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.  =)

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.

Chicken Gizzard Stir-fry - Dak Ddong Jjip - (닭똥집 볶음)

 

Our lives have been so busy these last two weeks now that Munchkin is officially a Kindergartener.  I know it’s such a cliché, but it seriously seems like just yesterday that he was born and look at him now - all grown up and going to school to LEARN.  Munchkin has been in preschool since he was 2.5 years old, so this adjustment has been pretty easy for him…so far.  He’s bringing home homework, making new friends and just growing up at lightening speed. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 CUP chicken gizzard
• 1 TB sesame oil
• 1 TB mince garlic
• dash of salt and pepper
• 1/2 onion, 1 jalapeno, and 2 whole garlic bulbs (or a handful of cloves)

 

The MR and I happened to be at Seafood City today and I saw that the chicken gizzards looked pretty fresh, so I picked up a package and was determined to make dak-ddong-jip for the MR.  This dish is more of an *appetizer* for beer or soju than it is an entree.  This package was about 1.5 LBS and I divided it up and froze the portions I wasn’t going to use.  Only the MR and I would eat this, so I only used about 1 CUP of chicken gizzard.

 

Take your cup of chicken gizzard and begin by cutting away the little white parts.  You don’t *HAVE* to do this, but that part is pretty tough and I prefer to just remove it.  I also like cutting up the gizzards into smaller pieces because I want them to be extra crispy when fried later.

 

After you’ve cut up the gizzards, throw in a handful of flour and salt and scrub away.  My mom tells me this is to get rid of all the gunk in the gizzards.  Afterwards, make sure to rinse numerous times under cool water.

 

Rinse the gizzards until the water runs CLEAR and bring a pot of water to a boil…

 

While waiting for the water to boil, go and grab your garlic bulbs and start peeling away.

 

When the water boils, add the gizzards and let it boil for about 5-7 minutes.  This will help rid of the impurities.

 

While the gizzard is boiling, ready the remainder of your vegetables.  Slice up half an onion and one jalapeno.

 

When the gizzards are done boiling, rinse it under cool water and then drain all the excess liquid.  Then marinate the gizzards in: 1 TB of minced garlic, 1/2 TB of sesame oil, and a dash of salt and pepper.

 

Mix it thoroughly and let it sit for a bit.

 

Drizzle some oil on a pan and let it get piping hot.  First add your vegetables and stir away.

 

After a few minutes, add the gizzards and keep frying until the garlic gloves start to brown.

 

Voila!  You’re almost ready to serve!

 

Plate it and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top right before serving.

 

I personally like dipping mine in a soy sauce/vinegar/wasabi mix.  The MR, on the other hand, prefers the good old-fashioned sesame oil with salt and pepper.

 

Enjoy!  Like I said at the start of this entry.  This is more of an *an-joo* which is an *appetizer* served at sool-jips (bars).  The MR ate his with an ice cold Bud.  =)

P.S.  This is the first time I took food pictures with my G11 versus my 50D.  My 50D was in my car and I was too lazy to go and get it so I decided to experiment with the G11 instead.  Not bad at all for a P&S.  =P

Noo-Roong-Ji (누룽지) – Burnt Rice Snack (?)

Hello everyone!  I know I’ve been MIA forever and ever.  This blog is always in the back of my mind and I often think, “This is the week where I will finally update…” and then another week passes and I find myself  doing other things.  =/  So again – my apologies first.

Life has been trudging along as usual.  I’m quickly approaching my two-year cancer anniversary and it’s unbelievable how quickly time has passed.  My life will never be the same, but my sense of normalcy is just now starting to come back.  There are actually some days I am able to forget what has happened – and those are the days that I call “good days.” 

There are more good days than bad.

Anyhow, I’m not cooking as much as I used to.  I’m not sure if it’s laziness, the heat, fatigue or a combination of everything – but I’m just not finding myself in the kitchen anymore.

 

This morning I awoke and after feeding Munchkin some miyuk gook, I decided to make myself one of these.  While making it – I realized I had some leftover rice and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to update my blog.  =P

 

 

Making noo-roong-ji is super easy.  Just grab a pan…

 

Fill a bowl with some water and get your rice scooper…

 

Turn the heat on medium-low…

 

 

…and then simply flatten your rice out like this.  Since Koreans tend to eat stickier rice, wet the rice spoon with water so that it doesn’t stick.  Press the rice down flat and then just let it cook for about 10-15 minutes on one side.

 

Flip it over and then let it brown on the other side as well.

 

I usually just make a bunch and store it in the freezer in Tupperware.

 

Whenever you’re ready to eat, just grab some and place it in a bowl (or you can just boil it).

 

Boil some water…

 

Add just enough water like this.

 

And then cover it with another bowl or use a lid like this.  Let it sit for about 10-15 minutes.

 

And you’re ready to enjoy!  I took this picture too soon, but if you leave it longer – the noo-roong-ji will be softer and the water will be milkier.  =)  I had to leave the house so this picture was just for blog purposes.  Anyhow, you can even fry the pieces and sprinkle some sugar on it too and eat it as a snack.  I’ll post up a “how-to” of that later this week if I have time.

I hope everyone has a safe and peaceful Labor Day weekend!

My little Munchkin is starting Kindy next week and it’s just so surreal.  I cannot believe my little boy has grown up so much.  =P

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.  =)

100.000

It's yet another sleepless night so I decided to check out my google analytics (really cool!) and found that I have had over 100,000 (103,702 to be exact! =P) unique visitors to this site.

WOW! =O

Who knew that Korean food could be so popular?!

So I just wanted to say THANK YOU again to each and every one of you who visits this site. I'm sorry I don't update often, but like I say all the time this blog is a hobby and I just don't have enough hours in the day to sit and take step-by-step pictures of meals. =( When I *cook* for the blog it takes almost triple the time to make something. Not fun when you have a hungry, near-crazy toddler yelling for FOOD!

With that said, I'll try to post something up tomorrow. It's time to go to the K-market again, so let's see what I can whip up.

Hope everyone in SoCal is staying cool in this heat wave!!!