This is what we used today. We just got out frozen vegetables and some beef we had. Cook them first in the pot. Then mix curry with water and add them into the cooked veggies. You control how thick you want your curry to be with water. And boil it. And enjoy with kimchi or danmooji. I'm eating with danmooji today. Enjoy!

Perfect for the lazy afternoons. I wanted something spicy and sweet but didn't want to eat the hot noodle soup like last time, so I decided to play with this differently (I rarely cook ramyun plain. What's the fun in that?...ha ha).

Got my ramen out.

Cooked it.

Washed it with cold water and drained it so it won't stick to each other and stay chewy.

Made spicy sweet bibim sauce-Cho Gochujang (meaning vinegar added red pepper paste..the one you use for bibimbop or Korean Sashimi). I added red pepper paste, gochujang, sugar, vinegar, and little bit of red pepper flakes. Try mixing them and taste it to see if it's good enough for you. I love vinegar so I always tend to put lots and lots and less sugar. So you be the judge. OR just buy the pre-made one from the store! I found some on eBay too.

Just make sure it has enough vinegary taste to it! That's the key to this noodle. Vinegar!

Korean Red Pepper Paste (Gochujang) 200g (Medium Hot) US $8.08

Korean hot pepper paste gochujang sweet sauce bibimbab 해찬들 소고기 볶음고추장 US $.99

KOREA HOT PEPPER PASTE / BIBIMBAP GOCHUJANG 200g / FREE SHIPPING US $8.98

KOREA HOT PEPPER PASTE /BIBIMBAP GOCHUJANG 500g / FREE SHIPPING US $15.95

Prepped veggies. You gotta have some fresh vegetables to have some crunchiness with the chewy bibim noodles.

I steamed bean sprouts, washed, and drained. You must steam soybean sprouts. Mung bean sprouts that you get for pho can be eaten fresh but soybean sprouts...please don't...LOL

I chopped cabbage into strips..and will eat it fresh...but I cut it too wide...next time I've got to cut it very very thin.

We love these mini peppers from Costco...! They have lovely colors and they are sweet little things. Ha Ha. Chop Chop Chop them up too!

Put them altogether and you are ready to eat!

Mix mix mix and Enjoy!

It's basically the same steps with Hobak/Zucchini Jun but just use Tofu.

You can make both of them at the same time and you get 2 banchan. If you made too much at once, you can always save them and heat it up again. That's what we did for couple days.

They are easy to make, healthy, and yummy~!!  Hope you like it as much as I do.

So shall we start?

I sliced tofu into good bite sizes. Make sure not to slice too thin. Just thick enough like the following picture.

Sprinkle some salt lightly evenly over the tofu. Just enough not too much!

I lightly turn them over and sprinkle some salt again so the salt gets evenly distributed.

Just make sure you don't crumble them. Ha ha...

Get a bowl for flour and a bowl for eggs. Oh add some salt in the eggs again so the eggs and tofu taste goes together nicely. Sorry, I took the picture when I was almost done...

Usually I end up cracking too much eggs so I chop some scallions and fry leftover eggs afterwards...you know the one you fry and roll up like a roll cake? Another banchan for you there!

So, back to the recipe...

1. coat each tofu slice with flour. Coat it evenly all over so eggs will stick all over as well. I use hands to coat flour and toss gently couple times on hand to shake off excess flour. I don't want to eat chunk of flour you see...

2. Now, drop in the stirred eggs and I use a spoon to pick it up. And on to the pan!

Lightly coat with oil and cook it. I used the griddle since I was making a big batch. I think temp was about 325 degrees.

You can eat Tofu raw so just make sure you cook eggs thoroughly. If eggs are all cooked, you are done~! Yay.

You can dip in soy sauce or eat it as it is.

Don't forget to try Zucchini Jun too!

Enjoy!

Unlike Quick ‘n Easy Korean Banchan(sidedish)-Fresh Spicy Cucumber Salad Recipe which only uses the flesh part of cucumber (no seeds, no skin), this sidedish just uses the whole cucumber like other regular salads.

Ingredients

1 tbsp sea salt for pickling
1/2 lb cucumber

1 chopped scallion
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sesame seeds
2 tsp red hot pepper flakes
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp minced garlic

*NOTE: salt, sesame oil, pepper flakes, sugar, and garlic are all basic Korean spices. There's no right and wrong amounts to these like all other cuisine. Try it first as the recipe and feel free to adjust to your liking ^-^

First, cut cucumbers like the picture and put sea salt to 'pickle' just little bit. Maybe 15 min. Let it sit for a while...just enough that it's flexible but still fresh and crunchy.

