Recipe 2: How Do I Spell This Again?

Here we go for Recipe number 2, 떡볶이, also know as ddeokbokki, teokbokki, topokki and dukboki. I have gone for the Korean name above as romanizations are confusing me more and more these days. My Korean skills are still pretty patchy, but I much prefer to read the Korean over searching for the romanizations - I feel it leaves less room for error (but there will always be error, at least for the time being.) But I digress...

떡볶이 is my ultimate lazy food. It's also a classic street food. Meandering around, especially in busy areas, it's not uncommon to find a wee canopied stall with a smiling lady mixing up her 떡볶이, it's a cheap and delicious way to grab a snack. Then there are the 떡볶이 restaurants where all sorts of options can be added to you 떡볶이 and you can munch away as it sizzles away in front of you. 

Have I ever mentioned how much I love the way so much of the food here is cooked on the table, right in front of you. It makes eating out a much more enjoyable and social experience. There really are a lot of things that Korea does right! But I digress... again...!!!

Back to 떡볶이... what do you need: 

Ingredients

• 떡 (here-after called rice cakes.) These are pretty essential (as if that wasn't obvious from the name) and come in an array of shapes and sizes. Personally I'm a fan of the tubular ones! 
• Red Pepper Paste
• Red Pepper Flakes
• Sugar
• Fish Cake
• Green Onion / Leek
• Boiled Eggs
• Water
• Dried Anchovies
• Dried Seaweed

First you need to make the stock. This is wonderfully simple (and used for many Korean recipes, so it's good to know.) Take your anchovies and seaweed and put what you need in a pan. I now do this by eye, but you don't need much. My advice is the same as that given to me by a bread baker many years ago: Add as much as you think you need, then add a little bit more. Throw them into a pan, add as much water as you think you need (depending on how many people you're cooking for) and let it boil. Again, as long as you feel it needs. 

When you're happy it's boiled enough REMOVE THE ANCHOVIES AND SEAWEED! Don't forget to do this - it's not pleasant! 

Gather the rest of the ingredients: 

Make a paste using: 

1tbsp hot pepper paste

1tsp pepper flakes

1tsp sugar

and mix it all up!

Chop the fish cake into chunks, gather as many rice cakes as you want/need and cut the green onion/leeks so that they're in long sticks, but make sure you score down one side, not enough to slice them in half, but enough so that they will separate during cooking. 

Now throw all of these into the pan and stir away. 

You don't have to add boiled eggs, but they add a nice extra texture. I've used wee quail eggs here, with are mighty easy to get hold of down in your local mart! I usually add these towards the end of the cooking process. 

When it's cooked the 떡볶이 should be soft and chewy (in a good way). Serve up and munch away.

You can mix it up as you like: add some ramyeon, some chicken or some cheese (or all three as per my first 떡볶이 experience). The possibilities are endless, but sometimes plain and simple, and very very spicy, is best! 

Recipe 1: Kimbap

Are you ready to put all that know-how from the last post into action? No, me neither, but we're going to jump in anyway.

Here's what I'm going to use in my kimbap.

• Rice
• Kim
• Fish Cake
• Ham
• Carrot
• Cucumber
• Burdock
• Radish
• Salt
• Sesame Oil
• Soy Sauce
• Honey

So first things first. If you're using a rice cooker or a pan, get your rice going so it's cooking while you cook everything else. If, like me, you use microwavable rice then cook it later.

Start with the carrots and cucumber (and burdock if you're preparing it from scratch.) They should end up looking a little like this: 

Place the cucumber on it's own plate and sprinkle with a little salt. This is to draw the water from the cucumber. Doing this now means the salt has time to do it's stuff while you prepare everything else. 

Throw the carrots into a pan (though not literally, mind) and add the soy sauce and honey. I do this by eye, a healthy few slugs of soy sauce and just a wee but of honey to take the edge off the saltiness. As you can see, there isn't much in there. Let this simmer for a minute or two. When you're ready, use tongs to remove the carrots from the remaining liquid and put them on their own plate. This may seem like dirtying a lot of plates, but it's better to get as much of the liquid away from both the carrots and cucumber as possible before adding them to the tray of gloriousness you'll see later! 

