Korean 101: Cheong Guk Jang Chigae

How can something that smells so bad taste so good? I am referring to sauteed shrimp paste, fish sauce, durian fruit, etc. They smell like hell but taste heavenly hahaha

And this recipe is one good example :D

Cheong Guk Jang is a strong soy bean paste (jang means paste) and chigae means stew.

Ingredients:

2-3 Tablespoons of Cheong Guk Jang
5-10 pcs of medium sized dried anchoves (myeolchi)
2-3 small sheets of dried sea weeds (dasima) or ¼ of A4 size
½ medium sized onion (sliced)
2 pcs. pyeogo mushroom (chopped)
2 stems of peng-i bosot (white, long and thin mushroom)
3 inches sliced squash (Korean squash long in size like cucumber)
1 cup of soya meat (chopped in cubes)
1 Tablespoon of minced garlic
1 cup of spring onion
3-4 cups of water
2 cups of aged pechu kimchi or the cabbage kimchi (drain the liquid and chopped)


Procedure:

1. Pour 3-4 cups of water in a pot, add dried anchoves and dried sea weeds. Let it boil for 10-15 minutes. Then, remove or take off the dried anchoves.

2. Put 2-3 Tablespoon full of Cheong Guk Jang, boil for 3-5 minutes.

3. Add aged cabbage kimchi and let it simmer for 6 minutes
squash and boil for 2 minutes

4. Next, the mushroom, onion, soya meat, spring onion, and minced garlic, boil for 15-20 minutes

5. Lastly, add peng-i mushroom , boil for 1 minute and cover the pot. Served smoking hot.

Korean 101: Potato Stir Fry (Kamja Moochim)

All the recipes, I have posted in here are all based on my cooking experience, means that I've already tried cooking them. I have lived in South Korea for a year and I was accustomed by their cooking style and their tradition. Not only that, I have learned to speak, read, write and understand their language. I have gained many friends there too and up to now we still have communication. I kept and compiled list of my favorite Korean recipe taught to me while I was there. So that everywhere I go, I could still remember to cook it for myself and my family.

Having problems on how to get/buy these recipes? There are Korean grocery stores around Quezon City, Manila and Makati area. You may want to google the address so it will be easier to find. I know there is one near the QC hall but I am not sure if it's along Kalayaan Avenue and another one, along Jupiter street in Makati, Philippines.

Here is another easy Korean side dishes. I hope you enjoy it! ;)

Ingredients:

2 medium sized of Potato (thin shoe string cut)
3 inches Carrot
A dash of salt
1/2 Tablespoon of minced garlic
1 Tablespoon of spring onion
2 Tablespoon of Olive oil

Procedure:

1. Prepare the potato and carrots, slice them into thin shoe string cut.

2. In a hot pan, pour two tablespoon of olive oil, add the carrots and potato in high temperature, but constantly mix them to avoid sticking into the pan

3. When the carrot and potato are already half cooked, add the minced garlic and turn down the heat (low temp.), the garlic should be crunchy.

4. Then, put the spring onion and ready to serve.

Korean 101: LETTUCE SALAD

This time, I would like to share an easy Korean recipe. It is usually served as one of those many side dishes on the table. Have you watched Korean drama based on history called "Jewel in the Palace" (Dae Jang Geum)? If you don't then see this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dae_Jang_Geum. In this story, she was trained to cook in the palace and later on due to her perseverance, she became a first lady physician. You will notice that in this drama or any Korean drama, you will observed that there are many side dishes on the table. In every meal, there are always soup, main course, side dishes (10 or 12 kinds or even more) and the deserts.

Ingredients:

20 Lettuce leaves (cleaned)
1-2 Tablespoons of soy sauce
1 Tablespoon of minced garlic
3 Tablespoons of Spring onion (chopped in circles)
1 Tablespoon of Sesame oil
1 Tablespoon of Sesame seeds
½ Tablespoon of White sugar
1 Tablespoon of korean red pepper powder (Kochu-karoo)


Procedure:

1. Wash and clean the lettuce leaves and drain them.

2. In a mixing bowl or plastic container, add the lettuce, soy sauce, and the rest of the ingredients.

3. Mixed them with your hands (put disposable plastic gloves) and ready to serve.

Note: If there is left over of your lettuce salad or you don’t wanna eat it right away, remember to put them in the refrigerator so it won’t spoil too soon.

