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.

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.
   
   

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.

Hi everybody!
Let’s meet a new Korean food called baesuk! : )

Baesuk, as its name indicates, it’s cooked pear (“bae” = pear” and “suk” = cooked). There are 2 types of baesuk: steamed whole pear and cooked pair punch, like sujeonggwa. Today I’m showing how to make the steamed pear, sometimes called baejjim (“jjim” = steamed) or baekkuljjim.

Since I posted my ginger tea recipe and explained that it’s a home remedy for colds, stomachaches, and nausea (it sounds like panacea, yeah?), many people have asked me to post more recipes that are not only delicious but have medicinal qualities and are healthy. Baesuk is great for colds, especially sore throats and coughs. It’s also a delicious sweet snack or dessert. Yes, it’s very delicious! I love the texture of cooked pear.

If you serve baesuk for a loved one who has a severe cold, say this: “I made Korean baesuk for you. Have this whole pear and the juice on the bottom, then your cold will be gone!” If you serve baesuk as a dessert, you can say, “you want some Korean style dessert? Baesuk is waiting for us!”

I’m going to show you how to make baesuk with a Korean pear, and also with a small bosc pear, which is easier for some people to find and is the perfect portion for a dessert. Enjoy the recipe and please let me know how yours turns out, and how you serve it to your loved ones.

Ingredients (1-2 servings)

• a 1 pound Korean pear
• 2 tbs honey
• 1 ts ginger, grated
• ½ ts cinnamon powder
• 1 tbs pine nuts
• 2 jujubes (optional), pits removed

Directions

1. Rinse the pear in cold water and pat dry.
2. Make a lid by slicing 1 inch off the top.
3. Scoop out the core and the seeds with a small spoon.
   
   
4. Fill it up with honey, ginger, cinnamon powder, and jujubes
   
   
5. Put the sliced lid back on the pear and put it in a heat-resistant bowl. In the video I’m using a soup bowl.
6. Steam the pear about 1 hour over medium high heat.
   
7. If you’re trying to cure a cold, serve it hot, with a small spoon. Otherwise, you can serve it hot or chill it in the fridge before serving.
   

Bosc pear baesuk:
If you make baesuk with a bosc pear, the directions are the same but you only need to steam it for 30 minutes. And because the pear is smaller, the ingredients need to be scaled down:

• 1 tbs honey
• ½ ts ginger, grated
• ¼ ts cinnamon powder
• 2 ts pine nuts
• 1 jujube (optional), pit removed

Today I’m going to show you how to make a simple but delicious Korean side dish: crispy and salty roasted seaweed sheets. Called gim-gui (김구이) in Korean, they are a common item in lunchboxes because they taste great and are a good source of protein, vitamin, minerals, and fiber. Their saltiness also makes them a great accompaniment to beer.

You may have seen roasted seaweed sold in little packets in your local grocery store. But I guarantee that roasting your own tastes 10 times better, and you can be sure it’s made just the way you want it. One of my friends in this video often buys seaweed sheets at Trader Joe’s, and he was blown away by how much better mine tasted! He thought I added something “special,” but as you see in this video, it’s pretty simple to make!

In the old days, roasted seaweed sheets weren’t sold in stores, so every Korean housewife roasted her own. Gim is usually sold in packs of 100 sheets, and I used to roast all 100, cut them into bite sized pieces, pack them into plastic bags (after squeezing all the air out), and keep them in the freezer. To keep them as fresh and crispy as possible, I would only keep a small amount outside of the freezer, sealed in a plastic container.

Like many other frugal housewives, I used to keep empty ramyeon packets on hand to use as gim-gui wrappers. When I put some gim-gui into my children’s lunchboxes, I slipped them into old ramyeon wrappers so they would stay fresh and crispy until lunchtime.

When I lived in Missouri in the 90s, my Japanese friend Yukiko came over to my house and saw my gim-gui in a container on my kitchen table. She tasted some and loved it. She thought that the Korean way of preparing gim-gui was better than the Japanese way, which doesn’t spread oil or salt on the gim before roasting it.

I love both ways. Roasting gim without oil and salt gives it a more of a perfectly sea smell, but oiling and salting gives it an extra crispy texture that I love.

Enjoy this recipe, and I hope you get a chance to make some delicious, nutritious lunchboxes with your gim-gui! Let me know if that happens, and send me a photo!

Ingredients

• 20 sheets of gim (seaweed sheets)
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Combine the cooking oil and sesame oil in a small bowl and put the salt in a small bowl. Place a few pieces of paper towel in front of you, where you can work.
   
2. Put a sheet of gim on the paper towel with the shiny side up. Using your hand or a brush, spread a light layer of the oil mixture on the gim. Sprinkle a pinch of salt over top.
3. Repeat until all 20 sheets oiled and seasoned with salt.
   
