[Korean] Gun bam (baked chestnuts)

Baked chestnuts are an easy and wellbeing snack for fall and winter. This story has some tips for picking out good chestnuts.

Ingredient:

Fresh chestnuts!

Method:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Rinse the chestnuts in cold water.

Pierce the skin of the chestnuts before you cook them, or they'll explode in the oven! Different people prefer different ways of cutting through the shell. Here is an easy and effective way (cut down the middle):

Put some foil on an oven tray. Put your chestnuts onto the tray and add a little bit of water. You can add a little more water half or three-quarters of the way through cooking if it has evaporated. Cook at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes.

...

30 minutes later:

When they've cooled a little bit (but while they're still hot), you can easily remove the shells and eat the chestnuts.

[Korean] Fried Tofu Boiled in Soy Sauce

Fried Tofu Boiled in Soy Sauce (Dubu Jorim), presented by Mr. Sgoi

This is a nice and easy dish for two people that you can eat with rice and whatever Korean side dishes you may have (or whatever vegetables you have in your fridge). You could also use this dish itself as a Korean-style side dish, in which case this recipe would make enough for a party of 6-8 people. 

Cooking/prep. Time: c. 30 minutes

Ingredients [click here for details]

18 oz. (510 g.) package of (medium firm) tofu

2 Tbsp olive or canola oil 

Half an onion, sliced

Sauce:

4-6 cloves of garlic, chopped

5 Tbsp soy sauce

Half a cup of water

1.5 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp red pepper flakes

1 Tbsp dry white wine

1 tsp. sesame oil

3 green onion stalks, chopped

A pinch or two of sesame seeds

Cooking Instructions

1. Slice the tofu brick into segments about 1.5 cm. thick.

2. Heat the olive or canola oil in a frying pan and fry the tofu segments over medium-high heat. I sliced my tofu brick into seven segments, but could only fit four comfortably into the pan. Sad story!

Here's what the tofu should look like when it's done with the frying stage. Plan on about five minutes per side. You can mix the sauce while you're waiting for the tofu to brown up.

3. When you've fully fried the tofu, take it out of the pan. At this point you would normally fry the onion slices in the leftover oil. I was, however, sadly out of onions today, so I substituted garlic slices. (edit- if you use garlic slices instead of onion, you should reduce the soy sauce to about 3 Tbsp. or it will be too salty!)

4. After you've browned the onion or garlic a little, put the tofu back into the pan and add the sauce you mixed up. 

Let it cook for a while. I didn't adjust the fire at all throughout this whole process. When most of the sauce has boiled off, it's ready to eat.

I took this picture a couple of minutes before it was done. 

If you're eating this as or with a meal, put it on a single plate for the table or on individual plates, depending on how Korean-like you want your experience to be, and alternately take bites of it, your rice, and whatever else you've got on the table. 

This would also be a good side dish for drinking (the "ahnjoo" you've heard so much about) in my opinion. I think it would go well with lousy but cold beer or with soju, but you know better than me. Geonbae ("cheers")!

[non-Korean] Garlic Cheese Potato Croquette

Garlic Cheese Potato Croquette (serves 4)


Ingredients [click here for details]
3 Potatoes, Cut into thin strips
2 American cheese slices
2 Tbsp cubed Swiss cheese
2~3 Tbsp onion, finely chopped
2 Tbsp Garlic, finely chopped (about 5 cloves)
2+4 Tbsp corn starch
1 tsp salt
a pinch of pepper

Cooking Instruction
1. Place potato strips with water in a large bowl, and microwave it till the strips are translucent and soft.  It took 4 *  3-minute for me.


2. Using a chopper, chop cooked potato, onion, and garlic. Mix them well with 2 American cheese slices, 2 Tbsp of cubed Swiss cheese, 2 Tbsp of corn starch, 1 tsp of salt and a little bit of pepper, if you like.


3. Shape potato mix into 1 inch diameter balls.


4. Sprinkle corn starch on the balls. If you roll them on the corn starch, they are easy to fall apart.


5. Fry potato croquette with enough oil in a hot pan.



It is crispy and brown outside, while it is soft, warm and cheesy inside. Delicious!

[Korean] Squash pancake

Squash Pancake
Korean name : ho-bahk boo-chim-gae
ho-bahk: squash or pumpkin
boo-chim-gae : pancake


Ingredients [click here for details]
1 small squash, cut into thin strips
3 green onion, chopped
1/2 cup Korean pancake mix (you can get this from Korean market, or you can use flour.)
1 egg
1/2 cup water
1 tsp salt
vegetable oil
[optional] hot red pepper
[optional] corn starch

Cooking Instruction
1.  Mix Korean pancake mix or flour well with  same amount of water.


2. Add 1 egg, squash strips, and chopped green onion fragments into mix. If the mix is too watery after adding vegetables, add more corn starch.


3. Cook the batter in a hot pan with vegetable oil. You can use some red pepper as a garnish and for a hot taste. Flip when you can see the brown color at the edge like the picture below.

Cook the other side, too. When it is brown and crispy, it is done.



