Sae-woo Chae Juk (새우채죽) Rice porridge

This thick porridge is perfect for those cold winter nights when you need something hearty to warm you up from the inside out.

Ingredients:
1.5 cups soaked rice*
100g minced shrimp
1/2 onion diced small
1/5 carrot, diced small
1/3 pumpkin, diced small (호박)
2 shiitake mushrooms, diced small
2 spoons sesame oil
1.5 spoons cheong ju (청주)
8 cups sardine broth**
Pinch of salt

For frying with rice:
1 spoon sesame oil
1/2 spoon minced garlic.

Steps:

1. In a big pot, fry sesame oil and garlic.  Add rice, fry until rice grains become transparent.
2. Add onion, carrot, pumpkin, mushrooms, and fry until onions are clear.  Add shrimp and cheongju.
3. pour in broth.  Heat to boiling, reduce to low, simmer 20-30 minutes. Stir occasionally.
4. When the rice has absorbed most of the liquid, add salt, sesame oil to taste.

Notes:

* To make soaked rice, soak rice in water for 3-4 hours.  That's it!

** To make sardine broth, throw 7 small, headless dried sardines and a 10cm square sheet of dried kelp into 5 cups of boiling water for about 10 minutes then add 1 spoon cheong-ju (청주).  Strain.

- You can substitute ground or small chunks of meat for the shrimp, or use a different broth if you want.  Also, feel free to add whatever veggies you want or have in the back of your fridge.

Ddeok guk (떡국) Rice-cake soup

This simple, yet delicious soup is traditionally served at the Lunar New Year.  It is said that the thin, flat rice cakes resemble coins, and so by eating it, you ensure a prosperous new year (or so I heard).

Ingredients: (2-3 people)
100g beef
Pounded rice cakes for soup - ddeok (떡국 떡)
1 egg
1 big leek
1/2 spoon miced garlic
1/2 sheet seaweed (김), sliced thin.
1 spoon soy sauce
5 cups kelp broth
salt, pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Separate the egg into white and yolk.  Poach both.  Slice thin.
2. Soak beef in cold water to remove blood.  Cut into bite-sized pieces.  Brown in a soup pot.  Add broth, boil.
3. When beef is cooked, add rice cakes.
4. When the ddeok is cooked (it should be soft, but a little chewy), add leeks, soy sauce, garlic, and salt/pepper to taste.  Serve garnished with seaweed and egg slices.

Notes:

- I know, I know, it says to separate the egg, poach it, slice it thin, and then use the slices to garnish the soup.  Or you could just crack an egg into the soup and stir it up in step 4.

Doeujang guk (배추된장국) Soybean paste soup with cabbage

They serve this dish at school, and it's become the ultimate comfort food for me.  Rich, warm, and salty, it's the next best thing to chicken noodle soup when the nearest can of Campbells is halfway around the world.

Ingredients: (7-8 servings)
1/2 head of Chinese cabbage (~1kg)
300g stewing beef
1/4 Daikon radish
3 spoons garlic, chopped rough
1 big leek
3 sheets kelp 5cm square
10 cups water
1/2 cup doenjang paste (된장)
2 spoons red chili paste (고추장)
2 spoons soy sauce
pinch of salt and pepper

**Clean and slice the cabbage, leek, and radish.

Steps:

1. Soak beef in cold water ~30 minutes to remove blood.  Soak kelp in 10 cups water ~30 minutes to make a broth.
2. Slice the radish into large squares the thickness of a pencil.  Boil the cabbage briefly, drain, rinse with cold water, and pat dry.
3. Break up/cut the cabbage into pieces about the size of the radishes.  Mix in the radish, beef, 1/2 of the bean paste, and red chili paste.  Let everything sit for ~5 minutes.
4. Add mixture from Step 3 to the kelp broth.  Heat to a simmer over medium heat.  Using a sieve, add the rest of the soybean paste to the broth (you want the paste, but none of the bean pieces).  When the residue has filtered out completely, heat to boil, reduce to low, and simmer for an hour.
5. When the cabbage is well-cooked (it will be very limp), add leeks, garlic, salt, pepper, and soy sauce to taste.  Simmer until ready.