Time to introduce some more ingredients. Here we have, from left to right, the kimbap ham, pre-scored for all your kimbap needs; the burdock and the yellow radish and the fish cakes. (These are the same fish cakes that are used for ddeokbokki (which also has more romanizations than you can shake a stick at!)

I drain the liquid from the burdock and radish and fire it onto the tray, like so: 

I then slice a fish cake:

Then add everything to the tray. Now doesn't that look like all kinds of yummy!

It's worth noting here that the ham is the only think I keep wrapped up in it's own wrapper and I only remove as much as I will need for that day's kimbap making session. In this case, I'll be making two rolls, so 2 sticks of ham.

In the interest of aesthetics, I'm making this kimbap with white rice and I'm using this tub of microwaveable rice. There are three sizes of these and this is the middle sized one that perfectly makes 2 kimbap rolls, and they're not too big either.  

Once cooked according to instructions (or when your rice has finished cooking) add a splash of sesame oil and a pinch of salt. You don't need to do this, if you don't want too (but I like to.)

Then we get out our seaweed. This is the one I'm using at the moment. If I'm opening a new pack, I use it straight away. I then fire the rest into the freezer. When I take the sheets I need out of the freezer, I wave them over the flame on my gas hob a few times each side, just to get rid of excess moisture (tips and tricks Koreans have taught me!)

And here we are all prep'd and ready to go! 

Spread out the rice. The rice scoop is so useful here and spreads as well as compacts the rice. 

Add your filling. 1 stick radish, 1 stick burdock, 1 stick ham, 1 strip of fish cake and carrot and cucumber to your hearts desire. 

Then use the rolling matt to roll it. Make sure you squeeeeeeze as you go! It should end up looking like the photo below. Then brush the top of the kimbap and the blade of your knife with sesame oil. 

The sesame oil makes cutting the kimbap a smoother job and ideally it will come out all neat and tidy. My initial attempts were far from this neat. Filling splurged everywhere, but practice makes (nearly) prefect.

If, like me, you have a think about pretty dishes, transfer your kimbap. I love how perfect a kimbap dish this is (and so colourful!) And then munch away. 

The remaining filling can be cling-wrapped and put in the fridge ready for tomorrows assembly. And the day after. And the day after. And the day after that. It's also a mighty handy thing to make for lunch on those desk warming days during school vacations, and oh so shareable too! 

If you really want to have a "food of life moment" my CT told me that cold kimbap can be dipped in beaten egg and fried for breakfast. This is, hands down, the best breakfast ever. 

Go forth and experiment, switch up the fillings and find a routine that works for you! Sandwiches, eat your heart out, I have kimbap! 

Preparation Takes a Little Time

Hello, Aloha, Bonjour, 안녕 or whatever greeting you prefer! It's been a wee while, hasn't it. I started a second blog a while back, where this post first appeared, but I missed the ol' Paper Elephant so I'm shifting everything onto this blog whilst I give the old girl a much needed facelift!!

 So here we go, ten months into my Korean adventure (at the time of writing), I bring you some of my kimbap know-how.

Kimbap (김밥) is very similar in appearance to Japanese sushi. It is not sushi. Not even a little bit. For a start, there's no raw fish involved, there can be no fish at all, but that depends on your personal preference. It's a hugely popular item in Korea, finding it's way into lunch boxes in place of sandwiches and is pretty healthy too. Yes, it may have a hefty amount of rice in it, but that too is down to personal preference and no one ever said you HAD to use the white variety.

The downside to kimbap, is the prep time. It can take a wee while to get your ingredients prepared and set out (also dependant on how many ingredients you want to put into your kimbap and how readily available some ingredients are (the primary example here being burdock, which I never remember seeing EVER in a British supermarket, but I can't imagine my Kimbap without it!)

Before we can even think about making kimbap, we need some lists:

Essentials:

• Rice (this can be white, brown, purple whatever. So long as it has a modicum of stickyness. When I was taught to make kimbap, my friend actually used a combination of rices, cooked together)
• Yellow Radish
• Burdock
• Carrot
• Cucumber
• Ham
• Kim / Seaweed (very important as this is what you wrap the kimbap in)
• Soy Sauce
• Sesame Oil
• Honey
• Salt

Optionals:

• Fish cake. Of the Korean variety. This is a flat, floppy rectangle that is made of ground fish I guess. Personally, for me this is in the Essential list, but as not everyone is a fan of our friends from the sea, I'm putting it here. On a side note, fish in Korean is 물고기 which literally translates as 'water meat'. It's one of my favourite words! 