How to Serve
It is tasty enough to eat it alone, but you can serve a sauce along with pancake. The sauce should be served separately or the pancake becomes soggy.
The sauce is made of 1) soy sauce, and 2) a little bit of vinegaror sesame seed oil, and 3) finely chopped green onion or red pepper flakes, or sesame seeds.

[Korean]Garlic Flakes Salad with Honey Wine Sauce

Garlic Flake Salad with Honey & Red Wine Sauce (serves 4)


 Ingredients [click here for details]
10 Garlic cloves, sliced
2 green onions, finely chopped
4 oz spinach leaves
2 oz lettuce leaves, chopped
1/2 tomato, cubed
1/2 cup of red wine
1 Tbsp ketchup
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp corn syrup
a pinch of salt

Cooking Instruction
1. Fry garlic slices with hot oil. You can also bake them in an oven.


2. Toss various salad leaves of your choice and cubed tomatoes.


3. For salad dressing, heat 1/2 cup of red wine, 1 Tbsp ketchup, 1 Tbsp honey, 1 Tbsp corn syrup, and a pinch of salt with medium fire. Reduce till the sauce is thick.

[Korean] Bibim-bop, vegetables & meat mixed rice

Bibim-bop (serves 1)
Bibim : mixing
bop : steamed rice


You make various of bibimbop as you like.
it consists of:

steamed rice or barley
cooked vegetable side dishes
fresh vegetables
red pepper paste, red pepper paste bok-kem
meat : a little bit of bulgogi or other cooked meat dishes,
fried egg
sesame seed oil
sesame seeds

What I used :
1 cup of steamed barley
stir-fry mushroom, bean sprouts side dish
chopped red leaf lettuce
red pepper paste bok-kem
fried egg
sesame seed oil


How to Eat
Serve this dish as shown in the picture above for each person.
Then, individuals can mix it by themselves. This doesn't require any side dish or main dish.
If you want, you can add soups, such as miso soup,  for each person.

[Korean] Stir-Fry Mushrooms

This is a sweet mushroom side dish. It goes well with both Korean traditional meals and steak main dish.

Stir-Fry Mushrooms (serves 2)
Korean Name : buh-suht-bok-kem
buh-shut : mushrooms
bok-kem : stir-fry



Ingredients [click here for details]

8 oz white mushrooms, sliced (Minibella and mini oyster mushrooms are also good.)
1/2 small onions, cut into 1*1 inch pieces
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
2 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 Tbsp dry white wine
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sugar 
[optional] a pinch of sesame seeds for garnish
[optional] 1~2 Thai chillies for spicy taste
[optional] 1t sesame seed oil


Cooking Instruction

1. 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.)


2. Add sliced mushrooms, 2 Tbsp of soy sauce, 1Tbsp of oyster sauce and 1 Tbsp of dry wine wine in a pan. Stir-fry it.


3. Add onions while cooking.


4. Then, add 1 tsp of sugar when the sauce is boiling.



How to serve

Put Stir-Fry Mushrooms on a serving plate with a serving spoon.

For a Korean traditional meal, eat it with steamed rice, main dish, soup or stew, and other side dishes. You can keep it in a refrigerator for a couple of days, like other Korean side dishes.

[Korean] Omija hwa-chae, five-taste-berries fruit punch

Omija means five-taste-berries in Korean. To find out the benefit of omija, click here.
We usually make a hot tea with omija by boiling omija for a longtime and adding honey, but you can enjoy it as fruit punch during summer.
You can buy this at Korean markets. 
[notice] Pregnant women are not supposed to eat this.



Omija fruit punch
Korean name : Omija Hwa-chae



Cooking Instruction

1. Carefully open 2 L of the bottle of carbonated water, or it will overflow. Let the carbonation come out of bottle slowly.


2. Put 1/4 cup of omija in the bottle.


3. Leave it alone for at least overnight to extract the flavor out of it. If you like carbonated drinks, keep it in a refrigerator.  Otherwise, leave it outside and open the lid occasionally to let the carbonation come out.


4. Cut up some fruits as much as you want to serve. You can use apples, nectarines, strawberries, kiwi, melons, and etc. Mix fruits with omija water.




How to Serve
Put it in a large glass bowl like punch. Serve it coolly.
Individuals can add honey in it as they like, and you don't eat omija berries.


 

[Korean] Pa-chae, Green onion strips side dish

This is a good side dish for meat, for example, bulgogi. Koreans usually put this in ssam.

Pa-Chae (serves 2)
 Pa : green onions in Korean
 Chae : mix of strip-shaped ingredients



Ingredients [click here for details]
1 Bunch of green onions,(approximately, 5~6 green onions)
1/2 Tbsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp pure lemon juice (You can use apple cidar vinegar, instead.)
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame seeds oil
a little bit of black sesame seeds for garnish

Cooking Instruction

1. Cut green onions into three segments after washing them.


2. Cut them into thin strips.


3. Wash them well with running water to get rid of spicy taste.


4. Mix all the ingredients listed above.



How to Serve
You should make this right before serving, or green onions become soft. As I mentioned before, this is a good with ssam. So, Cook also some meat or fish and a sauce, such as ssamjang.