Korean Food and Recipes
RaBokkI (라볶이) is a variation of the popular street food tteokbokki. Tteokbokki is fried sticky rice cakes in a sweet and spicy sauce along with some other veggies. Rabokki has the addition of ramen noodles and hard-boiled eggs. The chewy rice cakes and soft noodles soak up a lot of flavor. If you like tteokbokki, you will love this too. Try it someday.
Yield: 3 Servings
Soybean sprout naengchae is a delicious and refreshing summer appetizer. The honey mustard sauce and fresh vegetables are a great match together. This is served chilled and can be a good match with greasy food. It can also be good party food because you can make this ahead of time. 🙂 Try it someday.
Yield: 1½ Cups
We harvested some fresh perilla leaves from our garden. So, I made this delicious fried perilla side dish. Perilla leaves have their own unique flavor. The seasonings make this a very savory dish. If you like perilla, this can be a simple and great side dish for your Korean meals.
Yield: 1 Cup
Walnut ice cream was another big hit with my husband. The sweet and nutty flavor is great. My homemade ice-cream recipes are very simple and delicious. It is easy to just buy ice cream in a store, but with all of the different kinds of chemicals they add to it, it is worth it to make ice cream at home. Try this recipe, and soon you will find out how easy it is to make. 🙂
Yield: 3 Cups
Mung bean bindaetteok is my all-time favorite Korean pancake. The unique thing about this food is that the batter is 100% ground mung beans without any wheat flour. So, if somebody can’t eat wheat and wants to try Korean pancakes, this is a great option for them. Traditional mung bean pancakes have fern brake and mung bean sprouts in the batter; however for this recipe, I will skip them since I prefer mine without them. You can make it either way by following the “Option 1 – Kimchi Style” or “Option 2 – Traditional Style” methods. This is delicious and healthier than normal Korean pancakes.
Yield: 8 Pieces per Option
JangAJji (장아찌) is the Korean name for a type of pickle. When making pickles in Korea, the pickling liquid can be based on vinegar, like Western pickles, or it can be based on soy sauce. The recipe that I’m going to share today is based on soy sauce. The pickling liquid itself can be very useful in making different kinds of pickles, depending on your choice of veggies. This recipe uses cucumbers, onions, and hot peppers. You can add garlic or sesame leaves too. It is very easy to make as well and is convenient for serving with each meal.
Yield: ½ Gallon
This is a variation of a beef roll. The marinated bulgogi, rolled with different kinds of veggies, tastes very good. The color combination is also so very pretty. So, it would be a good dish for a party or potluck. I used Sempio’s premade bulgogi sauce so that this recipe is easier to make. However, you can use my homemade bulgogi sauce recipe instead. Depending on your preferences, you can be creative and use other kinds of veggies such as carrot, zucchini, cabbage, etc.
Yield: 4 Rolls
Young radish kimchi (열무김치, YeolMuGimChi) is a popular summer kimchi in Korea. It is also my favorite kimchi. The kimchi, all by itself, is very delicious to eat with rice. However, it is also very useful in other dishes such as in bibimbap and noodle dishes once it becomes well fermented. I made this kimchi with our home grown radishes. “Young radish” is the type of radish used, not just any radish that is young in age; the Korean name is “열무.” I used a special method to make kimchi broth for this recipe; however, you can skip that step and just use normal water instead. More summer recipes using this kimchi are coming, so stay tuned. 🙂
Yield: ½ Gallon
Drumstick soy sauce jorim is a fancy and savory chicken dish that you can easily make at home. The chicken tastes great because of a good combination of saltiness and sweetness along with a slight garlic and ginger flavor. If you prefer, you can use some other part of the chicken such as the breast or thigh. For the best flavor and texture, the chicken is marinated for some time, but you can skip that if you are in a hurry. Try it someday.
Yield: 2-3 Servings
Cold soybean noodles (콩국수, KongGukSu) is one of the most popular summer menus items in Korea. The homemade creamy soybean sauce tastes great with the noodles, fresh cucumbers, and tomatoes. You can also buy premade soybean sauce for your convenience, but it is not as good as making it from scratch. If you already tried these noodles in Korea, you may find a difference in my recipe because I used sugar. I’m from southern Korea, and in our hometown, it is common to add sugar to this dish whereas other places in Korea normally don’t. So, if you want, you can skip the sugar.
Dear friends, I’m in my 16th week pregnancy now. My morning sickness is gone and my appetite is coming back. I feel hungry more often and sometimes I feel my baby’s cute movements. Bryson is a happy and energetic boy. He often makes us laugh. We are all doing fine. I just wanted to share how we are doing with you all. I hope that I can start posting recipes more often now. Thank you for your patience and support. Please stay cool and happy. 🙂
Yield: 6 Servings
