The owner of the newly opened El Nuevo Mexican Grill in Greensboro, North Carolina, recently contacted me about using my bulgogi photo in his restaurant. The owner, who’s Korean, has added a bulgogi Taco to his menu in order to add a bit of Korean flair to traditional Mexican food. He told me that very few people in his area know much about Korean food, so he wanted a picture to show what bulgogi looks like to his customers. He said he searched online for bulgogi photos and found my photo to be the most appetizing!

I was very flattered and grateful that he took the time to contact me and ask my
permission to use the photo. I know he could have just easily tried to use the photo
without my permission (even though the version I put on the web has very low
resolution so it is not really suitable for print). I was happy to say yes, under one
condition: that he sends me a picture of his restaurant showing my photo and also that
he gives me credit for the photo. I also promised him that I would post the picture on my
blog so that maybe someone in the area will see it and pay the restaurant a visit. So if
you are in the area, give this restaurant a try! I would love to hear from you if you did.

Wishing the El Nuevo a huge success! Thanks again!

El Nuevo Mexican Grill bulgogi photo

Fancy Korean Rice Cake

So here’s my excuse for not posting lately…I have been taking Food Stylist classes in Korea since January. In the recent weeks, we have had 3 photo sessions where we prepare the food and table setting and a professional photographer takes food photos for us. It is total chaos until everything from table linen to forks are all set to look good on camera. We also get help from our professor on some tips on styling.

It has been a really fun and interesting class overall, we learned all the different food styling areas: package styling, tv/video ads and print/magazine ads. Each area has its own difficulties and quirks but personally my favorite is the print/magazine ads as it has more to do with how a photo feels and the stylist has more freedom on how the shot is designed.

We also learned tips and tricks on how to make foods look yummy on screen. How to show “sizzle” by adding additional ingredients to foods. It’s not particularly my favorite thing to do but interesting nonetheless. One of the most interesting story I heard was from a tv ad stylist-it was when she had to style 200+ glasses of beer for a TV ad.  They could have easily used computer graphics but the producer wanted the real scene. She told us that by the time she was done pouring the 200 glasses, the foam from the beer was already all gone! So their solution was to use hair mousse mixed with beer for the foam!!!

One of my goal in taking the food stylist class was to learn how to style Korean foods. So the photo you see on top is my attempt to style Korean rice cakes (yes, aren’t they so pretty? It’s the latest trend and has no traditional name – these are quite expensive and often used as gifts to relatives as part of Korean wedding tradition) in a more modern way. The photo below shows Korean songpyeon dduk (송편떡) – the little oval shaped colorful rice cakes – which is traditionally made during the Korean fall harvest (chooseok) time. The square shaped pink rice cake is called Seolghee/Seolki/Seolki/Seolgi Dduk (설기떡). This photo is styled with more traditional colors and feel.

eongpyeon and Seolki Dduk

Anyway, this week we have our final class + exhibition of our class member’s photos so I should be able to come back to blogging very soon!

Sweet and Salty Soybeans (콩자반 Kongjaban)

Kongjaban was my all time favorite lunchbox banchan (side dish) when I was a kid. My most happy lunchbox(도시락 doshirak) always included at least 2 of the following: Kongjaban, Sauteed string potatoes, Jangjorim, Oeji (pickled cucumbers) and  Gim (roasted sea laver). My school day mornings passed by more quickly and happily when I knew I had these in my lunchbox…

Usually, kids don’t like beans very much. I certainly remember not liking any kind of beans mixed in my rice when I was little. I never liked the mushy texture of cooked beans and also the fact that it kind of had no flavor. But the balance of sweetness and saltiness (you know that ‘sweet and salty’ is one of my favorite flavor combination, right?) and the not-mushy texture of this Kongjaban made it all different.

If done right, these Sweet and Salty Soybeans (Kongjaban 콩자반) can be so delicious. Sadly, there are too many not-so-good Kongjabans served at restaurants or sold at markets that give this dish a bad name. PLEASE  believe me – that’s not how the dish is supposed to taste. The soybeans are usually too soft and mushy or too hard and the sauce is so bland that it basically tastes like nothing.. Sad sad sad..I bought one or two ready made, packaged Kongjaban and also one from a banchan corner at the Korean market and as I expected, quite flavorless…

Try making these soybeans at home for yourself and see how you like them.