When you think it's enough (don't let it sit tooooooo long), wash and gently squeeze excess water out.
and mix with all other ingredients. Adjust the spices accordingly to your liking.

Enjoy!

Other Recipes:
Bulgogi-Korean BBQ beef
Zucchini fried jun
Korean style Pickle (Oiji)
Fresh Spicy Cucumber Salad
Fresh Tofu Salad
Stir Fried Eggplant

Kimchi Recipes:
Traditional Whole Napa Cabbage Kimchi
Quick 'n Easy version Kimchi

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DON'T store them in an air-tight jars since when the fermentation starts the gas might pop out the lid...who knows what might happen...not good.

At first when you let it sit in room temperature it might overflow if you top it off to high. Leave some room so it won't overflow and make your house all stinky~

Now you know how to store Kimchi so follow the links to the kimchi recipes you might want to try!

Hope that helps.

If anyone has any further question relating to kimchi or storing kimchi, don't hesitate to ask!
(Although it may take some time but will post it up!)

ENJOY and eat more Kimchi!

Kimchi Recipes:
Traditional Whole Napa Cabbage Kimchi
Quick 'n Easy version Kimchi
Non Spicy American Cabbage Kimchi
Young Radish Water (YeoulMoo Mul) Kimchi
White Non-Spicy Kimchi

Friend : need a cup of coffee? grinder your coffee with an antique coffee grinder.

Once a friend told me she ate a very healthy meal...spinach salad. Yes that's good but let me show you an alternative way...Asian way...of eating spinach, as a Banchan/Sidedish with rice. I think that's little more filling than just a salad heh heh.

Just slightly cook and mix with sesame oil and salt and you are done!
Okay..okay...I'll be little more specific...scroll down!

Ingredients

1 bunch spinach
1 tsp salt
2 cups water

(Mix)
1-3 chopped scallions
1/2 tsp Sesame Oil
1/4 tsp salt

(OPTIONAL)
Little garlic
1/2 tsp sesame seeds

Let's Start!

Wash spinach thoroughly several times so you don't have to wash it after it's cooked.

Add salt to water and bring it to boil. When the water starts to boil put clean spinach and let it sit only for about 2 minutes. No longer than that!

Take spinach out and drain water. If it's too hot just briefly wash spinach once and squeeze excess water out. Cut spinach twice (into bite size).

Now just mix spinach with scallions, sesame oil, salt and sesame seeds (and garlic if you want).

Serve with rice and other banchan. If you didn't make it too salty, feel free to just eat it by itself.

That's all!

As you get familiar with the basic spices and sauces for Korean food, like sesame oil, feel free to add more or less depending on your preference. After all it is to please you not me ^^. Beauty of cooking after all is to adjust to your liking right?

Enjoy!

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Other Recipes:
Bulgogi-Korean BBQ beef
Jhuck-Special Occasion Bulgogi
Korean style Pickl (Oiji)
Fresh Spicy Cucumber Salad
Fresh Tofu Salad

Kimchi Recipes:
Traditional Whole Napa Cabbage Kimchi
Quick 'n Easy version Kimchi

Let's talk about how to prep your squid and clean it.


Cut squid's body down to expose the intestine and the ink sac.

*If you want to prep for squid ring style (maybe for fried calamari), Don't cut the body down at the first step. Instead, pull out the inner part by holding the tentacles. And then follow the steps below.*

You might be shocked by PINK rubber glove but this is Korean brand and very comfortable and thick (sold at Korean Markets or scroll down for other choices LOL.) Cut out the inner parts from the body. If you want to use ink for some other cooking recipes, save the ink sac but we don't use it. We are using tentacles as well so cut right next to the eyes and save tentacles and throw rest of other parts out (eyes and inner parts).

After you cut out the tentacles, don't forget to take out the inedible cartilage "beak" part. Flip tentacles and you'll find it in the center. Just pull it out with your hands. Easy enough.

Now the suction cup part of the squid. Grab each tentacle at a time and pull hard to clean out the suction cups.

Squid membrane or skin whatever you call it is EDIBLE but usually cleaned out for the appearance sake. Make a slit (or score) on the membrane like the picture.

And just pull off the membrane/skin on the body and the tentacles as best as you can. Wash thoroughly.

Then just cut them into strips (bite size). Now you are ready to use squid for your recipe.

Recipes with Squid:
Haemul Pajeon/Seafood Korean Pancake Recipe

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Other Recipes:
Bulgogi-Korean BBQ beef
Spicy Chicken Bulgogi
Korean style Pickl (Oiji)
Fresh Spicy Cucumber Salad
Fresh Tofu Salad
Stir Fried Eggplant
Mini Ground Turkey Pancake
Zucchini Jun

A bowl of steaming hot soup during cold winter, especially this year, sounds so good! I LOVE soup just for the taste, but it happens to have some health benefits too!