4. Roll the seasoned gim up in the paper towel, so it soaks up a bit of the excess oil. Set aside.
   
5. Heat up a large pan on the stove over medium heat, or heat a griddle to 350°F (about 180°C).
6. Place a sheet of gim with the shiny side up on the griddle. Press the gim with a spatula for about 15 seconds until the bottom turns crispy and green.
7. Add another sheet of gim on top of the first, with the rough side up. Flip them over and add another sheet of gim with the rough side up. Cook for about 15 seconds. Repeat this until all 20 sheets of gim turn very crispy and beautiful light green. Layering it this way will make the sheets crispier, as the inside sheets get roasted as you go. The key is to always keep the rough side out, so it ends up next to the grill and the shiny side in, so it never touches the grill.
   
8. Remove from the heat. Cut them into bite size pieces. Serve with rice or as a side dish with beer.
   
9. Keep the leftovers in a small sandwich bag or an airtight container and serve it over the next few days. If you roast a large quantity, keep the excess in the freezer, and only take it out as you need it.

Hi everybody!

Dotori … dotori … dotorimuk-muchim recipe is here! : )

Dotorimuk is made from acorns. Some people in Korea still make homemade dotorimuk from scratch, using acorns that they gathered or picked  from the mountain. The traditional way to make acorn jelly is to shell, dry, and powder the acorns, then mix them with water to remove the bitter and astringent taste. The starch will sink to the bottom, so the next day you should discard the bitter water on top and pour new water in. This is repeated for many days until  the starch is not bitter anymore. Then you make porridge with this starch mixture.

Can you make your own dotorimuk from scratch? I’d like to try it, but I’m afraid that when gathering the acorns in the mountain that squirrels will give me a dirty look. : )

It’s a lot of effort to make acorn jelly powder from scratch, but luckily the powder can be found easily at any Korean grocery store, and the quality is usually just the same.

My mungbean jelly recipe is very popular, so I think this dotorimuk-muchim recipe will also be popular. All the people who came to my recent Meetup event and tasted my dotorimuk-muchim will love it. They ate every last piece!

I use only ½ cup powder in this recipe but I used 5 cups of the powder to serve more than 50 people who came to the meetup. It was a huge amount of acorn porridge to make! If you have a big party and are looking for an appetizer recipe, I think dotorimuk-muchim is a great choice because you can make the jelly and the yangnyeomjang (sauce) in advance and demonstrate your mixing in front of people at the party just as I did in my video.

I have a funny story about dotorimuk. When I lived in Korea, my friend  had a German guest who was a food scientist. She invited him to her house for dinner. She made a bunch of different Korean dishes to impress him. One of the dishes was dotorimuk-muchim. A few days after she had the guest, she called me and said: “The German guest said I should add some chocolate to the dotorimuk I made!”  : )

We laughed together but it also made sense because this person had never tasted dotorimuk in his life, so he might have expected it to taste sweet because it looks like creamy chocolate. I may get the same question from some of my readers now. My answer is: “Go ahead and make your favorite dessert with dotorimuk powder!”

Some of my readers have surprised me by using apples, Nutella, and peanut butter as filling for hoddeok. They said it turned out so delicious. If the food turns out delicious, then it means your experiment was a success, don’t you think so? : )

Ingredients

For dotorimuk

• ½ cup acorn jelly powder (dotori mukgaru)
• 3 cups water
• ½ ts salt

For the seasoning sauce

• ⅓ cup soy sauce
• 2 ts honey or sugar
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 stalks of green onions, chopped
• 1 tbs hot pepper flakes
• 1 tbs and 2 ts toasted sesame oil
• 1 tbs toasted sesame seeds, add right before serving so they don’t lose their crispiness
• garnish with shredded red pepper (silgochu)

For the vegetables, you can use

• 2 cups lettuce cut into bite size pieces
• ¼ cup onion, sliced thinly
• 1 cup’s worth edible chrysanthemum (ssukgat), cut into bite size
• 3-5 perilla leaves, chopped
• 2 tbs worth carrot, shredded
• ½ cup’s worth cucumber, thinly sliced
• 1 red chili pepper, chopped
• 1 green chili pepper, chopped

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for dotorimuk. Stir with a wooden spoon and strain to remove any lumps. Pour the mixture into a thick bottomed pot and stir over medium heat about 7-8 minutes until it bubbles.
   
   
   
2. Lower the heat and stir another 5 minutes.
3. Pour the mixture into a rectangular glass container and let it cool down.
   
4. Put it into the fridge for about 4-7 hours until it’s solid.
5. Create the seasoning sauce by combining soy sauce, sugar or honey, hot pepper flakes, garlic, and sesame oil in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
6. Take the acorn jelly out of the fridge. Turn the glass container upside down over your cutting board so the solidified jelly slides out in one piece. Cut into bite sized pieces 2 inch x 1 inch and ¼ inch thick.
   *tip: Use a crinkle cutter to make a nice wavy pattern on each piece of jelly
    
7. Put all the vegetables in a large bowl. Mix with the seasoning sauce by hand.
8. Add the dotorimuk and gently mix it all together.
9. Transfer to a serving plate. Sprinkle sesame seeds over top and serve.