Birthday/Chuseok Extravaganza!

 Today was Chuseok, which is the Korean version of Thanksgiving. It is held every year around the Autumn Equinox and it is also known as the Harvest Festival or Moon Festival. Traditionally, it is a time where you give thanks, pay respects to your ancestors and feast on a big dinner or traditional foods. My family is not that traditional, but we will take any opportunity to get together and eat!

This year Chuseok happened to land on my dad's birthday. My parents have been traveling a lot lately, and tomorrow they are off again to visit my sister out of town, so I told them not to worry about anything and that I would host my dad's birthday dinner this year. I am proud to say that I made everything from scratch all by myself! Yay me!

For tonight's menu, I wanted it to be mainly a birthday dinner with just hints of Chuseok. So of course we had miyuk guk (seaweed soup) which is a traditional Korean birthday dish. Someone must make it for you on your birthday. I also made him spicy chicken wings, because he LOVES wings. I made kalbi jeem (braised short ribs) which I generally think of as a celebratory/special occasion dish. I also made a bunch of different little banchan (Korean side dishes).

For dessert, we had a strawberry chiffon cake and an assortment of macarons. And to add a Chuseok flavor, I included the "harvest" aka the fruit and dduk (rice cakes).

I would love to include more description, but I am exhausted and have a mountain of dishes waiting for me. So here are some pictures instead!

Happy Harvest and more importantly Happy Birthday Daddy!

Katsu Curry

The other night we had a simple, but flavorful supper of pork katsu curry. All I did was saute chopped onions, potatoes and carrots in a pot. When cooked halfway through, I added water and covered to boil. I then added Korean curry powder. When the veggies are soft and everything is bubbling, it is ready. In a separate pan I fried pork cutlets that had been rolled in egg, flour and Japanese panko bread crumbs. Place the fried cutlet on a bed of rice and cover with a generous amount of the curry. It's so good. Make extra for leftovers! A few days later, I added chunks of chicken to the curry and had it over rice. J had it over spaghetti. You can do whatever you want with it. Enjoy!

Korean Spicy Tofu Soup Ingredient

This is the seafood soup powder that I use. It has a good flavor that is not too strong. There is also no MSG in it. You should be able to find it at any Korean market in the spices aisle.

Korean Spicy Tofu Soup

The other night I was in the mood for something warm and hearty. The weather has been a little chilly lately, and I felt that soup would be perfect for dinner. Creamy? No. Veggie? Nah. I couldn't quite pinpoint the craving. Until I spotted the tofu in the back of my fridge. I decided to make this Korean spicy tofu soup, soon dubu. Husband and I love it. It is a typical Korean comfort food dish. We always go out for it and I have never made it at home, although I've been meaning to try for forever. It is traditionally made in individual hot stone pots and it is bubbling and sizzling when served at restaurants. I do have a stone pot, but it is small and I wanted to make a big batch of the soup. So I used a regular pot. For my first try, it turned out great! I had to make a few substitutions and do without some ingredients, but it was barely noticeable. The recipe below is the full recipe. I will definitely be making it more regularly.

My substitutions: I used firm tofu chopped into cubes instead of a tube of soft tofu. Also, I had no chili oil, so I heated a little olive oil in a pan and added dried chili pepper flakes. Let this sizzle for a bit and it makes a basic chili oil.

Ingredients:                                                                                            

1 tube of extra soft tofu

6 oz. ground beef

A few portabello mushrooms chopped

1 chopped yellow onion

1/2 cup of chopped green onions

Spoon of minced garlic

1 tbsp miso paste (deng-jang)

1.5 tsp of red pepper paste (gochu-jang)

Chili oil

Sesame oil

Seafood soup powder

Directions:

In a bowl mix together the miso paste, pepper paste, chili oil, sesame oil and garlic. In a pot heat up a little oil. Add in the paste mixture until it's heated and becomes soft. Then add in the ground beef and cook over medium heat. After the beef is cooked through, add 4 cups of water. (I used half chicken broth and half water). I then added a few spoons of seafood soup powder. [Usually this soup has some seafood in it, but I prefer it without the clams and shrimp. The seafood powder adds the right amount of flavor without it being fishy]. Cover and bring to a boil. After it begins to boil, add the tofu, onions and mushrooms and a last drop of chili oil. When it's cooked through, turn off the heat and crack an egg in it right before serving. 

Serve with a side of rice.