Anyways, let’s get started –

Servings: 8-10                 Prep Time: 5-6 hrs              Cooking Time: 1 hr                 Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 2 C soaked  or 3/4 C dry black soy beans (서리태 Seoritae)
• 3 C or more water
• 5 T soy sauce (jinkanjang 진간장)
• 4 T sugar
• 2 C liquid from soaked beans
• 2 tsp maple syrup or rice malt syrup

1. Soak the dry soybeans in 2 C of water 5~6 hrs or overnight. The soaking time can vary depending on the temperature. Warmer temps require less time (3~4 hrs) and colder temps require more (8~12 hrs).
   

   soaked black soy beans

   FYI, here’s a close up of dry vs soaked black soy beans:

   

   dry vs soaked black soy beans

2. Drain the liquid from the soaked soybeans and add to pot with 3 1/2 C of water. Bring to a boil. Once it boils, lower heat to medium and cook UNCOVERED for approx 12 minutes until the beans are fully cooked. Soybeans should be soft but still slightly crunchy and not mushy.
3. Drain the cooked soybeans while reserving the cooking liquid.
4. In a pot, add 2 C of the cooking liquid + soy sauce + sugar and bring to boil over med-high heat.
5. Add the soybeans to the boiling soy sauce liquid and lower heat once it starts to boil like below. Simmer for 25 min. stirring often. Lower the heat if you find that the liquid is reducing too quickly.
   

   kongjaban boiling in pot

6. Add maple syrup to add shine and additional sweetness. Cook for another 20 min (stir often) or so until the sauce is reduced and the color has turned dark brown like below:
   

   finished kongjaban in pot

   And so there you go! It’s pretty simple, no? Let it cool and store in a container at room temperature for 2-3 days or in your fridge for many days. Serve at room temp or can be eaten cold out of the fridge. Enjoy it with some plain rice or as a side dish to go with other spicy dishes. As I said, it makes a great side dish in kid’s lunchboxes!

   

   Korean Sweet and Salty Soybeans (콩자반 Kongjaban)

Common Problems and Tips

• The most frequent problems in making Kongjaban is that the beans come out too hard.
  • This is due mainly for 3 reasons:
  1. beans are not fully soaked
  2. beans are not fully cooked before seasoning is added
  3. beans are cooked in soy sauce+sugar too quickly at high heat
• Substitute regular white soy beans, mung beans, peanuts instead of black soy beans.
• For extra flavorful sauce, add one or more of the following: ginger, green onion, dried red chili, whole garlic clove, or onion.

royal ddukbokki (궁중떡뽁이 Goongjoong Ddukbokki)

Did you know that this non spicy Rice Cake Stir Fry with Soy Sauce (궁중떡뽁이 Goongjoong Ddukbokki/tteokbokki) has been around much longer than the more common red spicy version?  The name Goongjoong/gungjung/Kungjung/Koongjoong means royal court and so you can guess where this dish comes from. The Korean Royal Cuisine (궁중요리 Goongjoong Yori) as we know today are recipes passed down through generations of King’s chefs during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) and only became available to everyone after the fall of the dynasty. There are separate cooking schools dedicated to teaching this cuisine but as you can imagine, it’s really not your everyday food..

In contrast, the prevalent story for the very popular spicy rice cake (ddukbokki/tteokbokki) is that it only came to existence in the 1950′s in the 신당동 (shindangdong) part of Seoul. Since then it probably has become the most popular snack for kids-although recently pizza and hamburgers have started to take over. But certainly when I was a student, there was always a ddukbokki house near every school and we just could not go home without taking a ddukbokki break!

Eating ddukbokki after school…it was sooo good but also soooo spicy sometimes. As much as I loved eating the spicy ddukbokki, I often had hard time with hot spicy foods when I was little. As a kid, I used to wash Baechoo Kimchi in water before I ate it. You would think that washing it with water makes it taste like nothing but it actually had plenty of flavor – still a little bit spicy, slightly sour, definitely salty and then that deep, can’t-really-describe-with-words unique taste of Kimchi. Mostly, this is how most Korean kids get used to eating spicy foods at an early age – by just tasting the watered down version first and then you want more..

Because this dish is salty, savory and slightly sweet, it is a great dish that can balance the spiciness of many Korean dishes. Great for dinner parties and also a great snack for kids since you can sneak in some extra veggies if you want.

Servings: 2                                     Cooking Time: 25 – 30 min                                           Difficulty: Medium

Ingredients

• 1 lb rice cake for ddukboki
• marinade sauce for rice cake
  • 1 T soy sauce
  • 1 T sesame oil
• 1/2 lb beef (chuck, sirloin, bottom round) or stew meat, cut into thin strips
• marinade for beef
  • 4 T apple lemon soy sauce
  • 1 T rice wine
  • 1 T sesame oil
  • 1 T honey
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • black pepper
• 4 oz oyster mushrooms (dried or fresh shitake, enoki, king all work well), torn
• 1/2 yellow onion, sliced
• 1 small carrot, sliced
• 2 green onions or 1/2 Korean leek (대파 Daepa)
• swirl of honey (optional)
• swirl of sesame oil (optional)
• sesame seeds for garnish

1. If you have access to fresh rice cake, that’s great. If not, no matter, just defrost frozen rice cakes by soaking in cold water first for 10 min. or more.
2. Cook rice cakes in boiling water for 2-3 minutes until they are soft all the way through.
3. Drain. Do not rinse. While it’s still hot, add 1 T soy sauce and 1 T sesame oil. Toss. Set aside.
   

   marinade dduk in soy sauce and sesame oil

4. Cut beef into thin strips (approx 1/4 in), against the grain. This is probably the most time consuming part of this recipe. EASY TIP: cut bulgogi meat into smaller pieces instead. In Korea, markets sell pre-cut beef strips like so…nice, huh?
   

   beef cut in strips for Korean cooking

   • BTW, the label says the beef cut is 설도(seoldoe) which is bottom round or eye of round. It also says it’s 잡채용 (chopchaeyong – for chop chae).

