Korean Soul Food

I absolutely love Korean food. Lately, I've really enjoyed making spicy, flavorful Korean stews. Originally I stuck with the recipes from Maangchi. If you've never heard of her, go immediately to her website. Now. You can read mine later.... this woman is the goddess of Korean cooking and you're bound to love her as much as I do!!!!

So, I did a modified version of her gamjatang recipe. Except, I didn't have most of the fresh ingredients, so I left out the perilla leaves, napa cabbage and bean sprouts. I did have a package of Korean extra soft tofu, so I added this instead, along with some chopped up kimchi. So I guess this stew is a combination of gamjatang and kimchi jigae. I just called it delicious, and the perfect thing to eat when you're fighting off a sinus infection!

Here's a picture of my stewpot, happily simmering away.

Dinner with a toaster oven, mostly...

I was EXHAUSTED but very very hungry tonight.  I also didn't want a lot of dishes to clean.  So, I decided to make good use of my toaster oven and a package of aluminum foil to make dinner.  I had a lovely maitake mushroom and some shiso leaves that I really needed to use.

So, I decided to combine the maitake with shitake, some fresh garlic, a little sesame oil, butter and sake, and roasted it in aluminum foil in my toaster oven:

While I was at it, I decided to cook some wild salmon as well!

I drizzled salt on the shiso leaves and let them sit for a few minutes.  Then I wrapped them around the salmon filets, and drizzled them with a little sesame oil.  The salmon joined my little mushroom friends in my toaster oven.

I decided to pair this with some homemade nukazuke.  These are daikon and gobo (burdock) room that I pickled in rice bran.  The bed of rice bran is known as a nukadoko.

It's a Japanese method of pickling - I used to watch my grandmother making these when I was a little girl.

The finished dinner below... I decided to make some udon noodles in a quick broth.  I topped it with beni-shoga (red pickled ginger):

Everything came out pretty tasty... except I think I left the nukazuke in the nukadoko too long.  It was a bit sour tasting.

On an added note, all of these photos were taken with my new IPhone 4S. It takes awesome pictures!

Making Oden

Most people I know don't consider Japanese food as cold weather food, but when the temperature drops there are a couple of quick, but warming Japanese dishes that I just *have* to make.

Oden

One of those is oden, a traditional, hearty Japanese stew.  Ingredients vary by region, and well, by what you have on hand.  But some of the ingredients that you could consider adding: potato, firm tofu, fresh spinach, fishcake, mochi cake (better if you deep fry them first). . .the possibilities are endless.

So, when I decided to cook up a quick pot of oden, I just used what I have on hand.  Sometimes I like to make it spicy, this time I just stuck with the traditional.

Quick Oden

4 cups Dashi stock for base (you can make your own with bonito flakes and kombu or use the instant dashi)

2 tbsp Mirin 

2 tbsp Sake

2-3 tbsp Miso paste

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 block Konnyaku

1 sliced green onion

1/4-1/2 package firm tofu, drained

1/2 package of your favorite fishcake (some asian supermarkets even sell a variety pack of various forms of fishcake)

Combine and heat dashi, mirin and sake. Heat to a low boil to burn off the alcohol.  Lower temperature and add miso paste, whisk to combine.  You'll want to avoid boiling this once you've added the miso. Cut and add the konnyaku.  I like to cut 1/4 inch strips from the block, then cut a slit in the center, and tuck the top through the slit, in order to produce a pretty shape.  Add the remaining ingredients. I like to let everything else simmer a bit, and add the sliced green onion right before serving.  

Keep in mind, everything is to taste, so feel free to add more/less of the sake, mirin, miso and soy sauce to your taste.  I hope you enjoy! Oden is quick, healthy and filling, and the perfect dish to enjoy in cold weather.

Monkfish and Mackerel and Uni, Oh My!

I made a recent trip to Super H Mart, a wonderful Korean supermarket, with a huge selection of ingredients that I can't find at my local Vietnamese stores.  If only it were closer!

A photo of fresh sea urchin

I had one special ingredient in mind - uni, or sea urchin roe.   It's also quiet expensive - nearly 11 dollars for a small package!  

That's a lot of money for an ingredient that I frequently found for free when stationed in Okinawa. There were tidal pools that you literally couldn't walk through, because they were absolutely teaming with sea urchin!  That was also back before I appreciated the delicacy.

I had to ask for it specially, because they didn't have any out, but I successfully obtained my uni!

I also found a special treat - monkfish!  I'd never had this before, so of course I had to immediately ask for some.   I also bought fresh mackeral, conch, gobo (burdock) root, matsutake and enoki mushrooms  and a giant daikon - all of the makings of a delicious nabe.

I decided to visit and make my mother dinner - battleship uni sushi, fried mackeral and monkfish and a nabe made with the mushrooms, gobo and conch.  It was a feast!  Unfortunately, the battery on my Ipod was dead, so I couldn't take pictures.  But I'll just leave you with this mouthwatering picture of sea urchin sushi:

Luckily, I have a little bit of the uni leftover, so I think tonight I will make uni spaghetti!

Turning noodles into RAMEN!

Apparently, you can turn other types of noodles into Ramen noodles by cooking them with a tablespoon or two of baking soda, according to Hiro-shio's blog. Soba, udon, even spaghetti noodles are fair game! But why bother, when you can just open an instant package? Because, packaged ramen noodles have been fried, and are full of sodium - not exactly the most healthful choice. Cooking noodles with baking soda increases the cooking time slightly, but results in slippery, chewy, ramen-textured noodles that you can enjoy with your favorite homemade soup or dipping sauce.


After you've added the baking soda to the water, then added the noodles, watch out! This foams. A LOT.  So, you will probably need to turn the temperature down to keep it from boiling over. But, rest assured, your patience and ingenuity will be rewarded with yummy ramen noodles.


For the soup portion, you can use purchased noodle soup base or make your own. I usually throw together some dashi, sake and a piece of kombu and add flavor from there.  Miso is a great addition.  For spicy korean-style, I like to add gochujuang, to the broth.  Add your favorite toppings and you're all set!

(random ramen picture from the interwebs.....)

Takamine C143S

IMG_1476
Originally uploaded by rabidmuskrat

Wow - I do in fact have a blog! So, I guess I should use it!

My new guitar - lovely, lovely, but she's too large for me. She sounds so wonderful that I don't really care. I bought her used, and even though I knew she was too big, I had to have her.

Unfortunately, she had a catastrophic accident - the latch to her case apparently doesn't fasten down easily.... I heard a click and she fell out, damaging her top. I almost starting crying right then.

Wow - I *do* have a blog don't I?

I had trouble pulling up this blog to post for some reason... and then forgot about it until recently. So, to jump right into things....

I bought a new guitar! Takamine C134Sm, built in 1980. Wouldn't you know it - I took it to a friend's house, and discovered (catastophically) that the latches to the case leave much to be desired. I'd fastened them down, took my guitar in the other room to show my friend, and suddenly "click" the latches are open, and my guitar falls out. Now I have a couple of ugly marks and a nasty gash! I almost started crying right there.