• Fish sticks. Much the same as the fish sticks you get in the UK. Pink things with white in the middle. I don't mind them, but I don't go out of my way to use them. I forgot them one day and didn't notice the difference.

• Egg. In the form of the thinnest of thin omelettes.

• Side dishes. Now, I don't know the name of all them (bar the ever present kimchi) but any number of these can be added to you kimbap depending on your personal preference.

Variations: 

The options here are endless, but here are a few suggestions:

• Tuna. Replace the ham with tuna. You can add a wee bit of mayonnaise if you like, but you have to make sure it's not too runny, or it can be such a bind to wrap.

• Bulgogi. This is a marinated meat, most often beef.

• Or you can be really adventurous and make your own combinations. This year, for Christmas, in lew of a Christmas Dinner, I made Christmas Kimbap. It consited of chicken (poached) cranberry stuffing, vichy carrots and a token green vegetable (I think it was pak choi). If I repeated this, I'd probably use lettuce, but I was please with the end result and it definitely tasted of Christmas!)

Utensils: 

Bar the obvious, here are some things I have found invaluable when it comes to making kimbap.

• Sushi/kimbap roller. You honestly HAVE to have one of these!

• Brush. A pastry brush will do, to brush your kimbap and knife with sesame oil to make slicing it easier - honestly this makes all the difference in the world. It took me a while to be able to slice my kimbap without the filling splurging out all over the place. 

• Tray. This is a very useful piece of kit. when I prep my ingredients, I like to lay out what I'm using on a tray. I then cling film it up when I'm done and fire it into the fridge. This way, one day of prep means the kimbap is ready to go any time. It also makes the assembly line quicker when the ingredients are in one place.

• Rice Scoop. This isn't necessary at all, but I find it useful to gauge quantities of rice and it flattens/spreads the rice out well.

Phew!! You made it to the end! Congratulations! Kimbap really is all about the preparation, but I promise you it's so worth it!

I'll give you time to digest all of this (digest.... get it... ah I'm too funny................... or not) and I will return later to show you how to turn this:

into this:

Lazy Sunday Cookies

Sunday morning, lurgy free... what to do!? Naturally tidy the room, organise the wardrobe and bake! In my room tidying escapades I came upon yet another hat, so I've spent the day wondering round in black and looking very philosophical (no poetry spouting though).

So, with wooden spoon in hand, and nod to France oh so neatly placed (I didn't plan that one) in homage to my baking buddy having realised that this was the first time I had baked without her about, I was ready to go! I bring you an amazing baking brain-child:

Lazy Sunday Lemon Cookies

Ingredients:

6 oz Butter
2 oz Icing Sugar
1/2 lb Self-Raising Flour
1 decent sized Lemon
Icing sugar

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190C/Gas 5.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together.
3. Grate the lemon zest into the sugar mixture and mix together.
4. Work the flour in with your fingers until it comes together in a ball.
5. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut into rounds.
6. Put on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes till a pale golden brown.
7. Let them cool on a wire rack.

Now here is the really good bit...

8. In a small bowl/cup pour in a small amount of icing sugar, then squeeze in the lemon juice from the grated lemon. Mix well.
9. Keep adding icing sugar to this until you reach a consistency that is spreadable but not too runny. I was lucky that this made exactly enough icing for the number of cookies I had!
10. Spread your icing onto your cool biscuits, leave to set and then nom away!

Nothing beats a good ol' sing-song!

Friday 5:30pm - the time that one of my most challenging classes arrives. Imagine my surprise when this rowdy class of four boys were utterly enchanted and captivated by McFly's Love Is Easy and constantly requested to hear it again - they even remembered to say please! It just goes to show that nothing beats a good song! Oh all right I know I'm biased and that I have a deep love for McFly that has been firmly rooted since they appeared 10 years ago (10 years ago - cripes) but the point still stands, music is powerful!

