Vegetarian & food

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.

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!

This is one of my most favorite kinds of jangajji (Korean pickles). It’s made with green chili peppers and tastes salty, sour, spicy, and a little sweet. It’s very crispy and crunchy. Biting into a pickled pepper with a spoonful of warm rice and having the salty brine splash out with a snappy crunch is just irresistible for me. In general, chili peppers hold a special place in Korean cuisine and are loved by pretty much everybody. We use them in many many dishes.

These days, between summer and autumn, green chili peppers are in season. Peppers are cheap, plentiful, and at their peak, so I buy lots of them and make lots of pickles. I eat them with almost every meal!

I remember watching my grandmother make green chili pepper pickles when I was a kid. She made a few kinds: chili peppers pickled in a soy sauce brine, chili peppers pickled in a fish sauce brine, and also chili peppers pickled by pushing them deep into her crock full of homemade doenjang. I can still remember the taste of rice with my grandmother’s pickles.

This version I’m showing you today is one of the least salty varieties of gochu-jangajji that I know. I plan on posting more chili pepper pickle recipes over time, because they are so delicious and a good thing to have in the fridge when you want to put together a quick, tasty meal or even just a spicy snack.

Ingredients

• 1 pound green chili peppers, washed and dried
• 3 ½ cups water
• ½ cup soy sauce
• ¼ cup salt
• ¼ cup white vinegar
• 3 tablespoons sugar

Also get some pebbles, clean and dry them, and put them into a plastic bag.

Directions

1. Cut the stems the peppers, leaving a ½ inch on the top
2. Make a hole with a toothpick or fork on each pepper, just under the stem. These holes will allow the brine to seep into the pepper.
3. Put the peppers into a glass jar that can hold at least 8 cups.
4. Combine the water, soy sauce, vinegar, and the sugar in a pot. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Cover and bring to a boil over medium high heat. When the brine boils and bubbles vigorously on the surface, pour it into the jar of green chili peppers.
5. Keep the peppers submerged in the brine by weighing them down with your bag of pebbles (or anything else handy).
6. Cover and let it sit at room temperature for 24 hours.
7. 24 hours later open the jar, take out the pebbles, and pour the brine out of the jar into a pot.
8. Boil the brine vigorously for about 15 minutes.
9. Remove from the heat and let cool thoroughly. If you want it to cool faster, place the pot into a bath of ice water but be sure not to splash cold water into the brine.
10. Pour the cool brine back into the jar. Cover and refrigerate for 1 week or more before eating.

Three different ways to eat gochu-jangajji:

1. As a simple side dish with rice.

This is the easiest way to enjoy them. Simply put some peppers and brine in a shallow bowl, sprinkle some sesame seeds over top, and serve with rice. You can add more side dishes if you want.

2. Mixed with seasonings.

• 1 pound  pickled green chili peppers
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• ¼ cup hot pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice syrup
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (or vegetable oil)
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Combine garlic, hot pepper flakes, soy sauce, rice syrup, olive oil, and sesame oil in a bowl. Mix well with a spoon. Add the pickled peppers to the seasoning mixture. Mix well by hand. Sprinkle sesame seeds over top and serve it right away as a side dish for rice, or refrigerate it for up to 3 months in an airtight container.

3. Make bibimbap (aka mixed rice).

Chop 2 pickled peppers into small pieces and put them into a bowl. Add 1 minced garlic clove, 1 teaspoon hot pepper flakes, ½ teaspoon soy sauce, 1 teaspoon rice syrup, 1 teaspoons sesame oil, and 1 teaspoon sesame seeds. Mix well.

Roast a sheet of gim (seaweed paper) both sides very crispy.

Put a serving of warm rice into a large wide-mouth bowl. Add some or all of the chopped and seasoned mixture, crush the roasted gim and add it too. Mix well with a spoon and eat. You can add extra sesame oil, too.

Yaksik is a kind of Korean rice cake made with glutinous rice, honey, nuts, and dried fruits. It’s a sweet, delicious treat that’s packed full of flavor and healthy ingredients. Even the name is healthy – in Korean, yak means “medicine,” and sik means “food.” Koreans have long believed that honey is a medicine that’s beneficial to your health, so anything with honey is good for you. We feel the same way about jujubes and pine nuts, too, so yaksik is good for you. It’s also delicious!

