Vegetarian & food

I’m going to introduce these 2 kinds of Korean style squash pancakes to you today:
zucchini pancake and butternut squash pancake.

Unlike zucchini, butternut squash is an unusual ingredient in Korean cuisine. When I saw butternut squash for the first time in my life in USA, I asked my friend Jenny to give me her butternut squash recipe.

She told me that she usually cooked it in the microwave or in the oven with some brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon on top. I baked my butternut squash as she told me to, and it was very delicious! I found the texture, sweetness, and even the orange color to be almost the same as the squash that I used to make my hobakjuk in Korea!

Ever since then, buying some good quality of butternut squash in the fall is a regular seasonal activity for me. I stack them in the corner of my kitchen or living room. They are not only edible but also decorative!

My favorite squashes are: acorn squash, goblin squash, zucchini, and butternut squash.

Make your doenjangjjigae with acorn squash! It’s unbelievably delicious. : ) And bake a goblin squash in the oven with some honey, butter, and cinnamon. I love it!

Ok let’s start cooking!

Butternut squash pancake

Yield:
2 medium sized pancakes.

Ingredients

Butternut squash, salt, flour, vegetable oil.

This is very unique style of pancake because you don’t use water!

Directions

1. Cut a butternut squash in half and remove the seeds with a spoon.
2. Peel the skin with a potato peeler.
3. Julienne the butternut squash.
4. Place 2 cups of butternut squash strips into a bowl.
5. Mix it with ¼ ts salt by hand, and set it aside.
6. In abut 20 minutes the butternut strips will be a little wet due to the process of osmosis.
7. Add 3-4 tbs flour and mix it slightly by hand or with a spoon.
8. Heat up a pan with 1 tbs olive oil.
9. Spoon half the butternut squash mixture on to the hot pan
10. Spread the batter thinly, smooth it out with your spoon, and cook for a few minutes over medium heat.
11. When the bottom of the pancake is lightly golden brown, flip it over.
12. Keep pressing the pancake gently and add more vegetable oil to make it crispier.
13. Serve it hot.

Zucchini pancake

Yield:
1 large pancake, for sharing.

Ingredients

Zucchini, salt, water, flour, sesame oil, vegetable oil.

I learned this recipe from my friend Heykyung’s mom, when I was in high school. I went to her house one day and her mother made this pancake for us. The taste was much better than any zucchini pancake that I had ever eaten. I found out the trick was just a little bit of sesame oil, in the right spot, at the right time! Actually her recipe used more flour and water, and a little bit of sugar in the batter. I modified her recipe to my taste by cutting down the flour and cutting out the sugar.

Directions

1. Julienne a small zucchini. Put 1½ cups of zucchini strips into a bowl.
2. Add ½ cup flour, ½ ts salt, ½ cup water and mix it well with a spoon.
3. On a heated pan, place about 2 tbs vegetable oil and put the batter on to the pan.
4. Spread the batter evenly and thinly to make a large circular pancake.
5. About 1 minute later, when the bottom part sets firm, add 1 tbs sesame oil on the pan, along the edge of the pancake.
6. Tilt and shake the pan so that sesame oil spreads underneath the pancake.
7. Cook another minute until the bottom turns light golden brown and crispy.
   *tip: keep pressing it down with a spoon or spatula while cooking
8. Turn over the pancake with a spatula, or flip it if you can.
9. Add more vegetable oil if you want to make it more crispy. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
10. Transfer the pancake to a large serving plate and serve with dipping sauce.
    
    

Dipping sauce:

1. In a small glass bowl add 2 tbs soy sauce, 1 tbs vinegar, 1 tbs chopped onion, 1 clove of minced garlic, and 1 sliced green chili pepper.
2. Mix it up with a spoon.

Baek-kimchi literally translates as “white kimchi” in English, because it’s not made with hot pepper flakes, which makes it whitish. It’s not spicy at all, but that doesn’t mean it’s bland! As you see in the video, it’s made with precious ingredients like chestnuts, jujubes, pine nuts, and a whole range of vegetables. It has a lot of fresh flavors, is incredibly refreshing, and is beautiful to look at!

