Making young radish kimchi(water kimchi)

Napa cabbage kimchi is the most well known kimchi in the world.
However, it is a just one type of kimchi out of few hundreds of kimchies and for winter seasons.
Before winter season, Koreans make a kimchi with napa cabbage with neighbors and it called kimjang, it's also about Korean culture.

We have a spring in Korea! We have eaten kimjang from last year!
Today I and my wife make a new kimchi for this season with young radish(yeolmoo) and winter grown cabbage(eolgaribaechu). These two vegetables are well used together for kimchi.
I will write the more exact weight or quantity of ingredients from today.

Ingredients : young radish & winter grown cabbage(500g respectively), onion 1ea(medium size), red paprika 1ea(medium size), salt 3 cups(approx. 200cc cup), salted shirimp(5 Table Spoon), fish sauce(5TS), sugared ginger(5TS), glutinous rice flour(or flour, 5TS)

* sugared ginger(ginger enzyme)
Many Koreans make a enzyme with some fruits and vegetables in their season. The representative fruit is apricot. Every early summer, there are a lot of products on the display stand in the supermarket for this, for example, sugars, big bottle and raw apicot. My wife, always, make a enzyme with ginger in its season. It is convenient for making ginger tea or using for making food like a kimchi.

1. Cut young radish and winter grown cabbage in appropriate size and sprinkle salt(1~2cups) over them evenly. Mix them well and wait for 1~2 hours until losing strength and freshness. During this time turn them upside down 1~2 times.
 When they lose strenght and freshness, wash them well 2~3 times and put them in sieve for 1 hour.

 

2. Make 1 cup of glue paste with glutinous rice flour very waterly, due to water kimchi in this time. If you make a kimchi, you should make the harder glue paste. This starch of glue paste is food for zymogen(fermentation organism).

3. Shred 1/2 onion and mix them with no. 1 vegetables. Put the rest 1/2 onion, red paprika, salted shirmp, fish sauce, glue paste, salt(1cup) and sugared ginger altogether in the blender and mix them well.

4. Pack the vegetables into container.

5. Sprinkle the mixed paste of No. 3 through the sieve as below. You can use clean water together until just over vegetables. The taste of kimchi water should be little bit salt. If it is waterly, add more salt.

6. Close the lid of container and put the container in the room tenmperature for one night and put it refrigerator.

7. After 1~ 2 days, you can enjoy water kimchi!

Korean vegetable salad series No. 2 - 4 types of Spring vegetable salads

There are a lot of herbs(vegetables) in Spring seasons. For example, shepherd's purse(naeng-i), wild chive(dallae), amaranth(pigweed, bireum namul), sebal namul(no English name), canola, wild parsnip(bangpoong namul), and so on.

I used 4 types of blanced salad with 4 types of seasonings using salt, soysauce, soybean paste, and redpepper paste.

Ingredients : Canola, amaranth, sebal namul, wild parsnip, crushed garlic, salt, soysauce, soybean paste, redpepper paste, sesame oil, sesame powder.

To begin with let's check the vegetables!

canola

sebal namul

wild parsnip(bangpoong namul)

amaranth(bireum namul)

 

Blanch them!

canola

sebal namul

wild parsnip

amaranth

1. Canola.
Cut the blanched canola in bite size and put 1ts of garlic, 1TS of soybean paste, 2TS of redpepper paste.(The ratio of soybean and redpepper bean is 1: 2)

Mix them well and add sesame oil!

2. Sebal namul
Cut the blanched sebal namul in bite size and put 1ts of garlic, 1TS of soysauce, sesame oil and mix them. Add sesame powder when serving!

3. Wild parsnip(Bangpoong namul)
Cut the blanched wild parsnip in bite size and put 1ts of garlic, 2TS of soybean paste, sesame oil and mix them. Add sesame powder when serving!

 

 4. Amaranth
Cut the blanched amaranth in bite size and put 1ts of garlic, 2ts of salt, sesame oil and mix them. Add sesame powder when serving!

 

It isn't hard to make salad as above, if you season to suit for your taste, I think.
Roughly, the taste of Spring vegetables is bitter. That bitter taste make your taste healthy.

Vegetable pancake

There are a lot of vegetables menus in Korean food, because Korea was farming society.
So, Spring is the start season of eating fresh vegetables while dried & fermented vegetables during Winter.
Today food is vegetable pancake using seanson's vegetables.

Ingredients : vegetables(canola, chamnamul, sebal namul), flour, oil, water
(There are special flour for pancake in supermarket in Korea, but you can use just flour.)

