Persian Meatballs...

Sorry for the lack of updates again. We've been eating out almost every day this week. I haven't stepped into the kitchen except to make Munchkin some grilled cheese sandwiches. We're going grocery shopping tomorrow, so hopefully I will think of a new post for next week.

Until then....

I will cheat by recycling another post on my other blog~



Get 1 LB. of ground beef and add generous amounts of parsley, mint (lots), cilantro (just a little), garlic and onions. Season it with a dash of salt and pepper. Sorry there are no exact measurements. Just add enough of everything to give the meatballs color like shown above.



Form into little meatballs about an inch in diameter.



Heat a skillet with minimal oil since there will be oil coming from the fat of the meat...



And just cook until done.



Plate it with basmati rice, lavash (flat bread), and some yummy cucumber yogurt!

Cucumber yogurt: Just get plain yogurt and chop some Persian cucumbers and squeeze out all the excess juice. Add it to the yogurt and season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. I actually added some chopped parsley into the yogurt too and it came out yummy. Next time I'm going to make yogurt with shallots and garlic.

Basmati rice: I like to sautee the rice in LOADS of butter and I add small bits of onion and brown everything. Then I add water (2:1 ratio. 2 parts water to 1 part rice. I use about 1.5 cups rice to 3 cups water) and let boil...when the water is almost all gone, reduce the heat to LOW and cover and let simmer for about 20 minutes until the rice is done. You can even season it with saffron water...which I didn't have the time to do tonight.

Kimbap - Korean Style Rice Rolls - (김밥)

There are many ways to make kimbap and you can pretty much put whatever you want into them. Tuna, kimchi, beef, etc. This is my version of kimbap and it's always a hit in our household.



First gather your ingredients. Here I have dan-moo-ji (which is precut for kimbap use), sushi nori (gim), fish cakes, imitation crab, spinach (I cheated and got store-made), carrots, pickles...



Get some type of seasoned beef and slice it up thin - again I cheated by using pre-marinaded galbi from the store. You can use boolgogi or even ground beef marinaded lightly in soysauce and sugar.




And lastly some fried eggs and slice it up thinly like so. The key to frying an egg like this is using LOW heat. Just pour the egg onto the frying pan on low heat and leave it there until it's firm and easy to flip over.



Begin by using a mandolin to thinly slice your cucumber.



Do the same with your carrots and lightly sautee it with some sesame oil.



Lightly heat your fishcakes on a frying pan and slice it up thin also.



Eventually you will have your ingredients ready like this...



Get as much rice as you want to use and season it with some sesame oil and sesame seeds and let it cool down to room temperature. You don't want the rice o be hot or else it will just crumple the gim.



After the rice and all the other ingredients have cooled down, create a work station like this...



Start by placing your gim on a sushi roller.



Spread the rice out as thinly and evenly as possible. Leave a little room at the bottom without rice because this makes wrapping it a lot easier.



Add whatever ingredients you have towards the bottom like this.



The MR was kind enough to take a picture from the other side of me wrapping up the gimbap. Fold the empty part over everything as tightly as possible and use the roller to roll up it tightly.



Use your roller to make the roll firm.



When you're done rolling set aside and continue until you run out of ingredients.



I ended up making A LOT of gimbap today. This isn't even all of it because both the MR and Munchkin were eating as I was making it so they probably ate at least 5 rolls amongst the two of them. LOL.



Take a sharp knife and cut it up like this.



You're now ready to serve!!!



I ended up with tupperwares full of kimbap. I'm going to drop some off to my parents at work tomorrow!

Mandoo w/pork - Korean style pork dumplings - (돼지 만두)

This is not like a traditional Korean Cuisine recipe. I wasn't able to take as many step-by step pictures as I would have liked. Here goes...



First get about 1.5 cups of ground pork and 1 TB of minced garlic. Saute the pork on a frying pan with about 1 TB of sesame oil.



Chop up about 1 cup each of green onions, chives, and bean sprouts. Make sure to boil the bean sprouts and squeeze out all the excess liquid.



Then add about 1 cup of chopped up onions, 2 cups of chopped up glass noodles, 1/2 cup of chopped up carrots, and mix it around well.



Mix everything well like this and add a dash of pepper and some salt to taste.



Get some white egg wash and begin stuffing your mandoos. There are many ways to do this. We chose to stuff them in this form. When you're finished using all the stuffing you can take these and freeze them for later use. Steam them or fry them!

This is a picture of mandoo I made before. These came out much prettier so I thought I would post them up as well. =P

Anchovie Dwen-jang gook - (멸치 된장국)

Tap. Tap. Tap. Are you still there? It seems just as I start to build up site traffic on this blog, I go on a hiatus. It's tough trying to keep up this blog sometimes...especially when I don't step foot into the kitchen for two weeks at a time. =P Also, I realized that every since I upgraded my camera (50D baby!) that I'm afraid to take it into the kitchen for fear it might get splashed on, dropped, etc.

Anyhow, here goes a simple dwenjang gook using anchovy broth.

I add roughly 7 cups of water to a pot along with 5-6 dried anchovies and some dried sea kelp.



After everything comes to a boil, add 1TB dwenjang, 1/2 TB minced garlic, 1TB gook ganjang, 1/2 TB minced garlic and let boil on low heat.



I decided to use bokchoy today. I washed and cut up 3 bunches of it.



Toss the bokchoy in and continue to boil.



I also threw in a handful of chopped up moo (daikon radish).



A handful of sliced onions...



