Korean Marinated Beef - Bulgogi (불고기)

Posted by Vivian in Beef, Korean

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Partly inspired by the mouthwatering bulgogi we had in Seoul and partly because I had to feed Matthias with something since he is not a fan of Japchae unlike Elaina, I daringly took up the challenge to recreate the dish at home.

It was no mean feat having to grill the pieces one by one.   The first attempt was a flop.  Due to the lack of time and in order make sure the kids get to school in time and fed with lunch, I ended up "stir-frying" the meat.  It didn't work very well unfortunately (but not quite unexpected).  By the third try, I was adamant to follow the recipe as closely as possible especially since I have a Korean pear sitting in the fridge.  I wanted to test it myself if the pear can tenderise the beef as claimed.  It didn't turn out too badly.  But I admit I am more inclined to say that the method used for Chinese stir-fried beef wins hand down in this aspect.  Although to a certain extend, its not the same cooking method so it really isn't a fair comparison.


Ingredients:

• 300 gm sirloin beef (sliced)
• 3 tablespoons Korean regular soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/2 onion (sliced)
• 1 spring onion (diced)
• 1/2 tablespoon sesame seed
• Pinch of black pepper
• 50 gm pureed pear
• 1 tablespoon rice wine
• Sliced shitake mushroom and/or julienned carrots (optional)

Preparation:

• Mix all ingredients and leave beef to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
• Grill beef using griddle or pan over high heat.
• Sprinkle over with some sesame seed (optional).
• Serve over rice and with lettuce as a wrap.

Most recipes did not call for the meat to be grilled in individual pieces.  I did so in this attempt since I have time and I wanted to get the done-ness right.  The vegetables (onions in this case) was stir-fried after that and added to the beef.

Number of Servings: 4

Korean Stir-Fried Glass Noodles - Jap Chae (잡채)

Posted by Vivian in Korean, Noodles

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Undoubtedly one of Elaina’s favourite Korean dish! We searched high and low for Jap Chae when we were in Seoul recently but it was nowhere to be found. Either because we were looking at the wrong places or it is something that people typically prepare at home, and not readily available when dining out (which would be rather strange).

To help her get over her disappointment, I promised that I will attempt to make this when we return home and did in fact make good that promise except that the recipe which I had relied on was a flop in my opinion. Elaina enjoyed it nonetheless. Goes to show how desperate she was. Then on, I studied a few recipes and tried to pin the different steps together which I think should work and yield an acceptable result.

Despite the variance in all the recipes, the only bit that was notably consistent was the call for the ingredients to be stir-fried separately and finally mixed together in a bowl as that was touted to be the authentic way of making Jap Chae. However in the interest of time, certain ingredients (for instance the onion with the carrots and the beef with the mushrooms) can be cooked together. To the untrained tongue of mine, I really could not tell the difference in taste between the two methods.

The one thing I did learn was the different types of soy sauce the Koreans use in their cooking.  I did some extensive reading on this topic and it was insightful.  The variations within each culture and each being different from the other culture was simply mind boggling.  I recently decided to bite the bullet and bought a bottle of the Korean regular soy sauce (to add on to my already exhaustive list of condiments sitting in my kitchen) for my next attempt.

Ingredients:

• 150 gram potato noodles
• 1 onion (cut into thin wedges)
• 1 carrot (julienned)
• 2 to 3 shitake mushroom and/or wood-ear mushrooms (julienned)
• 100 gram beef sirloin (julienned) or can be replaced with chicken
• 50 gram spinach (cut into 1 inch length)
• 1/4 teaspoon of minced garlic

Seasoning for beef and mushrooms:

• 1.5 tablespoons of regular Korean soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon of chopped spring onion
• A pinch of black pepper

Seasoning for noodle:

• 3 tablespoons of regular Korean soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons oil

Preparation:

• Season beef and mushrooms and set aside.  Can be seasoned separately if beef and mushrooms will be stir-fried separately.
• Blanch spinach in boiling water over high heat for 1 minute.  Remove and rinse under cold water.  Squeeze dry and season with a pinch of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of minced garlic.
• Boil potato noodles in boiling water for around 6 minutes or until cooked.  Remove and rinse under cold water.  Drain dry and snip the noodles a few times with a scissors to shorten the length for easier frying and consumption.
• Sauté carrots and onions with a bit of oil and season with some salt and black pepper.  Remove from pan when carrots are fully cooked and set aside in a bowl.  Carrots and onions can be stir fried separately.
• Sauté mushrooms and beef with some oil until the beef is cooked.  Remove from pan and into the same bowl with the carrots and onions.  Similarly, mushrooms and beef and be stir-fried separately.
• Combine the noodles, mushrooms, beef, carrots, onions and spinach.  Pour the seasoning sauce for noodles in and mix well.
• Return all ingredients back into the pan and sauté on medium heat for 3 min or until warm. Stir frequently to prevent noodles from sticking to bottom.   I find that using the chopsticks in one hand and a spatula in another helps to flip the ingredients around a lot faster.
• Sprinkle some sesame seeds over the noodles before serving if desired.