After this revelation, I pootled off home to have an evening of chilled out cooking (and a fair bit of weeping as a mountain of onion was involved) and I stuck on an album from a band I wasn't familiar with but had been suggested to me by Amazon and Spotify. The album in question is Kodaline's In A Perfect World. This time it was my turn to be blown away.

I can't not love this cover - It reminds me of both my homes!

To anyone reading this in the UK, I realise I must be well behind the times! In my defence, it takes a fair wee while for music from the homeland to permeate over here, and I don't listen to the radio anymore (bar the odd Radio 4 program... yes... yes I did just admit to that!) To anyone not in the know, what I have discovered is that Kodaline are apparently a "Dublin-based Irish alternative rock quartet". Well that sounds grand to me!  Although it was Amazon that gave me the recommendation, I had iTunes pennies to use up, so hoisted myself over there for purchase and I am rather glad I did! My favourite track on the entire album (I ended up with the Deluxe version) is Latch. Love of the goosbump variety there, and it's not often I get that!

I find the whole alternative rock/ folk hybrid genre a difficult one. I want to love so much of the music, but some of it does nothing for me. I heard the Lumineers album and immediately thought of my sister and she loves it, but it doesn't light my fires in the same way. Kodaline have lit those fires and they're roaring away! What a delight!

As there was a request for more recipes on here, I will share with you what I was cooking as I made this magical musical discovery! There is no name for it really. Mum calls it a barbecue sauce, it could be called a sweet and sour sauce, but whatever it is it's very very yummy!

Random Saucy Goodness

Ingredients: 

3 decent-large sized onions
Olive oil
a small glass bottle of tomato ketchup (preferable Heinz)
White or cider vinegar
granulated sugar

Method:

1. Slice the onions. Now there IS a correct way to do this for this recipe. See the hast picture below and cut as indicated by the dotted red lines (I hope this makes sense!)

2. Splash some oil into a large saucepan or a wok and add the onions, breaking them up as you go. Drizzle a little extra oil over the top. 

3. Turn on the heat and cook the onions down till they are soft, stringy and opaque. Be careful not to burn them.

4. Add the tomato sauce, stir in, then fill the bottle with water, shake and add to the pan so you have all the tomato goodness and exactly the right amount of water! 

5. Let the mush simmer for a wee while, then add splashes of vinegar and spoons of sugar till is reaches a taste to your liking -  there are not instructions for how much to add. 

6. This can be eaten straight away or be kept for a good while in the fridge or frozen and it is always at its very best the day after it's made. 

Comfort Cookies

One of the simplest of recipes and one that provides fantastic comfort in hours of need that I thought I'd better share all the cookie (although bear in mind they come out quite spongy) love!

Ingredients:

100g flour
50g sugar
60g butter/margarine
1 tsp vanilla essence (I promise that it's better with the stuff and I never normally bother with it!)
1 egg, beaten
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking powder, dissolved in hot water (though I always use self-raising flour anyway)
1 small bag M&M's (or smarties, or chocolate-chip, raisins...)


Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 175 C.
2. Cream the butter (or margerine) and sugar together.
3. Add the egg, vanilla essence, salt and baking powder and mix.
4. Add the flour and mix it in.
5. Throw in your M&Ms (or indeed whatever you fancy)
6. Bake for at least 10 minutes (use your judgement - I know all ovens are different and have their ticks)

These are best eaten the day they're made and are so deliciously comforting that you'll wish you made more (but be glad you didn't or you'd have scoffed the lot!) Luckily for me, this recipe is perfect for those with a wee oven and it makes five generous cookies (or if you accidently double the quantities like I did then you end up with five ma-hoo-sive cookies....).

Enjoy!

The Position Has Been Filled!

One of the loveliest things about HK has been the stream of visitors to our flat. Most have been my flatmates, but it has still introduced me to new and exciting people and today has been no exception. The very lovely lady who is currently in the (i think coveted) position of 4th flatmate, today cooked for all of us one of the most beautiful and scrumptious meals ever (and that's saying something as a lot of good food has come through our kitchen) and I fear that if I do not commit this to paper I will forget it!

Ingredients (as far as I can work out). All quantites are left to personal preference!