Like many Korean housewives, I used to make yaksik in my pressure cooker. It’s very easy to do: just mix in all the ingredients, turn the pressure cooker on, and let it get to work. How to make yaksik with a pressure cooker is below.

But yaksik made in a pressure cooker can’t be compared with the taste and texture of yaksik made the traditional way. Each grain of rice becomes firm and chewy rice cake, and the flavors of all the ingredients are more distinct and alive.

Whichever way you decide to make it, I guarantee you’ll love this delectable, delightful snack. I make a lot of them and then save them for my breakfast or snack, but they are delicious any time of day.

Enjoy my recipe! Let me know how your yaksik turns out.

Ingredients (9 servings)

2 cups glutinous rice, rinsed and soaked in cold water for 5 hours

for caramel sauce:

• ¼ cup white sugar
• ¼ cup water

for seasoning sauce:

• ¼ cup dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (or vegetable oil)
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder

Fruits, nuts, honey:

• 14-16 large dried jujubes, rinsed, deseeded, cut into halves (or replace them with 1 cup dried cranberries)
• ¼ cup raisins
• 2 tablespoons dried cranberries (optional)
• ¼ cup honey
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts, tips removed
• 1 can of chestnuts, strained

Directions

Make caramel sauce:

1. Add the sugar and 2 tablespoons water to a small saucepan on high heat. Don’t stir, or the sugar might crystallize.
2. When it starts to boil, move the pan around to mix it up.
3. 6 minutes later it will start to bubble. Turn the heat down low and swirl the sauce around in the saucepan to mix it up.
4. 2 minutes later, when it gets a little smoky and turns dark brown, remove from the heat. Add 2 tablespoons of water and tilt and move the pan so it all mixes well. Let it cool.

Make seasoning sauce:

1. Combine the brown sugar, oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, and cinnamon powder in a small bowl, stirring with a wooden spoon until all the sugar is dissolved.

Mix fruits and nuts:

1. Combine jujubes, raisins, pine nuts, chestnuts, and the dried cranberries (if used) in a large bowl.

Steam rice:

1. Strain the rice. Put into a steamer basket lined with a cotton cloth. Cover the rice with the edges of the cotton cloth. Add 5 cups of water to the steamer, cover and cook for 40 minutes over medium high heat.
   
2. Open and turn the rice over a few times with a wooden spoon so it cooks evenly. Lower the heat to medium and cook another 20 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat.

Put it all together:

1. Transfer the cooked rice to the large bowl with the fruits and nuts. Add the seasoning sauce, caramel sauce, and honey.
   
2. Mix well with a wooden spoon until all the liquid is absorbed by the rice.
   
3. Put everything back into the steamer basket lined with the cotton cloth. Cover with the edges of the cotton cloth, add 1 cup of water to the steamer, and cook for 30 minutes over medium heat.
4. Remove from the heat.

Serve:
You can serve right away, scooping out pieces or even rolling handfuls of yaksik into balls. Or separate into squares for later use:

1. Put the hot steamed yaksik into a 8 x 8 inch baking pan lined with plastic wrap. Mix well with a wooden spoon so the fruits and nuts get evenly distributed through the rice. Pack it down slightly so it all sticks together.
   
2. Let it cool for about 20 minutes and flip the pan upside down over a cutting board so the rice cake comes out. Cut into 9 even size pieces. Wrap each one in tightly plastic wrap, into squares.

Freeze for later use:

1. Put the wrapped yaksik into a plastic bag and freeze up to 1 month.
2. When you want to eat one, take it out of the freezer and microwave for 2 minutes, or thaw it out at room temperature for about 30 minutes until it’s soft and chewy again.

How to make yaksik in a pressure cooker

1. Put 2 cups of washed and drained rice in a pressure cooker. No need to soak it.
2. Add the caramel sauce, seasoning sauce, honey, jujubes, raisins, pine nuts, chestnuts, and the dried cranberries (if used).
3. Add 1 cup of water and set the pressure cooker to make rice.

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.

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.