Onion Salad

Once again, I’ve been on a blogging hiatus and I apologize for that. The weather has been SOOOOOOOOOO hot here in SoCal that just the thought of going into the kitchen and turning up the heat was suffocating. I felt bad about not cooking more often, so this past weekend we headed to K-town and picked up some meat. On Sunday we had some yummy steaks and today we ate cha-dol-begi.

Enough rambling and onto the recipe…

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion
• dressing: 1/2 TB minced garlic, 1/2 TB wasabi, 2 TB rice wine, 1 TB soy sauce and 7 TB vinegar

I was being lazy and didn’t want to head upstairs to grab my flash and THIS is what the picture looked like. =/

So I went upstairs, grabbed my flash and this is the result. It’s strange how flash works better for me with food pictures, but when I’m shooting Munchkin or anything else – I rarely use flash. Anyhow…

I usually eat cha-dol-begi (thinly sliced beef brisket) with this sauce. But today I decided that I would make an onion salad similar to the one they *used to* serve at Byul Dae Po – one of my favorite AYCE Korean BBQ places. The last time I was there, the server informed me that they no longer gave out the onion salad because the price of onions had skyrocketed. =/ I dunno if that’s the truth, but I’m hoping they will serve it again in the future. Anyhow this is my replication of their onion salad. Super easy and a perfect accompaniment to gogi-gogi! First, go and grab one large white onion. You can slice it by hand, or use a trusty mandolin to do the work for you! Slice away~

You want it thin, but not too thin…

And then add the following ingredients: 1/2 TB minced garlic, 1/2 TB wasabi, 2 TB rice wine, 1 TB soy sauce and 7 TB vinegar.

Mix it up WELL. You do not want to bite down into a chunk of wasabi.

And transfer it into a nice serving bowl. You’ll be left with quite a bit of liquid so just pour it over the top and discard any excess.

You’re now ready to eat with some gogi!

I know I’ve mentioned Choice Meat Market before and if you haven’t already, you MUST go and try their meats.

It’s a lot more than what you would pay at the K-market, but their meat melts in your mouth.

I sliced up some onions and mushrooms…

Got our trusty old indoor gogi-grill going (there’s even a compartment that collects the drained fat!) – I think the last time we brought this out was over two years ago!

And then it was grilling time!

We ate the whole thing!

Everyone in our small family of three was happy and full! Hope everyone is doing well. I will *try* to be back sooner rather than later. =)

Spicy Serrano Chiles in Vinegar and Sugar

Yup, an update will be coming soon.

I promise.

It's nothing fancy, but it's something in my fridge at the moment. =)

I missed you all once again.

Hope you have been well.

Serrano Chilies in Vinegar Sauce

I was at Bristol Farms a couple of weeks ago and saw that their Serrano chilies looked particularly fresh, so I picked up a bunch. At first, I was going to pickle them in soy sauce, but then I remembered the chilies they serve at Thai restaurants and decided to make those instead. Anyhow, here goes my rendition. I made this over the weekend and did a taste test today and so far, so good.

Begin by washing and drying your chilies. I honestly don’t know how much I bought. Probably a few handfuls. =P

Then just start slicing away at them. Try to slice them as thing as you can. Usually I would use a mandolin, but these Serrano chilies were so skinny that it was easier to just chop.

I ended up with about 1 CUP of sliced chilies. If you need EXACT measurements.

Then just pour in a mixture of: 1 CUP water, 3/4 CUP vinegar, and 1 TB sugar.

Let it sit for about a week or so inside the fridge and you’re ready to enjoy. It’s quite high on the spice scale so beware! Hope everyone in Cali is keeping cool in this crazy heat wave. I will be back soon with a Spicy Chicken Gizzard Recipe later tonight. =)

Brown Rice Vegetable Rolls

I had some veggies leftover from the Jengban Gooksoo below, so I decided to make some vegetable rolls. I used perilla leaves, red leaf lettuce, carrots, cucumber, and avocados.



Get about two cups of cooked brown rice and season it with 1 TSP of sushi vinegar, 1 TB of sesame oil, and 1 TB of sesame seeds.



Spread the brown rice on a seaweed wrap and PRESS DOWN as hard as possible. Brown rice doesn't stick as well as white rice, so give it some good pressure.



Then just load it up with generous amounts of the veggies and start wrapping.



Use a sharp knife to cut them into pieces and serve. Enjoy~~~

Jengban Momil Gooksoo - Buckwheat Soba Noodles in Spicy Sauce - (모밀 쟁반 국수)

I realized I hadn't updated the recipes on this blog in a while, so I came up with one of my fave dishes for a warm day.


