Vegetarian & food

Japchae, sweet potato starch noodles stir fried with vegetables and meat, is one of Korea’s best-loved dishes, and one of the most popular on my website as well.

If anyone asks me to recommend a good potluck dish, I don’t hesitate to answer japchae for the simple reason that pretty much everyone loves it. At any gathering it’s hard to pass up these chewy, sweet, and slightly slippery noodles with colorful stir-fried vegetables and mushrooms, its irresistible sesame flavor, healthy amount of garlic, and light, refreshing taste.

Stir frying each ingredient separately seems like a lot of labor, but each one requires a different cooking time and a bit of care, and keeping the color and freshness of each ingredient intact makes for a stunning final presentation. An easy way to make it even prettier and more nutritious is to use more vegetables and less noodles, although this is hard to recommend because the noodles are delicious by themselves.

Let me know if you make this at a party! Double, triple, quadruple the ingredients and let everyone taste your japchae!

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 4 ounces beef, filet mignon (or pork shoulder), cut into ¼ inch wide and 2½ inch long strips
• 2 large dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in warm water for 2 to 3 hours, cut into thin strips
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
• 1 large egg
• 4 ounces spinach, washed and drained
• 4 ounces of dangmyeon (sweet potato starch noodles)
• 2 to 3 green onions, cut crosswise into 2 inch long pieces
• 1 medium onion (1 cup), sliced thinly
• 4 to 5 white mushrooms, sliced thinly
• 1 medium carrot (¾ cup), cut into matchsticks
• ½ red bell pepper, cut into thin strips (optional)
• ground black pepper
• salt
• vegetable oil

Directions:
Marinate the beef and mushrooms

1. Put the beef and shiitake mushrooms into a bowl and mix with 1 clove of minced garlic, 1 teaspoon sugar, ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil with a wooden spoon or by hand. Cover and keep it in the fridge.

Make the egg garnish (jidan):

1. Crack the egg and separate the egg yolk from the egg white. Remove the white stringy stuff (chalaza) from the yolk. Beat in a pinch of salt with a fork.
2. Add 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil to a heated nonstick pan. Swirl the oil around so it covers the pan, and then wipe off the excess heated oil with a kitchen towel so only a thin layer remains on the pan.
3. To keep the jidan as yellow as possible, turn off the heat and pour the egg yolk mixture into the pan. Tilt it around so the mixture spreads thinly. Let it cook using the remaining heat in the pan for about 1 minute. Flip it over and let it sit on the pan for 1 more minute.
4. Let it cool and slice it into thin strips.

Prepare the noodles and vegetables:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the spinach and blanch for 30 seconds to 1 minute, then take it out with a slotted spoon or strainer. Let the water keep boiling to cook the noodles.
2. Rinse the spinach in cold water to stop it from cooking. Squeeze it with your hands to remove any excess water. Cut it a few times and put it into a bowl. Mix with 1 teaspoon soy sauce and 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Put it into a large mixing bowl.
3. Put the noodles into the boiling water, cover and cook for 1 minute. Stir them with a wooden spoon so they don’t stick together. Cover and keep cooking for another 7 minutes until the noodles are soft and chewy.
4. Strain and cut them a few times with kitchen scissors. Put the noodles into the large bowl next to the spinach. Add 2 teaspoons sesame oil, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon sugar. Mix well by hand or a wooden spoon. This process will season the noodles and also keep the noodles from sticking to each other.
5. Heat up a skillet over medium high heat. Add 2 teaspoons vegetable oil with the onion, the green onion, and a pinch of salt. Stir-fry about 2 minutes until the onion looks a little translucent. Transfer to the noodle bowl.
6. Heat up the skillet again and add 2 teaspoons vegetable oil. Add the white mushrooms and a pinch of salt. Stir-fry for 2 minutes until softened and a little juicy. Transfer to the noodle bowl.
7. Heat up the skillet and add 1 teaspoon vegetable oil. Add the carrot and stir-fry for 20 seconds. Add the red bell pepper strips and stir-fry another 20 seconds. Transfer to the noodle bowl.
8. Heat up the skillet and add 2 teaspoons vegetable oil. Add the beef and mushroom mixture and stir fry for a few minutes until the beef is no longer pink and the mushrooms are softened and shiny. Transfer to the noodle bowl.

