Korean Style Salad -Spicy Salad (야채 겉절이)

Recently, I planted some vegetables on my lanai.

I decided to eat super fresh vegetables after I've watched Food Matters.

However, how I can make yummy salad out of 

cilantro + lettuce + green onion + basil + arugula mixture?(all really small portion)

I thought a lot since I'm not a big fan of cilantro.

The answer was make it spicy so that it can mediate the strong cilantro smell.

Oh...it was really good.

You can try this dressing on any kind of salad.

Baby vegetables, baby sprouts, cucumbers are recommended.

Ingredients>

Soy sauce(shoyu)-4T

vinegar-2T

sesame oil-1T

roasted sesame seed-1.5T

agave syrup(alternative sugar)-1T

red pepper powder - 1.5T~2T

Garden Salad with Spicy Dressing

This kind of salad is great with meat.

Please try this when you have a BBQ party.

You will wow for this.

It is simple but very refreshing.

Mini.....Garden,,,,? on my lanai

I'd like to have a garden which is five times bigger than this.

This weekend will be all about planting~

My first harvest

So great too have these fresh vegetables everyday.

I will buy my favorite grape tomato and plant the seed on the soil.

Wish me a good luck :)

Microwave Rice Cake with Soybean Flour (전자레인지 인절미)

In my childhood, my mom was really strict about my meal.

She hardly ever gave me processed meat or burger or sweet dessert.

She even made mayonnaise and fish cake at home.

Whenever I watch food documentaries such as Food matter, Food, INC...

I think of my mom and her love and healthy recipe.

Rice cake is one of my favorite snacks.

The great thing about rice cake is its simple ingredient.

Gluten free, no oil, less sugar, no baking powder!!

My dad bought a rice cake machine from Japan during his trip since I loved rice cake.

Making rice cake was quite complicated even with the machine.

However, I'd like to introduce you an easier way to make rice cake.

Honestly, my mom's recipe is better but I believe you don't want to spend 10 hours on making this small treat.

 Rice Cake with Soybean Flour

 

With microwave and sweet rice flour, you can make fresh, warm rice cake in 10 minutes.

Yes, believe me, 10 minutes.

It is faster than you go to a supermarket and buy one.

Let's start!

<Ingredients>

Mochiko (sweet rice flour)-300g

water-350 g

sugar-50g

salt-1/2 ts

Roasted soy bean flour-some

Sweet rice flour

This is the sweet rice flour I use. You can use any kind of sweet(sticky) rice flour.

 

Mix sweet rice flour and sugar and salt.

Add water, mix well.

Cover it and microwave 90seconds.

Mix it well again.

Cover it again and microwave 120 seconds.

Mix it well again.

Cover it again and microwave 60 seconds.

 

Mix it well again.

Cover it again and microwave 60 seconds.

Then the rice cake is ready.

Roasted soy bean flour

Spread roasted soy bean flour on cutting mat or some flat place that can handle the heat.

Carefully spread hot rice cake.

 

Turn it over and cut it into a bite size with scissors.

 

Mix them well in a bowl so that each pieces don't stick together.

 

Done! Yummy warm rice cake!!!

Or, you may add some syrup if you want.

Please be careful to use honey with this recipe.

Agave syrup was better with this recipe.

Oven Walnut Mochi,Rice Cake (LA 찹쌀떡, 오븐 찹쌀떡)

Today's recipe is very special for those Koreans who live outside of the country.
In my childhood, my favorite dessert wasn't cake or cookies.
It was rice cake. Japanese calls it as Mochi.

Making rice cake needs a lot of effort so Korean immigrants invented easier way to cook alternative rice cake.
They named it "LA chpssalduk" means "LA rice cake"
I assumed that it named that way cause LA has so many Korean immigrant.

LA Rice Cake

Anyways, I love this easy recipe so much.
It is not super sweet, you can add nuts and fruits as you desire, even gluten free!!
Just mix and bake-Boom! it's done!!

Time to start!