Thai food: Spicy Prawn Soup (Tom Yum Gung)

I know that this soup is indeed spicy but I love this so much. Actually, I can make this soup not so much spicy by adding more water and putting less chili in it. This my favorite Thai soup, but I love the taste of Tom Yum without the milk. There are two kinds of Tom Yum soup one is with milk and the other one is clear soup. I prefer the last one because I feel like vomiting whenever I smell the soup with milk (laughs). And I don't know why. Maybe because of the strong smell of the spices mixed up with milk.


Ingredients:
200 g mushrooms
2 spring onions
16 peeled prawns (shrimps)
3-4 medium sized squid
1 liter of chicken soup stock
3 tbs lemon juice
1 ts chili paste
3 tbs fish sauce
1/2 Kaffir-lime

Procedure:

1. In a pot bring chicken soup stock into a boil.
2. Cut mushrooms into half. Cut spring onions into 2 cm long pieces. Wash and
clean the prawn and squid.
3. Add lemon juice, chili paste and fish sauce to the chicken soup stock and stir.
4. Add mushrooms, spring onions and prawns and let simmer for ten minutes.
5. Reduce heat and season with Kaffir-lime juice.

Chicken Barbecue

I love the taste of chicken barbecue here in Thailand. I've been searching and studying on how to make my chicken or pork barbecue perfect because my husband loves the grilled meat all the time.

Here is a very easy and short recipe for my chicken barbecue courtesy of www.easy-thaifood.com.

Ingredients:

500 grams of chicken breasts`
3-5 cloves of garlic (chopped finely)
2 tablespoons of honey syrup
2-3 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of chili paste or chili sauce

Procedure:

1. Wash the chicken breasts and chopped the garlic
2. Marinade the chicken breasts with chopped garlic, honey, soy sauce and chili paste/sauce for about 6-12 hours.
3. Grill the marinated chicken breasts for 30-40 minutes.


Serve hot with plain white rice.

Thai Food: Omelette With Mince Pork

Do you wanna try something new about making an omelette? This is fun to do because you can make many variations according to your taste and availability of your ingredients at home.

Basically, omelette is simply a scrambled egg topped with various ingredients or "stuffed egg" for short. You can add chopped onions, tomatoes, ham, bacon, cheese and spring onion in your omelette.

But here's how they make an omelette with mince pork in Thailand.

Ingredients:

3 large sized eggs
75 grams mince pork (giniling)
2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
1 tablespoon of fish sauce (patis)
1/2 teaspoon of white sugar
10 grams coriander leaves (kintsay)
10 grams spring onion (approx 1 whole stem)
2 red chillies (sili labuyo)
ordinary cooking oil
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper


Procedure:

1. Chop the coriander (kintsay), spring onion and chillies.
2. Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl.
3. Add the minced pork, light soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, spring onion, coriander (kintsay), and pepper. Mix them well.
4. Add the cooking oil into frying pan in medium heat.
5. Fry the eggs mix for 1 minute.
6. Turn the omelette over and fry the other side for a minute.
7. The omelette should be golden brown. To make sure it' s already cooked squeeze it with the frying ladle, see if no liquid comes out. If there is then you will need to cook it a little bit.

Serve With:

Salad Vegetable
Hot Plain Rice
Sweet Chilli Sauce


This recipe makes two servings.

Korean 101: Miyeok Gook (Sea Weeds Soup)

"Miyeok" means sea weeds and "gook" or "guk" means soup. Every meal in Korea must have a soup and side dishes. This soup is very easy to cook among other Korean soups. This recipe is very good for pregnant women or lactating mothers.

Ingredients:

Fresh or dried sea weeds
1-2 Tablespoon of sesame oil
5-8 cups of water
4 Tablespoon of Gook Kan Jang or the Strong Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon of minced garlic
1/4 cup of myeolchi or dried anchovy
a dash of ground black pepper

Procedure:

1. If you bought dried sea weeds, rehydrate it for 30 minutes - 1 hour, then drain and wash and cut it into 2 inches long.

2. Add 1-2 Tablespoon of sesame oil in a pot/casserole in a medium temperature and put the sea weeds, fry a little bit about 3 minutes then add 5-8 cups of water (water level must be half of the size of the pot)

3. Put the myeolchi or dried anchovy (small dilis in the PH) and let it boil for 10 minutes.

4. Pour the 4 Tablespoon of strong soy sauce.

5. Add 1 Tablespoon of minced garlic and a dash of ground black pepper.

Serve while hot.