My favourite Korean dishes.

               Like I mentioned in the last post, I’m going to share some of my favourite Korean recipes with you. There are going to be four of them. Unfortunately, you probably won’t find all of the ingredients in simple supermarket. Some part of them are only available in Asian Markets, shops with international foods or online. The good news is : there is an Asian Market in Poznań ( Saint Martin’s Street 27/ Ul. Święty Marcin 27). Last time when I checked, everything that is necessary in those recipes is available there. So if this post makes you hungry and you want to try Korean cuisine, you should head towards the Old Town right away!

  Korean spicy rice cakes (Tteokbokki / Ddeokbokki, 떡볶이)

This snack is one of the most popular street foods in Korea. Mini vans and carts that sell them are practically everywhere. They are a little sticky, gewy, soft and  extremely delicious. I would even say : addictive. There are many ways to make those spicy rice cakes. Some people add anchoives, others a lot of spicy ingredients or eggs. One man's meat is another man's poison, after all. The recipe I’m going to show you is simple but really tasty.

             0.5 kilogram of rice cakes (you can find them in the freezer in Asian markets; use a little more if you’re not adding hard boiled eggs and fish cakes)

                4 cups of water

                7 large size dried anchovies, with heads and intestines removed

               A piece of dried kelp

          ⅓ cup of hot pepper paste

               1 tablespoon of hot pepper flakes

              1 tablespoon of sugar

              3 green onions, cut into 3 inch long pieces

              2 hard boiled eggs, shelled (optional)

              20 grams of pound fish cakes (optional)

Pour the water into a shallow pot or pan. Add dried anchovies and dried kelp. Boil for 15 minutes over medium high heat without the lid. Combine hot pepper paste, hot pepper flakes and sugar in a small bowl. Remove the anchovies and kelp from the pot and add the rice cakes, the pepper mixture, the green onion, and the optional fish cakes and hard boiled eggs. Stir gently with a wooden spoon when it starts to boil. Keep stirring until the rice cake turns soft and the sauce thickens and looks shiny, which should take about 10 -15 minutes. If the rice cakes is not soft enough, add more water and continue stirring until they soften (If you use frozen rice cake, thaw it out and soak in cold water to soften it before cooking). Remove from the heat and serve hot.

                     Noodles with blackbean sauce (Jjajangmyeon, 짜장면)

It is a noodle dish with black bean sauce, which consists of chunjang (춘장, a salty black soybean paste), diced pork (or other kinds of meat) and vegetables. You can find it easily at a Korean or Chinese restaurant. Nowadays it is a very common and easily accessible dish however only a couple years ago it was prepared only for special occasions such as school carnival day or school entrance and graduation ceremony day. That’s why Jjajangmyeon is so special to the most Koreans.

Ingredients for  2-3 servings

Noodles or rice

20 grams of pork belly

1 cup of Korean radish

1 cup of zucchini

1 cup of potato

1½ cups of onion chunks

(* all vegetables are need to be cut into cubes)

3 Tablespoons of vegetable oil

¼ cup and 1 tablespoon of black bean paste

2 tablespoons of potato starch powder, combined with ¼ cup of water and 1 teaspoon of sugar in a small bowl, set aside

1 teaspoon of sesame oil

½ cup of cucumber, cut into thin matchsticks for garnish

water

Stir-fry the pork belly in a large, deep wok with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil for about 4-5 minutes, until golden brown and crispy. Pour out the excess pork fat. Add radish and stir fry for 1 minute. Add potato, onion, and zucchini and keep stirring for about 3 minutes until the potato looks a little translucent. Clear a space in the center of the wok by pushing the ingredients to the edges. Add 2 Tablespoons of vegetable oil to the center of the wok, then add ¼ cup of black bean paste and stir it with a wooden spoon for 1 minute to fry it. Then mix everything in the wok and keep stirring. Add  2 cups of water to the wok and let it cook with the lid closed for about 10 minutes. Open the lid and taste a sample of the radish and potato. If they’re fully cooked, stir in the starch water little by little. Keep stirring until it’s well mixed and thick. Add the sesame oil and remove from the heat. Serve with noodles or rice.

                              Spicy braised tofu (Dubu-jorim, 두부조림)

It’s tofu braised in a savory-spicy sauce and pan fried with caramelized onion, garlic, and green onions, making it juicy, a little spicy, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. It’s a delicious side dish for rice, noodles or porridge, and tastes meaty even though it’s a totally vegetarian dish. This dish is good hot or cold, so you don’t even need to heat it up again.

1 package of tofu (around 500 grams)

3 tablespoons of cooking oil

1 teaspoon of sesame oil

1 teaspoon of sesame seeds

1 garlic clove, minced

½ cup of minced onion

2 green onions, chopped

For the sauce:

1 tablespoon of soy sauce

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of sugar

1 tablespoon of hot pepper flakes

½ cup of water

Rinse tofu in cold running water and dry it with cotton or paper towel. Cut it into thick, bite size pieces. Add the cooking oil to a non-stick pan and heat it up over high heat. Gently set the tofu onto the pan and cook for 7 to 8 minutes. Rotate the pan to cook the tofu evenly. When the bottoms get a little crunchy, flip them over one by one with a spatula. Let cook another 7 to 8 minutes until both sides of each tofu piece are a little crispy and golden brown. Transfer the tofu to a plate. Heat up a small pan over medium high heat and add the leftover oil. Add chopped onion, garlic, and green onion. Stir with a wooden spoon for a few minutes until the onion gets a little crispy. Add the sauce and keep stirring until it reduces a bit and thickens. Add tofu and braise for a minute until the tofu absorbs some of the flavor of the sauce. Add some sesame oil and stir. Sprinkle some sesame seeds over top and the rest of the chopped green onion. Serve right away with rice.

                                  Eggplant sidedish (Gaji-namul, 가지나물)

Gaji-namul is a simple, delicious, everyday Korean side dish, meant to be eaten with other side dishes and rice.

500 grams of eggplants (3-4 eggplants), caps removed and washed

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 green onions, chopped

1 tablespoon of soy sauce

1 teaspoon of fish sauce

1 teaspoon of hot pepper flakes

2 teaspoons of sesame oil

1 tablespoon of sesame seeds, crushed

               Prep your steamer by adding 2 cups of water to it. Set heat to medium-high for it to boil, it shoud take about 5 minutes. If you don’t have steamer, put a strainer on top of a pot in which there is a boiling water. Meanwhile, cut eggplants crosswise into bite-sized pieces. When the water starts to boil, put the eggplants on the steamer rack and cover. Steam for 5 minutes over medium high heat. Remove from the heat. Take out the steamed eggplant and transfer it to a cutting board. Let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Combine garlic, green onion, soy sauce, fish sauce, hot pepper flakes and sesame oil in a bowl. Mix well with a wooden spoon. Add the steamed eggplant to the bowl and mix well by hand or with the wooden spoon. Sprinkle with the crushed sesame seeds and serve with rice.

               That's it for today. All of those recipes you can find on a YouTube channel to which link you can find below. I hope you'll try them out. Enjoy!

Maangchi channel : https://www.youtube.com/user/Maangchi