5. Marinate the beef strips in my apple lemon soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, sesame oil, honey, garlic mixture and let it sit while you prepare other ingredients.
   

   marinated beef strips for Korean Ddukbokki

   • I used my apple lemon soy sauce but you can substitute it for regular soy sauce and more rice wine. See my bulgogi post for the exact recipe. Also note that the amount of sauce is good for 1 lb of beef which is too much if it was just the meat but I wanted this sauce to season the entire dish and thus the extra sauce.
6. Cut carrot lengthwise and then into thin slices diagonally so that the size is similar to your dduk piece.
   

   cut carrots for Goongjoong Ddukbokki

7. Tear 0yster mushrooms by hand into smaller pieces.
   

   tearing oyster mushrooms for ddukbokki

   Dried shitake mushrooms are probably the most authentic ingredient but these oyster mushrooms were so fresh looking at the market! King or enoki mushrooms will be good too~

8. Cut  1/2 of a Korean leek first into 2 in long pieces and then quarter them.
   • Korean leeks are pretty big and long (usually longer than 2 ft and some are even longer than 3 ft! see photo below left – this is a pretty big cutting board) but not as big and not as thick as the ones you see in the US. I know Korean leeks are probably hard to get in places outside of Korea so substitute green onions if you can’t get Korean leeks.
     

     Korean Leek (대파 Daepa)

9. Cut onions into thin slices. And now you should have a plate full of cut vegetables!
   

   cut vegetables for ddukbokki

10. Heat a nice big frying pan on med-high heat. Transfer just the beef (set aside any leftover marinade sauce) into the pan and saute the beef strips for 2-3 minutes.
    

    sauteing beef

    

    leftover beef marinade – save it for later!

11. Saute carrots, onions and mushrooms (except for green onions) with the beef, 2-3 min.
    

    beef and vegetables

12. Add rice cakes and stir fry for 5-6 minutes until everything is evenly cooked.
    

    Ddukbokki is almost done!

13. Taste. For kids snacks, keep the seasoning light and do not add the leftover marinade sauce. For side dishes, add some of the remaining beef marinade sauce for additional seasoning.
14. Add green onions. For final seasoning, swirl in some honey and sesame oil before serving.
15. Sprinkle some sesame seeds as garnish.

This rice cake stir fry is a great for parties, pot luck and as snack for kids. So enjoy!

Storage

• Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for several days. Dduk becomes hard once it’s stored in the fridge. Reheat it slowly on medium to med-low heat by adding couple T of water and stirring often. Microwaving will reheat faster but dduk will become really hard once it cools so I don’t really recommend it.

Variations

• Add regular or napa cabbages, fish cake, zucchini for variations.
  

  Goongjoong Ddukbokki/Tteokbokki

Korean Lettuce Salad (Sangchoo Geotjeori)

This Korean Lettuce Salad is a wonderfully delicious side dish to any grilled meats – especially unseasoned grilled meats. The salty, vinegary and slightly sweet chili flavors really help break up any greasy taste of meats while still highlighting the meaty flavor. Korean BBQ restaurants often serve some variation of this salad with BBQ meats using different greens so you probably have tasted some variation before.  Whenever we have a Korean style BBQ at home, this side salad is our favorite especially if we grill pork or beef.

This Korean lettuce salad is so simple and easy to make that it often doesn’t even appear in Korean cookbooks. It may be too simple and easy to some but for those of you who are not very familiar with Korean food or seasonings, I thought it was definitely worth a post in my Korean food blog. Besides grilled meats, the Korean lettuce salad also goes great with just plain rice as part of a very healthy low calorie meal.

The salad is usually called by two names: 상추 겉절이 (Sangchoo Geotjeori or Keotjeori) or 상추 무침 (Sangchoo Moochim). Sangchoo means lettuce. Geotjeori (겉절이) literally means to pickle (jeori) the outside (geot) which is different from pickling the vegetable all the way through (for 8 hrs or more) as you do with cabbages when making Cabbage Kimchi. Moochim comes from the verb” moochida(무치다)” which means to toss and mix the ingredients with some type of seasoning or sauce.

