Aloha from Korea: Foodie's Guide

Aloha! 🌺 It’s Jihye in Seoul. Confession time: I am a super impatient baker. I absolutely love homemade artisan bread (especially because I want to avoid heavily bleached flour), but the idea of waiting forever for dough to rise drives me crazy. I’ve tried the famous "no-knead bread" recipes, and while they taste great, they have two major downsides for me: You have to wait 4 to 6 hours at room temperature, plus another 12 hours in the fridge! Dealing with that incredibly sticky, high-moisture dough is a nightmare! I'm the kind of person who gets too excited about cooking. I can't just "forget about the bread" and wait. I want to check the dough every minute! That’s why I finally found my holy grail: The Perfect 75-Minute Artisan Bread. It only requires 8 minutes of kneading and is ready in just over an hour. Let's bake! 🛒 Ingredients All-Purpose or Bread Flour: 3 Cups Warm Water: 1 Cup Sugar: 1 Tbsp Active Dry Yeast: 1 Tbsp Salt: 1/2 Tbsp 👩‍🍳 ...

Aloha! 🌺 It’s Jihye in Seoul. Let's be honest, have you ever bought a kitchen prop just because it was too adorable to resist? That was exactly me when I saw this bamboo tasting tray and tiny spoons from Pier 1 Imports. "What is this for?" That was the question I couldn't answer! I initially thought about baking mini desserts in them, but it turned out they weren't oven-safe. So, I did what any food lover would do: I dedicated a brand new recipe just to use these tiny spoons. 😂 Today, I’m sharing a super simple, low-carb, and incredibly pretty appetizer: Strawberry & Golden Tomato Salad . The mix of sourness, saltiness, and sweetness makes it the absolute perfect party starter. 🛒 Ingredients Sweet Grape Tomatoes: 1 Cup, halved (💡 Jihye's Design Tip: I used Hofarm Kahuku Golden grape tomatoes from Hawaii. They are as sweet as real grapes, and the bright golden color makes the salad pop! If you use regular red tomatoes, it won't look quite as prett...

Aloha, foodies! 🌺 As a resident of the islands where summer never ends, watermelon is naturally my best friend. But have you ever looked at that thick, white rind and felt bad about throwing it away? In Korea, we have a "zero-waste" tradition of turning watermelon rinds into a crunchy, refreshing side dish called Su-bak Namul . If you like green papaya salad (Som Tum) or pickled cucumbers, you are going to fall in love with this unique Korean home recipe ! It has the crunchiness of a radish and the refreshing moisture of a cucumber, all dressed in my "Magic Sauce." Let’s save the planet and satisfy our taste buds at the same time! 🛒 What You Need The Base: Watermelon Rind: About 1/4 of a large watermelon (the white part only). Salt: 1/2 Tbsp (for pickling). The "Magic Sauce" (Korean Spicy & Sweet Dressing): Gochujang (Korean Red Chili Paste): 2 Tbsp Sugar: 1 Tbsp Shoyu (Soy Sauce): 1 tsp Minced Garlic: 1 tsp Toasted Sesame Seeds: A gen...

Aloha! 🌺 It was rainy today here in Hawaii, but nobody really cares enough to carry an umbrella. That's the island lifestyle I like a lot. Bare face, bare feet... If you live in Hawaii, you will really learn about the freedom that Mother Nature gives to us. Speaking of nature, I'd like to share a super fresh, nature-inspired pizza recipe with you today! Since I'm Korean, I usually make things a bit spicy. But today, I'll talk about a super soft, creamy ingredient. Yes, it's Avocado !!! 🥑 I love its bright green color and creamy, nutty taste. I honestly like it a hundred times better than almond butter or peanut butter. The color scheme of this pizza alone is absolutely mouth-watering! I believe everybody has their own go-to pizza dough recipe, or you can simply use a store bought dough. So I'll focus on the toppings today. (If you need my special pizza dough recipe too, please leave a comment! I'll write another post just for you.) 🛒 What You Nee...

Anchovy is one of the most useful ingredients for Korean food. We use dried anchovy stock for most of the soup and jjigae. We make sweet dried anchovy fry, myul chi bok um(멸치볶음) and most importantly, we use fermented ancovy juice for making Kimchi. When I first opened a canned Italian anchovy, I was super excited :) I expected some smelly fishy fermented anchovy but it wasn't! Italian Anchovy has so much flavor and can be loved from everybody. Now I'm recommending this to my Korean friends :)    Ok, what can you guess if I, a Korean lady make anchovy pasta? Yes!!! It's SPICY :D Ready to burn your mouth? Let's start!! <<Ingredient for 2>> anchovy - 1can pasta(spaghetti or linguine) - for 2 people garlic-6 cloves onion - 1/3 green onion - 2  dried Thai red pepper - 2 piece(if you are Korean, you need 1~2 more) olive oil NO SALT!!!!!    This is the anchovy in olive oil I've used.  ...

