Steamed Egg – (계란찜) - Version 3.0

This California weather is sort of crazy, isn’t it? EARTHQUAKE weather for sure. =/ Growing up in Cali, I’m so used to earthquakes. I’ve been through quite a few of the big ones so they hardly bother me anymore – but still the thought of the next big one is pretty scary. =P

The rain has made it a lazy day today. All of Munchkin’s sports activities this week have been cancelled due to rain. This means the kid is going stir-crazy from 3PM until his bed time. Stir crazy kid means a mom that has to get dinner on the table as quickly as possible.

The following is a quick and easy way to make steamed egg all in one pot. There are other ways to make egg jjim and I have VERSION 1 and VERSON 2 right here.

Ingredients:

• 2 Eggs
• 1 CUP water
• 2 TSP shrimp jut
• handful of green onions

First crack two eggs into a small stone pot.

Pour a cup of water into it.

Add 2 TSP of shrimp jut LIQUID ONLY.

Whisk it all around thoroughly using a fork and place it on the stove on medium heat.

Once it looks like it’s just about to boil, turn down the heat to low…

…and add a tin foil tent on top with a tiny opening to let some air out. Just let it simmer on low for about 10-15 minutes.

When it looks just about done, throw some green onions on top.

Let it continue to simmer for a couple of minutes and you’re ready to serve! This type of egg jjim tastes best when served fresh.

Even just after just a few minutes, it starts to flatten out.

It still tastes great though! This is the quickest and easiest way to enjoy egg jjim besides microwaving it. Whenever I get around to it, I’ll post up the microwave version. Enjoy and stay warm!

Munchkin’s dinner tonight also consisted of miyuk gook and clams. =P The kimchi jjigae was leftover from yesterday and was for ME. =)

Ggak Ddoogi–(깍두기)–Version 2.0

Is fall/winter (they sorta just blend in SoCal don’t they?) finally hitting SoCal? About time, eh?

It has been hot for so long that I’m sort of welcoming this cold. SORT OF. I’ll always be a SoCal girl and that means my body can only tolerate so much cold.

On a side note, the MR has been out of the country for almost a month now leaving our house feeling a bit empty. It has been just Munchkin and I for the last 23 days and counting. Although it has been a bit trying at times, I’m relishing my one on one time with him. He is now an almost five-year-old and I’m thankful every day that I was able to be here for three birthday parties after my diagnosis (I was diagnosed the day before his 3rd birthday party).

I see Munchkin developing leaps and bounds every day. He talks SO much. SOOOOOOO much. He talks about anything and everything under the sun. “Can I ask you something?” is one of his favorite lines and you bet he will definitely ASK ME SOMETHING. He drives me to the brink of insanity, but will then turn around and do something so sweet and inspiring that I thank God for each and every day.

To be honest, since it’s only Munchkin and I – our consumption of Korean food has been almost nil. =P With the exception of kimchi, Munchkin and I rarely eat Korean food. We recently devoured the latest batch of my mom’s chong-gak-kimchi so I decided it was time to make some ggak ddoogi in it’s place. I opted for a quicker and milder version this time since I was pressed for time and feeling absolutely lazy.

Ingredients Needed:

• 5 LBS of daikon radish (moo)
• 1/4 CUP red pepper powder, 4 TB minced garlic, 1 TB salt, 3 TB honey powder, 2 TB rice wine, 1/2 TB ginger powder, 3 TB minced shrimp jut plus about 1 TB of the shrimp jut liquid.

I bought about 5 lbs. of moo (daikon radish) at the K-market and went to work on my kitchen floor. Yes, I did the kimchi squat. =P

I chopped up the moo into smaller pieces than normal.

Try and make it about 1CM-ish. It will get smaller once you salt it up.

Continue chopping it ALLLLLL up and dump it into a large bowl.

Dump about 1/4 cup of salt on top…

…mix it around and just let it sit. No need to add water.

Leave it for a few hours and when you come back, there will be all this liquid in the bowl.

Rinse all the moo pieces CLEAN.

Give it a nice bath a couple of times even.

And let it sit and drain out for about 10 minutes or so.

Then add all the following ingredients: 1/4 CUP red pepper powder, 4 TB minced garlic, 1 TB salt, 3 TB honey powder, 2 TB rice wine, 1/2 TB ginger powder, 3 TB minced shrimp jut plus about 1 TB of the shrimp jut liquid.

MIX, MIX, MIX! I used this red pepper powder for the first time today. I had brought it back with me earlier this year on our trip to Korea. It looks a lot spicier than the one I used prior which is why I adjusted my recipe. I actually used half a cup of red pepper powder, but I think 1/4 cup would have been plenty.

Transfer it over into a kimchi container…

And let it sit out in a cool area for 2-3 days. You’re all set!

I’m currently making beef soup with ox tails, do-gan-neeh (cow knee bone) and beef (eye of round?) It will be a sul-lung-tang of sorts. No recipe because it’s just boiling, boiling, boiling. We’re going on 10 hours so far and I plan on boiling for over 24 hours. =P

Hope you have all been doing well!

Fresh Kimchi–Gut Jul Eeh Kimchi with Raw Oysters

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving! I’m sure our dinner table isn’t much different from some of the other Korean-American dinner tables out there. For as long as I can remember we have always had Korean food on Thanksgiving. It wasn’t until I was old enough to learn how to roast a turkey that our family started having turkey on Thanksgiving. =P Now our tables look like a mix of the old and new with Korean food intermingling with American food.

