Dweji Boolgogi - Spicy Marinaded Pork - (돼지 불고기)

I decided to make some dweji boolgogi today. This is a really simple marinade for about 1 lb. of pork.


Just mix together the following ingredients:

• 1 Tb sugar
• 2 TB red pepper powder
• 1 Tb honey powder
• 2 TB minced garlic
• 1 TB gook ganjang
• 3 TB rice wine
• 1 TB corn starch
• 4 TB red pepper paste
• 3/4 TB soy bean paste
• dash of pepper and ginger powder

I bought sliced pork butt. Yes, I know I have 2 lbs. I just doubled the recipe.



Marinade the meat in small portions and make sure to thoroughly coat each piece. I also threw in about a cup of green onions.



Once it's marinated, you can transfer it into storage containers.



I left a little for dinner tonight (with some onions). All you need to do is pan fry it until it's cooked.



Then I took the rest and put them into ziplock bags to freeze for later use.

UPDATE: June 3, 2010 -

I left one of the dweji boolgogi packets I froze over the weekend in the fridge last night to defrost.

Turn up the heat and drizzle some oil on a pan and let it get HOT.

Meanwhile, cut up some veggies. I used 1/2 onion, 5 cloves of garlic, 1 red pepper, and 5 mushrooms.

Add the pork along with the pepper, garlic and onions and start cooking!

Once it’s about halfway cooked…

Throw in the mushrooms and some green onions.

Keep stirring away until all the meat is fully cooked.

And then plate it…

…you’re ready to serve! EAT. Eat. EAT!

We enjoyed it with some dwenjang jjigae tonight! (Yup, ran to the market and bought the dooboo AKA tofu!)

If you have some ssam jang in the fridge, bring it out! This is a quick, easy, and absolutely delicious dinner. Yay! Lakers won. =)

Sam Gye Tang - Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup - (삼계탕)

The MR is actually not really a fan of chicken, so I try and stay away from it as much as possible. But I thought I would go ahead and make sam gye tang anyhow since I haven't made it in a long time. Plus, the MR and Munchkin both enjoy the dak jook that I make with the leftover sam gye tang all the time.

Needed:

• 1 cornish game hen
• 3 ginseng roots (you can buy the freah kind if you want, but I tend to just buy the dry ones because it's a lot less $$)
• 4-5 dried chestnuts (or fresh ones)
• 7-10 whole garlic cloves
• 10 daechus (dried jujubees)
• sweet rice - enough to stuff the hen with
  

These are the items you will be using for your broth. Garlic cloves, ginseng root, chestnuts, and daechus.



Take your chicken out of it's package and give it a nice bath and make sure to drain as much blood out of the cavities as possible.



Bring the chicken to a boil in a pot of water and when you see this gunk start to appear, remove it from the heat.



Give it a nice rinse under cold water and make sure you carefully clean out the inside too. There's a lot of blood and gunk that gets accumulated inside after that quick boil. Once the chicken is cleaned off, you're now ready to stuff the chicken.



Add enough sweet rice to fill up half the chicken, then add a clove of garlic and a chestnut, fill the rice to to top and seal it off by positioning a daechu and garlic piece like this. You can go ahead and sew the chicken shut if you want to. But in my experience if you stuff it closed carefully like this and make sure there's a tight fit, most of the rice doesn't escape. Oh, and excuse me for making you stare at the a** of a chicken. =P



Clean the pot, add the chicken and fill with as much water as you can. Make sure you use a pot that is narrow and high to give the chicken a snug fit. You need at least 5 inches of water to cover the chicken because most of it will evaporate anyhow. So be sure to use a pot high enough.



Bring the soup to a boil and keep skimming any remaining fat that rises to the top. You don't want to boil the water too harshly. Make sure it's a slow boil. Cover the pot and let it boil for up to 3-4 hours. Every 30 minutes or so use a large ladle to flip the chicken over to ensure even cooking.



This is what the broth looked like after about 1.5 hours. I removed all but 2 daechus (jujubes) at this point, but left everything else in there.



About 3.5 hours later the broth was ready.



I took this picture for presentaton. You're ready to serve! You can tear the chicken meat away and add some soup. Add salt to taste with some green onions as garnishment and you can add rice directly to the soup and enjoy. Don't forget the delicious sweet rice inside the chicken!

Dak Jook - Chicken Porridge - (닭죽)

There will be no specific measurements for the dak jook that I am about to post up. This was actually one of Munchkin's favorite meals when he was starting solids. I used to make this for him all the time when he was in his baby food stage.

