Korean beansprout soup with clam 'Kong Na Mul Guk'

I had this soup so many times when I was a child.

The beansprout was the cheapest ingredient (it is still a cheap one),

also it is so simple to cook .

My mother was a working mom.

She made this soup when she didn't have time to cook
or during the cold Korean winter.

'Kong Na Mul' means  soybeansprout,

also it refers to a seasoned side dish made from soybeansprout.

'Kuk' means the soup.

This soup can be cooked with or without the clams or the mussels.

Ingredients

200g beansprouts
2 cups clams

2 cloves garlic crushed
1 chilli chopped
1/3 cup chopped leek
1~2 Tbsp light soy sauce
3 cups water

Place the clams In a bowl, pour in the water and a tsp of salt' leave to soak.
This will make the dirt come out of the clam.
Trim the ends of the beansprouts, Wash the beansprouts few time, also rinse the clams until the dirt has been removed.
Place a pot on medium heat with 3 cups of water, put the clams and beansprouts in the pot and cover with a lid and boil.
Don't open the lid until the water is boiling.
If you open the lid befor the water boils, the beansprouts will make the soup taste bad.
1 minute after the soup starts boiling, open the lid, put all the other ingredients into the pot and stir.
Cover with the lid and boil for 2 or 3 minutes, add some more light soy sauce for taste and serve.

We enjoy this soup very much.
Especialy when we get flu, we eat this soup with a lot of chilli powder.
Also this soup helps after you drink a lot of alcohol! 

It works,,,, definitly.*^^*

Korean seaweed soup 'Mi Yok Guk'

'Mi Yok' means seaweed 'Guk' means soup in Korean.
When Korean women are in their confinement after having a baby, they eat seaweed soup for recovery.
The seaweed has lots of calcium and iodine, so it improves blood circulation and quality.
It helps the baby and the mother.
In Korea it is traditional to eat seaweed soup on your birthday.
But not just birthdays, we also eat this soup with normal meals.It is easy and simple to cook, with few ingredients and also healthy.^^*

You can make this soup with sliced or minced beef, clam, mussel... etc.

When you use clams or mussels, put them into salted water, leave standing for a few minutes, wash a few times
and then put into the soup when you pour the water into the pot.

 
Ingredients

1/3 cup dry seaweed
150g minced or sliced beef
2Tbsp light soy sauce
3 tsp sesame oil
2 cloves garlic
4 cup water
light soy sauce for taste

 
place the seaweed and 3cups of water in a big bowl, leave until seaweed is soft.Put the beef into another bowl, add 1 Tbsp of light soy sauce and 1 tsp of sesame oil and mix well.
When the seaweed is soft (If you touch the seaweed, you can feel it is soft)
pour more water in and rub hard and drain (2 or 3 time).
Finaly squeeze the seaweed, put into a pot with beef.
Place the pot on medium heat.
Add 2 tsp sesame oil, 1 Tbsp light soy sauce and crushed garlic.
Stir well until the beef turns brown.
Pour 4 cups of water into pot, cover and boil.
When the soup starts boiling, remove the froth from the surface and add more light soy sauce for taste.
Reduce heat to low, and leave for a few minutes. And serve ~~~~ 

Korean pan fried zucchini salad 'Ahobok Bokum'

'A Ho Bak' means zucchini, 'Bok Um' means pan fried in Korean.

'Ahobak Bokum' has many recipes in Korea,

using different saucee for seasoning

(for example shrimp paste or fish sauce ect.)

This is a recipe from my aunt who lives in the Korean countryside.

She has amazing cooking ability like most older generation women.

I love this recipe because it is an easy method

and the simple ingredients makes a fantastic side dish for steamed rice.

This recipe can be made with or without chilli powder.

And also I use 1 Tbsp Korean perilla seed oil,

but you can use 1/2 Tbsp sesame oil and 1/2 Tbsp vege oil mix instead.

I suggest you add 1/2 Tbsp of light soy sauce

if you just want a salad with a western style meal.

Try it!!!!