Soybean sprouts are known to have 'isoflavone' which is beneficial for women near menopause. Also it's known within Koreans to help hangovers after heavy drinking by breaking down alcohol. So maybe next time you wanna try the Korean way to ease your hangover LOL.

Many Koreans are known to be heavy drinkers (not including me LOL) and they eat many different kinds of soup to relieve hangovers. Some spicy and some clear soup like what I am going to share today. This clear sprouts soup that I'm going to share is one of the popular ones.

However, you don't have to be a heavy drinker to enjoy this soup. I love to eat rice and this soup with Kimchi. Simple but tasty meal and healthy too!

Let's Start!

Ingredients

1 bag soybean sprouts (1lb)
3 scallions
1/2 gallon water
1tbsp salt
1tbsp minced garlic

Wash sprouts and put them in a pot with water, salt, and garlic.
Cover the pot and bring it to boil on high temperature.

After it starts to boil, cook it for another 5 minutes and then lower the temperature to about knob 6 (we have number dial) and put scallions.

Cook 5 more minutes again.

If you want it to be little spicy, you can add some red pepper flakes.

Sorry everyone...I wasn't there to take the picture step by step. Young did her best to take the picture and still get the recipe right so Yay! And I'm sure you wonderful cooks can do it okay ^^

Eat it with a bowl of rice and kimchi! They go so well!

(WHISPER: Mom...that's little too much rice there....LOL...need bigger bowl for the soup and some more kimchi please~!)

***NOTE**
Do not confuse Soybean sprouts and Mung bean sprouts!
Soybean sprouts and Mung bean sprouts usually are sold on the same section. Just make sure that you get SOYBEAN SPROUTS for this soup! Soybean sprouts have bigger and yellow head (?). Mung bean sprouts are not used for this kind of clear soup. It's good for Vietnamese noodle or for sidedish ^^
Try not to keep soybean sprouts in the refrigerator no more than a day. It goes bad real fast so eat it as fast as possible!
**********

So when you get the right kind of sprout and eat it fast, you'll get lots of health benefits while pleasing your tummy!

Enjoy!

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Following recipe serves about 4 people:

Ingredients

Chicken marinade
2lbs Chicken breast
1/2 cup red pepper paste
1tbsp red pepper flake
1tbsp honey/sugar
1tbsp garlic
1tbsp wine
1tbsp soy sauce
1tbsp sesame oil

Vegetable side
3 scallions
1/4 cabbage
1 carrot
1 green pepper
1/2 green bell pepper
1 onion

Slice chicken to good bite size.

Mix marinade ingredients with chicken.

Slice all vegetables thinly.

First, cook chicken only. Don't cook in the highest temperature. Maybe about 8 for the temp knob.

When the meat is almost cooked, add veggies in and cook thoroughly.

Serve with rice. You can just mix them all together and eat. Yummm
OR with rice noodles. If you need some extra flavor for your noodle, you might consider adding sesame oil and some hot sriracha sauce to noodles. OR you could make extra marinade on the side for the noodles!

TIP If it was too spicy for you, just drink a cup of ice cold milk.

Enjoy!

Gochujang on ebay:

Korean Red Pepper Paste (Gochujang) 200g (Medium Hot) US $8.08

Korean hot pepper paste gochujang sweet sauce bibimbab 해찬들 소고기 볶음고추장 US $.99

Korean Sunchang Gochujang 200g/sauce bibimbab/SunChang US $19.99

Other Recipes:
Bulgogi-Korean BBQ beef
Jhuck-Special Occasion Bulgogi
Korean style Pickl (Oiji)
Fresh Spicy Cucumber Salad
Fresh Tofu Salad

Kimchi Recipes:
Traditional Whole Napa Cabbage Kimchi
Quick 'n Easy version Kimchi

If you are a beginner just like me (Anna) pour water about this much.

Just place a steamer or metal colander and cover. Bring to boil.

When water starts to boil, place frozen mandu like so. Don't overlap them. They'll stick to each other. Cook about 5-8minutes. Our wrapper seemed to be thicker than usual and I cooked about 8-9minutes but the round puffy mandu turns 'wrinkly' and little transparent. Then, you are done!

If you want to add some dipping sauce, I just mixed soy sauce and little vinegar together. Quick and easy sauce. Enjoy!

Click here for Mandu Recipe
Click here for how to fry Mandu

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