[Korean] Tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork)

Tangsuyuk one of the most popular dishes in Chinese restaurants in Korea (#1 is jjajangmyeon). This recipe is a typical version.

Ingredients:

Sauce-

2 Tbsp ketchup

6 Tbsp sugar

4 Tbsp vinegar

3 Tbsp soy sauce

2 cups water

corn starch water (3 Tbsp each of cornstarch and water)

Handful of each of: pineapple cubes, diced onions, carrot segments, diced green (or other color) pepper, moki mushrooms (the English on the package says "black mushrooms", if that helps. If you've never seen them before, you might think they look more like seaweed.)

Meat-

300g pork

Breading-

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 egg

1 Tbsp dry white wine

a little salt and pepper

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup corn starch

1/2 cup cold water

Method:

First make the sauce. Boil the ketchup, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, and 2 cups of water together (we'll add the corn starch water later).

Now prepare the vegetables.

When the sauce boils, add the vegetables.

Let the vegetables cook while you fry the meat. Mix the "breading" ingredients together and cut the pork into strips. Heat some canola oil (or other oil that can take high heat) in a pan, dip the pork in the batter, and fry it. 

Fry the pork until it looks like it does in the picture below, but don't get too excited. You're not done yet! We're going to let the pork cool for a little while and then put it back into the pan.

Now, add the pineapple chunks to the simmering sauce (you can add apple slices too/instead if you like).

When the pork has cooled a little, fry it in the pan again. Frying it twice is a key point. Your tangsuyuk will be better if you don't skip this step. 

Fry the pork until it looks like this:

The sauce should be ready now, so mix in the corn starch water slowly and the sauce will thicken.

Put the fried pork onto a plate and pour the sauce onto it,

and it's done!

Eat this with or without rice. Popular side dishes for this dish are Korean radish kimchi and raw onion.

[Korean] Soy Sauce Chicken Steak

This is an easy-to-make Korean chicken dish with a sweet soy sauce. The sauce tastes similar to well-known teriyaki sauce.


Soy Sauce Chicken Steak (serves 4)


Ingredients [click here for details]
4 chicken breasts
olive oil enough to cover a frying pan
corn starch enough to rub on chicken surface
4 Tbsp of soy sauce
3 Tbsp of sugar
7+2 Tbsp of dry white wine
1/2 tsp of barbecue sauce
1/3 tsp of ginger powder
a pinch of black pepper


cooking Instruction
1. hammer chicken to shape it into thin steaks-about 1/2 inch thick.


2. Marinate chicken with 2 Tbsp of white wine, a pinch of black pepper


3. Put corn starch powder on the entire surface of chicken steak.

4. Oil the pan enough to cover a frying pan and cook chicken with medium-high fire till chicken is cooked and the color is brown.


5. prepare the sauce by mixing 4 Tbsp of soy sauce, 3 Tbsp of sugar, 7 Tbsp of dry white wine, 1/2 tsp of barbecue sauce, and 1/3 tsp of ginger powder.


6. Add the sauce to chicken in the frying pan and reduce the sauce.


How to Serve
Serve this chicken steak as a main dish with a fresh or mild-taste side dish.  For example, Cucumber rice rolls with mock crab can be a good side dish for this dish.

[Korean] Fried Pork with Red Pepper Paste

Fried Pork with Red Pepper Paste (serves 2)
 Korean name : je-yook-bok-em
 stir-fry: bokem



Ingredients [click here for details]
1lb Pork sirloin, sliced into bite size pieces with 0.5cm thickness
1 onions, cut into pieces similar in size to pork
2 green onions, cut into several pieces
3Tbsp red pepper paste
1.5Tbsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp soy sauce
1.5 Tbsp garlic, minced
1Tbsp sugar
2Tbsp corn syrup
2Tbsp dry white wine
1Tbsp sesame seed oil
a dash of ground pepper
[optional]1Tbsp sesame seeds
[optional]1tsp minced ginger
[optional]2Tbsp chopped onion
[optional] rice cake slices

Cooking Instruction
1. mix all the ingredients except the onions and the green onion pieces. Marinating overnight is recommended. If desire, add chopped onion, sesame seeds and ginger.