Mix and serve:

1. Add 1 minced garlic clove, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon sugar, ½ teaspoon ground black pepper, and 2 teaspoons of sesame oil to the mixing bowl full of ingredients. Mix all together by hand.
2. Add the egg garnish and 1 tablespoon sesame seeds. Mix it and transfer it to a large plate and serve.

Koreans often make baekseolgi-tteok to celebrate a baby’s 3 week birthday (saei rye in Korean) or any child’s birthday, but it’s most often traditionally prepared to celebrate a baby’s 100 day birthday (baek il in Korean). The white cake represents purity and perfection and is attained by using fluffy steamed white rice flour and a few other ingredients: sugar, salt, and water.

Everybody at the party gives the baby good wishes on his or her 100 day birthday. They might say: “I hope you grow up to be always healthy, pure, and happy!”

This rice cake was meant to be shared with many people because it’s believed that the more people who share it, the longer life the baby will have.

If you’ve already made my mujigae-tteok (rainbow rice cake), I think making baekseolgi-tteok may be too simple for you. I added some dried fruits and sliced almonds to this rice cake to make it more tasty and colorful, but if you want to make it in the traditional Korean style, leave them out.

Let me know if you make this for your lovely family members, friends, babies, your parents, or even your co-workers! Impress me and my other readers.

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 add more or less water, depending on how dry or wet your short grain rice flour is.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups and 1 TBS rice flour (made from short grain rice)
• 1 ts salt
• ¼ cup water
• ¼ cup sugar
• dried colorful fruits and nuts if desired : raisins, golden raisins, papaya or apricot (sliced), cranberries, and almonds (sliced or chopped)

Cooking utensils:
Steamer, sifter, 8 inch (20 cm) cake ring

Directions:

1. Thaw out the package of frozen rice flour and put it into a large bowl.
2. Add water and salt. Mix it all up and press out any wet lumps by rubbing the lumps gently between your palms. Repeat until all the lumps are broken and the rice flour is uniformly wet.
3. Sift the rice flour twice, then add sugar and sift once more.
   
4. Add 10 cups of water to the bottom of a steamer and bring to a boil.
5. When the water boils, place a wet cloth or cheese cloth over the rack and put the cake ring on top. Put the sifted rice flour into the ring and flatten it out so the mixture sits level.
   *tip: a business card works well for this
6. Add colorful dried fruits and nuts on top, if you want them. The traditional Korean style doesn’t use them, but you can add them if you like.
   
7. Cover the cake with the cloth and steam over high heat for 30 minutes.
8. Turn off the heat and open the lid. Uncover the cake and carefully lift it out using the sides of the cloth. Place it on a plate or cakeboard.
9. Wait a few minutes for it to cool down before gently pulling the cloth out and removing the cake ring from the cake.
10. Serve with tea, coffee, or milk.
    

Freeze any leftover rice cake: if you freeze it when it’s still fresh and fluffy, it will still be chewy and fluffy when it’s thawed out. Cut the rice cake into individual servings and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Put the pieces into a plastic bag and keep that  in the freezer. Thaw it out at room temperature before serving, or reheat it in a steamer or microwave oven.

If you can’t find frozen rice flour in a Korean grocery store, you can make rice flour it at home:

1. Rinse and drain some short grain rice a couple of times and soak overnight (10-12 hours).
2. Drain the water and grind the rice very finely. Use it right away, or immediately store in the freezer.

Hotteok is a flour dough pancake filled with sugar syrup inside. It’s one of the most popular street snacks in Korea.

Ok, now it’s time for me to release my hotteok recipe!