 

Ingredients

2 small zucchinies

A handful of chopped leek

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 Tbsp sesame oil

1/2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 Tbsp light soy sauce

1/2 Tbsp chilli powder(optional)

1. Wash and slice the zucchini, about 5mm thick. Put all the zucchini slices in a bowl, add sea salt and mix gently. Leave to stand about 30 min.

2. Mix the sesame oil and vegetable oil. Put the pan on medium heat, add the oil mixture 1/2 Tbsp at one time.(You should add more later, when the pan goes dry.)

3. Place the zucchini slices in the pan. Leave 2~3 min until light brown and turn over, cook for another 2 min. (You should turn the heat to low if the pan is too hot. Don’t burn the zucchinis.)

4. Put the fried zucchinis into a bowl.
Add chopped leeks and crushed garlic. Add the light soy sauce and chilli powder as you like.

6. Mix the seasoning in gently. Enjoy it!



Korean radish kim chi, Kag Tu Gi

Kimchi  is the most popular traditional side dish in Korea.

It is preserved and fermented vegetable.

There are many hundreds of different kind of kimchi.

 Kag Tu Gi is one of them.

It's made from Asian radish.

Kag Tuk means the cube cut shape,

so we call this 'Kag Tu Gi'.

Koreans have kimchi and a lot of side dishes and steamed rice at each meal.

Kag Tu gi also goes well with meat soups.

It complements the meat soups rich taste.

So...let's make it~~

 

Ingredients

2 Asian radishes
1g sweetner
1 Tbsp sea salt
 5~7 springonions
1/2 onion
3~5 cloves garlic
small piece ginger
1 Tbsp rice flour
1/3 cup water
 5 Tbsp chilli powder
1 and 1/2 Tbsp shrimp paste
1 Tbsp sugar
and more sea salt for taste.

Wash all the vegetables in running water a few times.

Scrape the dirty skin off the radish.

Cut the radish into 1.5~2 cm cubes

Put 1g of sweetner and 1 Tbsp of sea salt into radish bowl,

 mix well ....leave to stand for 30 min.

Remove excess water from the radish.

Chop all springonions 3~5cm, slice the onion,

crush the garlic and ginger.

Mix the rice flour and water, cook in microwave

until it becomes thick like porridge.

Put all ingredients into a big bowl,

add more sea salt for tast and mix well.....

It needs to be a little salty to preserve and to ferment.

 Keep in an air tight container in the fridge.

 It doesn't have a use-by-date,

so it depends if you prefer sour or fresh.





Pretty start prawn rice paper rolls

Hong Kong is now hot and humid.

This sticky summer will go on until september...huuuu...

The problem is that a lot of Hong Kong kitchens are too small.

So I don't want to cook in the day time with a hot gas stove.

I understand why the vietnamese enjoy these rice paper rolls.

The fresh vegetables make it healthy and refreshing.

And I don't need to do too much work in the kitchen.
These rice paper rolls are good for party food

or a hot summer lunch.

My partner's sister gave me the recipe

"Minced chicken rice paper rolls with fish sauce",

but this time I made them with some prawns.

The fish sauce is perfect with any rice paper rolls

Ingredients (Make 12 rice paper rolls)

12 sheets of rice paper,

1cup cooked prawns

4~5 spring onions or chives

2 sticks of celery or chinese parsley

1/2 a capsicum

handfull mushrooms or bean sprouts

for the fish sauce

2 Tbsp fish sauce

2 Tbsp water

1 Tbsp vinegar

2 tsp lime juice

1 tsp garlic

1/2 Tbsp caster sugar

I cooked the prawns in the microwave and chopped them in half.

Wash the vegetables and cut to  6~7cm length like the photo above.

Pour some warm water in the shallow dish.

The water should not be too warm,

it makes the rice paper too soft and it tears easily.

The rice paper has to be put in the water just few seconds.

-just cover with the water.
The rice papers may not be soft, but will go soft while you roll them up.

Place the rice paper on the dish or cooking board,

place a few chopped prawns on one side of the rice paper.