This is a vegetarian recipe because unlike some other kimchi recipes I didn’t use fish sauce. But one variation would be to replace the 1 teaspoon of salt with 1 to 2 teaspoons of salted fermented shrimp.

It’s a great kimchi to make for special occasions.
“Oh, check this out, everybody! I made white kimchi!”
They will be impressed!

This is a good recipe for anyone who can’t take spicy food, and also for spicy food lovers who are looking for a change of pace. I usually love freshly made kimchi, but when it comes to baek-kimchi, I always wait until it ferments before I start eating it, which usually takes 1 to 3 days. It becomes a little fizzy, sweet, sour, and nutty – it’s a totally unique taste!

So many of my readers have requested this recipe over years. One of them, Kerry in Minnesota, requested it in 2009 and said:

“Despite being Korean, my stomach can’t handle spicy foods, but I would love to make kimchi. I don’t know if just cutting the amount of hot pepper flakes would make a much milder kimchi, but I would like to try making the white kind, which I hear isn’t spicy at all. Do you have any good white kimchi recipes, Maangchi-ssi?”

She added “ssi” at the end of my name to show me respect, Korean style!

Ok Kerry, here’s the recipe! Thanks for waiting!

Ingredients

• 1 large napa cabbage (3 pounds’ worth)
• ⅓ cup, 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons salt
• ½ pound Korean radish (or daikon) cut into matchsticks
• ¼ cup carrot, cut into matchsticks
• ¾ cup buchu (Asian chives), cut into 1 inch pieces
• 3 jujubes, seeded, cut into thin strips
• 2 fresh chestnuts, peeled and cut into thin strips
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts
• ½ of red bell pepper (⅓ cup’s worth), cored, seeded, and cut into thin strips
• 1 medium Korean pear (2 cups’s worth), peeled and cored
• 4 garlic cloves
• ½ cup onion
• 1 teaspoon ginger

Directions

Salt the cabbage:

1. Cut the cabbage in half, then cut a slit through the core 2 inches above the stem, so the leaves are loosened but still attached.
2. Rinse the halves under running water, or soak them in a basin for a few seconds until all the leaves are wet.
3. Put the halves in a large basin and sprinkle ⅓ cup of salt evenly between the leaves. Let them sit for  1½ to 2 hours, turning them over every 20 minutes.
4. Rinse the cabbage under cold running water a couple of times to get rid of any dirt or salt. Split each half under the running water, to divide the cabbage into quarters. Cut out the remainder of the core. Drain and set aside.

Make the vegetable fillings:

1. Combine radish, carrot, jujubes, chives, chestnuts, and red bell pepper in a bowl. Set aside.

Make seasoning mix for brine:

1. Blend pear, garlic, onion, and ginger in a food processor until creamy. Set aside.

Make brine:

1. Mix 4 cups of water and 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons of salt in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Stir it well until the salt is thoroughly dissolved.
2. Put the blended seasoning mix into a cotton pouch, or wrap it a couple times in cheesecloth, and put it into the bowl of brine. Press it down with a spoon so the delicious blended flavors seep through. Squeeze it a bit and stir the brine for a while. Remove the pouch.

Make kimchi:

1. Spread the vegetable fillings between each leaf of the cabbage. Fold the stuffed cabbage quarters over and put them into a container, glass jar, or Korean earthenware pot.
2. Pour the brine over the kimchi so it’s submerged.
3. Cover and let sit at room temperature until it starts fermenting, which should be between 1½ to 3 days depending on how warm your room is. A warmer room will ferment faster. Just keep an eye on the kimchi and taste it now and then: when the brine turns sour, it’s fermenting.
4. Move it to the fridge, which will slow down the fermentation process. It will keep for about 1 month. Serve cold.

