Korean chive pickle

I have a small farm in my house for vegetables.

Every spring, I sow about 20 kinds of seed in the farm, but chive(korean chive, buchu) can stay over winter in the farm.

I had a chance to eat pickled chive in the food court of department store 3 years ago. 

As I backed to the home, I made it immediately. From then, chive pickle became famous side dish when I eat grilled pork.

Ingredients : Korean chive(2 kg), vinegar 350ml, soysauce 350ml, water 700ml, sugar 350g

1. Wash chives with cold water and put the container.

2. Put the other ingredients in the pot and boil!

3. During this sauce is hot, pour the No.1 container.

4. It is good to put a weight stone above chive.

5. After 2~3 days, pour sauce out and boiled it again. During this sauce is hot, pour it again.

6. After it became cold, store it in the refrigerator. You can enjoy it a few days later.

It is really good marriage with pork.

Young Radish Kimchi(Altari kimchi)

It is really pity that there are no word to explain Korean vegetables, I can't help using just 'radish' for 3~4 different vegetables.

Today's recipe is Young Radish Kimchi(Altari kimchi).
There are over 100 kimchies in Korea. Typical kimchi(chinese cabbage) is for winter season. In this season, between spring and summer, cucumber and young radish kimchi are good.

Ingredients : Young radish 2 kg, Salt 150g, crushed garlic 100g, fish source 50g, salted shrimp 50g, redpepper powder 200g, sugar 100g,(apricot enzyme), flour 50g, water

1. First of all, preserve young radish in salt for 2 ~3 hours and wash well with cold water.
If radish is too big, divide 2 or 4.

2. Make flour paste(starch) and cold down. This will be helpful for fermentation. This is food of ferment bacillus.

3. Mix ingredient with flour paste. According to preference, control the amount of fish source, salted shrimp, and so on.

4. Apply kimchi seasoning of No. 3 to salted radish of No.1.

5. Set this kimchi in room temperature for one day(24 hours) and put them refriger.

Dividing soybean paste(doenjang) and soysauce.

In March,11th, I posted how to make soysauce and bean paste.
http://mykoreanfoodrecipes.blogspot.kr/2016/03/how-to-make-soy-sauce-and-soybean.html
In this post, I wrote "After 45~60days, I will divide soybean block and brine."
After 50 days from then, I divided soybean block and brine as below.

This is photo of 50 days, just started dividing. I pulled out oak charcoal and dried redpepper.

In large bowl, I knead and mix bean block as above, and put it back to pottery as below.

I covered them with dry kelp and  put pottery in sunny pot with special lid. Traditionally, people use white cotton cloth for covering, but nowadays we can by special lid(glass) in online mall.

In case of brine we need to filter it with cloth as below.

After filtering with cloth, boil it for 20 minutes. Cooling down soysauce(from now I can call this soysauce) and put it in pottery and preserve.

beef bone soup(gomguk)

This soup is one of the most beloved soups in Korea.
It isn't easy to make this soup because it takes quite long time, a few days.
I used big iron pot(cauldron) for making this soup.
There are famous brands for iron cookery as likepLodge, Le Creuset, Staub, Skeppshult, Iwaki etc. Eventhough we don't have any worldwide iron cookery brand, Korean has used iron pot - gamasot - from long time ago.

Usually, I use two sort of beef bone, beef leg and other bones.
Before put bone to the pot, it need to dip in cold water for over 1 hour. This step makes getting out blood from bone.
After dipping them in cold water, put them in the pot and boil!

As soon as boiling, drain the water. This step makes getting out blood and foreign substance.
Wash bones with water and put them in pot again and pour water enough.
Make a fire for 5~6 hours until water color turns in white like milk and amount became under half.

Scoop up the white soup and pour clean water again. Make a fire again until white soup and half amount.

Combine 1st soup & 2nd soup in the pot and fire again.
This is last time to fire.
After fire scoop up the all of the soup and cool down soup using refrigerator.
1~2 hours later, you can skim off the fat from soup.

You can enjoy this soup with salt, blackpepper, green onions.
When you preserve this soup, it is good to use zipper bag as below.

 

 

Steamed shishito pepper(kkwarigochu zzim)

It's new writing after quite long interval.
Today's food is steamed shishito pepper, kkwarigochu zzim in Korean.

Ingredients : shishito pepper(kkwarigochu) 600g, flour powder 4TS,
ingredients for sauce : crushed garlic 1TS, soysauce 3TS, sugar 3TS, redpepper powder 1TS, sesame oil 1TS

1. Trim the shishito pepper and wash them.
2. While pepper is in wet, scatter flour powder on them and mix well.

 

3. Steam the coated pepper for 5~6 min.

4. Mix sauce ingredients well and sprinkle on pepper.

It is real easy recipes as you see and good taste. Why don't you try this one today?

Korean vegetable salad series No.3 - spinach salad

Usually, children hate vegetables, especially spinach.
The children of Ameriaca dislike spinach, either, I think.
If they like spinach, popeye didn't eat canned spinach in cartoon.
Spinach in spring is the more delicious than other season's.

Spinach has oxalic acid, so if you eat a lot of raw spinach, it isn't good for you.
Oxalic acid is combined with calcium and turn to stone in the body. It's good to eat cooked spinach.

Ingredients : Spinach 500g, Salt(1TS & 1ts), crushed garlic(1ts), sesame oil(1ts)

1. Clean the raw spinach and blanch it salted(1TS) boiling water.
2. Wash blanched spinach in cold water for 2~3 times.

3. Squeeze it well and season with salt(1ts) and crushed garlic. If you put lots of garlic, the taste of spinach will gone away.

4. Add sesame oil and enjoy.

Sea mustard soup with dried pollack

Koreans often eat sea mustard soup bon gre, mal gre. Womem eat this soup after childbirth for long time. Traditionally, this soup is one of the birthday menus.
There are a lot of iodine and calcium in sea mustard. This helps to clean blood.
According to old books, there is storty that whale ate sea mustard after childbirth.
Also we can make lots of variations with different ingredients, for example, beef, dried pollack, chicken, fish, clam and so on.
I made soup with dried pollack in this time.

Ingredients : dried sea mustard(300g), dried pollack(500g), sesame oil, soy sauce, water

1. Macerate(soak) the dried sea mustard in water for 1~2 hours.

Wash the sea mustard and cut into bite size.

2. Cut the dried pollack into bite size and soak them in water for a little while.
Squeeze them and put the pot with sesame oil.

3. Stir-fry dried pollack for 2~3 minutes and add sea mustard on them.
Stir-fry them for another 2~3 minutes.
4. After stir-frying, pour water(2~3 liters) and season with soysauce.
5. Boil it until sea mustard turns soft.

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.