Rinse and drain ½ cup of black sesame seeds in running water using a strainer.
   • Heat a pan over medium heat and pour in the sesame seeds.
   • Cook the sesame seeds by stirring with a wooden spoon.
   • The sesame seeds will pop, then lower the heat and keep stirring until they are crispy. (5- 10 minutes)
   • When the sesame seeds cool down, grind them with a coffee grinder.
   • Transfer the sesame seeds powder to a bowl and add 2 tbs sugar and a pinch of salt and mix it.
2. Put ½ cup of toasted soybean powder (kong gaa ru in Korean) in a bowl and add 2
   tbs of sugar and a pinch of salt and mix it.
3. Put ½ cup of mugwort powder (ssook gaa ru in Korean) in a bowl and add 2
   tbs of sugar and a pinch of salt and mix it

Step 3:
Make rice cake dough.

1. In a bowl, place 2 cups of sweet rice powder, 2 tbs of sugar, ½ ts of salt.
2. Pour 1 cup of hot boiling water little by little while you are mixing it with a spoon
3. Mix the dough by hand.
   *tips: if you feel the dough is too wet, add some plain flour
4. Put the rice cake dough into a plastic bag and set it aside

Step 4:
In a big pot, place a lot of water and boil it

Let’s make rice cake!

1. Take the rice cake dough out from the plastic bag and place it on the cutting board.
   Tip: To protect the dough from being stuck to the board, sprinkle some plain flour before placing the rich cake dough.
2. Divide the dough into 2 and roll each one to make cylinder shape and cut it into 18-20 pieces.
3. Roll each piece of rice dough with your hands and make a hole in the middle of the ball with your thumb. Then turn the ball into a cup.
   
4. Put the bean paste into the middle.
   
5. Close it tightly and place it on a plate.
   Tip: While you are making rice balls, the rest of dough may get dried, so cover them with wet cloth or paper towel.
6. Carefully put all the rice cake balls into boiling water. When the rice cake balls are cooked, they float. It will take about 3 -5 minutes until they float.
   
7. Prepare lots of cold water in a big bowl.
8. Put the cooked rice balls into cold water and drain them.
9. Roll the cooked rice balls in the 3 different colors of powder and transfer them to a plate.

Enjoy it!

Injeolmi is rice cake made with sweet rice (glutinous rice). It’s one of the most popular and common Korean rice cakes and it’s made on special occasions and Festival days. The rice cake is chewy and sticky, so traditionally it was given to newly wedded couples to wish that they get along and ‘stick together’ forever. The bride’s mother also makes this rice cake for the groom’s family in the hopes that her daughter will get along with the  groom’s family.

When the newly wedded couple share the rice cake, they say, “let’s stick to each other forever, just like this injeolmi” : )

Traditionally it’s made with a mortar and pestle. Soaked sweet rice is steamed and pounded until all the cooked rice grains are mashed. Then it’s  coated in roasted soy bean powder or other things like black sesame seed powder, mashed red beans, chopped pine nuts, chestnuts, and jujubes.

It’s most commonly made with soybean powder; yes, I mean roasted soybean powder, or konggaru (kong means beans and garu means powder).

I remember my grandmother used to make injeolmi at home and usually all adult family members (especially male members) helped.

“Ok, let me help you!”

“It’s my turn, take a rest!”

I was always excited to see them making rice cake, and so happy when I ate the freshly made rice cake, coated with lots of delicious soybean powder.These days almost everybody buys or orders injeolmi from a rice cake store rather than making it at home with a mortar and pestle.

I’ve often been told by my readers that they cook together with their children. I think cooking together with your mom is fun and a great experience. Children will keep those good memories in their hearts forever.

I used to make my own injeolmi without pounding, but the taste always lacked something. It wasn’t chewy enough and I didn’t like the taste at all. So a few years ago when I lived in Canada, I did an experiment to make this rice cake by pounding, like I saw my grandmothers in Korea do it. It turned out so delicious! I took my injeolmi to work and shared it with my coworkers, and they said it was awesome.

Instead of sweet rice, I use sweet rice flour, cook it in a microwave oven, and pound the dough with my small mortar and pestle. It works perfectly! What makes this rice cake perfect is that it’s super chewy just like my grandmother’s homemade injeolmi!

Enjoy the recipe!

Ingredients:

Sweet rice flour (glutinous rice flour), salt, sugar, roasted soybean powder (and mugwort powder for ssuk injeolmi)

Directions:

1. Place 1 cup of sweet rice flour, ¼ ts salt, 1 tbs sugar, and ¾ cup of water in a microwavable bowl. Mix it well to make rice cake dough.
   