Servings: 3-4                                         Cooking Time: 10 min                                             Difficulty: Very Easy

Ingredients

• 1 small head of red leaf lettuce
• 6-8 perilla leaves (optional)
• 3-4 stalks of chrysanthemum leaves (쑥갓 sookat) (optional)
• 2-3 green onions (0ptional)
• For Soy Dressing
  • 4 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 T rice vinegar
  • 1 T sugar
  • 1 tsp Korean red chili powder
  • 2 T chopped green onions (if you are not adding green onions in the greens)
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp sesame seeds

1. Wash and rinse the greens (lettuce, perilla, chrysanthemum leaves). Drain. You can either tear the lettuce and chrysanthemum leaves by hand into bite size pieces (as shown in top photo) or serve whole leaves (as shown below). Do not worry about drying the greens (i.e. no need to use salad spinners) because any extra water on the leaves will dilute the dressing to make it taste just right.
   

   green lettuce, perilla leaves and crysanthemum leaves

2. Cut perilla leaves into 1/3 in wide strips unless serving whole lettuce pieces. Set aside.
3. Make soy dressing (see Korean Sauces II post for more info on sauces) my mixing soy sauce, vinegar and sugar first until sugar fully dissolves. Mix in the remaining ingredients (below).
   

   korean soy salad dressing

4. Toss torn greens with the dressing and serve immediately or serve whole leaves and dressing on the side (see pic below) and allow your guest to dress their own salad or dip the lettuce in the sauce.
   

   Korean Lettuce Salad

Variations

• The soy dressing works great for all kinds of greens. Romaine lettuce is one of my favorite because it’s a bit sweet and crunchy which stands up well to the salty soy dressing. Greens that have a more grassy and bitter taste (as opposed to iceberg lettuce which has little flavor) all work well with this dressing.
• Make a lighter and smoother dressing by adding 1 T apple lemon soy sauce and 2 tsp soy sauce instead of 4 tsp. Also reduce sugar from 1 T to 1 tsp since the apple lemon soy sauce is already sweet.
• Substitute 1 tsp soy sauce with 1/3 tsp fermented fish or anchovy sauce (멸치액젓 myulchi aekjeot) for a more pungent sauce that taste more like Kimchi.

Storage

• As with any salad, once it is already tossed with the dressing the greens will lose its crispy crunchiness quite quickly. So, if you like your greens to taste fresh and crunchy, toss and serve immediately.

black sesame jook (6 C water)

Winter is pretty cold in Korea and this winter especially was freezing cold.  The lowest temperature in Seoul got as low as 3°F ! Yikes!! So hot belly warming foods like soups and porridge are very popular this time of year. Korean food has many different kinds of porridge (죽 jook). They are made with abalones (my personal favorite), pumpkin, red bean, mung bean, pine nuts, spinach, beef, chicken, oysters..and the list goes on. Koreans love jook. They eat jook for breakfast, as appetizers and almost always when they are sick. They are now many chain restaurants that serve only jook and they are very popular.

According to history, jook was part of Korean food even before plain rice became the main staple. Just as our ancestors started farming they started to make jook out of different grains, nuts, vegetables and hunted meats. Probably because jook is quite easy to make and was a great way to feed many hungry families with small amount of food. I mean, if you look at the recipe, jook is almost 90% water.  Also because jook is easier to digest and usually made with nutritious ingredients, they are great for babies and for sick people.

Making jook is not difficult at all but it is not by any means a quick food. You need time for it to cook fully. But once you make a batch, you can store and eat it for days so it can be worth the time.

Here are also some nutritional facts about sesame seeds : “Sesame seeds are a very good source of copper and a good source of magnesium and calcium. Just a quarter-cup of sesame seeds supplies 74.0% of the daily value for copper, 31.6% of the DV for magnesium, and 35.1% of the DV for calcium. And black sesame seeds are known to have even higher fiber and calcium content than regular sesame seeds.  They are also a good source of iron, phosphorus, vitamin B1, zinc and dietary fiber.” (whfoods) Koreans often eat black sesame seeds jook after surgery to regain their strength and to also to help with constipation.

Cooking Time : 1 hr (for soaking) + 20 min                   Difficulty: Medium                                  Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1/2 C Roasted black sesame seeds (you can also use regular sesame seeds although black sesame seeds are more nutritious)
• 1 C Short Grain Rice
• 5~6 C Water (water will be divided and used at different stages)
• 1 tsp Salt
• Sugar or Honey (optional)
• Dried jujubes/pine nuts/almond (as garnish)
  

  rice and black sesame for jook

1. Measure 1 C of rice and let it soak in water for 1 hour or more and drain.
2. Measure 1/2 C of black sesame seeds. Rinse and drain.
3. When the rice is fully soaked, finely grind the rice with 1 C (out of 5) of water. It should come out looking something like this:
   

   blended rice

   Depending on the power of your blender, it may not come out fully smooth right away. Try straining it to see if there are any bigger bits. You can grind the bigger pieces a second time with some additional water if you want your jook to be totally smooth. Some people prefer to have their jook with bits that they can chew on. However you like it. Set aside.