Notes:

- Can't find doenjang?  Japanese miso is very similar, the only difference is that Miso doesn't have whole bean pieces the way that doenjang does, which means that you won't have to filter out bean pieces in step 4.

- They also serve it at school with more than just cabbage.  I imagine any bitter, leafy vegetable would work.  Try and see!

Kimchi Jjigae (김치찌개) Kimchi Stew

Who doesn't have some old kimchi sitting in the back of your fridge taking up space?  Give it a new lease on life with one of my all-time favorite dishes.  When it's good, there's nothing better in Korea.  When it's bad, it's still pretty good.  Fiery-spicy, infernally bubbling, and a little bit sour.  There's almost nothing better.  It's also absurdly easy to make.

Nothing better

Ingredients: (4 servings)
1/4 head of kimchi (~600g)
300g pork
1/2 onion, sliced
1 big leek, sliced
1 green chili, sliced thin
1/2 block tofu, cubed
5 cups sardine broth*
1/2 cup kimchi juice**
1 spoon soybean oil

The good stuff

Meat Spices:
2 spoons crushed chilies
2 spoons cheong-ju (청주)
1 spoon minced garlic
pinch of pepper

Kitchen Scissors: a chef's best friend

Kimchi Spices:
1 spoon sesame oil
1 small spoon sugar


**Cut kimchi and pork into bite-sized slices.**

Steps:

1. Mix pork with Meat Spices.  In another bowl, mix kimchi with Kimchi Spices.  Let sit 20-30 mins.
2. Add oil to a pan.  Fry pork and spices.  When the meat starts to brown, add kimchi.  Fry.  Add onions, fry.
3. When onions have started cooking, add broth and kimchi juice.  Simmer 20 mins over medium heat.
4. When the kimchi is ready (it will start to look a little translucent), add tofu, leeks, green chilis.  Heat to a boil.  Serve with rice.

Throw it in at the end

Notes:

- I've heard it's best to use 3 week old kimchi.  You want the kimchi to be nice and sour - it gives the soup a great flavor.  If you don't have old kimchi, you can use newer kimchi, but throw in a small spoon of vinegar.

- I've heard that beef broth works well instead of sardine broth, though I've never tried it.

- You can also throw in other things.  I've seen the thinly sliced ddeok used in ddeok guk, eoh mook (sea span) and enoki mushrooms all added to the pot.

* To make sardine broth, throw 7 small, headless dried sardines and a 10cm square sheet of dried kelp into 5 cups of boiling water for about 10 minutes then add 1 spoon cheong-ju (청주).  Strain the broth and you're ready to go! 

** Kimchi juice is, so far as I can tell, what's left in the bag/pot when you take out the head of cabbage.  

Pae-suk (배숙) Pears with Honey and Ginger

So I've never actually had this, but it looks so good and fairly simple to make, that I had to translate the recipe. Plus, the photo in my cookbook looked so darn beautiful.

Ingredients: (2-3 servings)
1 Asian Pear (~800g) (배)
2 pieces whole ginger, peeled and sliced
24 black peppercorns
1/3 cup honey
6 cups water
1 small spoon pine nuts

Steps:

1. Put the ginger and water in a pan.  Heat over medium heat until boiling gently.  When the ginger has fully infused (10-15 minutes I'd guess), remove with a strainer.
2. Peel the pear.  Cut into 8 equal parts and remove the seeds.  With a paring knife, round all the corners.
3. Push 3 peppercorns into the back of each pear slice, evenly spaced.  Put honey and pears in with the ginger-water.  Boil slowly until pears are semi-transparent.  When everything is finished, chill.
4. Serve the pears in a bowl, floating in the ginger-water.  Garnish with pine nuts.

