My First Korean Experiment: Chuncheon Dak Galbi

And now I've hopped across the Sea of Japan to the Korean Peninsula. The dish for today was Chuncheon Dak Galbi. I guess it can be described as a type of spicy chicken and vegetable stir-fry.

I decided on this recipe while browsing for Korean recipes which could be made with ingredients I had in the house. I stumbled upon this site and poked around until I found an interesting picture. And, it was the Chuncheon Dak Galbi recipe which caught my eye. 

The only changes I made to the recipe were to substitute lettuce instead of cabbage (because I didn't have any cabbage) and to reduce the amount of red pepper powder by 3/4. It was still quite spicy though I would have reduced it less if I hadn't had my little sister, who doesn't favor spicy foods, to consider. 

Even as spicy as it was, she cleaned her bowl and I think she'll do the same tomorrow when we have the leftovers.

I did have to make one other modification. I don't have any of the basic Korean sauces in the house so I had to make my own gochujang following this recipe I found online. It seemed to work fine, but I think I'll try to plan my next Korean meal in advance so that I have time to buy the sauce instead of having to make it.

I think the meal was a success, don't you? This recipe definitely will go into my to-make-again folder.

Potstickers! (aka Dumplings or Gyoza)

I mentioned having them in my last post, and last friday I finally got around to making them again. This time with a small variation - homemade wonton wrappers. They turned out really well, albeit a ton of work with the rolling pin. I followed this recipe for the wrappers. (Of course, I only needed a small amount of wrappers so I made a 1/4 recipe.)

As for the potsticker filling, I kinda make it up as I go along. This batch was made with leftovers from the last time I mixed up a batch. Usually the recipe is somewhere along the lines of:

1 lb ground pork
~1/4-1/3 head of cabbage chopped
a Tb or 2 of minced ginger (I always put in extra!)
~6 green onions minced (if I have them on hand)
Sometimes I also add in soy sauce and sake.

Then, the fun part: Mix it all up with your hands! It usually yields enough filling for around 70 potstickers. (Which is why I always have some leftover. Wonton wrappers come in packs of 50.)

And here's the result. Yummy, ne? Then you dip 'em in a mixture of soy sauce and sesame seed oil and eat until you're full.

Now, traditional japanese potstickers (gyoza) are fried in a pan until one side is crispy, but I keep forgetting to try this method of cooking. Usually I just steam them.

On a different note, I'm going to try to post once a week about asian cuisine (since that's the new direction I'm taking this blog). I should be able to keep this up since I'm already cooking it for my family once a week. Now, to remember to take pictures. I didn't remember to take any of the Omuraisu or Miso soup (w/ kale) I made tonight.

Until next time!

The Sweet Rewards of Exploration

Since I haven't been quite as active in the area of Japanese language learning I thought I would expand this blog to include my pursuits in other areas of Japanese culture. I will feature food mainly. (These posts are double posted from my other blog on writing.)

I have a new area to explore. This hobby, though, has tasty rewards. I'm talking about the wide world and art of Japanese cuisine. Art?, you might say, but it is an art. And recently I've been experimenting in not just creating Japanese dishes but creating food art as well.

With Borders going out of business I just had to head over there myself. After scouring the picked clean shelves I found two books of interest, both in the cooking aisle and both on Japanese food. The Decorative Art of Japanese Food Carving by Hiroshi Nagashima details basic but elegant food carving. Let's Cook Japanese Food! by Amy Kaneko is beginning cookbook of Japanese recipes found on the average Japanese dining table but with a Western twist. I wish to focus on the former book for this post though. I shall leave the latter for another time.

For several years now I have been interested in Japanese culture. It began with anime and manga but certainly has not ended there. My recent novel/short story series starts off in Japan which has required much research, but even before that I had developed a taste for Japanese cuisine.

I believe it all started the first time I tasted true home cooked Japanese food. Several friends and I hung out together to watch an entire anime. We started around noon and ended at midnight when the guys were kicked out of the dorm lobby. But we decided to make supper - Japanese style. One friend had the tools to make sushi. Another pitched in miso soup and another make gyoza dumplings (potstickers). I fell in love at first taste. Though, I have come to

the conclusion that sushi is ok once in a while but I dislike how bland it is. This led me to hunt down the ingredients and the recipe for both miso soup and dumplings as well as the soup stock (dashi) recipe. Since then I've been acquiring recipes and trying them out on my poor family.

Back to the food art though. My recent urges have been to duplicate the cute food art so prominently featured in animes, namely octopus wieners and bunny apples. Along the way, I found out about another apple cutting method that makes a leaf. Based on memory and some research, I experimented with these three cutting methods. The results were fun and tasty.

Bunny Apples

Leaf Apples

I think food art is amazing and I hope that I can create more intricate designs with practice. That is one reason I bought The Decorative Art of Japanese Food Carving. I haven't tried any of the carvings yet, but I intend to as soon as I can plan a meal with sufficient time to take garnishes into account.

Until next time!