Hi everybody! Today I have a short and simple – but fun – video recipe for doenjangbanga. When I was in the island of Roatan in Honduras, I chartered a boat and a few men for snorkeling and fishing. We started at about 11:00 am and came back about 4:00 pm. It was an awesome experience for me and I was happy to film this video so that I can share it with my readers.

As you can see in the video, I didn’t have a proper knife to fillet the fish, or a spoon to mix the dipping sauce! No kitchen tools! I used the flat bench on the boat as my cutting board. To be honest I didn’t expect that they would catch any fish. After negotiating the charter I quickly put some Korean ingredients and a plastic bowl into a plastic bag, and rushed on board the boat.

I was thrilled when I saw they caught snapper, lobsters, and a huge conch! I was so excited that I told them I would give them a $40 tip! Ow ow ow, then what happened? The captain Ronin immediately went to work to break open the conch so we could eat it!

When I was young, my father used to charter a fishing boat when he visited his hometown island of Namhae. He always asked me to follow him on his excursion and told me he would make delicious hoe (raw fish) on the boat. Even though I loved the idea of following him, I always refused because I have a problem with seasickness. I knew I wouldn’t be able to enjoy a trip in a bumpy small boat. My father came home with lots of fish he caught and he would fillet them for us.

He didn’t forget to say, “Oh, you missed the delicious hoe on the boat. The taste of raw fish eaten on the boat right after being caught can’t be compared to anything!”

I took a pill for motion sickness before going on this trip. No problem! OMG it was so fun! My late father would be proud of me if he saw me what I did!

“Father, I made it, but too late! You would have been very happy if I had followed you when you went fishing. How come you didn’t think to give me a motion sickness pill btw?” lol

This dipping sauce’s main ingredient is soy bean paste. Dipping sauce recipes for raw fish depend on what kind of fish you have. This sauce goes well with snapper, flounder, or permit.

Jovani caught conch!

… and snapper

… and lobster

Samuel caught lion fish

I had never known conch has eyes! eepy!

Ingredients

Soybean paste, hot pepper paste, vinegar, garlic, green onions, sesame oil, roasted sesame seeds, honey (or sugar)

Directions

Mix these ingredients on a bowl with a spoon:

• ¼ cup soybean paste,
• 1tbs hot pepper paste,
• 1 ts of honey (or sugar),
• 1-2 ts vinegar,
• 2 cloves of minced garlic,
• 2 stalks of chopped green onions,
• 1 tbs of sesame oil,

*tip: If you want some vegetables to wrap the fish in, prepare lettuce, perilla leaves, and green chili pepper. Put a piece of raw fish into the lettuce or perilla leaf, add some dipping sauce and a green chili pepper, wrap it and eat.

doenjangbangah (dipping sauce) and snapper

doenjangbangah, snapper, and conch

Hello everybody!
Today’s recipe is doraji-muchim. Doraji (known as “bellflower,” “balloon flower,” or platycodon in English) is grown wild in the mountains and fields of Korea. The root of the bellflower looks similar to ginseng root and tastes bitter with strong ginseng-like smell. It’s not only used to make delicious side dishes but it’s also used in Korean traditional medicine and home remedies.

You can make this dish with either fresh or dried doraji root. If you get fresh doraji, you’ll have to peel it and split it lengthwise into bite sized strips. Then soak the strips in salty water for a couple of hours, drain the water, rub them by hand, and rinse in cold water. Repeat this until they aren’t so bitter anymore. Taste a small sample of the root to test.

Dried doraji sold in a package is more convenient for making doraji side dishes because all you need to do is to soak the roots in water and rub them with a little salt to remove the bitterness. Then you can make delicious side dishes by mixing them with seasoning sauce, stir-frying, or making pancakes with them.

The most common side dish made with bellflower roots is doraji-muchim, so let’s start with this recipe. I’ll post more in the future. If you want to add cucumber, slice it and mix with some salt in a small bowl. Then squeeze out the excess water from the cucumber with a cheesecloth and mix with the bellflower root and the seasoning sauce.