4. Finely blend the black sesame seeds with 2 C of water. Instead of adding all of the water at once, start blending with less water (more like 1/2 to 1 C) and gradually add more. Unless you have a blender as powerful as vitamix, your blender will not be able to finely grind it if you add the full 2 C of water from the start.
   

   black sesame ground

5. Mix the blended rice and black sesame seeds in a pot. (NOTE: because I blended my rice and sesame mixture really finely, I just cooked everything together directly in the pot. If your blended mixture is coarse, you may want to separate the solid rice and sesame bits and theire liquid by straining. Mix and cook the two liquids first (just for 2 min) and then add the solid rice and sesame bits later. )
6. Turn on the heat to medium high and keep stirring until it starts to boil. Stir in remaining 2~3 C of water as it cooks. Cook at low heat for 10-15 min. Make sure you continue to stir (I used a whisk) to prevent any rice from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
   

   black sesame jook starting to boil

7. When the jook is fully cooked (with 2 C of water added in step 6), it should be quite thick (consistency of thick batter) as shown here:
   

   fully cooked black sesame jook

   If you like yours to be a little more thin, add more water (up to 1 C) and it will come out looking more smooth like the first photo on top.

8. Season with salt (1 tsp) to taste. Do NOT add salt early on while it’s cooking but only AFTER it’s fully cooked. Salt can dissolve the rice and make the jook watery. Believe me, I’m not talking about the jook just turning thin, adding too much salt or adding it too early will basically ruin the porridge. A good way is to not season before serving but allow each person to season it themselves right before they eat.
9. Optionally you can add sugar or honey to the jook or serve it on the side with the jook (which I recommend).

Right consistency of porridge – Use 5 or 6 C of water?

The consistency is very much a personal preference. Adding only 5 C of water will produce a jook that’s thicker, closer to a pudding. The picture below shows the black sesame jook when only 5 C of water is added:

thick black sesame jook (5 C water)

Variations

• Add other nuts such as pine nuts or walnuts to add more nutty flavor.
• You can use regular sesame seeds instead.
• Use sweet rice powder instead of plain rice. 1 C of sweet rice powder and 5 C of water will work.

Stay warm!

one-lovely-blog-award

First, I want to apologize for this very late posting..My excuse for the lateness is partly due to the holidays and then I couldn’t make up my mind on how to write the post..

Anyway, a very lovely fellow blogger Maria (check out her blog a cougar in the kitchen) nominated me for the “One Lovely Blog” award back in December. As Maria also mentioned, I think this is more like a chain letter for blogs than an award but I thought you may enjoy reading more about me. And it’s always good to spread the word on blogs that are worth reading.

So, I was supposed to do the following in response:

1. Visit and thank the blogger who nominated you.
2. Acknowledge that blogger on your blog and link back.
3. Share 7 random things about yourself.
4. Nominate 7 or more blogs and notify them on their blogs.
5. Copy and paste the award on your blog somewhere.

Ok..7 random things about myself:

1. I LOVE God – I am a third generation Christian and faith is everything to me. One of my favorite verse is – Jeremiah 29:11 ^“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
2. I LOVE music and singing but never in front of people. You will never find me in a Karaoke bar!
3. I LOVE snow – I love how it covers and transforms even the dirtiest places and things and makes them look so pure and white.
4. I LOVE water – I love the complete peace I feel in the water; I always wonder if heaven will be similar.
5. I often say that I LOVE dogs more than people because dogs don’t lie or hate and always love you unconditionally.
6. I HATE arguing with people and I used to HATE myself for not being able to stand up to people. But with age, I have gotten much better..my husband now tells me that I can even be scary sometimes! (I doubt it though..LOL)
7. Believe it or not, I decided to become a Computer Scientist after watching the movies Tron and War Games (when I was like 12). What a way to decide your career!?

Here are 7 blogs I enjoy for one reason or another:

1. I’ll be home for Christmas (Letters home to you written from abroad) – this is my daughter’s blog.  Having her away from home is sometimes really hard but having this blog helps us to know how and what she is doing – esp when phone calls are difficult due to time differences. She recently traveled through Europe and I must say I quite enjoyed her writings and pictures as well.
2. Snapshots for sore eyes (Life as viewed through my aperture) – The photography here is simple amazing. Not your everyday scenery but things that you don’t always see. I especially love the pictures of the bark and the ice sculptures.
3. Misty Yoon (Kkokko’s weblog) – “This Blog is so Mum can tell the world about our experiences. – Ryan” I think this quote simply captures what the blog is all about. It’s about a Korean American family and all the great food ‘mum’ makes. I particularly enjoy Misty’s lunchboxes – her kids are very lucky to have these everyday!
4. Lostinrelocation (Where am I?) – I found this blog when Kathrin first left a very lovely comment on my blog. About how her mom recently passed away and my blog somehow reminded me of her. I was so touched by this comment and it encourages me to continue. Now having relocated to Korea, I love the title “lost in relocation” even more..
5. Honey & Jam (recipes and photos) – I just recently discovered this blog and don’t know much about it yet but I do love love the photos. Hannah (she’s only 22)’s photos have been featured in many magazines and websites.  She takes pictures exclusively with natural light and is not as bright as many food photos but has a wonderful organic feel to it.
6. Sadly I don’t have 7..And I wish I had more favorite Korean food blogs to share..I could try to fill the list but that would be very artificial, just trying to fill the requirements. And I’m too old to bother with that kind of stuff… So that’s it for now.