I used to make hotteok for my children. How often? So many times! When they came home from school, I would surprise them with my hotteok. I never made it before they came. I prepared some well-fermented dough and the brown sugar mixture. That’s all! Once they entered the home, I said, “Wash your hands and come back to the kitchen! Hotteok will be ready~” with big smile.  My children were so happy and excited!

A glass of milk and hot hot hotteok with sizzling golden syrup! Wouldn’t you like it? Yes, children love it! If you want to entertain your children, wait for them with the preparation just as I did.

I make hotteok for myself and my friends these days. Where are my little children!!

I sometimes miss the old times. They are already grownups and live far away from me.

Serve or eat hotteok right after you make it. If someone gives me cold hotteok, I will feel insulted. : )  I will refuse to eat it and save my empty stomach for kimchi and rice! lol

Ingredients:
Flour, water, dry yeast, salt, vegetable oil, sugar, brown sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon powder.

Directions:

Make hotteok dough:

1. Place 1 cup of lukewarm water into a mixing bowl.
2. Add 2 tbs white sugar, 2 ts yeast, ½ ts salt, 1 tbs vegetable oil, and stir it well.
3. Add 2 cups of all purpose flour and mix it with a rice scoop, or by hand.
4. Let the dough rise. It should sit with the lid closed at room temperature for 1 hour.
5. After an hour the dough will rise to double its size. Knead it to remove the gas bubbles in the dough.
   
6. Let it rise for another 10-20 minutes.

Make filling (for 8 hotteok):

1. Mix ½ cup brown sugar, 1 ts cinnamon powder, and 2 tbs chopped walnuts in a bowl.
   *tip: you could use mozzarella cheese for stuffing. Invent your own fillings with your favorite ingredients!

Let’s make hotteok!

1. Knead the dough again to remove the gas bubbles.
2. Place and spread about ½ cup flour on your cutting board.
3. Put the dough on your cutting board and knead it. Make it into a lump, and cut it into 8 equal-sized balls.
   
   
   
4. Take 1 dough ball, flatten it, put some filling in the center of the dough, and then seal it to make a ball.
5. Repeat this 8 times to make 8 stuffed balls.
   *tip: Use some flour from the cutting board to prevent your fingers from sticking to the dough
6. Heat up your non-stick pan over medium heat and add some vegetable oil.
7. Place 1 ball on the pan and let it cook for 30 seconds.
8. When the bottom of the dough ball is light golden brown, turn it over and press the dough with a spatula to make a thin and wide circle (about the size of a CD).
   
9. Let it cook about 1 minute until the bottom is golden brown.
10. Turn it over again and turn down the heat very low.
11. Place the lid on the pan and cook 1 more minute. The brown sugar filling mixture will be melted to syrup!

Serve hot!

Ingredients:
red bean paste, sweet rice flour, boiling water, sugar, pine nuts, cinnamon powder.

Directions:

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 or use your food processor to grind it.
4. Add 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 ts of salt, 1 ts of cinnamon powder into the red bean paste and set it aside.

1. Put the red bean paste in a pot.
2. Pour some water (about 4- 5 cups) and 1 cup of sugar (depends on your taste) and boil it.
3. Mix one cup of sweet rice powder, a pinch of salt and 1 tbs of sugar in a bowl.
4. Add 1/2 cup-1 cup of hot water in “3” and mix it with a spoon first and fold it by hand to make dough. (The amount of hot water varies depending on the dryness of sweet rice powder you use, so first use 1/2 cup of hot water to make your dough and put more hot water while kneading the dough)
5. Make small rice balls with the dough about 0.5 cm diameter.
6. When the red bean soup boils, add the rice balls and cook it.
7. Keep stirring the soup and it will get thicker.
8. Ladle the soup into a bowl and add a few pine nuts on top and sprinkle some cinnamon powder and serve it.