< Ingredients- 9x9 inch oven pan >

Mochi powder-2 cup
Baking powder-1ts
nuts(any kind)-chopped, 3/4cup
Sugar if you need ( I didn't use)
Sweet red bean paste coarse-250g(8.8once)
Carnation milk(Evaporated)-1can
Milk
Oil-1Ts
dried fruit if you want

Mix all ingredients well. Gradually add milk until the texture turn to a thick oatmeal like.
Pre heat oven 380f.(190c)
Rub oil inside the oven pan and pour the dough and bake it.

Mix all together

It takes 40-60min. Poke it with toothpick.

If the liquid on the toothpick, you have to wait longer.

Well baked rice cake

When it's done, wait until it cools down.

If you try to take it off from the pan when it's warm, 

you will mess up with the shape of the cake.

 

Walnut rice cake

When it's cool enough, carefully take it off from the pan and cut it into one bite size.

If you want to store longer than 1 day, store it in the freezer.

Thaw them in the room temperature approximately two hours before you eat.

Spicy ox tail stew (매운 소 꼬리 찜)

It's been ages I haven't taken care of this blog :(

I apologize to those people who supported me a lot.

I've been busy post things on my Korean blog.
Visit my Korean blog(blog.naver.com/alohayang)

It has a lot of informations about cooking and restaurants in Hawaii.

Hope you enjoy it.

If you can't read Korean, feel free to ask me to translate any post that you are interested.

Today, I'd like to share spicy ox tail recipe.

Do you enjoy having ox tail soup?

Korean does too. Just our recipe is very different.

Since ox tail is really heavy, Korean spices are the best match for that.

Once you try this, you will forget your old ox tail recipe with tomato.

Spicy Ox Tail Stew

Cooking ox tail originally takes long time to make the meat soft.

However, the recipe itself is quite simple.

Please try it while you read a thick book ;)

Let's start!

< ingredients >
Ox tail -one pack. Will make sauce a lot so doesn't matter how much you use.

Garlic clove-4

Onion-half

Ginger-1inch

Fresh black pepper corn-some

<extras>

carrot, potato, onion-one bite size

Green onion if you have

< sauce >

Same sauce with Spicy Chicken Recipe.

Please make this sauce a lot and use it for any meat.
gochujang(Korean pepper paste) 6 table spoon,
shoyu 4 table spoon,
rice wine 4 table s,
Mirin 4 table s,
pepper powder and minced garlic and sugar and honey each 5 tea spoon,
ginger powder 1/2 tea spoon,
pepper

1. Wash ox tail with cold water and make some slits.
Soak it into the cold water and wait 2-4 hours.(to get rid of all blood)
Wash it again and put it into the boiling water with onion, ginger, garlic and pepper corn.

First boil

When the meat is almost cooked(medium welldone), wash them with cold water.

 

Second boil with the sauce

 Put clean ox tail into boiling water with the sauce 

Cover and keep boil it until the meat is soft enough to poke with chopsticks.

Consistently add spoon full of water.

Add Vegitables

When the ox tail is soft enough, add vegitables and add more sauce if it is necessary.

Spicy Ox Tail!!! Yummy!!!

When all ingredients absorb most of the sauce, it's time to eat.

<Tip>

Try to get rid of all blood from the bone.

Take your time. Wait until the meat is soft enough.

Make a lot of sauce and store it in the refrigerator.

Add sauce gradually to suit your taste.

Spicy chicken with potato(닭볶음탕)

I submitted this recipe to the Hawaiian Airlines in flight meal recipe contest.
Winning is not my aim.
I hope many people will be interested in Korean food because of me :)
Please go to the link and vote for me if you like this recipe!

Go to the contest page

Hawaiian Purple Sweet Potato and Korean Spicy Chicken

< ingredients for 4people >
chicken 1.6 pound,
Hawaiian purple sweet potato 0.8 pound(you may use potato instead),
onion 0.4 pound,
carrot 0.15 pound
(you may use pumpkin, mushroom, white redish, chesnut...)