2. Cook marinated meat, onion, and green onions with the strong fire.


3. Add a little bit of rice cake, if you want.


4. Cook till the meat is thoroughly cooked.


How to Serve
You can serve this either as a main dish in a serving plate or over the steamed rice or as a ahn-joo, which is a side dish for drinking.

[Korean] Bulgogi, Soy sauce marinated beef

This is one of the most popular Korean dish. If you make 'ssam' with it, you can enjoy this meal even better. Here's a simple recipe for delicious bulgogi.

Bulgogi (serves 2)


Ingredients [click here for details]
0.6 lb of beef sirloin
2.5 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 tsp honey
1/2 apple, minced*
2 Tbsp garlic, minced 1 Tbsp sesame seeds
1Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp sesame seed oil
a pinch of ground pepper
4~5 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 green onions, sliced into 4 segments
1/2 green pepper, sliced into long thin strips
1/3 large onions, sliced
3-4 oz white mushrooms, sliced**


*You can substitute apple with a same-size pear.
** You can use various kind of mushrooms, such as shiitake mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, or enokitake mushrooms.

Cooking Instruction

1. Slice green onions, green pepper, mushrooms, 4~5 cloves of garlic, and onions, as instructed above.

2. chop 4 cloves of garlic and 1/2 of apple finely using a chopper.

3. Slice meat thinly. It is easier to cut when it is slightly frozen.

4. Mix soy sauce, minced garlic, minced apple, honey, sugar, a pinch of pepper, sesame seeds and sesame seed oil with meat first.

5. Mix everything together in a container, and marinate overnight.

picture of meat after 1hr of marinating

6-1. After heating a pan, cook the meat and vegetables marinade with a strong fire. You can add more sugar when it's not sweet enough for you, or soy sauce for saltier taste.


If you desire, you can swollen some Korean vermicelli in the water for 10 minutes and add the vermicelli to bulgogi while cooking. Use the quarter's diameter worth of vermicelli when you grab it with your hand.


6-2.(for a bulgogi-stew), on a big pan, display more enokitake mushrooms, king oyster mushroom, and a little bit of Korean vermicelli noodles, a little bit of tofu, more vegetables, like carrots or napa cabbage. Pour 1/2 cup of beef stock and 1/2 cup of water. Bring it to boil.

How to serve

1. For ssam(click here for details)
Put bulgogi on a serving plate. 

Prepare red leaf lettuce and  pa-chae (Green onion strips with red pepper flakes)
Slice several garlic cloves and put ssamjang on a same dish.
Serve steamed rice(bop) in an individual bowl or plate, instead of dinner plates.
You can add a little bit of soy bean paste tofu stew or egg custard, samm-radish(cold sweet and sour Korean radish), kimchi.



2. For Bulgogi-stew, You can still make ssam with meat. We usually use an electric cooker (sometimes, a portable burner) to cook the stew on the middle of a serving table. You can put other various side dishes.

How to Eat
1. Ssam
Wrap a bit of all the dishes in a red leaf lettuce. For more details, click here.
Often, peopel a littel portion of Korean cold noodles after this meal.


2. For stew, you eat steamed rice, the shared Bulgogi stew, and other side dishes, alternately.
People sometimes mix the stew with bop in their personal plate.

 

[Korean] Soy Sauce Rice Cake, Royal Rice Cake

Soy Sauce Rice Cake, Royal Rice Cake (Serves 2)
      Korean name : goong-joong-ddeok-bok-ki
      It is believed that royal family of ancient Korea enjoyed this dish.
      Red sauce rice cake is more popular.