Hi everybody! I’m so excited to introduce you to a Korean dessert (or snack) called gotgamssam. You need only 2 ingredients: gotgam (dried persimmons) and hodu (walnuts)! I think this is a record for the fewest requirements needed to make one of my recipes. If someone asks me what else they need, I would say  “strong fingers,” because you’re going to need to squeeze the wraps tightly to press the walnuts into the soft persimmons.

Dried persimmons are delicious by themselves, but if you feel like making a special dessert or snack for yourself or your guests without spending too much time preparing them, gotgamssam will be a perfect choice. For your guests, serve a few slices of gotgamssam with tea. They will be very impressed! And it will also be a good idea for a gift. Fill a small box with gotgamssam!

The heart-shaped dried persimmons that I use in this video are sold at a Korean grocery store. The persimmons should be semi-dried so that you can wrap walnuts in them easily. If the dried persimmons are too dry, put some honey inside of them to make them sticky. The other type of dried persimmons that I use in this video that look like flat, round discs are sold at an Asian grocery store. You can make gotgamssam with either one.

If dried persimmons are not available in your area, you can use dried apricots. It will turn out really pretty. If you use dried apricots, you should call them salgussam because apricots are salgu (살구) in Korean. : )

If you like persimmons, check out my dessert persimmon punch (“Sujeonggwa“) recipe.

Enjoy the recipe!

Ingredients:

• 2 dried persimmons, stalks removed (replace with dried apricots if not available)
• 6 roasted walnut halves
  

Directions:

1. Slice open the persimmons by slitting the sides. Make sure not to cut them all the way through.
2. Open them up and remove the seeds. Flatten them out and trim the edges to make rectangular strips.
3. Put them side by side with sticky part up.
4. Add 3 halved walnuts lengthwise, with the wrinkly part down.
5. Add 3 more halved walnuts to fit on the first like lids.
6. Roll up the persimmon. Cover with plastic wrap and press it together. Keep in the freezer.
7. Serve with tea and slice the wraps into ⅓ inch thick pieces.

Salgussam (Walnuts wrapped in dried apricots)

1. Make 3-4 strips of apricot. Put them side by side on your cutting board with sticky part up.
2. Add walnuts and roll them up the same way you would do for gotgamssam.

Properly toasted sesame seeds are a very important ingredient in Korean cuisine. They add a wonderful, toasted nuttiness to many Korean dishes, and are particularly important in giving vegetarian dishes an extra dimension of flavor. Other cultures use sesame seeds in their cooking but to me, properly toasted sesame seeds are part of what make Korean food distinctly Korean. When Koreans refer to sesame seeds, the fact that they are toasted is understood by all – no Korean would even consider using raw or untoasted sesame seeds in any dish. We love toasted sesame seeds.

I take my toasted sesame seeds seriously! I always have some on hand. I toast a few cups at a time and store them in the freezer, and take some out little by little over the next few months until I have to toast some more. And when I travel, I always bring a little stash with me for cooking on the road or livening up a dish. I’ve also given toasted sesame seeds as gifts! For me, that’s a great present!

When you buy sesame seeds to toast, get raw sesame seeds, called cham-kkae in Korean. If you can’t find these, you can buy pre-roasted sesame seeds, called bokkeun-kkae or bokkeum-kkae in Korean in the store. Bokkeum or bokkeun means “toasted.” If you buy toasted (or roasted) sesame seeds in the store, it’s always a good idea to toast them again before using them to give them a boost of nutty flavor, because they might have been toasted a long time ago.

As you see, this recipe is very simple, but it’s all in the technique. It’s best to wash the seeds well, so toasting makes them plump, and take care of them so they don’t burn.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Put the sesame seeds in a bowl and fill it with cold water. Stir and agitate by hand. Remove any brownish debris floating on the surface.
2. Strain the seeds. Fill the bowl up with water and dip the strainer into the bowl so the seeds are submerged. Firmly rub them against each other with your hand to clean them. Take the strainer out of the bowl and you’ll see the water is brownish and any sand, mud, or stones from the seeds have sunk to the bottom.
   