< sauce >
gochujang(Korean pepper paste) 6 table spoon,
shoyu 4 table spoon,
rice wine 4 table s,
Mirin 4 table s,
pepper powder and minced garlic and sugar and honey each 5 tea spoon,
ginger powder 1/2 tea spoon,
pepper,
7ounce of water.

< How to >
Cut all the ingredients for one bit size.
Mix all the sauce ingredients.
Put all together in the pot and boil it on medium heat with cover.
If you have sesame oil, add one spoon when you finish cooking.
Serve with rice.

Please make the sauce much more.
Because I will post spicy ox tail recipe using same sauce soon :)
If you like ox tail and Korean food, you will love!
Stay tuned for my next recipe :D

Kimchee chigae with rib pork chop(돼지 목살/갈비 김치찌개)

After I moved to Hawaii, I like Kimchee(Korean spicy cabbage pickle) even more.
Whether you like raw Kimchee or not, you still have chance to fall in love with a lot different kind of Korean food made from Kimchee.
Kimchee fried rice, kimcheechigae(Kimchee soup), kimchee jun(jijimi), kimchi pork, kimchee cream cheese...etc

Today, I'd like to tell you my kimcheechigae(kimchee soup) recipe. Kimcheechigae is one of the most famous dish in Korea. It is not a fancy food however people just love it and miss it as a soul food. You can make kimcheechigae with pork, spam, tuna, mackerel.

My recipe is pork kimcheechigae. Spam and canned tuna and canned mackerel are way easier than this. I guarantee all of you can make this perfectly :)

Let's start!
Oh! before we start, the most important part of making Kimcheechigae is getting the "right" kimchee.
Please visit nearest Korean owned supermarket to get the Korean authentic kimchee.
And wait until it's sour. Well made Kimchee gets soda kick in the end.

Rib porkchop kimchee chigae

Ingredients>
pork shoulder or pork rib or rib porkchop - 400g /0.9pound
kimchee - 500-600g / 1~1.3pound
yellow onion-half
tofu-half(optional)
green onion-2(optional)
shoyu(soy sauce)-1T
sesame oil-1T(you may use olive oil or canola oil instead)
red pepper powder-you may add if you like spicy food
pepper
rice wine-4T(cooking sake)

How to make>
-Cut every ingredient into one bite size
-Fry pork with 1Ts of oil(sesame oil recommended)
-Add kimchee and fry together until the kimchee looks soft.(5minutes)
-Add water(lower than ingredients).
-Boil it. You may add Kimchee juice or chili pepper powder for strong taste
-If you think it is too sour you may add 1Ts(max) of sugar
-Add tofu, onion, rice wine and wait 20 more minutes with medium heat.
-Check consistently to not burn the soup.
-You may add salt or soy sauce if it is too bland
-Finish with a pinch of pepper and green onion.

Usually, it has amazing bold taste.
If yours is not, just try one more time :)


When you make Kimchee soup with canned food (tuna, spam...etc),
fry only kimchee and add all ingredient together.
Good luck!!!

Boneless Kalbi with soy sauce(Yakiniku Style)-뼈없는 양념갈비 구이

There are a lot different way of cooking beef in Korea.
Most of the time, we use pear juice and soy sauce for marinade beef and wait at least 3hours. When I make Bulgogi(Korean style beef) I also wait that long for better taste.
However, today, I will give you easier recipe. You can eat this 15 minutes after you marinade as long as you use fresh beef.
You can cook it on a pan or a small gridiron with portable gas burner.
I cook it on the gas burner with a regular pan.
Sometimes it is more fun than grilling.
Let's try this!!!

Half marinade/Half salt and pepper

Time to turn it over

Let's eat!!!!

