Korean Food and Recipes
Malted barley powder is often used for the Korean sweet rice drink called “sikhye.” You can find it in a Korean or Asian grocery store. The malted barley from mills in Korea is usually of high quality. There is a chunky type of malted barley powder as pictured in this post, and there is also a fine powdered type that is a litte more convenient to use.
- Use:
For Korean Sweet Rice Drink (SikHye)- Storage:
Keep in the cabinet.Short Korean Lesson
- PoDo (포도) = Grapes
- Gyul (귤) = Tangerine
Sempio Braised Chicken Sauce is for making andong jjimdak, which is a famous braised chicken and vegetable Korean dish. Sempio’s sauce is mainly made with soy sauce and some seasonings such as salt, garlic, ginger, hot pepper extract, fermented soy bean extract, etc. It doesn’t have MSG or synthetic preservatives. Simply cook this sauce with chicken and other vegetables to make a great main dish. The flavor of this sauce is good enough to replace to homemade sauce. It is very easy to use and delicious. You can find this product in a big Korean market, Sempio’s website, or Amazon.
- Use:
For Andong Jjimdak (Braised Chicken)- Storage:
Keep in the cabinet.Short Korean Lesson
- AnDong (안동) = A name of a Korean city
- JjimDak (찜닭) = Braised Chicken
Yondu is a natural liquid seasoning made by Sempio. It does not contain any animal ingredients, making it suitable for vegetarians. I recently discovered this treasure when Sempio sent me a sample. Without any prior knowledge or expectations, I tried it in one of my side dishes. The results were a pleasant surprise, so I have been doing more experimenting with it. My husband calls it “magic juice” because it makes everything taste better. (Just don’t drink it like a beverage.) LOL
This is gourmet seasoning sauce. It is naturally brewed soy sauce added with the boiled down natural sauce from cooking onions, ginger, garlic, pears, apples, beef, etc. This one is specially good for soup or stew. I already tried it for my seaweed soup. I basically made the soup in the same way, but reduced the normal soy sauce amount and added some of this seasoning in place of the missing soy sauce. It turned out pretty good, so I’m going to use it for different kinds of soups and stews later. You can think of it like this – in a well flavored dish, you can add extra flavor to make it even more tasty. Sometimes if you don’t have enough time to make your own broth, as many of my recipes ask for, you can get a similar flavoring from simply using this seasoning sauce. It is a shortcut for a quick and easy dish. Hehe, that doesn’t mean skip making broth all of the time though, because making your own broth give you the best flavor for your dish. =P Anyway, I was happy about the result, so try it someday if you can find it in a Korean grocery store. This is especially for soup and stew. It has seafood extract in it, you will not like this particular flavor of sauce if you are a vegetarian or do like seafood.
This is a special type of Korean fish sausage. It’s made mainly with pollack and wheat. I got “DongWon” brand this time, and it tasted pretty good.
This is what it looks like inside. 😀
- Use:
Side-dish, Salad- Storage:
Keep in the refrigerator.- Types:
Fish Flavor, Fish with vegetables
Today, I will show you how to make an ingredient for Korean cooking – sticky rice cakes. They are commonly used for tteokbokki, tteokggochi, and tteokguk. Koreans take their rice to a shop and let them make it. It is an interesting process, which is detailed in this awesome blog post by the Stumbling Engineer. Outside of Korea, many people cannot find these sticky rice cakes where they live, so they want to make tteokbokki and tteokguk at home. With this recipe, you can make sticky rice cakes at home and enjoy tteokbokki and tteokguk.
Yield: 2½ lb Rice Cakes
Clams are usually used for making broth and soup in Korea. You can also use it for side-dishes. There is also a salted fermented clam dish. I got an already cooked frozen clams in a Korean grocery store because that was my only choice. However, I recommend you use fresh clams if you can find any.
Extra soft tofu is called SoonDuBu in Korean. It is usually used for soup or stew. The texture is very soft like jello. 😀
Yellow Croaker is one of the most popular fish in Korea. The fish has been gutted, salted, and dried. People buy this usually to fry without any additional seasons. Soup and stew can also be made with it.
- Use:
Frying, Steam, Stew, or Soup- Storage:
Keep in the freezer.- Types:
Fresh, Dried, Frozen
This is a special type of mackerel. It is already salted for frying. You can find it at a Korean or Asian grocery store.