Korean New Years Day Tradition

Dduk-Mandu-Guk is a "must eat" on New Years Day for Koreans everywhere. We've been eating it for breakfast/brunch every January 1st for as long as I can remember. It is a delicious soup that consists of beef, little chewy rice cakes, and dumplings. It is garnished with a little bit of green onions, egg and roasted bits of seaweed. It is your typical Korean comfort food. It goes really well with a bowl of rice. My mother also cooks a mini feast to go along with this soup and we take the time to pay respects to our grandparents who have passed away. Husband and I also pay our respects to my parents (this gesture is called seh-beh) who in turn shower us with wise words and blessings (and if you're lucky, money!) for the new year.

Birthday Dinner

My Husband and I decided to host my dad's birthday dinner at our place this year. I cooked most of it with the help of my mom and brought in a few outside favorites of my dad. We did a Korean-Chinese fusion theme which is fitting as it describes my new family situation.

One of the main dishes we had was a Korean soup called miyuk guk. It is a seaweed soup that is traditionally eaten on your birthday. There are many variations, but the one we made had beef and mushrooms in it and of course tons of garlic. Miyuk is known to have a lot of calcium and also help lower cholesterol. It looks a little scary, but it's delicious with a bowl of rice!

The next dish that I made was a Chinese style seafood stir fry. It's a recipe that I got from my aunt and it is much simpler than it looks. It is a great dish for when you're craving fresh veggies but when you know you don't want a salad. The ingredients are shrimp, squid, scallops, baby bokchoy, carrots, shiitakes, green onions, garlic and ginger. The key to getting that Chinese taste is using oyster sauce.

One of the outside dishes that we bought was a spicy fried shrimp. It is a family favorite! If you have never eaten Korean-Chinese food you need to try it. One of my favorite restaurants in LA for this food is The Dragon (aka Yong Goong). It is located on 966 South Vermont Avenue.

Of course we had banchan of fried tofu and this time we also made muk (acorn jelly). Muk is one of the easiest things to make. You just cut it up into slices and then garnish it with the same sauce that is used for the tofu. It can be served at room temperature or cold.

We ended the meal with the desserts in the first picture, which are from one of my favorite bakeries in the area, Paris Baguette. We had a chocolate lava cake, strawberry freshcream cake and a green tea cake. They were all delicious with dollops of ice cream on the side!

Banchan

Anyone who has ever eaten Korean food knows all about the banchan. Banchan are the little side dishes that accompany the main dish and are served complimentary. They are also continuously replenished during a meal. You can have as little or as much as you want and the variety is endless. Think of it as asian tapas, but they consist mainly of veggies.

This weekend with my mom in charge, my sister and I made a few banchan. We first made a fried tofu dish that is made by slicing up firm tofu and lightly frying it on the fry pan. Then a marinade of soy sauce and garlic is drizzled on top. Lastly, a mixture of red chili powder, sesame seeds and chopped green onions is sprinkled on top. Presentation and color remember?

Next we made a dish that uses Korean squash, hobak. Slice up the hobak and sprinkle it with salt. Let it sit for 10 minutes so that excess water will be drawn out. After the 10 minutes have passed, give the slices a bit of a squeeze to get all that water out. Next, saute them and they are good to go. Easy right?

The last thing we made was fried tempura, which is also known as fishcake. After removing the fishcake from the package, I dunk them into boiling hot water for a second just to remove some of the oil. Then cut each sheet into small pieces. I then saute them for a bit until they are slightly browned. Add the usual soy sauce, sugar and garlic. Then add a few slices of jalapenos to add a little kick and season with sesame seeds.

Banchan is an easy way to add flavor and variety to your meals in a healthy way. All the ingredients you can buy at your local Korean market. I hope you'll try it!

Korean Spicy BBQ Chicken

I'm cooking and blogging from San Francisco this weekend. When my sister first moved to LA from New York last year and decided to live a half a block away from me, I was thrilled! We had big plans for frequent dinner parties and many opportunities to cook together. Alas with our busy schedules and her new son, things did not pan out the way we imagined. Now she is up north, and here we are cooking together for the first time in a long time. 

We decided to make Korean food tonight. We both never really eat or cook spicy, but we thought we'd give it a try. The marinade is simple and the same for most Korean dishes: soy sauce, garlic, sugar, ginger, onions. The spicy comes from gochujang which is Korean hot pepper paste. We let the chicken marinate in that and we cooked the chicken in a Le Creuset on the stove. It would probably be even better on a grill, but it still turned out quite nice. Before eating we sprinkled the chicken with green onions and sesame seeds. Our mother always says presentation is key. She would have been so proud!