Mugwort rice cake(Ssuk gaetteok) in spring!

Mugwort is spring vegetables, of course, people use mugwort in summer & autumm for mosquito-smoker or medicine, but use it in spring for food!
Representative menus of mugwort are flounder mugwort soup(dodari ssuk guk) and ssuk gaetteok, I think. Today, I ate dodari ssuk guk for lunch.

Mugwort has strong vital power. So, after forest fire, mugwort is the first plant growing on.
We can get that vital power through food.

mugwort rice cake(ssuk gaetteok)

Ingredients : rice flour(1kg), mugwort(500g), salt(little), hot water(little)

1. Blanch the mugwort and wash them 2~3 times with cold water.
2. In large bowl, mix rice flour, mugwort, and salt.
3. Knead them with hot water. Do not pour hot water in one time. You should pour hot water in 3~4 times checking the stiff of dough.

4. Knead with strong power over 30 minutes until total color of dough turns green. The dough should be in stiff little bit.
5. Divide dough in table tennis ball size and make it coin shape.

6. Put them on the sieve and steam it for 10 minutes.

7. Cool down them. When you cool down them, the rice cake become more sticky and better mouthfeel.

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.