Spam Kimbap

On lazy weekends, once in a blue moon I’m crazy enough to make kimbap.  It’s literally an all day event!

Once I get started, I sit there and make kimbap all morning and sometimes all afternoon!



And about halfway through the rice, I ended up running out of ingredients for gogi kimbap. So I dug through my pantry and found this can of SPAM.


        
Cut and fry the spam...



Get some good old American cheese...



I already had eggs from the gogi kimbap.



Put your rice about 3/4 of the way on the sheet.  I usually just season my rice with splashes of sesame oil and sesame seeds.  You can add sushi vinegar if you’re going to eat it *RIGHT AWAY* but I find that adding vinegar makes the kimbap smelling stale after a few hours.  My husband likes to eat it all day long, so I usually skip the vinegar.



Add the three ingredients.



Roll up tightly.



Cut and serve! Honestly, although I love spam the gogi kimbaps blew the spam kimbap outta the water. =P Munchkin refused to eat the spam kimbap and made sure to ask for "gogi kimbap only please." =P At least the MR had something to snack on at midnight! hehe.



Four hours of hard work later! The MR had already taken a container with him in the morning. =P Can you believe almost all that kimbap is GONE now? I live with two men that truly know how to eat! Happy Monday, folks!!!

Spicy Crab Soup - (꽃게탕)

I made this over the weekend, but I've been lazy to put it up. Like always, there are a variety of ways to make this dish, but I tend to cheat and buy the marinated crab at the K-markets.  Why?  Because it's already fully seasoned and all CLEAN and cut - bottom line, it saves me a lot of time.


 
I would say this is roughly about 1 lb. of spicy crab. When the K-market has fresh ggot-gae (crab) in the future, I'll buy it and show you how to make this at home as well. I don't like the frozen ones...



I had already washed and cleaned my veggies the prior night. This about 1/4 onion, 2 small red peppers, 1 green pepper, and 1/2 cup of sliced up daikon radish (moo).



In a pot, add about 3/4 TB minced garlic, 1/2 TB red pepper powder, 3/4 TB sesame oil and 2 TB gook ganjang.


 
First throw in the moo and saute it a bit.



Then add 3 cups of water and bring it to a boil.



Add about 1/2 TB of dwenjang and 1 TB of gochu-jang to the boiling water....



Then throw in all the crabs and bring to a boil again.



Throw in the onions, green onions, and dae-pa (large green onions).



Throw in the green and red peppers...



Let everything continue to boil for a bit...



Throw in some tofu! At this point you can add squash, mushrooms, kongnamool, soot-gat or any other vegetable you want to add. I didn't have any of those (time to go the market again!) so I made mine simple.



Continue to boil for just a little bit longer and you're ready to serve! Enjoy with a nice hot bowl of rice.

As always, if there are any questions regarding ingredients and brands...be sure to check out my Korean Cooking 101 section!

Veggie Udon - 야채 우동

The following is one of my "cheat" meals, meaning it's not completely from scratch. I make this a lot on lazy Saturdays and Sundays when I don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen.            



First bring 3 cups of water to a boil with a strip of dashima.


 
Here's where I cheat. I add 3 TB of the udon sauce. It's quick, it's easy and tastes a lot better than making the broth from scratch using various seafood.




I have these frozen in my freezer, so I just grabbed it and took out as much as I need.


 
In a separate pot, boil the udon.


 
Don't let the noodles boil ALL the way. The reason I like to boil noodles separately is because I want to remove some of the starch by rinsing it.



I used one fish cake, a few thin strips of the pink fish cake, and 1/4 onion sliced...



I had some soot-gat (dunno the English word) so I washed and rinsed some of that for some greens.



After the udon, dashima, and udon sauce has boiled for 5 minutes or so, add the onions and fish cakes. Let this boil for about 5-10 minutes and wait for the broth to thicken.



Throw in the udon and bring to a boil...



Finish it off with the soot-gat! At this point you can add green onions, tempura, gim, egg, anything else you prefer. I didn't have any of those so we ate as is.



Just before eating pour some furikake and ENJOY! Munchkin slurped up his noodles like a champ and said, "Two thumbs up, Mommy!"

Uh-Mook Jorim - Fish Cakes - 어묵 조림

I apologize about the sporadic updates. One of my New Year's resolutions was to spend more time on this blog and hopefully make a mini-cookbook by the end of this year. =P We'll see how that goes since I'm not very motivated to do much these days.

I've put up an uh-mook bokeum recipe up before, and this following recipe is quite similar, only with more liquid. Instead of pan-frying the uh-mook, you're reducing it in liquid. I personally think it has more flavor.

Again, many ways to make the same dish!  You can add red peppers, green peppers, carrots, broccoli and whatever else meets your fancy.  I didn’t have any of that so I made do with what was available.

