Horseradish Stirfry - (무 볶음)

My dad is a 경상도 (a region of Korea) man through and through. He's one of those 'tough' 깡패 (gangsta) men you see on TV. =P He also speaks with a heavy 경상도 accent. Most of my friends still have trouble understanding him even after 15 years. LOL.

Anyhow, the reason I bring this up is because I had no idea my dad had an accent until I was in 7th grade. My friend Bean and I were watching a Korean drama and the main character had a heavy 경상도 accent.

I could barely understand what the guy was saying and remarked, "Man, his accent is so annoying! I can't understand anything he's saying."

Bean turned her head from the TV slowly and looked at me like I was a freak of nature and said, "Um, do you realize that your dad has the same accent? If anything your dad's accent is heavier." WTF?

I had NO idea. The minute my parents came home that day I asked if my dad spoke with an accent. My mom said YES and that my whole dad's side of the family spoke with the same accent. In fact, my mom was the ONLY one who didn't speak with an accent.

So all my life I grew up oblivious to my family's satoori until the 7th grade.

Anyhow, my mom told me the following is one of my dad's hometown staple recipes. Most of the recipes on this site are my mom's which was derived from my grandmother's 경상도 style.

Here goes...an easy-peasy recipe that feels like home.



First grab a piece of moo and a mandolin to shred it. (I didn't have my flash with me and was too lazy to go back upstairs.)



But I realized the quality of food pics just doesn't pop without a flash so I went and got the flash. =P



Throw the shredded moo into a pot and turn up the heat. This is about 3 cups of moo. Drizzle some sesame oil over the top (about 1 TB) and add about 3/4 TB of minced garlic.



Add some SALT. Add to your taste. At this point, I added about a cup of water and threw in a handful of green onions and let it all cook together until the moo was nice and soft. Even though you only add a cup of water, MUCH more water will start to come out of the moo. After I was done, I scooped up the moo and put it into a container and used the same leftover juices to make kongnamool.

 

Keep stirring until the moo becomes translucent.

And you're done! Ready to serve~



A quick pic of my Munchkin's dinner plate. And YES he ate it ALL~ That's all for now! I will come back soon and update again more regularly. I'm slowly getting my groove back. =P

Pickled Cucumber - 오이지

I'm sorry to tease you, but I forgot to write down any ratios when I made this. Because my taste has dulled just a little, I wasn't sure it would turn out OK so I resorted to the taste as you go-Korean-ajooma-style and made it last week. The MR said it turned out great! I'm not sure if he was trying to spare my feelings or if he really meant it. =P

First you soak the cucumbers in salt water for a few days, then rinse it clean. The pickling juice is made of soy sauce, vinegar, water, salt, sugar, and rice wine. I promise I'll update this when I make it again in the future.



In the meantime, enjoy the pictures. =) It was so refreshing and just perfect for the recent heat wave.

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!