3. Wash the sesame seeds under running water, stirring and turning them over in the strainer until the water runs through clear. Drain the water and use a wooden spoon to press on the seeds and squeeze out any excess water.
   
   
4. Transfer the seeds to a heated skillet or pan over medium high heat. Stir the seeds occasionally with a wooden spoon for about 10 minutes until all of them are dried. Some seeds will start to pop.
   
5. Lower the heat to medium and keep stirring for about 7 to 8 minutes until the seeds are evenly golden and crispy. They’ll pop as they cook. Take a few sample and taste. The seeds should be crispy and nutty and crumble nicely in your mouth.
   
6. Remove from the heat and let them cool. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 1 month, or up to 3 months in the freezer.

I was really surprised the first time one of my readers requested a recipe for ppopgi. I had totally forgotten about it!

When I was in elementary school in Korea, there was a ppopgi vendor outside my school every day, and I was forever tempted by him, so the request brought back a lot of good memories.

The ingredients can’t be simpler; basically just sugar and baking soda. The key to good ppopgi is all technique, timing, and patience. The candy is sweet, but also a little smoky, nutty, and bitter. You might expect it to be hard and sticky, but the baking soda makes it light, airy, and brittle. This candy has a few different regional names. When I was young, we used to call it “gukja,” which means “ladle” and refers to the ladle it was traditionally made in. It was only later that I heard it called “ppopgi” or “dalgona.”

When I was a kid, anything sweet made for an awesome snack for me and my friends. The ppopgi didn’t even have a stick; thats new technology! These days everyone is afraid to eat sugar, but back then we couldn’t get enough of it. Some of my friends even used to snack on sugar water!

After school we’d gather around the vendor and watch him melt the sugar, mix it up, add the baking soda, and make the candy. He had a few different patterns he used for the designs: a bird, a fish, a star, and a flower. And if you can eat the candy around the design without cracking it, you win a free ppopgi.

I always hoped he would firmly press the pattern into the candy and make a good strong impression that I could easily pop out, but he was so tricky. He only pressed it in for a quick second before wordlessly handing it to me. He didn’t need to explain the challenge: I knew what I was supposed to do. Preserve the shape in the middle and eat everything else. I used all kinds of techniques: nibbling, licking, pinching, but the surprising brittleness of the candy always beat me and it would shatter.

He sometimes let me clean his ladle, and I made sugar water like I show you in the video. I thought I was getting a real treat at the time!

Ppopgi is strictly a street food in Korea, but that shouldn’t stop you from making it at home and challenging your family members and friends to see if they can save the design without cracking. Try it and have fun! Let me know how it goes!

Ingredients:

• 1½ tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon white or brown sugar
• a pinch of baking soda

Sugar and baking soda

Directions:

1. Place sugar in a stainless steel ladle and heat it over medium heat until it starts to melt.
2. Stir it with a spoon so it melts evenly and doesn’t burn. Control the heat by lifting the ladle far from the heat or bringing it closer, as needed.
3. Stir the melting sugar until it turns into a smooth, clear liquid with no lumps.
4. Add baking soda and continue stirring. It will expand and change from light brown to creamy golden beige.
5. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon sugar on a cookie pan. Scrape the hot, foamy candy from the ladle onto the sugar coated cookie pan.
6. Place a skewer or lollipop stick in the center of the lower part of the candy, 1 inch from the edge.
7. Press it down with any smooth, flat, non-stick object like a stainless steel bowl, lid, or a spatula.
8. Use a cookie cutter to press a pattern into the center of the candy. Press hard and make a good impression if you want them to break out the design easily, and press softly if you want to drive them crazy!
9. Wait for 1 minute until the candy gets hard. Enjoy!

I made a dozen of candies at the hotel where I stayed  1 night before the shooting day. : )

Thanks to everyone at YouTube LA Space for filming me there,
and a special thanks to Anthony Fantano!