2. Cover it with Saran wrap, and cook it in a microwave oven for 3 minutes.
3. Mix the hot dough with a wooden spoon for about 20 seconds. Put the Saran wrap back on and cook 1 more minute in the microwave.
   
   
   
   
4. Transfer the rice cake dough into a mortar and pound it for about 1 minute (pound 50 times). You’ll make bubbles and then hear the bubbles popping out while you pound, which mean the consistency of the rice cake is just right: chewy and elastic.
   *tip: Put a little cold water on your hands when you want to touch the dough so that it won’t stick to your fingers and will keep you from burning yourself.
   
5. Spread ½ cup roasted soybean powder on a cutting board and place your pounded rice cake in the powder. Roll it around a bit to cover it with a light dusting of powder.
6. Cut into bite size pieces.
7. Coat each piece of the rice cake with the roasted soy bean powder and transfer to a serving plate.

Sprinkle with  sugar when you serve.

Ssuk injeolmi

Same directions as above, and add 1 tbs ssukgaru (mugwort powder) and 1 tbs water to the dough water you mix it.

Hi everybody,

I usually make rice with my pressure/rice cooker but when I want to eat nurungji (scorched rice) and sungnyung (scorched rice tea) I have to make it the old-fashioned way, in a pot. When I use a pot I can create that nurungji, which I scrape off and eat as a snack!

Even if you have a rice cooker, you should give this method a try and enjoy some nurungji and sungnyung.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of short grain rice
• water

To make rice:
Yield: 2 servings of cooked rice

1. Put the rice into a heavy bottomed pot. Rinse in cold water and drain, then scrub the wet rice with your hand.
2. Rinse and drain until the drained water is clear, then drain out the last of the water by tilting the pot as much as you can. The rice should still be wet.
3. Add 1 cup of water to the pot and soak for 30 minutes with the lid closed.
   
4. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and let it cook for about 10 minutes. Open the lid and turn over the rice with a spoon.
   
5. If you want to make nurungji, then let it simmer for another 10 minutes, long enough for some rice to get burnt on the bottom. If you don’t want to make nurungji, then cook for a shorter time, around 5 to 8 minutes.

Fluffy rice is ready!

To get the nurungji out of the pot:

1. Scoop all the cooked rice out of the pot and leave the scorched rice in the bottom.
2. Simmer the pot for 2 minutes with the lid closed over low heat.
3. Open the lid and sprinkle some drops of water over the rice with your fingertips. Cover it again and let it cook for 1 more minute.
4. Than scrape out the nurungji  from the outside in with a spoon, you’ll see it comes out a lot easier.
   
   

To make sungnyung (scorched rice tea):

1. After removing as much nurungji from the pot as you can, pour in 2 cups of water.
2. Boil the water over low heat and serve.

Broccoli isn’t a traditional Korean vegetable, so this is something that I invented. I hope you like it!

In this video, I am demonstrating how to arrange broccoli and 2 other side dishes that I have already posted on my website in Korean lunch box called Doshiraak (도시락). This is going to be good chance for you to review some Korean recipes and also to give you an idea of making your own lunch in a lunch box.

Check my recipes for the 2 other side dishes: rolled egg omelette and dried anchovy side dish, and make your own dosirak. Enjoy my recipe!!

Ingredients:
1 bunch of broccoli (about 700 grams), salt, sugar, vinegar, and water

Directions:

1. Make pickle juice first:
   Put 5 cups of water, ¼ cup of salt, ¼ cup of sugar, and ½ cup of vinegar into a pot and bring to a boil.
2. Separate the florets from the stems with a knife and cut them into bite sized pieces by cutting lengthwise into halves or quarters.
3. Remove the tough bottom ends of the stems, and skin off the rough parts. Then cut them into bite sized pieces.
4. Rinse and drain the broccoli florets and stems and put them into a strainer over a large bowl.
5. When the pickle juice boils, pour it over the broccoli little by little to blanch. The hot boiling juice will go through the strainer and gather in the bowl under the strainer.
6. Immerse the blanched broccoli into icy cold water to keep its bright green color. Strain it.
7. Put the broccoli into a glass jar and wait until the pickle juice cools down.
8. After the juice cools, pour it into the jar and close the lid.
9. Store it in the refrigerator.
   

I’m introducing another easy recipe to you: yubuchobap, made with seasoned fried tofu and rice. It originated from Japan, but it’s very popular lunch box and picnic food in Korea. You can make it very easily at home because these days ready-made kits of ingredients for yubuchobap are sold at Korean and Japanese grocery stores. You may find them in Asian grocery stores, too.

