Korean Food and Recipes
Spicy Potato Guk (매운 감자국) is a very simple and useful daily soup that is especially good on cold days because the spicy broth makes your body warm. Many people usually have potatoes and onions on hand. So if your groceries are running low, and you want to cook something with what you have, this is a great recipe for that. 🙂 If you love potatoes and spicy food like me, try it someday.
Yield: 3 Servings
Today, I will make one of my favorite sandwiches: egg salad. I learned how to make this from my mother-in-law and she posted the recipe sometime ago. She said that I can add other ingredients into the egg salad. One day, I was hungry for hard boiled eggs, so I decided to experiment and make my own version. I added some cucumber and onion too. I added a little sugar to give it a hint of sweetness. Wow, it was a big success, and I really enjoyed eating it. So I want to share my recipe with you. 😉
Yield: 2 Sandwiches
Today, I want to introduce five different kinds of Sempio pre-made sauce. Sempio is one of the biggest Korean food company and they are especially famous for their products made with soybean such as soy sauce, soybean paste. Of course there are many more good Korean cooking ingredients that I tried and impressed by them. Among them, these five pre-made sauces are very convenient and delicious.
In Korea, there are certain areas that are known for a specific food. For example, when I hear the name “Andong (one Korean city name)”, the first thing comes up in my mind is “jjimdak (braised chicken with sauce and vegetables). Sempio got a clever idea to pick five popular cities and their famous dish and make pre-made sauce for each one. It is cool that you can make authentic Korean food at home without spending too much time and effort by simply using the pre-made sauces.
So here are those five sauces that I recommend you try someday. 😉
The first one is Sempio Andong braised chicken sauce. I have already posted recipes for both from scratch and using this pre-made sauce. They both taste good, however when I feel lazy to make own sauce, this is definitely my favorite pre-made sauce to try.
The second one is Sempio Mokpo octopus sauce. Mokpo is a city of southern part of Korea. It is also near my hometown Gwang-ju. Since they have ocean, many good seafood dishes were developed in this area. This pre-made sauce is good and again quick to cook. The spicy sauce matches great with octopus. However, I added a little bit of seasoning to give more flavor to it. You can check it out in my post soon.
The third one is Sempio Daegu spicy galbijjim sauce. As the name says, it is very spicy. I tried this sauce and thought it is just spicy. I wish they had a little more flavor than just spiciness. Maybe since it is very spicy it hides other flavor. If I try this sauce again, I will add some seasoning to it such as sugar or more garlic, etc. So far, you might think that it was failure. Well, actually not. Because with left over food, I could make delicious spicy meat and vegetable soup in few minutes like making instant noodles. lol Which means, you can enjoy the galbi jjim one night and the other night you can easily make tasty soup by just boiling the left over galbi, vegetables from your refrigerator, Youndoo, and water. 😉
The fourth one is Sempio Jeju hair-tail fish sauce. The spicy hair-tail stew is one of the most popular foods from Jeju Island. Their fresh hair-tail make the stew very delicious however, their special sauce is another secret for the good flavor. This sempio sauce was very impressive for me in that point since it has similar flavor from authentic jeju hair-tail stew. It is hard for me to get fresh (Even frozen) hair-tail around here, so I used mackerel instead to try this sauce. I easily could imagine how delicious it will be if I used hair tail because mackerel was good too. Moreover, I loved the fact how easy it is to use this sauce for the great dish. 😉
Finally, the last one is Sempio ChunCheon Dakgalbi sauce. This dish is a recipe that I got many requests from people who tried chuncheon dakgalbi in Korea. Not only in chuncheon, but also in the other cities have this chuncheon dakgalbi restaurant. It shows their popularity. I also posted a recipe for it and got good reviews from many people. My husband I tried this sauce and liked it.