• Onion
• Garlic (fresh)
• Ginger (fresh)
• Pepper
• Dhal
• Bok Choi
• Sugar snap peas
• Rice

Method (roughly)

This meal starts, as all good ones should, with cooking the onion. We all know how we like our onions best cooked, and if you've made it here I'm guessing you've done it yourself countless times before, so cook your onions...

When you onions reach you Personal Point of Perfection (would you just look at that alliteration), then add your garlic, ginger and spices. Here, the garlic was sliced and the ginger grated but again this is down to personal preferences. Crush it, smush it, flatten it, pulverize it... whatever makes you happy! Black pepper and cumin were used here because that was what was available in the cupboard - of course you can use whatever you have going! 

As all this had been going on the dhal should have been cooking away - again however it floats your proverbial boat. Our honorary cook liked to do it with salt water and turmeric but we had none of the latter available.

When the dhal is cooked, drain it but KEEP THE WATER!!! This is a tomato free recipe and unless you want to use some then then the liquid has to come from somewhere! 

Throw the dhal into the pan with the onions et al, and throw the bok choi and sugar snaps on top. Hopefully the water will boil off and steam the veg all at once! While this is going on, cook your rice. This, of all kinds of cooking, is one of the most personal so I'm not even going to begin to go there! 

The only thing left to do is put it together and munch away...

Sadly I have no pictures of this beautiful dish, but I am going to attempt a reincarnation, upon which time I will be sure to add photos here!! Until then, happy cooking!

The Ovenless Diaries #1

There is no doubt that one of the things I am missing most out here in HK is an oven. It's not something I'm used to being without and now I realise just how much I relied on it, so it almost feels like I'm going back to square 1 with my cooking. On the side of the pro-points, we do have a gas hob, which makes hob only cooking a little more variable.

This weeks revelation was a family fave (sadly now the all hallowed apple crumble and custard) but a tasty one nonetheless. Ginger and honey marinaded salmon with mashed potatoes (skin left on) and pak choi. I suppose this isn't really a recipe, but the marinade is simply chopped fresh ginger, runny honey and olive oil in the quantities of your choice. The oil works its way though the fish as it's marinading, making it so easy to fire into a wok/frying pan and cook gently through. I just wish I had taken a picture....

For now however, I need to bend my mind to more exciting things that I can cook and expand my hob cooking skills...

Definitely count's as a study aid if you ask me!

Now I know that technically I'm about all thing's books and writing, but that doesn't mean there can't be the odd digression every now and again, and this one is more than worth it's place. Whether reading, working, studying you can never go wrong with a good brownie to cheer you up.

These brownies actually derive from the Chocolate Brownie Biscuit recipe from Economy Gastronomy (A fantastic book by the way). I tweaked it slightly to make full on brownies and altered the ingredients to make them gluten free - just make sure you check the chocolate you use!

If lost count of the number of times I made these in fourth year and for some reason these are also best the day after they've been made... ENJOY!

Chocolate Brownies


Ingredients:
2 eggs
130g caster sugar
1/2 tbsp strong black coffee
20g butter
200g plain chocolate, in pieces
30g rice flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch salt

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

In a bowl whisk the eggs, sugar and coffee together for 7-8 minutes or till thicker, lighter in colour and well combined - I should add here that I never actually measure out the amount of coffee I put in I just splash in what I want, and I never time how long I whisk it for, I just keep going till it feels right.

Set up a make-shift bain-marie and melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. When melted, smooth and well combined lift of the heat and set aside for 4-5 minutes - again I'm not strict about this, but make it's left long enough so that the eggs don't start to scramble with the heat.

When the chocolate has cooled slightly, stir in the egg mixture till well combined - I actually prefer to fold it in to keep the brownies light.

Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt till well combined.

Grease and line a baking tray of your choice (this is of course a very personal thing, If you are anything like me you will have a perfect brownie tray, or you will soon).

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, the timing will depend on how you're oven works. If you're not that in-tune with your oven, leave for at least 20 minutes then do the skewer test to see how cooked through they are. It's no bad thing if they're slightly gooey.

Leave them to cool in the tin for a while so that they don't fall to pieces when you transfer them to the cooling rack. They will be beautifully cracked on top and cakey and gooey in the middle ...

Finally, munch them down, and they are always best shared.

Happy Baking xx