Hi! Today, the weather is so beautiful in Hawaii. As much as I love the nature, I love healthy food, local ingredients, organic stuffs. For our daily required protein, the best ingredients are low fat chicken, fish and tofu. I love fish and tofu, but cooking fish is very unpleasant. If I fry them, I have to deal with the fish odor for several days. I can't use my huge oven too.  For cooking one piece of fish...it's waste of energy. So I prefer foil steaming. If you cook your fish this way, you don't need to worry about odor and smelly pan. Let's start! <Ingredients> frozen salmon from Costco -1 piece (thawed) salt, pepper, dried herb bay leaf-2 white wine or sake-2Tb olive oil-1Tb 1ts of soy sauce and sesame and green onion -optional   Put the foil on the pan. Rub olive oil on the salmon. Sprinkle salt, pepper, herbs. Add bay leaf and white wine. Fold the foil but give some air spa...

Aloha! 🌺 It’s Jihye in Seoul. Today, I’m thrilled to share a recipe for a dish that holds a very special place in Korean food culture: Korean Fried Chicken . KFC? Please go home! (No offense, but when it comes to fried chicken, Korea is on a whole other level.) From spicy to soy-garlic, oven-baked to green onion-topped, we have an endless variety. But today, I’m introducing one of the absolute absolute best: Dakgangjeong (닭강정) . What is Dakgangjeong? Dakgangjeong is a bite-sized, boneless fried chicken that is double-fried for maximum crunch and tossed in a sticky, sweet, and spicy glaze. It's usually topped with crushed nuts or sesame seeds, and I love adding chewy Korean rice cakes ( Tteok ) to the mix for a fun texture! 🛒 Ingredients For the Chicken: 2 pieces of Chicken Breast (Pro tip: Chicken thighs taste much better for this!) Marinade: 2 Tbsp Sake, 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce, 1/2 Tbsp Ginger Powder, a pinch of black pepper Batter: 1/2 cup (or more)...

  Savory furikake oatmeal with egg     My morning starts from boiling 2 cups of water.(2/3 cups of oatmeal-for two) Preparing Coach's oatmeal is so easy and fast. Today, I didn't wanted to have regular sweet oatmeal. So...I decided to add some asian touch in my oatmeal. such as....Japanese furikake(dried sea weed, dried fish, sesame seed...etc) Please make sure you are buying furikake without MSG. <ingredients-for two> Water - 2 cup Coach's oat - 2/3 cup Sesame oil - 1/2 table s Soy sauce - 1/2 table s egg - 2 Furikake, chilli pepper powder, green onion   Since Coach's oatmeal takes only 5min to cook,  you should cook your egg at the same time.  I added 1/2 table s of soy sauce and 1/2 table s of sesame oil. Add some furikake and chilli pepper powder if you like. Remove from heat, cover and wait 1 more min. My savory oatmeal and egg is ready. What do you think? Some sesame and chopped green onion will give the perfection ;) Yummy, yummy yu...

Aloha! 🌺 It’s Jihye in Seoul. Do you love shopping at Costco? If you do, you probably pick up their famous, reasonably priced Rotisserie Chicken on every visit. It’s a classic treat! However, for just the two of us, it’s always a bit too much. Plus, we aren't huge fans of the dry chicken breast on the second day. So... I always use the leftovers to make this incredibly comforting, spicy Korean soup. If you are crazy about Korean food, you probably know Yukgaejang (Spicy Beef and Vegetable Soup). Well, this is Dakgaejang —the delicious chicken version! It is so easy to make, completely zero-waste, and transforms your leftover Costco chicken into a gourmet meal. Whenever I cook this soup, I can't control myself. Give me a big bowl of rice, some Kimchi, and this soup... and there will be absolutely zero conversation at the table! Lol! Let's start. 🛒 Ingredients For the Broth: Leftover Costco Rotisserie Chicken (Bones and leftover meat) Broth Aromatics: 5 Garlic cloves, 1 ...

Recently I bought this interesting patented oatmeal from Costco. It's neither steel cut oat nor rolled oat but you can cook it in 3-5min. They said that they cracked and baked it. You can see golden brown oat.  No wonder they baked this.  I didn't know raw oat(actually baked but..) can be this delicious. Once you try this, you will be inspired to make oat cookies. <Make 2 bowls of oatmeal> Boil 2cups of water and cook 2/3 cups of oat on medium heat. I added some cinnamon and 1tablespoon of cream. After 3min, move it from the stove and cover. Wait 1 more min. Tada!!! done!! it really tastes like steel cut. Very nutty and not too mushy. You can cook it from microwave too. I'm ok with cooking my oatmeal on the stove top but...can't wait my steel cut for 40 min every morning. Berries and almonds with some maple syrup :) Oat meal is a healthy, filling and CREATIVE breakfast. What's your favorite breakfast?