Ddeok Bokki (떡볶이) Spicy Chewy Rice Cakes

This is a very popular snack with Korean teenagers and 20-somethings.  The best places to get it are street-side snack counters and late-night snack trucks, when women old enough to be your aunt slop the molten, spicy goodness onto a plate and hand you a long wooden skewer to spike the logs with.  The rice cakes should be chewy, the sauce should be spicy and a little sweet.

Ingredients: (2 servings)
30 pieces (about 200g) Ddeok bboki ddeok (떡볶이 떡)
1.5 sheets sea spam (어묵), cut into strips
1/2 pack ramen
1 hard boiled egg
1/4 onion, sliced
1/2 big leek, sliced
1/5 carrot, sliced
100g cabbage, sliced (optional)
2.5 cups sardine broth

Spices:
4 spoons red pepper paste (고추장)
1/2 spoon black soybean paste (춘장)
2 spoons corn syrup
soup packet from the ramen
1 spoon rice liquor (맛술)
1 spoon minced garlic
pinch of pepper

Steps:

1. Mix all the sauce ingredients together.
2. Boil a pot of water.  Briefly blanch rice cakes until a little soft.  Add the ramen, and boil a little longer. Remove with a sieve and steam dry.
3. Put the rice cakes, ramen, sea spam, egg, onion, carrot, leek, and cabbage in a heated frying pan.  Pour the sauce on the top.  Pour the broth over the top and simmer until everything is cooked.  If it gets too dry, you can add more water.

Notes:
- You can make the sardine broth yourself by throwing a couple of dried sardines (headless) into boiling water and adding a 10cm square sheet of kelp for about 10 minutes, or you can buy powder packet from the store.  If you're in the States, I'd guess that watered-down chicken broth would work just as well.

Beosot Bokkeum (버섯 볶음) Stir-fried mushrooms

This is a delicious side, and one that's very popular in restaurants all over Korea.  The recipe calls for oyster mushrooms, but you could probably use almost any kind, or even a mix.

Ingredients:
120g oyster mushrooms
1/4 green bell pepper
1/4 yellow bell pepper
1/4 red bell pepper
1/2 spoon sesame oil
1 small spoon sesame salt
pinch of salt, pepper
dash of cooking oil

Seasonings:
1 small spoon each: sesame oil, minced garlic
1/2 small spoon salt

Steps:

1. Slice the peppers thinly lengthwise.  Do not wash the mushrooms, but tear (not cut) them apart.
2. Add a pinch of salt to a little bit of boiling water.  Stir in mushrooms with wooden chopsticks a few times.  When finished, gently rinse mushrooms in cold water and squeeze out extra water by hand (gently!).
3. Mix mushrooms with seasonings.
4. Add cooking oil to a pre-warmed pan.  Slightly stir-fry the mushrooms with wooden chopsticks.
5. Add the peppers, briefly stir-fry.
6. Finally, add the sesame oil, sesame salt, and a pinch of pepper.  Scramble briefly.

Notes:

- You can eat these warm or cold, though I've usually had them cold or at room-temperature.

- For best results with the mushrooms, cook them for a very short time, and use only a little bit of water.  This will help preserve their flavor.

- If you use different mushrooms, slice them in step one.

Shi-geum-chi namul (시금치 나물) - Spinach and herbs

This is one of my favorite sides, and I never hesitate to eat a fistful when it's served at school.  It's also really easy to make.  Besides, it'll make you strong like Popeye!

Ingredients:
350g baby spinach
1/4 carrot
1 spoon salt

Spices:
1 spoon each: soy sauce, minced garlic, sesame salt
2 spoons each: sliced scallions, sesame oil
1/3 spoon salt
pinch of pepper

Steps:

1. Julienne the carrot.  Cut the roots off the spinach and discard.  Break up bunches, wash.  Boil water with a pinch of salt and briefly cook the spinach.  Remove and rinse a couple of times in cold water to stop cooking.
2. Gently squeeze the moisture from the spinach.
3. Mix soy sauce, garlic, leeks, salt, and carrots in with the spinach.  At the end, add sesame oil, sesame salt, and pepper to taste.