Thank You again Maria for nominating my Kimchimari Korean food blog for a One Lovely Blog award!

Korean Kyungbok Palace

Happy New Year everyone!! I received this ’2012 in review’ report from WordPress and thought I would share this with all of you. When I started my Korean Food at Home blog in Jan of 2011, my average visits per day was 4 and now my blog gets over 1000 daily! I want to say THANK YOU to all my readers, followers and especially to those who have given me great encouragements, questions and requests! They really help me keep going.

So what’s my New Year resolution? Actually I have none – I don’t like making resolutions because I can never keep them. But I do have some exciting news to share with you. I just signed up for a Food Stylist class at SookMyung University Korean Food Institute and also for a Vegetable Sommelier certification class. I have always found styling Korean food very difficult and hopefully with this class I can produce better presentation and photos to share with you on my blog. I actually found the Vegetable Sommelier class by accident. But I am glad I found it because I think it’s a very interesting and unique approach to food. The original vegetable sommelier certification started in Japan and it teaches everything about vegetables and fruits including organic farming, cooking, nutrition, etc. In particular, I’m especially excited to learn about organic farming! Hopefully when I am able to have my own garden again, I can apply what I learned in this class.

Enjoy!

Here’s an excerpt:

About 55,000 tourists visit Liechtenstein every year. This blog was viewed about 250,000 times in 2012. If it were Liechtenstein, it would take about 5 years for that many people to see it. Your blog had more visits than a small country in Europe!

Click here to see the complete report.

About Kimchi Ingredients

The first thing any experienced Kimchi maker will tell you is that you need to buy good quality ingredients or otherwise no matter how well you make it, it just won’t turn out right. So here are some tips on how to choose the best -

Korean napa cabbage cut in half

• Cabbage (배추 Baechoo) – If you can, buy Korean napa cabbages – they are the best. The better ones are more bigger and heavier with the inner core packed with leaves.  A single firmly packed medium size Korean napa cabbage weighs about 3 ~ 4lbs.

• Radish (무우 Moo)  – Korean radishes are similar to Daikon radishes but are more flavorful and less juicy. Some radishes have little air holes inside which means it’s dried out and will turn spongy.  Choose ones that are heavier than others. When cutting radish, my mother-in-law told me that you should pay attention to the grain and cut WITH the grain. This way, the radish remains flexible (and not break) when salted.

radish cut along the grain

• Salt (소금 Sokeum) – Salt is very important in Kimchi. Use sea salt but with the bittern removed.  In the old days, people stored a whole sack of solar sea salt (for at least 1 year) on top of bricks while the bittern slowly drained.

Today,  companies sell solar sea salt that have been aged for 3 -5 years which means the bittern has been drained for 3-5 years (like the one I mention in K ingredients). If the salt has too much bittern in them your Kimchi may turn out bitter tasting so be careful when you are using sea salt and taste it to see if you can taste any bitterness.

When pickling cabbages, a 1/2 C ~ 1 C salt : 5 C water ratio salt water should work well. And always remember to set aside some of the salt to sprinkle directly in between leaves to ensure even pickling. In warm weather, pickle for 4~6 hrs and in cold weather 8~12 hrs. But always the best way is to touch and see how it looks. See my part1 post to see a pic of pickled cabbages.

dried Korean red chili peppers

• Red chili powder  (고추가루 Gochookaroo) – Chili powder can totally make or break a Kimchi. Korean red chili peppers are spicy but not too spicy and also have a bit of sweetness that makes Kimchi taste good. If there’s one thing you should try to buy from the Korean market, it’s the chili powder. Typical amount to use is 1 C of Gochookaroo per 1 cabbage (4 lb size).
• Ginger – There is a native Korean ginger that some people like to use but because you use a small amount it does not make a big difference so no need to worry here. Use less ginger if you want to store your kimchi longer.

different kinds of seawoojeot sold at Korean market

• Fermented Fish/Seafood  (젓갈 Jeotgal) -Jeotgal is another very important ingredient in Kimchi. What kind of jeotgal you use is very much a personal preference. The better ones should taste pretty good on their own – quite salty, not fishy(the kind of fishy that tastes not fresh) and even a little bit sweet.  Anchovy and shrimp jeotgal are your basic must haves. My mother-in-law told me that Kimchi will ripe slower and last longer if you use mostly anchovy jeotgal. Thus, Koreans who live in southern provinces tend to use more anchovy joetgal and Koreans who live in the central and northern part tend to use more shrimp jeotgal. What jeotgal you use also depends on what kind of kimchi you are making – more shrimp for Kkaktooki and more anchovy for Kimchi that are made with greens such as chives and mustard leaves.

