Korean Style Pickle (Oiji)-Banchan/Sidedish Recipe

October 7, 2009 By Anna 2 Comments

Oiji/Korean Pickle
I love pickles with sandwiches and pastas. Although regular pickles we all know may be good for American food, there is a Korean style pickle called Oiji which Koreans love to eat as Banchan/Sidedish for a meal.
Instead of just eating it as a whole, Korean pickle served thinly sliced with chopped scallions on top. If pickle turns out to be too salty, pour some fresh water in the bowl. So, this may be a good banchan for people who's trying to stay away from unhealthy stuff since nothing else is added. This is more natural and healthier. Only thing we need is salt and vinegar and nothing else. This may be a good sidedish for anyone who's trying to eat more vegetables and/or trying to lose weight! Let's Start!
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Popularity: 29%

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How to fry Mandu or Korean Dumpling

September 14, 2009 By Anna Leave a Comment

Quick reference on how to fry Mandu...
lightly oil the pan
Lightly cover frying pan with oil and fry on medium heat. If it's too high Mandu might burn without properly cooking the inner part. We don't want that!
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Popularity: 8%

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Fresh Spicy Cucumber Salad-Banchan/Sidedish Recipe

September 11, 2009 By Anna 4 Comments

Everyone in my family knows that I don't like cucumber...actually I hate FRESH cucumber. Sorry to FRESH cucumber lovers, but I'm not the only one who hates it. Once I went to a restaurant with two other friends. We got side salads and since I don't eat cucumbers I asked if any of them wanted my gigantic cucumber slices. Usually people look at me weird and gladly take it away from me...but that time both of my friends said they never eat cucumber!! So you see, I'm not alone.

Spicy cucumber salad
However, as ironic as it may sound...I do LOVE pickles and this spicy cucumber salad! Yummmm!!
In fact, this banchan is my FAVORITE!!!!!! I can eat so much rice with just this alone.

Like I told you before, I hate FRESH cucumber because of that FRESH seed smell, which cucumber lovers like it FRESH... as for me, pickles are 'pickled' and this recipe actually doesn't use the seed part (Keep this in mind to just throw away! or eat it if you must....)

No seeds, spicy, sweet, and fresh crunchy...Mmmmmmmmm...I want some!

Why should you eat this?
1. Eat more vegetables in different ways: In fact, that's the beauty of Korean food! You get to eat vegetables in many tasty ways! Not just regular old salad anymore!
2. Healthy diet and weight loss: more veggies, more benefits your and less greasy stuff means lose weight! Yay!
3. Spicy foods promote and protects health and possibly weight loss too: If you can't take the heat, please don't over do it.

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Popularity: 31%

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Non Spicy American Cabbage Kimchi Recipe

July 27, 2009 By Anna 2 Comments

I just found out that some call cabbage a "Cheap Doctor" since it's inexpensive and has lots and lots of health benefits.

My mom has been suffering from indigestion (something about acid problem) and can't eat too much of spicy foods, greasy, any other strong flavored foods anymore. One of her friends, who was having similar symptoms, told her that regular American (?) cabbage (not Korean cabbage) that you usually use for coleslaw is good for the stomach (acid and lining protection...etc..) and suggested the following EASY recipe.

Cabbages for your health

**When we lived in Denver, Colorado in 90's there weren't many Koreans back there and not enough Korean groceries either. However, Koreans NEED Kimchi and back then we learned that we could use the American Cabbage Kimchi. It does taste different from Regular Korean Kimchi but it had to do.**

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Popularity: 21%

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VERY Spicy Rice Noodle Salad Recipe

May 4, 2009 By Anna Leave a Comment

***WARNING*** This recipe makes very spicy noodle salad with Sriracha Hot sauce. We will not be responsible for any 'unfortunate outcomes' you may suffer due to eating something TOO spicy. If you had Sriracha before, you'll know how 'spicy' this can be...if you can't take it anymore just hold water/ice or drink milk asap. Otherwise enjoy the spiciness of this salad.
**If you want to try this with less spiciness scroll down for other options with sauces.

Spicy Rice noodle Salad
It's crunchy, fresh, and SPICY! Hot days are coming soon...and MD experienced sudden burst of preview of the summer for couple days already. These days something that can wake you up and give you a nice kick at your stress could be this Spicy Noodle Salad. I mean...it's really spicy for me. Anyhow after sweating (if you can't handle spicy anything please don't try this at home!) and turning RED I felt better and felt cool (literally!).

