Asian Style Potato Corn Salad - (감자 샐래드)

Almost every Saturday the MR, Munchkin and I head to the local farmer's market. Today, I saw that the yellow corn looked particularly fresh so I made sure to grab some.

I bought four ears of corn and steamed them. Munchkin promptly polished off three all by himself. =P



Wash and peel 3 small white potatoes.



Quarter them like this...



And add it to some boiling water. Let it boil for about 20 minutes or so until they are soft.



Grab a masher and start mashing! I didn't measure today (too busy), but I added about 6-8 TB of mayonnaise (maybe more).



Speaking of mayonnaise, this is the BEST when making this salad.



I then took the lone leftover corn and cut it up like so.



Mix everything together!



Throw in some parsley (roughly 2 TB).



And you're ready to serve!



You can eat as a side dish at the table OR you can use it in a sandwich. I made both the MR and Munchkin a corn/potato sandwich (cut off the crusts!) and they ate it all very quickly! That's all! More updates will be coming this week.

I will be making a clear ojinguh gook tomorrow along with a spicy shrimp main dish. Stay tuned!

Spicy Shrimp - (매운 새우 볶음)

Back in the day, I used to frequent a certain cafe in K-town that had this spicy shrimp dish. The cafe is no longer there, but I figured I could try and replicate the dish. First wash and peel about half a pound of shrimp.



In a small bowl, mix together to following: 1TB red pepper paste, 1/2TB red pepper powder, 3/4TB honey powder, 1TB rice wine, 1/4TB minced garlic.



Turn up the heat in a wok and add some sesame oil. Add the shrimp and cook until almost done.



Remove the shrimp from the heat and clean up the wok.



Add another 1TB of sesame oil to the wok and then throw in whatever vegetables you prefer. I used onions and mushrooms.



Next, add your spicy mixture and keeping mixing around.



Throw in the shrimp and mix well.



Keep cooking until the shrimp is all done!



You're now ready to serve!!!

Clear Ojinguh Gook - (맑은 오징어국)

I know I've been gone a long time and I'm going to cheat and not even give a new recipe but something that I should have finished up long ago. It's crazy because I'm not working and my son is in preschool which means I have a LOT of time to myself. Yet, I feel busier than ever just going around and doing random things. I'm supposed to go back to work soon, but taking this last year off has been a blessing in disguise. I feel so much better and re-energized!

I keep saying how I wish there was a way that I never had to work again. Wishful thinking. In this economy, I guess I should be happy that I have something to go back to. =P

Anyhow, here we go! Clear ojinguh gook. I have no idea what else to call it! All the women in my family make this soup for special occasions like choo-suk or my Grandpa's jae-sah. I think the reason is because it's quite time consuming because there are a lot of steps. It's a "special" gook that we eat once or twice a year.



First go and grab some book-uh. This is the brand my MIL sent from Korea. It’s great. I don’t know if they sell it here. =/

Anyhow, grab about 1/2 cup of book-uh with some dashima (sea kelp - thanks to whoever pointed that out!) and boil it in about...oh let's say 8 cups of water. Boil it for about 20 minutes or so while you're getting everything else prepared. I didn't measure anything yet again. Sorry. Am I becoming a Korean mother on you? A little bit of this and a little bit of that! =)



Wash and clean your squid and bring a pot of water to a boil.



Drain about 1/2 cup of beef...



Slightly boil the squid. This really helps in getting the fishy smell out and it also gets rid of all the excess liquid from the squid.



Chop up about two cups of moo.



In a pot, heat about 1 TB of sesame oil, 1/2 TB of minced garlic, and 2.5 TB of gook ganjang.



Add the beef and saute until done.



Chop up your squid like so....



And add the squid and moo and mix it for a little bit.



Then add the book-uh broth and some tofu and let it boil for about 30 minutes on low heat. The broth will eventually turn white.



The finished product! Munchkin *LOVES* ojinguh so this is one of his favorite gooks. =)

Baby Mushrooms

Here's a quick and easy banchan. I tend to take whatever vegetables I have in my fridge at the time and just mix them all up together.



I bought some baby mushrooms and decided to make it for a breakfast side dish one lazy Sunday morning.



Heat up a pan with 1/2 TB sesame oil and about 1/2 TB of minced garlic.



Wash and cut your mushrooms.



Add the mushrooms along with some sliced onions to the pot and saute it it with about 1/4 TB of dwen-jang.



Season it with some sesame seeds and you're ready to serve! A quick and easy banchan. =)

Chuseok Rice Cakes - 송편

I warned you, there are absolutely NO measurements so this 'recipe' might be a little useless. However, I wanted to put this up so that it can jog my memory when I attempt to make it one day (hopefully soon). When I make it, I promise to write down the measurements I use. =)



MIL (my friend's) started off with some rice flour. She said the flour was FRESH straight from Ktown. I guess there are places that sell fresh rice flour like this. Who knew?



She took some HOT water and seasoned it with a little salt. The water was salty enough that I could taste the salt, but not overwhelmingly salty. "A little bit of salt" is what you need in the hot water she said. =P You then add "just enough" hot water to bring the rice flour to a dough consistency.



You don't want it too firm, nor too pliable. You want it JUST RIGHT.



MIL made three wonderful fillings. Too bad I can't tell you what they were because she said it in Korean and I forgot. Yeah, I'm beginning to think this recipe is REALLY useless. =)



I know this one! It's red beans! She said all you have to do is soak the beans and then boil it. After it's boiled, you season it with a dash of salt and some sugar.



I don't know what this was, but it was SOOOO good. It's some type of bean.



Then you just take the dough and flatten it out. The key was to keep it a bit thick. I tried to make it thin like a mandoo and all the insides popped right out. =P



Make them all like so...(aesthetics was obviously not our strong point). I think the UGLY ones were made by my dear friend Y. =P



Then place them in a steamer for about 15 minutes. It was interesting because she just stacked them on top of each other. I thought they would stick to each other, but they didn't.



After 15 minutes, the dduks were done!



She washed them in a bit of water mixed with sesame oil.…

After letting them dry for a while...



We were ready to devour them. My pictures aren't that great because I was too busy popping these suckers into my mouth. They tasted wonderful all warm and sticky. Happy belated Korean Thanksgiving!!!