Ingredients>
1.5lbs of fresh boneless kalbi(boneless beef rib)
Mirin-2T (sweet cooking rice wine)
Shoyu(Say sauce)-3T
Honey(or sugar)-2T
Sesame oil-2T
Minced garlic - 5t
Pepper
Sesame seed(fried)-4T, optional
Ponzu sauce(for dipping)

How to?>
-Cut and slice beef carefully
-Put the sliced meat in the bowl with all the other ingredient. Mix it
-Leave it 10-15min
-Eat it while you are cooking. Ponzu sauce dipping gives you a nice citrus touch.
-Kimchi can not be optional. Kimchi is always good with any kind of meat.

Now you don't need spend so much money on yakiniku restaurant.
It is easy as it looks.

However if you don't have sesame oil or soy sauce, you might feel this recipe is just impossible for you. You may still struggling with buying korean ingredients.

I absolutely understand your feeling.
To make you feel better and capable for making Korean food, I will go to a Korean supermarket and will take basic ingredients pictures(price too) in a few weeks.

Once you buy 3-5 ingredients, you can make literally a lot different kind of Korean food. Can't wait to show a real grocery shopping post to you guys.

Magic Sauce Vol.03 회덮밥(Huidubab)-Korean style chirashi sushi rice

One of the reason why I love living in Hawaii is Fresh Ahi(wild tuna) sashimi.
In Korea and Japan, we usually eat frozen tuna. In the contrast, here in Hawaii, Fresh tuna is really cheap and easy to get.
We are going to make Korean style chirashi sushi today. The differences between nigiri sushi and chirashi sushi is just the way you eat. Nigiri sushi is small rice piece with a piece of sashimi and chirashi sushi is sushi rice topped with sashimi. However, Korean chirashi rice is a little bit different. It is more like a kind of bibimbab(vegitable mixed rice with chili pepper sauce). I think it is just because Korean always need vegitables and spicy sauce with their meal. Anyway, this is a really fresh and yummy food and it only takes 5-10 minutes if you still have your magic sauce.
Whenever you have steamed shrimp or steamed calamari or any kind of sushi, you can make it real quick!
Let's start.

Tuna Huedubab-Tuna chirashi sushi

Ingredients>
T-Table spoon
t-tea spoon

Cooked rice-1bowl
Vegetable shred - carrot and romain lettuce recommended(soft and crunch)
Sashimi - any kind. not seasoned
Magic sauce - 2~3T
http://krecipe.blogspot.com/2011/05/magic-sauce-vol01-dukbokispicy-rice.html
Vinegar - 3t


How to?>
-Shred cut all vegitables
-Cut sashimi into sushi size
-Mix the magic sauce and vinegar. If your sauce is dried, you may add some water to make it smoother. (it should be ketchup thickness)

How to eat?>
-Prepare big bowl and put warm rice.
-Vegetable shred on the top of the rice.
-Put the sashimi and mix everything with the sauce.
-Eat it right after you make it so that the fish can still fresh.

This is one of my favorite meal. If you like bibimbab and sashimi, you will definetly like this one. Easy and fresh and healthy. Do I need to say more?
Just try it, do not hesitate any more.

Magic Sauce Vol.02 참치 비빔밥(Tuna Bibimbab)-Tuna Vegitable Rice

Have you tried to make my magic sauce?
I hope you have enough sauce to try 5 more new recipes with the sauce.

Bibimbab is very yummy and famous Korean food. However, cooking namul(steamed vegitables) takes long time because you must cook and season each namul seperately.
Even for me, it takes about two hours to preparing all the ingredients.

Here is a better recipe for us. I am going to use fresh vegitable instead of steamed and seasoned one. No wonder I use my magic sauce. Now it only takes 15 minutes to make yummy fresh bibimbab!!!!!!

Tuna Bibimbab

Ingredients>
T-Table spoon
t-tea spoon

Rice, cooked - 1small bowl
Lettus(any kind) - shred
Cabage - shred
Carrot - shred
Egg - fried-1

Tuna sauce ingredients>
About 2Ts of Magic Sauce (http://krecipe.blogspot.com/2011/05/magic-sauce-vol01-dukbokispicy-rice.html )
Sesame oil - 1T
1 Small Tuna can-squeezed
Kimchi - chopped and squeezed 3T

Preparing>
-Cook the rice.
-You can add any kind of vegitables for this recipe. Just wash it and shred it.(you may use fresh coleslaw salad mix)
-Put tuna and kimchi and sesame oil into the magic sauce and mix it. Don't forget to  squeeze kimchi and tuna.
-fry an egg.