So if you are adventurous enough (...and if you can take the heat!) let's see how we made ours!
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Popularity: 13%

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Korean Seafood Pancake-Haemul Pajeon Recipe

April 17, 2009 By Anna 6 Comments

Whew...these days Maryland has been soaked with rain...rain...and more rain...and has been little depressing. Although we had short 'vacation' from rain for couple of days with beautiful days, it seems like we will be getting lots more later on. On these days many Koreans look for nice and hot soup or something fried, like Haemul Pajeon , Seafood Korean style Pancake.

Haemul Pajeon or Seafood Korean pancake
Korean Pancake is not usually made for Breakfast like Pancake you may know. It's usually an appetizer, sidedish, or snack. But you decide what it could be. And you decide what size you want it to be. If you order this in the restaurant, it's usually the size of a whole pizza. I guess you could also say this is Korean pizza. This time we made it smaller just because.

So shall we start?

Ingredients: Makes about 15 palm(your hand) sized pancakes

15 Shrimp
1 Squid
150g crab meat
10 scallions/green onion
1 cup Korean pancake mix
3 cups Korean frying mix
4 cups water
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Popularity: 96%

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Beef Miyuk Gook/Seaweed Soup Recipe

April 6, 2009 By Anna Leave a Comment

From my previous post about Miyuk Gook, I discussed about how Koreans started eating Miyuk Gook for their birthdays. In short this soup is healthy, healthy, healthy. And today, the recipe!
The Birthday Soup
This soup can be reheated couple times and will taste good for days so if you really like this soup, don't be afraid to make more than you can eat at once!

Ingredients (Following makes about 4 servings)
40g dried seaweed
200g beef (any beef used for stew/stock is fine)
2tsp salt
1tsp Dashida (Beef Stock Powder)
1/2 tsp ground/minced garlic
1tsp sesame oil

Ok, Let's Start!
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Popularity: 22%

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Sweet Rice Powder Cake Recipe

March 12, 2009 By Anna 2 Comments

Very chewy dessert for you or could be your breakfast or snack. It has nuts (take out nuts if you are allergic to it) and sweet potato. Healthy and yummy cake.

Sweet Rice Cake

Ingredients
500g sweet rice powder
2 eggs
1tsp baking powder/flour
1.5 tsp baking soda
4 cups milk
2 tbsp sugar(can be adjusted to your liking)
1 tsp salt
nuts
raisin
(optional) 1 steamed sweet potato sliced thinly

***Let's Start!

Mix eggs well first.
Add milk and mix again.
Add sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda one by one while mixing nice and slow.
Add sweet rice powder and mix really well.
Add sliced steamed sweet potatoes, nuts, and raisins and mix.
Bake at 375F for about 45-50minutes.
Let it cool, cut, and serve.
Pair it with tea or coffee (or just this) and Enjoy!

Sweet Rice Cake

Popularity: 14%

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Kimchi Bokumbop (Kimchi Fried Rice) Recipe

February 27, 2009 By Anna 2 Comments

Kimchi Bokumbop (Kimchi fried rice) is a quick dish you can have for anytime of the day. Tasty and simple. If you have leftover rice and you are not sure what you want to eat, try making this. You will be pleasantly surprised! (If you don't know how to cook Korean style steamed rice, just click easy recipe for steamed rice in a pot link below on the ingredients section.) This is my youngest aunt's recipe. We all love her Kimchi Bokumbop.

kimchi fried rice

Following recipe makes about 4 servings:

Ingredients
2 quarter-head kimchi
1 cup frozen vegetables
3 Tbsp sesame oil(or olive oil, vegetable oil)
4 cups steamed rice
3 scallions-chopped

Well, Let's Start!
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Popularity: 24%

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How to Cook Perfect Korean Style Steamed Rice

February 23, 2009 By Anna 4 Comments

Have you ever tried Korean rice? I would say Korean style rice is more sticky and chewy(?). It goes really well with all different kinds of Korean Banchans/Sidedish. Love Korean steamed rice but don't have an expensive Korean cooker? (I sound like a commercial LOL) Well here's the cheap quick solution for you. You just need some Korean rice, water, and a pot! Korean Rice
Ok Let's start! [Read more...]

Popularity: 40%

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