One of my mom’s specialties around the holidays is a fresh gut-jul-eeh kimchi she makes specifically for my halmoni who doesn’t like the sourness of fermented kimchi. I asked my mom where she learned to cook and she told me that all of the myun-noo-ris in our family were taught how to cook by my grandmother. I now understand why the food at all the different households on my dad’s side pretty much tastes the same. My grandmother hails from a town called Andong and I was told by many people that the ladies of Andong are known for their cooking prowess.

I went to my parent’s house early in the morning to start the ham and turkey, so I was actually able to watch her make this fresh kimchi from start to finish. It is one of my husband’s favorite dishes, so I made sure to note how much of everything she used. Of course there are no exact measurements, I was able to eyeball her proportions pretty well…I think. =P

First, a small peek at our dinner table. My mom’s *famous* chong-gak kimchi (really, it’s GOOD – and I’m not just saying that because she’s my mom), kongnamool moochim, cornbread stuffing (with cranberries, apples, turkey sausage, almonds, onions, parsley, celery, and…whatever else I had on hand), fresh cranberry sauce, grilled snapper, spinach moochim, roasted ham, roasted turkey, garlic mashed potatoes and creamed corn. I made all the American food and my mom made all the Korean food. We are a good combo in the kitchen and totally know how to work around each other now.

Have I mentioned how much I love my mom? She’s my favorite person next to Munchkin. =P

Take one cucumber and chop it up like so and then sprinkle a little bit of sea salt and set aside.

Then grab one napa and start washing it and taking it apart.

Then take a knife and start slicing the napa into little pieces straight into the same bowl. My mom just holds it up and just takes her knife and slices it directly above the bowl. Then generously sprinkle salt on top and set it aside for a couple of hours.

After the napa begins to look soft, rinse the salt water out under cool water and then julienne half a moo into the bowl as well.

Add some green onions…

Add about 1/4 cup of minced garlic.

Meanwhile defrost your raw oysters. I wasn’t able to take a picture of the bag, but my mom tells me they sell it frozen in a bag and it’s usually next to the frozen fish area…

Then add about 4-5 TB of sesame seeds…

1-2 TB of sugar…(my mom uses this Korean sugar that looks brown)

Add your red pepper flakes. Depending on the type of red pepper flakes you have, you have to adjust your measurements accordingly. This is the one my MIL brought back from Korea last year and it’s very light. We tend to use a lot of more of this when making recipes because it’s not as red.

My mom then added the oysters (about 1/2 cup) and shrimp jut (1 TB). I actually asked my mom why she doesn’t chop up the raw oysters (since they tend to look pretty GROSS) and she said it’s because then it *bursts* and the kimchi tastes much more fishy.

Mix, mix, mix!

And we realized that it could use a little more color, so in went some more red pepper powder.

And voila! Fresh gut-jul-eeh kimchi. This tastes best when served within an hour or two of preparation. It will naturally ferment into kimchi as well and can be eaten when it’s fermented, but because a lot of the real steps to making kimchi were skipped, this type never tastes as good as real beh-choo kimchi. Yes, I will do a step-by-step of beh-choo kimchi one day…

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I hope you found time to reminisce your past and find many things you are thankful for. Life can throw unexpected twists and turns to you, but always remember that there is a light at the end of tunnel.

My latest scans all came back clear. My chest is free of mets and my head and neck is free of disease as well. Two years after diagnosis, I am still cancer-free. I’m sure there are tiny little buggers lurking around somewhere inside my body, but I’m hopeful that I will live to see Munchkin grow old.

Health, happiness, love and many blessings to all my readers! Thank you for having been my outlet to break down and reconstruct myself these past couple of years. This blog was truly my form of therapy. It is a small slice of space away from my real world. It’s a place I come to when I’m feeling a bit down.

Writing these posts and sharing our families recipes is cathartic. It’s a way to heal. So thank you for helping me heal.

P.S. For those of you who are curious. All pictures were taken with my Canon G11. I didn’t have my Canon 50D with me on this day.

Cow Parts

MOOOOOOO. That’s me being a cow.

Hello all! I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving break – yes I realize I’m a bit late. Anyhow, I thought I would do a short little blog on cow parts. I made beef tang no less than four times already this winter so I thought I would share some of the different parts of cow you can buy at the butcher shop so you can see what it looks like.

Knee caps. If you go to Jinju Gomtang, they have a great do-ga-ni tang - though I confess that I haven’t been there in a very long time since I’m not out and about in K-town like I was in my twenties. =P They give you kitchen shears and a big plate of knee caps with soft tendons falling off the bones. I loved eating all the tendons and dipping into their soy sauce/wasabi mix. Squeamish? Don’t be. Give it a try and you might become a fan!

This is where the marrow is. Even if you don’t use other parts, I suggest adding some beef marrow to any gook or tang you make.

Ox tails are always a favorite in tangs. I always separate my meat after boiling for a while and store it for easier access.

Beef brisket. After boiling for a few hours, I will take this out of the soup and let it cool down. Then you just take a sharp kitchen knife and slice the meat into thin strips.

Beef Feet. This is definitely not for the weak of heart, but I guarantee your gook will be much more milky and flavorful if you add some feet. Try it. I promise you won’t regret it.

I normally use all the ox tails and then use about half of everything else. Let it drain in water and then boil and throw out the water.

You can store the remaining cow parts for another time.

Remember, boil and throw it out once!

Then wash and clean all your bits and pieces and add water and boil, boil, boil. You can see the more in-depth how-to over HERE and HERE.

Hope everyone has a great holiday! We will be heading over to the Motherland again to spend Christmas and New Year’s in Seoul. And yes, food pictures from the homeland will be coming up again so get ready to salivate.

And can someone please tell North Korea to tone it down a little while we’re over there? Thanks.