Ingredients [click here for details]
 
2 handfuls of rice cake, about 10 oz.
0.3lb of beef or pork
1/3 onion, sliced into 1*1 inch pieces
1 carrot, sliced
1/2 green bell pepper, sliced
2 Tbsp of Garlic, minced
2+1 Tbsp of Soy sauce
1+1 Tbsp of sugar 
1/2 +1/2 Tbsp of sesame seed dressing oil ( not cooking oil)
a pinch of ground pepper
[optional] various hard vegetables, I used one stem of celery.
[optional] 1 Thai pepper for hot flavor

Cooking Instruction

1. Cut up all the vegetables as mentioned above.


2. Marinate meat for 30 minutes with 1 Tbsp of soy sauce, 1 Tbsp of sugar, 1/2 Tbsp of Sesame seed oil, and a pinch of pepper. Originally beef sirloin is used, but other part of beef or pork can be used, too.


3. Cook rice cake in the boiling water for 2 minutes. Rice cake doesn't have to be cooked completely now. When it is soft, turn off the fire.


4. On a hot pan, put oil and minced garlic, and cook till garlic become translucent. If you desire, you can add Thai pepper for hot flavor.
I don't eat this pepper itself because it is too spicy. I just used it for flavor.
(Don't rub your eyes after you touch that chili: click here to see the scale of hotness of peppers.)


5. Add marinated meat till it is half done.


6. Put rice cake in a pan. Add 2 Tbsp of soy sauce, 1 Tbsp of sugar, 1 Tbsp of sesame oil, and a pinch of ground pepper. Stir well.


7. Put vegetables in order of decreasing hardness, i.e. put hard vegetables like carrots first then softer vegetables.


8. Cook till rice cake absorbs the sauce. Sauce should be shiny and sticky. I like to cook rice cake till a little crispy.




How to Serve

Put it in a large bowl.  You can eat it with kimchi as a meal, or with a cool glass of beer as a side dish.

[Korean] Fried Breaded Pork 2

Fried Breaded Pork version.2 (serves 2)
 Korean name : qubuhroo 2



Ingredients [click here for details]
1 lb pork sirloin
1 cup sweet rice flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1/2 cup canola oil
2 Tbsp Soy sauce
2Tbsp Vinegar
3Tbsp sugar
2 green onions, sliced into long thing strips
1 tsp ground pepper
a pinch of salt
a little bit of black sesame seeds for garnish 


Cooking Instruction

1. Slice pork sirloin into pieces with 0.1 inch width. It is easier to cut meat thinly when it is slightly frozen than when completely thawed.
 If you desire, cut off fat.
 Cut meat into 2*3 inch pieces.

2. Marinate meat in 1/2 cup of  rice cooking wine, and 1 tsp of pepper.
   Mix well and leave it for 30 minutes.


3. While meat is marinated, in a big bowl, put 1 cup of sweet rice flour and a pinch of salt.
Pour 2/3 cup of water in it, and stir well.


4. Put a piece of cling wrap over the bowl and poke a little hole in it for ventilation.
Microwave for 2 minutes.
After stirring, microwave for another 2 minutes.


5. Pour oil on a cutting board. Pour rice dough while hot.
Oil a piece of cling wrap completely, cover rice dough with it.
Roll rice flour into a thin sheet.


6. Cover marinated meat with rice dough piece.


7. Put corn starch on the both sides of rice cake meat.

8.Drop a little bit of water on corn starch so it can stick well on rice cake meat.


9. You can either fry on a stove top using canola oil, or bake it with a little bit of oil in the oven at 375 F for 15 minutes. If fried, the meat is crispy, while baked meat is chewy.

10. Put 2Tbsp of Soy Sauce, 2Tbsp of vinegar, and 3 Tbsp of sugar in a sauce pan.

11. Heat it with low fire till the sauce reduces ans becomes thicker.
When you stir it with spatula, the track should remain for a while, as shown in the picture.



How to Serve 
Mix meat with the sauce. Slice 2 green onions into thin long strips.  Put green onion and black sesame seeds on the top of meat.

Fresh sweet onion slices goes well with this dish.
Ssam-radish (Cold sweet and sour big Korean radish) would be good with this dish. (I'll post this recipe later.)



How to Eat
Eat meat and green onion strips at the same time.

It would be even better when adding ssam-radish (cold sweet and sour Korean radish).