How to eat?>
Put the cooked warm rice in the big bowl. Add vegitables as many as you want.
Egg on the top. You may add nori(sushi sea weeds) slice as a topping.
Mix it with the tuna sauce. Try it while you mix it. You may add more sauce(if it is blend) or more rice(if it is salty).

This is  soooooo easy as long as you have the magic sauce.
And I garantee the good taste!
When you have no idea for the dinner and you have some vegitables in your freezer, you can make this. You always have eggs and canned tuna, right?
I am telling you this just in case. You only can make it with tuna. please don't try salmon...:)

Nom nom nom!!! My mouth is watering!!!

홍합 부추전-Jun /Jijimi with chive and sea mussel

If you like Korean food, you must love this amazing food.
We call it jun and/or jijimi.
We can make a lot different kind of jun and today I used asian chive and sea mussel. You can use green onion instead of chive. You also can use shrimp or clam instead of the sea mussel.
I used Korean pancake mix because it is easy for the beginner to make yummy jun. (made from flour, starch, salt...)
A lot of Japanese friends who tried to make jun told me that it was really difficult to make "right, crunch" texture. When I first made it I also faced the same problem.
Now! I know how we can make it "right".
Let's start!

jun

Ingredients>
 Korean pan cake mix - 1cup (see the link below and see the brand name "Beksul")

http://krecipe.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-korean-grocery-shopping.html







Egg-1
Cold water - 4/5 cup (with the egg, 1 cup of liquid)
Asian chive - 1bunch (this 1 bunch is way more than the green onions)
Mussel - 1cup -without shell, chunky chopped. Frozen one is fine(shrimp or any kind of clam is fine)
Carrot and chilli pepper - if you have, a little bit (shred)

How to?>
-Prepare a big bowl and mix the water and pancake mix and egg really well
-Cut the chive into 1.5 inch and put into the mix
-Put the chunky chopped mussel into the mix
-If you feel the mix is enough to coating all the ingredients, it is right amount of vegitables.

Put it in the refrigerator and wait 'till it's chilled.(It is not necessary but it gives perfect crunch texture)

-Put some oil on heated pan and spread the mix. (Thinner jun is more crunch)
-When the middle and outside of the top looks dry, it is time to turn it over(just once)
-Once you turn it over, press hard with a spatula for squeeze water and make it thinner.
-When both side is golden brown, DONE!!!!
-Serve with sour shoyu dip (shoyu2:vinegar1)

Don't forget 5things.
The liguid ingredients(water+egg) and the pancake mix should be 1:1
Mix the dough really well and put it in the refrigerator
PRESS hard with a spatula
Use medium and lower heat to prevent burning however, if the heat is really low, jun absorb all the oil which is not yummy and not crunch.
Try to count how many jijimies you eat. You may lose your control!!! :)

I usually make the dough a lot and store it into the refrigerator and cook it whenever I want. (Be careful to not freeze it) It is really easy and yummy snack. Once you make the dough, it is almost as easy as frying the egg. You can store it 3~4days with the cover in the refrigerator.
Enjoy Korean authentic jun!!

Magic Sauce Vol.01 떡볶이(Dukboki)-spicy rice cake

Hello everyone~
You guys might curious about the title-Magic Sauce.
Although it's embarrassing to say my recipe is 'magical', but once you make this sauce, you can make various different sauce in no time by adding roasted sesame oil or ketchup or vinegar.

My Korean blogger friends(I have a Korean blog) who tried this sauce told me that it was magical and they really liked it. Hope you like this as much as Korean does.
Let's begin with the basic, Dukboki.

Right one is the Dukboki .