Needed:

• Chicken broth leftover from the Sam Gye Tang (lots of it)
• Rice - as much as you can fit into the pot
• sprig of ginger
  

Begin by adding any leftover broth into a large pot.



Shred the chicken meat into small pieces like so.



Add the chicken pieces to the broth and bring it to a boil.



Save all the leftover bones and carcass and just add fresh water to the mixture and let it boil for about 20 minutes or so.



You will be using this new broth to add to the porridge if you need more water (which most likely you will).



Finally, add your rice (eyeball it and add and much as you think you can fit in your pot) and a spring of ginger. I actually also added the ginseng root to give it more flavor. Note: The rice I used was actually a combination of 50/50 rice and sweet rice.



Keep stirring as it cooks and add more broth (from the bones and carcass) as needed. You will need to cook this for about an hour.



Keep an eye on it and make sure that you keep stirring because the rice will stick to he bottom. Keep adding more broth as needed.



Finally, after you reach a porridge consistency you're ready to serve! I actually ended up with a huge batch and took it into work to share. If you have child who's still in the infant feeding stage you can freeze these in those small Ziploc containers and freeze them. I used to pop one into the microwave for 2 minutes each time Munchkin needed a meal. Make sure to add SALT to taste and enjoy! I actually prefer to add soy sauce as I'm eating the jook instead, it's up to you.

Tang Soo Yook - (탕수육)

Needed:

• 0.75-1 LB. of pork (or beef)
  
• 1 TB rice wine, 1 TB corn starch, 1 TB tempura powder, 1 TB flour, 1 TB gook ganjang, 1/2 TB minced garlic, dash of salt and pepper
• 3/4 cup corn starch, 1/4 cup tempura powder (or flour), 1 egg, 1/4 cup water, and 3 TB oil
  
• Sauce: 1/2 cup of soy sauce (I used a mix of dark and light soy sauce), 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup vinegar, 3 TB honey powder, 1/2 TB sesame oil, and 1.5 cups hot water.
• Vegetables: Whatever you would like! I used mushrooms, napa, onions, pineapples, and frozen garden vegetables.

Prep Time: 1 hour

First go and get some pork loins.

This step is purely optional! But I like to beat my meat with a tenderizer to make sure it's nice and soft.

Then use scissors to cut your meat up into thin 2-3 inch pieces.

Transfer the pork to a bowl.

Add 1 TB rice wine, 1 TB corn starch, 1 TB tempura powder, 1 TB flour, 1 TB gook ganjang, 1/2 TB minced garlic, and a dash of salt and pepper.

Mix it really well and set it inside the fridge while you ready everything else.

Prepare your vegetables like so. I used about 2 cups of frozen vegetables, 1/2 small onion, 4 napa leaves, and 3 mushrooms.

Retrieve your pork from the fridge and add 3/4 cup corn starch, 1/4 cup tempura powder (or flour), 1 egg, 1/4 cup water, and 3 TB oil.

Mix it really well together and you're ready to fry it.

Heat a pan full of oil and wait until it gets REALLY hot. Add your pork pieces one at a time and fry them.

Once you're done set this aside...you will be frying it again! (and again!)

Add some oil to a pan, let it get hot and add your fresh vegetables first and stir fry it for awhile.

Add a can of pineapples (I buy the Dole 8 oz. pineapple chunks) and keep stirring.

Finish off by adding your frozen vegetables and keep stirring!

In a cup mix the following: 1/2 cup of soy sauce (I used a mix of dark and light soy sauce), 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup vinegar, 3 TB honey powder, and 1/2 TB sesame oil.

Add that mixture PLUS 1.5 cups of hot water to the vegetables and bring to a boil.

Mix together 5 TB of corn starch and 5 TB of water.

Add the mixture to the sauce and let it thicken up.

Keep cooking until the sauce is nice and thick. At this point do a taste test and add more vinegar if you like it more tangy. I ended up adding 1 TB of vinegar! Experiment and find your taste!

As for the pork pieces? Fry it again (and again) before serving. Fry it at least two times (even more times if you want to) to make sure it's nice and crispy!

Plate the pork with some sauce on top and you're ready to serve! I just did this for the picture, but in actuality I like to keep everything separate and just dip the pork pieces in as I eat. That way, it stays crispy until the very last bite! =P

If you have the time...you should enjoy this with a nice bowl of Jja Jang Myun.