Non-Spicy Korean Stir Fried Rice Cake (Ddukbokki 떡볶이)

Posted by Vivian in Beef, Korean

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At a recent get together with my bunch of girlfriends, I finally got to try the Korean Rice Cake after having seen it being served in countless k-drama.  The one that we had was probably not very traditional, as it was topped with Mozzarella cheese and baked to a golden hue.  Traditional or not, it had a nice chewy texture to it.

Not long after that dinner, I spotted packets of frozen Rice Cake on display at the supermarket which I frequent.  Without much thought, I took home a pack but it ended lying in the freezer for weeks waiting for the day when I am in the mood to make something out of the usual menu.  Fortunately, I did get to it even before the Rice Cake expired.

Because the kids are not used to taking spicy food, I decided to randomly search for recipes hoping to find one that is non-spicy.  The cyberworld didn't disappoint me and it didn't take me very long to chance upon one here.  The recipe looked promising from the fact that it was one passed down from generations within a Korean family.  There is no way one can go wrong with that!

I made a minor tweak when cooking the beef though since I had used beef flank which is the cheapest cut available at the supermarket.  Not because I was on a tight budget but rather I had discovered that no matter how bad the cut is, stir-fried beef can still turn out tender when done using the velveting method.  I read some years back that velveting is how Chinese restaurants whipped up nice tender stir-fried beef and since then I never bothered to splurge on beef to be used for stir-frying. 

Ingredients:

• 1 pack of Korean Rice Cake
• 350gm of beef (cut into thin strips)
• 1 stick of carrot (julienned)
• 1 medium sized onion (cut into thin wedges)
• Few stalks of spring onion (cut into 2 inches long)
• 1 teaspoon of minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon of crushed sesame seed
• Half an egg white
• Cornflour
• Light soy sauce
• Sugar
• Sesame oil
• Grounded black pepper

Preparation:

• Marinate beef for 30 minutes to 1 hour with:
• Minced garlic
• Crushed sesame seeds
• Egg white
• 2 teaspoons of cornflour
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
• A dash of black pepper
• Soak Rice Cake with cold water and thereafter parboil for 2 minutes or until soft and chewy taking care not to overcook.  Run Rice Cake under cold water after removing from boiling water.
• Mix 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of sesame oil in a bowl. Set aside to be used as finishing sauce.
• Heat about 4 to 5 tablespoons of oil in wok using high heat.  Add beef to wok and quickly stir-fry for 30 seconds or until the beef is nearly cooked and still showing bits of pink.  Remove beef from wok and set aside.  Allow additional oil to drain.
• Reheat wok with some oil and sauté onion and carrot.  Season with salt and pepper.
• Add Rice Cake into the wok together with the beef.  Mix well and allow mixture to cook for a minute.
• Pour in finishing sauce and spring onion.
• Remove from heat when well-coated.

Number of Servings: 5 to 6

Korean Savoury Pancake (Buchimgae)

Posted by Vivian in Korean, Snacks

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I only found out this week that justbento.com (sister-site of justhungry.com) is not only about bento basics and skills. There are actually some simple to follow recipes available as well. And so I attempted one of the recipe that was posted earlier this week by Maki.

The pancake didn't turn out as crispy as I though it would be. From the Just Bento site, Maki's pancake definitely looked crispier. I can't quite figure out the reason why but I suspect it has got to do with the ratio of the batter to the filler. She mentioned 7 oz of flour but also indicated that it is equivalent to 2 US cup. 1 US cup is 240 ml, so that should make it 480 ml . But 7 oz is only almost close to 210 ml. The consistency of the batter looked right today though. A little confused with the flour measurement. Will need to experiment with it again. Probably increase the ratio of the batter to the filler or reduce the filler significantly.

I think the kids would have preferred this deep-fried to pan-fried. So that is also one variation to consider.

Ingredients:

(1) Filling -

• About 3 cups of finely julienned vegetables (green onions, garlic chives, bean sprouts, carrots etc) 
• 1 cup of kimchi cabbage roughly chopped or add more vegetable instead (I added normal cabbage instead) 
• Other ingredients that can be added - ham, julienned meat etc 

(2) Batter -

• 200 gm / 7 oz (about 2 US cups) white all-purpose flour or cake flour
• 1 large egg beaten
• 250 ml water 
• Pinch of salt 

(3) Dipping Sauce -

• 2 tablespoon soya sauce 
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar or lime juice with a mix of 1 tablespoon sugar 
• Few drops of chili oil to taste 
• Chopped green onion 

Preparation:

Sift flour and salt together. Combine the egg with water. Add the liquid to the flour gradually to form a thin batter. Set aside for at least 1/2 hour if possible.
Mix the batter and the other ingredients together (ratio of filler should be quite high).
Heat up frying pan or griddle and coat with oil. A little sesame oil can be added for a nutty flavour.
Spread the mixture out as thin as possible on the pan and cook over medium heat until crispy and golden brown, then turn over and cook on the other side.
Cut into wedges or square before serving.


Number of Servings: 4