The picture shows all the different kinds of saewoojeot that you can buy based on where it is from and also when they are made. Saewoojeot made in May is called 오젓 Ohjeot, in June  is called 육젓 Yookjeot and in the fall it’s called 추젓 Choojeot.  June jeotgal (Yookjeot) is the best for Kimjang.

I know it’s hard to get all these fancy fermented jeotgal outside of Korea so just use one or more of the bottled fermented anchovy sauce (멸치액젓 myulchi aekjeot), fermented sand lance sauce (까나리액젓 kkanari aekjeot) or fermented shrimps (새우젓 saewoojeot). If you can’t even get these, use any Asian fish sauce.

• Rice or Flour paste This is another ingredient that varies a lot based on the recipe and puzzles even Koreans as to whether this is a necessary ingredient. There are different opinions and I personally prefer not using the paste so it was not included in my Kimjang recipe. But you are welcome to add it if you wish.

There are 2 main reasons for adding paste in Kimchi.

1. It gets rid of any “grassy” smell and taste from some Kimchis. When making Kimchi with dark green vegetables (radish leaves, Korean small cabbage, mustard leaves, etc but NOT napa cabbage), it can sometimes taste and smell grassy. The only way I can explain “grassy” is that it would be mildly similar to eating wheat grass or something that is so green that it tastes really raw and even bitter. Rice or flour paste is a must for these green kimchis and also for radish kimchis like Kkaktoogi.
2. It helps to ripen Kimchi faster and taste sweeter. Because it serves as food for the many beneficial lactic acid bacteria that helps ripen Kimchi, it speeds up the fermentation process. So if you don’t want to ripen your Kimchi too fast, don’t add any paste. Personally I think it diminishes the fresh taste of Kimchi and takes away some of the zing that I love in a great Kimchi. But some people (many from the Southern region) actually prefer it this way and they say it deepens the taste and has a more concentrated flavor.

FAQ

• Q: What if I don’t have access to Jeotgal?
• A: You would think that it would be impossible to make Kimchi without some kind of fermented seafood. But it’s actually not true. An easy possible substitute is Fish Sauce (which is usually readily available than Korean jeotgal). But you can   completely omit jeotgal and just add some fresh shrimp, fish stock (dried anchovy or pollock) or beef stock(with fat removed) instead.

• Q: My Kimchi is not salty enough. Can I add additional salt after Kimchi has started to ferment?
• A: It is best not too. Adding additional salt afterwards can actually make it taste bitter.

• Q: How can I make my Kimchi not sour too quickly?
• A: The saltier you make your Kimchi,  the longer it will take to ripen and also will not sour as quickly. Not adding paste or jeotgal will slow down the ripening process. Koreans sometimes make Kimjang Kimchi with just salt so they can make it last till summer. Adding sugar will make Kimchi taste sweeter but also sour faster. Let it ripe but then keep it in very cool temperature – see No Crazy Kimchi post for more info on how to ripen Kimchi.

kimjang kimchi

The last time I took part in Kimjang (Korean tradition for making a lot of Kimchi to last through the winter months) was when I was still living at home in Seoul. Our family was quite large back then and we lived in a home where our back yard actually had buried kimchi jars. If my memory serves me right, I think we pickled 100~200 cabbages each winter which meant it was really a several day event – couple days to wash and salt the cabbages + prepare the yangnyum and other ingredients, another couple days to rinse and stuff the cabbages.

Many people will say Kimjang is hard work but for me it was a very fun and exciting time. Fun because family and friends got together, worked all day long (even sometimes outside in the cold) but also shared some good food and good times with each other. I remember a particular joke adults played on each other – wrapping up a big piece of ginger inside a piece of freshly made cabbage kimchi and offering it to another to taste. Yikes!!!

My family usually made at least 3-4 kinds of kimchi: the original stuffed whole cabbage(배추김치 baechoo kimchi), radish kimchi in water (동치미 dongchimi – this is a North Korean favorite), kimchi wrapped in cabbage parcels (보쌈김치 bossam kimchi) and young radish kimchi (총각김치 chonggak kimchi aka ‘bachelor’ kimchi). This year, my mother-in-law made white cabbage kimchi (백김치 white kimchi), two kinds of traditional cabbage kimchi (one with fermented anchovies and another with fermented shrimps).

Please note: This Part 1 post is a rough overview of what happened during Kimjang Day. Part 2 will contain a more detailed discussion of ingredients and tips on how to make a great tasting kimchi.