Enjoy the recipe!

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 3 ounces of dried bellflower roots (about 85 grams)
• ¼ cup hot pepper paste
• 3 Tablespoons of hot pepper flakes
• 1 Tablespoon of soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons of rice syrup or corn syrup
• 1 Tablespoon of sugar
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 3 Tablespoons of white or apple vinegar
• 2 stalks of green onions, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds
• 2 teaspoons of sesame oil

Directions

1. Soak dried bellflower roots in cold water overnight (for 8 to 12 hours) until the roots are soft.
   
   
   
   
2. Drain and scrub with about 1 Tablespoon of coarse salt to remove the bitterness. Rinse and drain.
3. Combine the hot pepper paste, hot pepper flakes, soy sauce, rice syrup, sugar, salt, vinegar, garlic, green onion, and sesame oil in a mixing bowl.
   
4. Add the dried bellflower roots to the paste and mix it all together by hand.
   
   
5. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and transfer it to a serving plate. Serve with rice, and the leftovers can be stored in the fridge for 3-4 weeks.
   
   

The Korean danhobak is a kind of winter squash, known by its Japanese name kabocha in English. In Korean, dan means “sweet,” and hobak means “pumpkin,” and bap means “rice,” so you could translate this dish as “sweet pumpkin rice.” A danhobak is very sweet and fluffy when cooked, so I often steam it and eat it by itself. The texture is very similar to sweet potato.

There are 2 ways to prepare danhobakbap. The first way is to mix rice with chunks of kabocha in a pot, and serve with a seasoning sauce called yangnyeomjang. The second way is to scoop out the insides of the kabocha, fill it with rice and other ingredients, and cook it.

I’m introducing the second version to you today because Halloween is coming soon, so I think you might be interested in making this beautiful and delicious danhobakbap with the kabocha pumpkin intact. If you take danhobakbap to your party, it will be popular because your friends will be excited to open the lid to see the colorful delicious looking rice inside!

Ingredients

Kabocha (1½ kilograms, or about 3 pounds), sweet rice, black sweet rice, salt, jujubes, pine nuts, raisins, canned chestnuts, soy sauce, vinegar, green onion, green peas, and red chili pepper.

Directions

Let’s make the rice first!

1. Place 1 cup of sweet rice and 2 tbs of black sweet rice in a small pot.
2. Add some water to the rice and scrub it by hand a couple of times. Rinse, and then drain the water. Repeat until the rice is clean and the drained water is mostly clear.
3. Add 1 cup of water and a pinch of salt to the rice and close the lid. Set aside to soak for at least 30 minutes.
   
4. After soaking, bring to a boil over medium high heat for about 5-6 minutes.
5. Open the lid and simmer over low heat with the lid closed for 10 minutes.
6. Add ⅓ cup of green peas to the hot rice and mix it up. Set aside.

Prepare the kabocha:

1. Cut off the top to make the lid just like a jack o’ lantern.
2. Scoop out the insides and set aside.
   
3. Remove the pits from 8 dried jujubes. Measure 2 tbs raisins, 2 tbs pine nuts with the tips removed, and ½ cup canned chestnuts, and set aside.
4. Place the jujubes on the bottom of the kabocha and add the cooked rice, the raisins, and the pine nuts, in that order.
5. Add more rice on top to fill it out.
6. Open a can of chestnuts and place them over top of the rice.
   
7. Put the lid back on the danhobak and steam or boil for 30-40 minutes until it’s cooked thoroughly. Wrap it in cheesecloth beforehand so you can easily take it out when it’s ready.
8. Make sauce by mixing 3 tbs soy sauce, 2 ts vinegar, 1 tbs chopped green onion, and 1 ts red chili pepper in a bowl.

How to serve:

1. Open the lid of the kabocha and cut it into 4 pieces with a knife.
2. Transfer each piece to a plate and serve with the sauce.

Enjoy the recipe!