 

Needed:

• 4 Fried Fish Cake pieces
• sauce: 2 TB minced garlic, 2 TB rice wine, 1/4 cup water, 3 TB gook ganjang, 1 TB sesame oil, 1 TB corn syrup, and lastly 3/4 TB of red pepper powder (gochuggaru).
• 1/2CUP onions, 1/2CUP mushrooms, and 1/4CUP green onions       

 

I buy a big bag of uh-mook and leave it in my freezer to use whenever I may need it.



I used four pieces today.



Cut it once lengthwise and then slice it up like so.



Throw the uh-mook into a pan and add the following: 2 TB minced garlic, 2 TB rice wine, 1/4 cup water, 3 TB gook ganjang, 1 TB sesame oil, 1 TB corn syrup, and lastly 3/4 TB of red pepper powder (gochuggaru).



Mix it up well and then throw in about half a sliced onion and continue to let it boil on low heat.



At this point, you can throw in any number of vegetables. If you have red and green peppers on hand add them for extra kick (I didn't have any) or you can add mushrooms, broccoli, or squash. No limits!



Once all the liquid is almost reduced, throw in some green onions and mix it around one last time.



You're ready to serve! Enjoy!!! Hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the weekend! Mother Nature is acting kinda freaky out here in LA isn't it?  =P

Rice Cake and Dumpling Soup - 떡만두국

Let me preface this post by saying there are many ways to cook a dish. There is no right way and no wrong way. If it tastes great to YOU, then you did it the right way!

I realized today that it has been about a year and a half since I started this blog. I've been going through some of my old recipes and my cooking has definitely evolved from some of those older posts. In present day cooking, I might add more shrimp jut or a little less gook ganjang or I may even be more liberal with fish sauce (something I don't like).

With the Lunar New Year's coming up, I decided to make some dduk mandoo gook.

There are so many ways to make dduk gook. You can make it using just plain beef broth like this. You can make different uses of gom gook and make it using that broth instead. You can add the egg directly in, you can pan fry it and add it separately, you can separate the meat and add it on top as a pretty garnish, or you can be lazy like me and shove everything into a pot at the same time.

Do what feels right for you!

Ingredients Needed:

• 6 mandoos
• 4 cups of dduk (rice cakes)
• 1 cup of shredded beef
• 1/2 julienned carrot
• 1/2 sliced onion
• 1/2 sliced squash
• 3 sliced mushrooms
• broth: 1/2 TB minced garlic, 3 TB gook ganjang, 1/2 TB sesame oil

And onto the cooking~~~~            


First, defrost some mandoo (dumplings). This mandoo was homemade by my husband's aunt. According to the MR, her family is known for their wonderfully delicious mandoos. He was right! They are absolutely divine. I *wish* I could make mandoo like this. I've made mandoo at home numerous times, but I can't quite seem to get the flavor of the older generations.



Defrost some dduk (rice cakes) and let it drain out as well. This is about half a bag. This recipe won't have EXACT measurements, so please don't kill me.



This time I used flank meat. This is the meat you would use to make yook gae jang. I've already boiled the meat once and thrown out all the guck.  then added more water to make some beef broth.



Meanwhile start getting your veggies ready. I julienned carrots and squash (about a cup each). Slice up 1/2 onion very thinly and slice 1 large mushroom thinly as well.



Let the beef broth boil for about 30 minutes or so.



No *real* measurements here. I added about 1/2 TB of sesame oil, 3 TB of gook ganjang, and 1/2 TB of minced garlic. Turn up the heat...



And then dump in all the veggies and stir away!



Meanwhile, remove the meat from the broth and rinse it under cool water (so you don't burn your fingers like I did) and start ripping the meat off. It should be very easy to pull apart. This is exactly what you would do to make yook gae jang.



You want to achieve this. You can place this on top like a garnish when you're done with the dduk gook.


   
When your vegetables start looking like this...

 

  
Add all the beef broth and continue boiling.

  
Then throw in the meat (I’m lazy) and the mandoo and dduk!  No, I do not know how many cups of water I used. =/ I use this Le Creuset pot (yes, it's worth the $$$) when I cook and I just eyeball it. I add just enough water so that everything won't boil over. So...4 quarts? I added MORE water after I took this picture. There wasn't enough beef broth.


 
Go ahead and add some green onions!


 
Add your dduk and mandoo -- and just as it starts boiling, SERVE IT!  My dduk and mandoo was completely defrosted overnight so there was no need to cook it for a long time.  I actually scooped out ALL of the dduk and mandoo and just reused the leftover broth the next day with *new* mandoo and dduk.

 

Cut some gim up!

And then place some on top.  This is the MR’s egg-less version. My husband absolutely LOATHES eggs.



After I was sure that the MR was satisfied with his portion, I went and cracked an egg directly into the soup and let it boil some more.



This is the egg version that Munchkin and I enjoyed. =)



I later found this note stuck to the fridge. It made me smile. HAPPY *early* VALENTINE'S DAY! Go hug the one you love...even if they annoy you.