1. Make batter waterly.
2. Mix it with vegetables.

3. Make batter to flat on the pan in appropriate size.

4. Turn over it after one side is done.
5. Enjoy vegetable pancake with soysauce!

Flower pancake in Spring!

Tranditionally, in Spring seasons, women go to picnic and enjoy flower pancakes with spring flowers.
We call it Hwajeon.(Hwa means flower, jeon means pancake)
Spring flowers, such as azalea, apricot flower(ume flower) and garden balsam are used for flower pancake. However, due to the air pollution, I have to use edible flowers.

Ingredients : glutinous rice(sticky rice), salt, edible flower, oil, honey(or sorts of syrup)

1. Wash the glutinous rice until water is clear.
2. Put the washed rice in the clean water for 4~5 hours.
3. Put the rice in the sieve for 1 hour to get rid of water.
4. Grind and make rice flour, then sift rice flour with fine sieve.
5. Add salt a little and knead rice flour with hot water.

6. Break off rice flour paste into chestnut size and flatten it out into circle.
7. Griddle it with small oil on the low heat pan.
8. After one side is done and turnover it.
9. Paste the flower on the done pancake and take off from pan.
10. Cool down it and add syrup, Enjoy!

If you use another wild flower not from market, you should detach stamen of flower. Pollen may cause alergy.

In Spring, Koreans eat a lot of spring vegetables, sheperd's purse, wild chive, and canola etc.
The vegetables in Spring season are trying to germinate, so all of their energies is focused on their roots, sprout and leaves.
To eat spring vegetables means to eat those energies, so taste of spring vegetables is mostly bitter.
The representative vegetable is sheperd's purse(naeng-i). Generally, it is used not for salad but for soup.

Ingredients : sheperd's purse(naeng-i), radish, dried kelp, soysauce

Kelp is essence of umami, so it is loved for broth in Korea & Japan.
1. Make a broth with dried kelp.
2. Shred the radish and wash the sheperd's purse.
3. Put the shreded radish and sheperd's purse in the pot.

4. Boil and season with soysauce.

If you have raw soybean flour, mix it with sheperd's purse before put the pot.  It makes more soft taste.



Tofu & vegetable fried rice

Soybeans are called "the meat of the field."
Tofu is made from that soybean and so it's very good protein supplier for vegetarians.

Usually, tofu is used for sorts of stews, fried tofu, or boiled tofu.
Today, I make a fried rice with tofu and vegetable.
This may be very heathy and light food for you.

Ingredients for 2~3 persons : cooked rice(2 bowls), 1 piece of tofu, vegetable(whatever you want, for example, spinach, salary, bok choy and so on), crushed garlic(1ts), sesame oil(1ts), soysauce(1Ts), salt(suitable quantity), olive oil(or canola etc)

Today, I used cham-na-mul, which is in at prime season.

 

1. Cut the vegetable in 1cm length.
2. Tear off the tofu and stir-fry them with crused garlic and oil until it become crumble.
3. Add cut vegetables and seasoning with soysauce.

4. Stir fry cooked rice with no. 3 in the pan and season again with salt.
Turn off the fire and add sesame oil and mix well.

It isn't oily at all and tofu's texture and smell is very good. Overall, it is very healty and light food due to tofu. Also, it was easy to make.

Kimchi stew with canned Saury

Saury is familiar fish for Korean, as raw fish and canned fish.
While all canned fishes are well-suited with Kimchi for Korean stew, I will make kimchi stew with canned saury.

Ingredients : Canned saury, Kimchi, Onion, Green onion, water, fish sauce, blackpepper

1. Usually, I make a kimchi stew with bite-sized kimchi, but, I make a kimchi roll with saury flesh as below.

2. Put the kimchi roll and onions in the pot and cover with water. You should pour the soup of canned saury.

3. During the boiling, taste the soup and season with fish sauce. Of course, you can season with salt but fish sauce make more deep and rich taste.

4. Add cut green onion and blackpepper.
Besides canned fishes(tuna, saury, mackerel), pork, ham and sausage are also well-suited with kimchi stew. It is more easy to make using well-done and bite-sized kimchi.