Fold the end of rice paper over the prawns.

Fold one side of rice paper.

Place the vegetables nicely like the photo above

and fold the other side over the vegetables.

And roll up tight.

Mix all of the ingredients of the fish sauce.

It will be a pretty party dish................

Or healthy and fresh summer lunch................

Korean grilled chicken satay and eel with bbq soy sauce

These are served as a side dish in Korea, they are eaten with steamed rice.

But also can go with Korean alcohol.

When Koreans drink alcohol

such as 'So Ju' a strong Korean traditional alcohol made of rice or tapioca,

they always prepare some nice side dishes or snack.

These are called 'An Ju'

I don't drink a lot of alcohol, 

but I love these kinds of side dishes with steamed rice.

If you have eaten Korean style food,

you seen many side dishes on the table

with a bowl of steamed rice and a soup for each person.

 That's the Korean traditional meal.

Can you imagine how busy Korean women are ?

But they know how to cook easily, quickly and smart!

I made these two dishes with a Korean style BBQ sauce.

I make this sauce one cup at a time

then I can use it in many side dish.

It can go with fish, pork, chicken, vegetables....etc.

Ingredients (Makes 1/2 cup)

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup water,

1/3 cup rice wine,

3 Tbsp mirin

2 cloves garlic, sliced

2cm piece ginger, sliced

3 Tbsp syrup

Pour all the ingredients in a heavy pot on medium heat.

When it starts to boil, reduce  to low heat,

and simmer until the sauce reduces to half and thickens.

Ingredients for grilled chicken satay.

400g chicken fillet

1 bunch of leeks

1/2 zucchini

3 Tbsp BBQ sauce

1/2 Tbsp olive oil

Marinate the chicken fillet with 1 Tbsp of the bbq sauce for about 10 minuts,

skewer the chicken and the vegetables.

Heat the pan and grease with oil.

Grill the skewers on each side for about 30 seconds.

Brush the bbq sauce onto the skewers, and grill again until cooked.

Ingredients for fish.

400g eel fillets or other fish( such as salmon, mackerel....)

1 Tbsp ginger juice

1 Tbsp mirin

2 Tbsp bbq sauce

1/2 Tbsp olive oil

Rinse the fish in salted water,

clean with paper towel.

Marinate the fish with the ginger juice and the mirin.

Heat the pan, grease with olive oil,

grill each side about 30 seconds.

Brushing with the bbq sauce occasionally

until the fish turns golden brown and is cooked well. 

When Koreans eat grilled eels,

they serve it with some sliced ginger and spring onions,

because the eel can taste too oily.

Fillo fruit pockets

I made a strudel a few days ago,

and I left the fillo dough on the table.

What happened...???

The fillo dough stuck together in several places.

So I decided to make these fruit pockets by joining the fillo pieces.

I wanted to make something nice for my blog,

but I didn't worry because if it didn't look ok, I knew I could just eat it all.

Finally, I took it out of the oven,

it looked some pretty flowers.

This job didn't need any skill or ability.

It just need the fillo pastry and some fruit. *^^*

Ingredients(make 5)

45g light cream cheese

1/2 Tbsp muscovado sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

5 plums or peaches halved and stoned

10 sheets fillo pastry (25*25cm)

peanut or sunflower oil, for brushing

icing sugar, to sprinkle

Mix together the cream cheese, sugar and cinnamon.

Preheat oven to 200 celsius.

Peel the skins off of the fruit,

halve and stone.

Sandwich the fruit halves back together

with a spoonful of the cheese mixture in each fruit.

I used 3 plums and 2 canned peaches.

Spread out the fillo pastry,

brush one lightly with oil.

Place a second diagonally on top.

Repeat with the remaining fillo.

Place one fruit on each pastry square,

and gather the corners together.

Place on a baking sheet.

Bake for 13~18 minutes, until golden brown.

Dust with icing sugar, and serve.

They weren't perfect looking, but it didn't really matter.....

You will break it anyway......