Korean Food and Recipes
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
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
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
Beef and perilla jeon is a creative way of cooking perilla leaves. I like food with a good match of flavors in various ingredients. This food is a perfect example. The unique flavor of perilla tastes great with marinated beef. My husband is still not accustomed to the flavor of perilla, so he usually does not like it. However, he loved this perilla jeon. He said that the raw perilla taste is not strong; the jeon just tastes great. 🙂 So, if you see perilla leaves in a Korean or Asian grocery store, please try this someday. 😀
Yield: 15 Pieces
Zucchini is one of my favorite vegetables in Korean cooking. I can fry, deep fry, or steam it, and I can add it to soup or other dishes. One day, I wanted to try something fun and simple using some zucchini in my refrigerator. I grabbed some other vegetables that I had such as sweet peppers and green onions. I did not want to make batter for the zucchini so that it would make a lighter dish. So I came up with this recipe from what I had, and I really enjoyed eating it for lunch. The fried zucchini without any seasoning or batter tasted great with the sauce. This can be a good appetizer for a party because it looks pretty and can work as a finger food. Of course, the taste is great too. 😉
Yield: 35 Pieces
Tofu is a very common ingredient in Korean cuisine, and tofu jeon is a delicious way to eat it. Tofu and garlic go together well. Like my other recipes, it is a very simple and tasty dish to try. Recently, I have been posting many meat dishes, so I am very glad to post this vegetarian friendly recipe for you today. 😉
Yield: 20 Pieces
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
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
Summer is eggplant season, and Eggplant NaMul is a delicious, quick side dish that you can make for your meal. If you can’t eat spicy food, you can skip the spicy ingredients for this recipe. Try it someday. 🙂 It is especially good if you have eggplants coming out of your ears, and if so, you might want to try one of my older recipes: Eggplant Bokkeum. 😉
Yield: 2 Cups