Needed Ingredients:

• Buckwheat Noodles
• 1/2 cup julienne red cabbage
• 1/2 cup julienne cucumber
• 1/2 cup julienne carrot
• 1/2 cup julienne onion
• 1/2 cup julienne Asian pear
• thinly sliced perilla leaves
• thinly sliced red leaf lettuce
• thinly sliced dried seaweed (geem)
• sauce: 4 TB 7-up, 2.5 TB vinegar, 1 TB honey powder, 1 TB red pepper paste, 1 TB red pepper powder, 1/2 TB minced garlic, 1 TB sesame seeds, 3/4 TB sesame oil
  

As always if you have any questions about any of the ingredients, please check out Korean Cooking 101.

First mix together the sauce: 4 TB 7-up, 2.5 TB vinegar, 1 TB honey powder, 1 TB red pepper paste, 1 TB red pepper powder, 1/2 TB minced garlic, 1 TB sesame seeds, 3/4 TB sesame oil and set it aside in the refrigerator.



Get a pot of hot water going and then add your buckwheat noodles and boil it according to the instructions. It usually ends up being about 5-10 minutes of boiling time.

Then rinse your noodles under cold water and set aside.



Just use a mandolin to slice all your vegetables. Left to right: Asian pear, cucumber, carrot, onion.



Perilla leaves and red cabbage.



Sliced red leaf lettuce.



Now we are going to start assembly. Start off getting a fairly large plate and centering about 2 cups of noodles into the middle.



Add some thinly cut dried seaweed (seasoned) place it in the middle.



Add the vegetables on opposite ends like this. You will be using two small bunches of each vegetable.



Just keep going...

...until you use all the vegetables up. (You can also add sliced boiled eggs).



Then go to the fridge and grab the sauce mixture and add as much as your tastebuds can handle. YUMMY!



Mix it around thoroughly and you're ready to eat!



It was just what I needed for today's hot weather. ENJOY!!!

Mushroom Moochim - (버섯 볶음)

I debated on whether to post this since it's not really a recipe of sorts. But just in case you're wondering what I eat during the week.



I told you I love all types of mushrooms.



I rinsed two mushrooms thoroughly...



...and then sliced it up into thinner pieces.



Then I seasoned it with 1/2 TB of minced garlic, 1 TB sesame oil, and 3/4 TB gook ganjang. Remember to visit Korean Cooking 101 if you have any questions about ingredients!!!



Throw in about 1/4 a small sliced onion and mix it up well.



Stir fry it for a few minutes until golden.



Sprinkle on some sesame seeds and you're ready to serve! I usually take the leftovers the next day and just mix it around with some cold tofu.



I also made some kongnamool moochim today as well. I hope to make white moo che (recipe will be coming!) and spinach moochim tomorrow and then I can make bibimbap! =P

Pickled Garlic in Soy Sauce - (마늘 짱아찌)

One of the MR's favorite banchans is 마늘 짱아찌. This is going to be in real time. =) I started it today, but it won't be completed until next weekend. There are a variety of ways to approach this, but the following is the way we do it in our household...



First, dunk your bulbs of garlic in water for about 30 minutes. (I only ended up using 6 of them and used the other two for the jang jorim I made today!)



Cut off the tips (or is it bottom?) of each garlic bulb and throw it back into the water. This is so that all the juices can seep into each and every clove. Some people take out all the individual cloves and then pickle it, but I found that keeping the skin intact gives it more flavor in the end. It's just a little bit more work to eat in the end. =P



Rinse your garlic and peel off a few layers of the skin.



Grab some vinegar.



I used 6 bulbs of garlics and 3 full cups of vinegar. This will sit on my countertop for abut 7-10 days before I do the next step. The vinegar will take out the bite in the garlic so it won't be so spicy. Trust me on this.

The next step involves using soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and cooking wine to make the pickling sauce. This will be shown next week! Until then, BYE!!!

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Okay, I'm back. This garlic has sat in the vinegar for about 10 days. If after a few days, the water level goes down, just pour some more vinegar in to fill it to the top again. Open the container and throw out all the vinegar and rinse the garlic bulbs under cool water.



Meanwhile combine the following and bring to a boil for about 15 minutes: 2 cups water, 1 cup soy sauce, 1/2 cup vinegar, 2 TB sugar, 4 TB rice wine, 1 jalapeno, 1 pepper, 1 small onion. After it boils, LET IT COOL DOWN COMPLETELY!



After the liquid has cooled, pour it into the CLEANED garlic bulbs...



Store inside your fridge and it will be ready in about 5 days! I'm going to empty the liquid into a pot in about 3 days and boil and cool and reuse once more. I'll update when I can!