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!

Omelet Rice - (오무 라이스)

I decided to make omelet rice this morning with the leftover fried rice from yesterday. It's super easy and a nice twist to make two meals with one.


First beat two eggs with a little bit of milk.



Grease a large pan and turn up the heat to about medium-low.



Spread out the egg nice and evenly and let it cook on low heat. When it's almost cooked through, you can easily flip it over. The key is LOW heat.



Plate the egg and put (warmed up) rice in the middle like so.



Wrap the egg around like a burrito, squeeze some ketchup and you're ready to serve! This was our breakfast. Munchkin loved it! It felt good to see him eat something other than cereal or ramyun. =P

Shrimp Fried Rice - (새우 볶음밥)

There's so many ways to make shrimp fried rice and this is the way I do it. It tastes more Korean style in my opinion.

Things Needed:

• 1 cup of chopped shrimp
• 1/2 cup each of celery, carrots, onions and corn
• 3-4 cups of cooked cold rice
• sesame oil, soy sauce, minced garlic
  

It's strange being in the Midwest. The local grocery store didn't have any fresh shrimp! I had to buy the frozen kind. Anyhow wash and clean your shrimp.



I then like to chop my shrimps up into bite size pieces.



I just use frozen corn.



Most people use peas, but I HATE peas. If we were in LA, I would have used edaname beans but I just used celery instead. Chop up your veggies! Here I used carrots, celery and onions (about 1/2 cup each).



Heat a pan with 1 TB sesame oil and 1/2 TB minced garlic.



Add the shrimp to the pan and cook until just about done.



Remove the shrimp from the pan and set aside At this point, I like to squeeze a little lemon juice onto the shrimp and mix it around. The lemon juice helps get rid of the 'fishy-ness'. Afterwards, drain all the juices.


 
In a separate pan, scramble 2 egg whites and 1 yolk and set it aside.



Go back to the big pan and heat up 1 TB of oil.



Stir fry the chopped up vegetables until the carrots are nice and soft.



Then add the corn and mix together well.



Finally add the shrimp.



Then finally add about 3-4 cups of cold cooked rice.



Add the eggs and season it with about 1 TB of soy sauce, 1/2 TB of gook ganjang, and 1 TB of sesame oil. As always, adjust this part according to your own tastes. I tend make my food a little on the bland side.



Mix it around well....



And you're ready to serve!!!

I'm going to make jang jorim this week and 마늘 짱아찌 (garlic jorim) too. Stayed tuned.

Dduk Gook using Gom Gook Broth - (떡국)

I know I made dduk gook before, but I just thought I would do a quick how-to using gom gook. It's easy!



First start off with about 4-5 cups of gom gook broth. The broth was really thick, so I diluted it with a little bit of water. I then added about 1 TB of gook ganjang, some minced garlic, and some salt. Do you see a pattern here? =P


 
Fry some eggs. You can be lazy and fry the yolk and white together, or you can take the time to fry it separately like this. I just had a little more time this morning so I thought I would make it look pretty for you readers. =P



I had a little bit of beef leftover, so I just seasoned it lightly with soy sauce.



Cut some gim up into strips using scissors.



Do the same with everything else....



Bring the broth to a boil and do a quick taste test. Then add your dduk and let it boil again until the dduk is done.



Plate the dduk gook first...



Then arrange all your toppings and you're ready to serve! Enjoy~~~

Tomorrow, I'm going to use the remaining gom gook to make some miyuk gook. I will post a how-to of that as well just because I'm bored here FAR away from home and friends. =P Toodles!

Moo Gook - Daikon Radish Soup - Version 2.0 - (무우국)

Don't you just love how there are so many ways to cook the same dish? =P You can make my mom's 경상도 style mook gook or you can make the following more traditional moo gook.



I took out the moo pieces from the gom gook I'm currently making before they got too soft and chopped it up like so.



Then I got a few cup fulls of gom gook (which has only cooked for about 5 hours) and put it in another smaller pot. I didn't measure exactly, but I would say this is about 7 cups of broth.




Add your moo pieces and a few pieces of beef...



Season it accordingly with some gook ganjang and salt to taste (and I addeds 1/2 TB of minced garlic). Again, I didn't measure - just do it according to your taste buds.



Finally, throw in some green onions and you're ready to serve!



YUMMY, delicious moo gook using the broth from gom gook. The gom gook is still cooking and will cook for about another 9 hours or so. It will be our family's breakfast for tomorrow! I'm going to make dduk gook with the broth as well, so if I have time I'll post that up. There are just SO many things you can make with gom gook broth. Get creative!

Dwenjang Jjigae - Soy Bean Soup - Version 2.0 - (된장 찌개)

Cooking is such an interesting thing. Trying to cook in someone else's kitchen is quite a challenge. Trying to find Korean ingredients in a small town proved to be even a greater challenge. I didn't want to buy EVERYTHING, so I only bought the bare minimum ingredients and have been improvising in the kitchen.

Today I made dwenjang jjigae with a beef broth instead of my usual fish broth. You can go and see Version 1.0 here.

Things needed:

• Veggies: Onions, squash, mushrooms, pepper, potato
• Dwenjang
• Tofu
• 1/4 cup of beef
• small piece of daikon radish (moo)
• 1/2 TB of minced garlic
• 1/2 TB of sesame oil

 
I first started by chopping my veggies and draining a bit of beef.



I then added 1/2 TB of sesame oil and 1/2 TB of minced garlic to a pot.



Saute the beef until cooked...



Then add 4 cups of water and a small piece of moo to make the broth. Bring it to a boil.


 
Then add 3TB of dwenjang and bring to a boil again.



Then add your squash, potatoes, and onions...



Throw in your mushrooms and tofu...



Throw in a pepper if you have one on hand.



I didn't have gochugarui, so instead I just added a dash of cayenne pepper. =P



Top it off with some green onions and let everything boil until the potatoes are done. Enjoy!!!



I'm currently making gom tang. I'll show you how to make some yummy moo gook with the broth tomorrow! =)