We will order more these sauce from amazon and I will save them for quick and easy meal. 😉 If you have a big Korean grocery market like hmart or assi plaza, you will be able to find these sempio sauce there. If you are not, you can order online at amazon like me. Try them someday. I hope that this information was useful for you. If you like this kind of post, I will do more posting about Korean ingredients and products. Thanks.;)
- Use:
Kimchi Bibim Guksu- Storage:
Keep in the cabinet.- Short Korean lesson: *^^*
GangAJi (강아지) = Puppy
GoYangI (고양이) = Cat
Oyster is popular and common in Korea. Since it is popular, there are many different ways to eat oyster. You can use it for soup, Korean pancakes (Jeon), deep-fried foods, steamed foods, or raw foods, etc. Among them, I will show you how to make oyster jeon, which is fried oyster with an egg and flour coating. For extra flavor, it will have some green onions and hot peppers too.
I love seafood and miss the many different kinds of fresh seafood in Korea. However, since I have moved to the USA, I am living far away from the ocean and cannot easily buy good seafood. Anyway, one day we were shopping a nice grocery store, Wegmans, and I found a container of oysters. My eyes were sparkling with joy when I saw it. I was hungry for oysters. lol … They are not fresh enough to eat raw; however, they were good enough to make this Korean dish. So here is a simple but tasty oyster recipe for you. 🙂
Yield: 15 Pieces
Chili bread has become one of my sister-in-law’s signature recipes. Below is my variation on it, which is basically the same except it is a little spicier. I hope you enjoy it as much as both my family and my in-laws enjoy it.
Yield: 2 Loaves
There are several kinds of skewered chicken preparations in Korea. Among them, I will show you how to make one today. This one is made with chicken, garlic, peppers, and green onions, all marinated in a special sauce. It all tastes really good together. Depending on your tastes, you can use more garlic or pepper for each skewer. Sometime ago, I posted a recipe using some korean peppers that a friend gave us. This is another recipe using those peppers. My husband loved the flavor of the cooked peppers with the sauce; he thinks I could have added more pepper pieces on each skewer. It is up to you. 🙂
Yield: 8 Skewers
Red bean ice cream is one of the things you can make with homemade red bean paste. So if you decided to try my recipe for that, this ice cream recipe will be a good use for it. We have a very popular red bean ice cream bar called “bibibig” in Korea. It has a good red bean flavor along with a sweet milky flavor. It is harder than normal ice cream. My recipe tastes very similar to bibibig. Yummy~~~ 🙂 I made this recipe a while ago, but because of our summer vacation, I am posting it almost too late, since it is almost fall now. However, I hope you can still enjoy my recipe this year.
Yield: 7 Ice Cream Bars
Red bean paste is called “PatAngGeum (팥앙금)” or “JeokAngGeum (적앙금)” in Korean. It is used for different kinds of sweet Korean dishes and desserts such as red bean porridge, red bean rice cakes, red bean ice cream, red bean paste bread, and so on. “Pat” means red bean, “Jeok” means red, and “AngGeum” means a paste. You can easily buy pre-made red bean paste in a can from a Korean or Asian grocery store; however, it is good to make your own at home, since it is healthier and tastier. I have been asked to make this recipe from many people who cannot buy it. So today, I very happy to share my recipe for red bean paste. Once you taste the delicious homemade red bean paste, you will not want to buy the one in the can anymore. 😉 Try it someday.
Yield: 2 Quarts
One of my Korean friends gave me some very fresh Korean green sweet peppers from her garden. Wow! They were so fresh and delicious! We call this pepper “putgochu” (풋고추) in Korean. We could not find an English name for this pepper. The skin is a little thick and the texture is crunchy. It is not very spicy compared to other hot peppers. It even has a little sweet flavor to it. It is good eaten raw, dipped in soybean paste, or used in meat wrapping. Today, I will show you how to make a simple side dish using it. I still have more peppers left, so I will post another recipe using them later. Expect it. 😉
Yield: 1 Cup
Potato and vegetable bokkeum is one of the most common side dishes in Korean lunch boxes. There are several different types depending on how you make it, or what ingredients you use. Today, I will show you my version of fried potato and vegetables bokkeum. I love potatoes, and this is how I like my potatoes as a side dish. Frying just potatoes by themselves tastes great, but if you add other vegetables and especially hot peppers and garlic, it boasts the flavor in the dish. I am happy to share this delicious food with you.
Yield: 2 Servings