The yubuchobap kit comes with 3 items: seasoned fried tofu, a vinegar-based sauce packet, and a packet of dried ingredients (carrots, sesame seeds, seaweed, etc). Even if you’re too busy to add more ingredients to your rice, you still can make delicious yubuchobap using only the kit. Just mix your freshly made warm rice with the vinegar-based sauce and dried ingredients, and fill each yubu pocket with the seasoned rice!

But I’ll show you how to make more delicious yubuchobap by adding fresh ingredients. I’m also going to show you an idea for a Halloween-themed yubuchobap. Spooky eyes made with white rice! How does it sound to you? It already sounds creepy! : )

If you don’t know how to make rice in a pot, the recipe is posted here.

Enjoy this recipe and don’t forget to make creepy eyes for fun. Let me know if you scare your friends with it.

Yubuchobap

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients:
2 cups of cooked rice (made with 1 cup of short grain rice), yubuchobap kit, cucumber, carrot, salt, yellow pickled radish, vegetable oil, and canned black olives (for spooky eyes).

Directions:

1. Chop cucumber and carrot into small pieces, about 1/3 cup worth. Put it into a bowl.
2. Add a pinch of salt and mix well. Squeeze out any excess water 10 minutes later.
3. In a heated pan, add a drop of vegetable oil and saute the squeezed vegetables for 20 seconds.
4. Chop yellow pickled radish into small pieces, about 2 tbs worth.
5. Make 2 cups of rice and put it into a large bowl.
6. Add the vinegar-based sauce to the warm rice. Mix it well with a wooden spoon.
   *tip: I suggest not pouring all the sauce from the packet into the rice. Add it little by little until you reach your preferred taste.  

   

7. Add the prepared vegetables and chopped yellow pickled radish to the rice. Mix it well and cool it down.
8. Open the package of yubu and squeeze it slightly to drain out the extra sauce.
9. Open up each yubu to make a pouch.
10. Take about 2-3 tbs of rice and make oval-looking rice balls.
11. Fill each tofu pocket with a rice ball.
12. Dip the top of the pocket with the exposed rice into the mix of dried ingredients. Put each pocket on to a serving plate one by one.

To make creepy eyes!

1. Fill each pouch of yubu with white rice mixed with vinegar-based sauce. Form into an eye shape.
2. Cut a black olive in half crosswise.
3. Insert the half dome of the olive into the center of the yubuchobap
4. Adjust the shape to make it look like eye!
   
   
   

You could use this as appetizer, too!

Edible sea vegetable or (“sea plant”) miyeok (미역) is a very healthy food that contains high levels of calcium, iodine, vitamins, and other minerals. It is called “wakame” in Japanese, “qundaicai” in Chinese, and “fougère des mer” in French. In Korean cuisine, it’s usually used for soup or salads.

Julgi (줄기)  is “stem” in Korean, so miyeok julgi bokkeum means “sautéed sea plant stems.” Many people like the texture of the miyeok stems because they are chewy and a little crunchy. This side dish is one of the most popular Korean dosirak side dishes.

You can get this main ingredient “miyeok julgi” at a Korean grocery store. It’s usually sold in a package preserved with lots of sea salt.

Ingredients:
Miyeok stems (1 pound package), onion, garlic, corn syrup (or sugar, honey), soy sauce, onion, sesame oil, roasted sesame seeds, and artificial crabmeat (optional).

Directions:

1. Open a package of miyeok julgi (1 pound) with scissors. Rinse it in cold water a couple of  times until all the salt is gone. Soak it in cold water for 10 minutes.
2. Boil about 8 cups of water in a pot.
3. Drain the miyeok julgi and put them into a pot of boiling water.
4. Blanch them for 20 seconds.
5. Rinse in cold water, strain, cut them into bite size pieces, and set aside.
6. Mince 2 cloves of garlic and slice half of a medium-sized onion. Set them aside.
7. Split 3 sticks of crabmeat lengthwise into threads with your fingers. Cut them into bite size pieces and set aside.
   *tip: sometimes, if some miyeok julgi is not shredded thinly,  split thinly with your fingers
8. Heat up a pan over medium high heat. Add some vegetable oil.
9. Add the minced garlic and sliced onion. Stir it with a wooden spoon for 10 seconds, and then add miyeok julgi.
10. Keep stirring for about 3 minutes.
11. Add 1 tbs soy sauce, 2 ts corn syrup (mulyeot), and the crabmeat threads. Sautée another minute.
12. Turn the heat off and add 2 ts of sesame oil.

Transfer to a serving plate and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.