Time: 2 days                  Servings:  10-12 servings                      Difficulty: difficult

Ingredients for traditional cabbage Kimjang Kimchi

* these measurements are approximate and should be adjusted to taste

• 2 Korean Napa cabbage (배추 baechoo)
• 1 large Korean radish (무우 moo)
• 3~4 C sea salt with bittern removed
• 20 C water (for brine)
• 1 C ~ 1 1/2 C Korean chili powder (adjust to taste – even up to 2 C)
• 1/2 C chopped garlic
• 1 T chopped ginger
• 8 green onions, sliced thin 1 1/2 in long
• 7 oz water parsely/water dropwort (미나리 minari), cut 1 1/2 in long
• 1 bunch Korean mustard greens (갓 Gaat)
• 1/2 C total fermented seafood sauce (one or more of the following)
  • fermented anchovies (멸치젓 myulchijeot)
  • fermented shrimps (새우젓 saewoojeot)
  • fermented yellow croaker (조기젓 jokijeot)
  • fermented sand lance (까나리젓 kkanarijeot)
• 1/3 C chopped fresh shrimp or fresh oysters (optional)
• OPTIONAL (really, this is extra)
  • Korean or Asian pear
  • persimmon (the hard kind)

1. Prepare cabbages: First, set aside about 1/2 C of the sea salt to sprinkle directly in between cabbage leaves. Dissolve remaining sea salt with 20 C water to make brine. Cut cabbages into 2-4 pieces and  soak in brine for 30 minutes. Drain (save the brine) and then sprinkle salt between leaves focusing on the thicker, white fleshy part. Soak the cabbages overnight or 8-10 hrs in the brine again. Turning 1-2 times to evenly pickle the cabbage. When properly salted, the cabbages should look something like this..
   

   salted cabbages rinsed for kimchi

   Rinse the salted cabbages in water 2-3 times and let it drain fully (1 hr or so).

   ** Salting cabbages correctly is pretty tricky and some people say it’s actually the most difficult part of making kimchi. So these days, many cabbage farms sell already salted cabbages which makes the whole process so much easier.

2. Prepare yangnyum :

julieneed radish

add chili powder to radish and mix

Mix the radish with chili powder until radish pieces are completely coated.

mixed radish and chili powder

Wash and cut green onions, dropwort and mustard leaves. In volume it’s about equal amount to radish.
Mix the greens into the yangnyum.

add cut green onions, drop wort

Korean mustard leaves (갓 Gaat)

fresh mini shrimps (each is about 1 in long)

These miniature shrimps are the same shrimp used to make fermented shrimps (새우젓 saewoojeot). Using fresh shrimp is totally optional but many like to add them because it makes Kimchi taste better – a little sweeter? If you can’t find miniature shrimps, you can just add regular minced shrimp meat and it will taste just as good.

fermented yellow croaker (조기젓 jokeejeot) – drain just the liquid

fermented mini shrimps (새우젓 saewoojeot)

Now add the fermented stuff. I listed several options but the basic one to use is either the anchovies or shrimps. You can add both or just one.  Add the liquid from fermented anchovies (멸치젓 myulchijeot) or fermented shrimps (새우젓 saewoojeot) by pressing them through a sieve or squeeze the juice by hand. My picture of anchovies was pretty bad so I’m just posting the shrimps and yellow croaker here.

add pear as a finishing touch to yangnyum

Optionally add sliced pear (thicker strips than radish since pear breaks easily) and/or persimmon to yangnyum. Just a handful of pear/persimmon will do fine. The fruits add natural sweetness to Kimchi without additional sugar.

Taste the yangnyum. It should taste saltier, spicier and more pungent than how a ripe kimchi tastes. But it should still taste pretty good overall. Add more fermented shrimp or anchovy liquid if it’s not salty enough. You can also add regular sea salt instead. The saltiness and spiciness will lessen (maybe about 20% less?) with fermentation.

3. Now it’s time to stuff the cabbage:

Insert stuffing to cabbage Kimchi

Take each cabbage halves or quarters and insert about a heaping tablespoon amount of stuffing in between each of the leaves. Start from the larger leaves and work your way up to the smaller leaves. Don’t worry about coating the whole leaf but concentrate on the thicker white parts of the cabbage.

wrap cabbage after stuffing kimchi yangnyeom (this is white kimchi)

When you are done stuffing all layers, take the outermost leaf and wrap the cabbage to keep the stuffed yangnyum from falling out. In a large container big enough to hold all the cabbages, start packing in each of the stuffed cabbages as tightly as possible.

kimjang kimchi in container

This is a large rectangular container that comes with my Kimchi fridge. But you are welcome to use one of those large pickle jars or any container that suits you. The goal is to pack the cabbages tightly so that they can ferment in their own juices as much as possible.

4. Because Kimjang Kimchi is meant to last through the winter, it should ripe slowly in the most ideal temperature. See my No Crazy Kimchi post for more detailed info on ripening kimchi.

In this year of 2012, a survey showed only 52% of Korean families plan to do their own Kimjang – down from last year’s 57%. 20 years ago, my guess would be that over 90% of Korean families did their own Kimjang. Unless you were too poor or too sick to do it, it was a must for every Korean family. With families getting smaller and young people’s taste becoming more westernized, the trend will likely continue. Which made me cherish this year’s Kimjang even more…