Any of you who have had direct contact with me may have wondered a bit about the email address. I know that when I have to give out out for various reasons, people seem to be unable to actually wrap their heads around it:
“Chip…monk…what? Huh? Not a monk? OH! Chip-munk - chipmunk, like the animal! Right…so…chipmonk…sorry, chipMUNK…sneeeeze? Sneeze? They sneeze? Okaaaaaaaaaay…so, chipmunksneeze…”
You get the gist.
Though I hear my dog sneeze every now and then (usually after he’s stuck his entire head into his water bowl for some utterly unknown reason), I’ve never been in a position to actually hear a chipmunk let rip with one. So, you may ask, what’s with the email address?
Warning - this video is rather loud and may take you by surprise, so make sure the volume isn’t too high…
And yes, this is the sound of my sneeze. A sneeze that has brought many a movie theatre, restaurant, cafe, library and lecture hall to a complete and utter halt before its inhabitants pissed themselves laughing whilst I wanted to crawl under a table and die.
And no, I can’t sneeze like a regular person. As far as I can remember, I never have.
I’d go so far as to say that in addition to the sneeze, there’s a slight ‘chipmunky-ness’ to my appearance…
Ellie vs a chipmunk
Personally, I think the resemblance is rather uncanny…
This apparent resemblance to this nut-lovin mammal may have something to do with the fact that I love anything that comes out of a shell. There’s something about the satisfying ‘crack’ as you bust apart that tough exterior to the delicious interior - whether it be walnut, almonds, chestnut or crab…
Yeah, I know regular chipmunks don’t eat crab, but *this* little mammal happens to love ‘em!
Anyway, one encased nut which my furry compadre and I both love, but is highly underrated in human food consumption is the acorn.
There is, of course, a reason that acorns aren’t more widespread in their use in our food, and the reason for that is the high levels of tannins found in them. What’s wrong with tannins? I mean, wine has them, as coffee and some teas…and all three are delicious! While this is true, tannins are somewhat dangerous for us due to the fact that they can rob the body’s absorption of important minerals such as calcium (hallo brittle bones and osteoporosis) and iron (anyone eager for a little anaemia?).
While this sounds pretty icky, there are a few cultures that have managed to find ways to rid acorns of their icky icky tannin situation. One such method stems from Korea - oak trees have always been plentiful on the peninsula, and the abundance of acorns made Koreans try and discover a method of using these as a food source. The harvested acorns are turned into a paste and through many turns of rinsing and sieving, the tannins and fibres are leeched out till just the acorn starch remains.
As for what to do with the starch, why, turn it into jelly of course!
Whilst the jelly itself is quite simple, it is also unfortunately rather flavourless aside from a very slight bitterness from the raw acorn powder. This is why it is generally eaten in a salad-type dish such as this, with a few chopped vegetables and a spicy sauce over the lot. It makes for a wonderfully cooling summer dish, and my mother believes that anyone watching their weight should give this a try as though it is quite filling, it doesn’t leave you weighed down, is fairly low in calories and tastes a helluva lot better than those nasty diet shakes that one of my friends loves so much!
So there you have it! An acorn recipe from the chipmunk of food bloggers - so what are you waiting for? You should go give it a try!
Dotori Mook Muchim
(Acorn Jelly Salad)
Acorn Jelly Ingredients
1 cup acorn starch (found in any Korean grocery store - ask for dotori ggaru)
5 cups cold water
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp olive oil
1. Take a 30cm x 20cm deep glass/ceramic dish (like a lasagna dish) and oil it well, then set aside. Pour acorn starch and water into a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat and begin to whisk briskly and continuously for about 10-15 minutes, or till the mixture turns dark brown and thickens quite substantially.
2. Add the salt and olive oil and continue to whisk for another 2-3 minutes to make sure it is well-combined.
3. Put the lid half over the pot (wedge it up with the whisk if need be) and reduce the heat to low and leave it to bubble and cook for 5 minutes. Give it a quick stir then leave again for another 10 minutes.
4. Turn off the heat and pour the liquid jelly into the oiled dish and leave till it is completely cool and solid.
5. Slice into thin pieces and use in the following salad.
Acorn Jelly Salad Ingredients (serves 3-4)
1/2 quantity of acorn jelly (from above recipe)
Your choice of crunchy vegetables:
- 1 cucumber, julienned
- 1 carrot, grated
- 1/2 bell pepper (red or green), deseeded & finely sliced
or
1 cup ripe kimchi, diced
1-2 sheets toasted nori sheets
3 tbsp light soy sauce
1-2 tsp gochuggaru (Ground red pepper)
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1 tbsp caster sugar
1. Mix together the sliced acorn jelly with the vegetables/kimchi and place onto a dish. Crumble the toasted nori sheets over the top.
2. Pour the soy sauce with the gochuggaru, garlic, sesame oil, sesame seeds and caster sugar into a small container and shake till the sugar has dissolved and everything is mixed up. Pour as much as you’d like over the salad, then serve and enjoy 
(Note - we get lazy so we generally only mix the soy, sugar and sesame together for a quick dressing if we’re making a salad, and forego the dressing altogether if we’re mixing it with kimchi and the ‘juice’ from the kimchi provides ample flavour!)
Technorati Tags: Korean cuisine, chipmunks, recipes, Asian food, acorns, jelly, savoury, vegetarian, vegan
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Comments
holybasil I’ve always wondered how to make this - so thanks for posting the recipe. The salad recipe looks fabulous. Your pics are making me hungry for Korean food!
autumnmist I had been wondering about why more food isn’t made from acorns recently but never got around to googling for the answer. Thanks!
Also, my boyfriend thinks I sneeze like you do. You’re not alone.
Ellie Gattina - Awww 
Thanks hon!
Danielle - Its an unusual one, but I hope people try it
Sabrina - Crazy sneezers, unite! 
Holybasil - Thanks hon
Autumnmist - My pleasure! And I’m glad to hear that there are more crazy sneezers in the world than me 
Kat That dish is so interesting and your sneeze is so cute! I wish I could sneeze like that, I usually scare the person next to me :p
MyKitchenInHalfCups For some reason, your sneeze is not available to me now.
The salad looks lovely. My husband goes "nuts" when the acorns start falling. Blows, rakes and picks them out of the lawn. But they all get thrown out.
Ige I can identify with the weird sneezing. Not that I sneeze like that. Oh, no. No, I don’t sneeze.
I EXPLODE.
As for the acorn thing, that’s quite cool! I should recommend it to my mom - she likes good weight-loss recipes (though she hardly needs them).
Ellie Tanna - I can kinda understand why hubby is so eager to get them outta there! From what I remember seeing in the Korean hillsides - oak trees sprout fast, almost like weeds!
LGE - LOL!! Oh dear, I hope the exploding isn’t too painful! And your mother sounds like mine, at a very healthy weight but constantly seeking the next best dieting solution! *sigh*
beloved Thank you, thank you, and thank you some more! I have been looking for a recipe to actually make the acorn jelly (from powder) for a very long time. No one seems to know how to do this and all the recipes for this salad that I’ve found tell you to buy the jelly at the store, but living in the middle of nowhere, I have no freakin’ store! 
So from the bottom of my acorn-jelly loving heart–THANK YOU!
Ellie Beloved - LOL! Living in Australia, I don’t have access to a lot of those pre-made ingredients so I’ve *got* to know how to make things from scratch I hope you enjoy!
so many new things learnt from you… for your cutie-pie face, your lung power
and acorns!