Korean vegetable salad series No.1 - Bean sprout salad

Korean eats a lot of vegetables during meal.
Of course, there are much vegetables in Miditerranean food.
I watched a documentary about vegetables food a few years ago.
According to that documentary, Greek eat a lot of vegetables through raw salad with olive oil.
So, fat of olive oil is make Greek to be fat.
However, Koran salad is usually steamed(balanched) vegetable, so amount of vegetable intake is no. 1 in the world. Also, Korean do not use oil so much, just 1~2 table spoon, so it is fat free salad.
I will post vegetable salad in series from today, the 1st is first vegetable is bean sprout.
Bean sprout is loved by Koreans, especially, thirsty souls. It is basic ingredient for curing hangover due to aspartic acid.

Ingredient : Bean sprout(300g), green onion(30g), crushed garlic(10g), redpepper powder(10g), salted shrimp(2tea spoons) or salt(10g), sesame oil(1 tea spoon),

1. Put the washed bean sprout in the pot with salted shirmp.

 

You can use salt instead of salted shirmp.(this is fermented shrimp, so it make a food more deep and good taste!)

2. Pour 2 cups of water and close the lid of pot. Until boiled, you never open it. If so, bean sprout smells fish-like. How to cook bean sprout without smell are two ways; close & never open the lid and open & never close until boiled.

3. In the mixing bowl, put the crushed garlic, minced green onion, redpepper powder, sesame oil and boild bean sprout, and then mix them altogether.

4. You can omit redpepper powder, if you don't like it.

It is very easy recipe, just boiled beansprout with salt and mix it with garlic, green onion, redpepper powder! Try and enjoy Korean vegetable salad today!

How to make soy sauce and soybean paste(doenjang)

Soybean paste(Doenjang) is one of the basic sauces for Korean food, no, no itisn't enough, it is essence and soul of Korean.
Miso(Japanese doenjang) is different with Korean soybean paste, because miso is made from flour.
Korean soybean paste(doenjang) is made from soybean. The origin of soybean is also Korea. William J. Morse and T.H. Dorset were visit to Korea for gathering seed of soybean in early 20C. They gathered more than 3,000 species in Korea.

Anyway, I and my wife tried to make soybean paste and soy sauce by ourselves as below.
Before I start to explain how to make them, I want to say about Meju.
Meju, fermented soybean block, is made of soybean, shaped as brick.
Korean makes it in Autumn and dry it during winter season. During the winter season, meju is fermented by Bacillus fungus.
In Korea we can buy meju easily during the January(lunar calendar), because the lunar Jan. is best season for making soybean paste and soysauce.
Refer to how to make meju, I will write in Autumn when I try to make it.

1. Wash the meju and dry little bit.

2. Fumigate pottery with straw.

3. Put meju into pottery.

4. Make a brine(salt water). Salt concentration is good between 18% ~ 20%. If you don't have salinometer, you can use egg. If egg floats on the brine in coin size, it means 19%. Check this in the picture.

 5. Pour brine into potter through cotton cloth.

6. Add oak charcoal, dried redpepper and dried jujube.

The next most important step is just waiting. Nature as like sun, air, wind, temperature makes soybean paste.

7. Just put this pottery in sunny place for 45~60days.

After 45~60days, I will divide soybean block and brine. The divided soybean will be soybean paste. The devided brine will be soysauce after  boiling. I will write again when I do this in 2 months later.

Plane pork belly(thin pork belly) salad

Last year, Koreans ate 40kg pork per person and half of them is pork belly(samgyeopsal).
Koreans loves this part of pork so much; grilled, boiled, steamed, and so on.
Of course grilled pork belly is most well-liked.

Also, there are some sorts of pork belly, lump(Tong samgyeop), plane(Daepae samgyeop, thin), and fresh pork belly(Saeng samgyeop, thick) and so on.
I tried to make salad with plane pork belly and some vegetables as below.

Ingredient : Plane pork belly, bean sprout, paprika(red, yellow), Cham-na-mul(Korean traditional green vegetable. You can use any vegetable, for example, bok choy, water celery, bell pepper etc.)
Dressing : Soy sauce, wild chive(Dallae, Spring is prime season of this vegetables.), sesame, redpepper powder, oil, sugar.

1. Blanch plane pork belly in boiling water and cool down. If you use beer, fat of port will be excreted more easilly, so you can enjoy more light and healthy pork.

 

 

2. Shred the paprika and cut the chamnamul in same length. Blanch the bean sprout and chamnamul.

 

3. Mince wild chive. Mix it with soy sauce, sesame, redpepper powder, and sugar. If you don't like too much salty, you can add some water.

4. Put pork belly and vegetables in plate and pour wild chive sauce on them.

The smell of wild chive gets rid of smell of fat from pork and tastes refreshing.
You can this wild chive sauce for other foods, for example, butter rice, bean sprout bibimbap and so on.