Dak Kal Guk-su (닭갈국수) Chicken Noodle Soup

Down a side alley in Busan's main shopping district, there's a row of gregarious old women squatting on short plastic stools, and serving noodles from a steaming vat of broth to hungry shoppers.  It's one of my favorite places to eat in all of Korea, and the ajumma's surprise at our skill with chopsticks, our tolerance for spicy foods, or our meager Korean skills makes me feel like I'm eating lunch with a proud aunt.  Though they also serve Jap-Chae (잡채), this is my favorite meal there.  Add the chives in at the end instead of salt.

So Good!

Ingredients: (2 servings)
1 whole chicken (~1kg or so)
1/2 Asian squash (ho-bak, 호박)
1/2 onion
1/4 carrot
3 shiitake mushrooms
1 handful (~80g) Asian Chives (부추)
Guk-su noodles for 2 people (~240g)
1/2 spoon soy sauce
pinch of salt and pepper



Chicken Broth:
1/2 onion
1 big leek
10 pieces whole garlic
1 piece ginger
3 spoons cheong-ju (청주)
1/2 small spoon peppercorns
3 liters water

Spices:
5 spoons soy sauce
1 spoon crushed chilies
1 spoon cheong-ju (청주)
1/2 spoon each: minced garlic, sesame oil, sesame salt
pinch of pepper





Steps:

1. Chill, clean the chicken.  Slice onion, squash, carrot, and mushrooms thinly.
2. In a pot, add the whole chicken and the broth ingredients.  Heat to a boil.  When it boils, turn to medium and simmer for ~1 hour.
3. When the chicken has cooked, remove, let it cool and tear into bite-sized strips.  Strain veggies from broth.
4. Mix spices with cut Asian Chives.  Let stand.
5. Heat the chicken broth from Step 3 to a light boil.  Add noodles and cook.
6. When the noodles are nearly done, add the chicken and vegetables from Step 1.  Boil a little.  Add soy sauce, salt, and pepper to taste.  Serve with chives on the side (mix it in for a little salty, a little spicy).

Notes:

- Ho-bak, the Korean squash, is a bit like a fat zucchini.  You can substitute in whatever squash-like vegetable you have, or skip it entirely.

Jae-yuk Bok-eum (제육 볶음) - Spicy Stir-fried Pork

This is one of our favorite meals that we've discovered here, and I was super excited to find a recipe.  You can make the marinade ahead, and chill the meat in the fridge for up to a day or so.  Enjoy!

Ingredients (Serves 4-5)
500g pork neck (or other pork)
1 onion, sliced thin
1 red chili (홍고추), sliced thin
2 green chilies (청양고추), sliced thin
1/2 big leek, sliced thin
1/2 spoon sesame oil
1/2 spoon sesame seeds
dash of vegetable oil for cooking

Sauce
4 spoons red pepper paste (고추장)
3 spoons apple or orange juice
2 spoons each: crushed red pepper, chopped garlic
1 spoon each: soy sauce, sugar, corn syrup, cheong ju (청주), du ban jang (두반장)
1 small spoon ginger powder
pinch of black pepper

Steps

1. Cut pork into strips 5cm wide.  Slice veggies.
2. Mix all sauce ingredients together.  Mix with meat and onions.  Chill ~2 hours.
3. Coat pan with vegetable oil.  Fry meat/sauce mixture.  When the meat is almost finished, add leeks, sesame oil, chilies and sesame seeds.  Cook a little bit longer.
4. Serve over rice

Notes:

- You can also add in whatever other veggies you want while the meat and onions are marinating.  I've made it with cabbage and mushrooms, but feel free to experiment.

- I also leave out the chilies sometimes, so don't feel bad if you can't or don't want to use them.