Korean Food and Recipes
This dish is a spicy Korean stew using mackerel fish. The flavor of the ingredients in this stew is awesome together. If you eat this stew, you can finish your rice without any other side dishes. There is research that says the dark flesh of fish, like mackerel, is good for high blood pressure. Enjoy! 😀
Yield: 2 Servings
San Jeok (산적) is a Korean holiday food. We usually make this food with family and relatives one day before a holiday, and serve it the next day. The color and taste combination of this food is very good. Depending on your tastes, you can skip the crab or add different kinds of vegetables, such as mushrooms, carrots, or zucchini. If you are a vegetarian, I recommend using mushrooms instead of beef (oyster mushrooms will be the best). Use the same sauce to marinate mushrooms, cook them until they get enough bulgogi sauce flavor, and then skewer them instead of the beef.
Yield: 2½ Dozen Pieces
Curry powder is considered to be very healthy. Adding different kinds of vegetables and meat will make it even healthier. This recipe is a Korean styled curry & rice dish. When I tried Indian or other (American?) curry powder, I thought the taste was a little different from Korean curry powder. So, use Korean curry powder to get an authentic Korean taste. The Korean brand that I use is called, “Ottogi Curry Medium.” That brand comes three different kinds heat levels: hot, medium, and mild. I usually use medium for my curry rice, but depending on your tastes, you can use hot or mild. If I get the chance to try other curry powders for it, I will let you know the result, or if you try it, tell me what you think of it. I will appreciate the feedback. This curry tastes best with chicken rather than other meat, but you can skip the meat and it will still taste very good. 😀
Yield: 4 Servings
In Korea, glutinous rice is called chapssal (찹쌀), and its characteristic stickiness is called chalgi (Hangul: 찰기). Cooked rice made of glutinous rice is called chalbap (찰밥) and rice cakes (떡=ddeok) are called chalddeok or chapssalddeok (찰떡, 찹쌀떡). Chalbap is used as stuffing in samgyetang.
In Korea, we use mackerel for soup, stew, or a side dish. For the side-dish, fry it with only salt and oil without any bread crumbs, flour, or butter. This special salted blue mackerel is for frying. They are already cleaned and salted and ready to cook. Just fried salted blue mackerel, with fresh warm rice, is enough to make your stomach happy. 😉
Tteok (also spelled ddeock, duk, dduk, ddeog, or thuck) is a Korean sweet cake made with glutinous rice flour (also known as sweet rice or chapssal) by steaming. There are hundreds of different kinds of Tteok eaten year round. In Korea it is customary to eat TteokGuk (Tteok soup). This particular shape of rice ovaletts are used for new year soup.
Read more from Wikipedia…
Korean soy sauce, (called Joseon ganjang (조선간장) in Korean) is a byproduct of the production of doenjang (Korean fermented soybean paste). Joseon ganjang, thin and dark brown in color, is made entirely of soy and brine, and has a saltiness that varies according to the producer. Traditionally in Korea, we have different kinds of soy sauce, depending on the length of the fermentation time. Basically we use 2 types of soy sauce the most. One is normal soy sauce, which is fermented for more than 3 years. The other is soup soy sauce which is fermented for 1 or 2 years. The longer you keep the soy sauce the darker color, and the stronger flavor. Nowadays, many Korean people just buy soy sauce from the store instead of making it at home since it is difficult and time consuming.
MiYeok JulGi is usually used for a Korean side-dish, MiYeok JulGi BokkEum in Korea. You can buy salted seaweed stems from a Korean or Asian store. Look for them in the refrigerator section. Since they are heavily salted, you will have to soak them in water at least one night before cooking. This is chewy and salty enough to eat without adding extra salt. If you want to a cook small amount and save some for later, cut them (Of course, they should be already soaked in water) into the size you want, and keep them in the freezer.
Hot pepper oil (gochu gireum=고추기름) is a condiment made from vegetable oil that has been infused with dried chili peppers and sometimes also additional ingredients. It is also employed in the Korean Chinese noodle soup dish jjamppong. Chili oil is typically red in color. It is made from vegetable oil, often soybean oil or sesame oil, although olive oil or other oils may be used. Other spices may be included such as Sichuan pepper, garlic, or paprika. The spices are soaked in oil. Commercial preparations may include other kinds of oil, water, dried garlic, soy sauce, and sugar. Recipes targeted to Western cooks also suggest other popular oils such as canola, peanut, grapeseed, olive, and any dried or fresh chili peppers. Chili oil is commercially available in glass jars, although it may also be made from scratch at home.