And finally some kongnamool.



Let everything boil together for about 30 minutes.



And you're ready to serve! It's a fresh and light gook perfect for picky little Korean toddlers. =)

Cucumber Kimchi - (오이 소박이)

You're probably going to hate me for this, but I have a recipe without measurements for you. Another reason I haven't updated this blog as much is because it's SUCH a pain to 'measure' ingredients when you're a person who isn't used to measuring. =/ Even when cooking non-Korean foods, I hardly ever bust out the measuring utensils. I'm a taste as you go type of person.

Anyhow, I had a little free time today so I decided to make some cucumber kimchi. My husband loves all types of cucmber based banchans, so I have an arsenal of cucumber recipes to keep him happy.



First Cut a bunch of pickling cucumbers in half and then quarter them ALMOST all the way to the bottom. Let it sit in some salt water for a couple of hours like so. I forgot to take pictures of a few steps, but after about 3-4 hours, rinse all the cucumbers under cool water.



Meanwhile, prepare the *sok* - the insides were made with the following: (this is the closest you'll be getting to real measurements...sorry!)

• 1 julienne carrot (I use my Japanese brand mandolin for this - it's the best!)
• 2 cups of julienne moo
• 1 bunch of buchoo cut into 1-inch sections
• 1/2 cup of sliced green onions
• 1 red pepper sliced thinly
• 1/4 onions slice thinly (you don't really have to do this, I just used leftover onions from the ddukbokki I made today)
• 1/2 cup of red pepper powder
• 2 TB minced garlic
• 3-4 TB of cooking wine
• 1 TB sugar
• 1 TB honey powder
• dash of ginger powder and pepper and salt
• 2 TB sesame seeds
• 1 TB shrimp jut or just use fish sauce
• a splash of sesame oil

After you have each and every cucumber stuffed, leave it out for a night before placing inside the fridge. You can start eating this about 3-4 days later.

Enjoy! The MR said it turned out great and he devoured the last batch within a week. In case I don't get back in time, HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! I truly hope you and yours have a wonderful, fabtabulistic, awesome, dreamy NEW YEAR! Hug and kiss the ones you love and cherish every moment you have. =)

Dol Sot Bibimbap - (돌솥 비빔밥)

Every time my family has an event, I make sure and collect some of all the leftover banchans. =P I love that my family that lives less than two miles away. Anyhow, bibimbap is SUPER easy to make…if you have all the ingredients. I would *never* go about and try to make each and every ingredient by myself because, quite frankly, I’m lazy. However, on days like this when all the banchans are already at my disposal, I can whip up bibimbap in less time it would take to make a gook or jjigae.

Ingredients Needed:

• 1.5 CUPS cooked rice
• 1/4 cup each of gosari, spinach moochim, doraji, moo bokeum (or moo che), kongnamool, mushroom bokeum, beef (bulgogi, galbi, or you can skip meat and make it vegetarian), cucumber moochim
• 1 Egg
• Bibimbap Sauce: 2 TB red pepper paste, 1.5 TB sprite (or 7-UP), 1.5 TB honey powder, 1 TB rice wine, 1.5 TB sesame seeds, 1/2 TB sesame oil, 1/2 TB vinegar, 1/2 TB minced garlic

I used a dol sot to heat up the rice AND to make some nooreungji (crispy rice) on the bottom. You can skip the butter, but I like adding a little just to give the rice a little extra flavor. =P



Fry an egg, sunny side up. Some people will add a raw egg directly to the steaming hot dol sot, but I’m squeamish when it comes to raw eggs unless it’s soondooboo.



Doraji and Gosari. I know I don’t have a recipe for these two up yet (will post soon!), so you can just skip these. Or, if you already know how to make it…go for it!

Moo Bokeum, Konamool Moochim, and Spinach Moochim.

It was perfect coincidence that I happened to have the cucumber banchan on hand already.

Once the butter is melted, add about 1.5 CUPS of cooked rice. I splashed some sesame oil and sesame seeds on it and then mixed it around and left it on LOW heat so the bottom could get nice and crispy without burning.

Then I took some the leftover galbi and heated it up in a pan and cut it into small strips.

Get your bibimbap sauce ready! This is 2 TB red pepper paste, 1.5 TB sprite (or 7-UP), 1.5 TB honey powder, 1 TB rice wine, 1.5 TB sesame seeds, 1/2 TB sesame oil, 1/2 TB vinegar, 1/2 TB minced garlic

Place the cooked egg on top of the rice and then arrange all your veggies like so. I had a screaming Munchkin yelling for food, so I wasn’t able to take a picture of the mushrooms, but I did sauté two sliced mushrooms in some sesame oil and added it there as well. I just used regular white mushrooms, but if you have Shitake mushrooms – use those!

I used eight items in my bibimbap today.

Clockwise from the top: gosari, kongnamool, moo, cucumber, beef, mushrooms, spinach, and doraji. You can add sautéed carrots, or squash, and a whole array of other veggies. Just use what you have! No worries. I should have added some gim as well, but I totally forgot. Oops.

Add the bibimbap sauce to YOUR taste. I made it a little milder so Munchkin could share this with me. I stored the leftover sauce so that we can eat this again in the next couple of days.

Mix it around and you’re ready to eat! Munchkin liked this so much today that he said, “Can we save some for later too? I want to eat it again.” =) Hope everyone had a great weekend! I will be back later in the week with *new* recipes.

Currently in the works: Shik-Hae, Mook, and a Galbi Jjim update.