Ingredients>
T-Table spoon
t-tea spoon

Dukboki mochi 200g
Fishcake(flat oden) 2slice
Onion 1/4 -long slice
Carrot(if you have) thin slice, a few pieces
Cabbage(if you have) a little bit more than onion

for the Magic Sauce
Gochujang(Korean pepper paste) 2Ts
Sugar 1Ts
Shoyu 1ts
Minced garlic 1ts
Sesame seed(if you have)

I recommend you to make the sauce 10~15 times more than the recipe so that you can use it for other recipes. It tastes better after 24hour in the refrigerator and can be stored up to 3weeks.

- Mix the magic sauce ingredients. You may add some Tbsp of water to loosen Gochujang.

-Wash the mochi with water and soak it into the water for 15-20minutes.

-Cut the fish cake and veggies for bite size.

-Pour 1cup of water in a pan and put a spoonful of magic sauce and boil it.

-When it bubbles turn the stove lower than medium and put all the other ingredients together.

-When the Duckboki is soft, it's done.

You should check 4things

1. If the soup is too thick, you may add several table spoon of water(do not pour too much)

2. Please stir it often to prevent mochies stick on the pan.

3.You need to wait until the mochi become really chewy and soft. If it takes too long, you may cover it with a lid to steam it.

4. Check the taste of the soup. You may add more sauce.

The key of the taste is the garlic and the Fishcake. Those things make this taste really amazing. If it is too spicy for you, you may add some catchup.

Hope you enjoy the best home made Dukboki!

How to - Korean Grocery Shopping

All the friends who are interested in making Korean food told me that it's really difficult to buy "right" Korean ingredients. There are too many brands and too many kinds of spices. Of course they can't understand any Korean character.

Today, I will talk about some reliable brands and products I buy in USA.

Please check the logo images and Korean characters carefully.

I found some copycats from the market and if you can not read Korean, 

you can caught into their trap.

I will update the list often. Please check it once in a while.

Feel free to ask me when you have questions about this.

 1.Pulmuone 풀무원

This brand is the most reliable brand in Korea. 

They provide a lot different kind of organic products.

Tofu is really famous and half cooked products are also popular.

    

2. Sampyo 샘표

This brand makes the best Korean shoyu(soy sauce).

All house moms using this. They almost never use any preservatives and MSG.

However please double check the label. Sometimes product in USA is slightly different.

Korean shoyu is different from Japanese one. More rich and not sweet.

It is always easier when the sauce doesn't have sugar because

you can control the sugar all the time for your health.

 

3.Haechandul 해찬들

This brand if famous for all kind of Korean sauce.

Chili pepper paste(고추장) and soy bean paste(된장). 

When you find "국산" from the package,

it is really a good sign. It means ingredients from Korea.

especially chili pepper in USA taste totally different from Korean one.

For the pepper paste(고추장), I would recommend made from Korea product.

Do you know what this is? This is a mix of garlic and pepper paste and 

soy bean paste(쌈장). We eat it as a sauce for pork belly BBQ. 

Please do not confused with the soy bean paste.

 Nongshim(농심)

This brand is absolutely famous for their ramen noodle.

The most authentic Korean style instant ramen provider.

Ottugi(오뚜기)

This brand is famous for their retort curry(3min curry) and dry ingredients.

Also famous for their oil.(sesame oil). My mom is a really good cook and she always told me dried noodle(국수) and dried long rice(당면) is best of their product. When you make japchae(long rice noodle) and guksu(Korean noodle soup), please buy these items.

I use their sesame oil and seaweeds currently.

CJ / Jeil Jedang (씨제이/ 제일제당)

This company is a huge company which means reliable.

They make all kind of ingredients and the taste is guaranteed(kind of...)

 

BekSul(백설)
This brand was known for their sugar (the company name means "white snow").These days, their cooking mixes are all over the world. Korean pan cake mix(not sweet, salty. you can not make buttermilk pancake with this) and deep fry batter mix are really convenient. They Change their logo from 3 spoons to the red and white recently.

Add caption

These are what I have now.

I will update it soon!!!