• Subscribe here!
• Custom Blog Images
• Flickr Album
• Blogroll
• Recipes
• About Me
• Archives
• Home

Not only did I pass my 2 year milestone last month, but was stunned to discover when I made my last post that my next would be my 300th! Yeouch! That is a LOT of writing, photos and recipes - who would’ve thunk that a website that essentially started out as a project for a uni (college) media class would end up becoming such a big part of my life! Reflecting about the content that I have put on here, I’ve been a bit disappointed in myself to discover that the number of Korean family recipes that I’ve shared is still very much in the minority, despite releasing a facebook application (Kimchi Restaurant…new recipes coming soon) and making promises to share more of my mother’s very treasured family recipes. Okay, so part of the reason that the Korean recipes have been a bit sparse is that I am working on a little something to do with them, but considering the fact that we eat a Korean meal almost every day, there’s still a lot of recipes that could be shared!

In celebration of the fact that this is indeed my 300th blog post, I’ve decided to blog about my favourite food in the whole world - kimchi! While I’ve already put up our treasured (and, till it was blogged, quite guarded) family kimchi recipe, I often get emails from browsers and readers asking what they can do with the kimchi once it’s been made! In my opinion, kimchi is fabulous and can be eaten on the side to almost any dish, but you can also utilize it’s wonderfully pungent flavour to create a number of other dishes - three of which I’ll be sharing with you today!

• Kimchi Jeon - Similar to the haemul pajeon, this is a ‘jeon’ (battered dish/pancake) made with kimchi as the main component. This dish needs no dipping sauce as the kimchi contained in the batter provides more than enough flavour!
• Kimchi Bokeum Bap - Kimchi fried rice. Fast, easy and delicious - ’nuff said.
• Kimchi Jjigae - Kimchi stew which will knock your socks off with it’s concentrated flavour. All you need is a bowl of rice and you’re good to go!

Also, a final note - while I appreciate that the food blogging world is all about the sharing of recipes, the Korean recipes that I post are part of my family history and heritage, they’ve been developed by generations of women through my mother’s side of the family and the flavours, techniques and ingredients reflect that. If you do want to repost any of the recipes or an adaptation, all I ask is that you credit and make sure to link back to my site. Not to much to ask, right?

Kimchi Jeon
(Kimchi pancake)

Ingredients
1 cup kimchi, liquid squeezed out and diced
1/2 white onion, finely sliced
100g pork mince
Freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tbsp gochujang (Korean red pepper paste)
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 - 2/3 cup water
Sunflower, olive or any other mild-flavoured oil for frying

1. Put the mince into a bowl, season with freshly ground black pepper and garlic and massage in. Add the kimchi, gochujjang and onion and mix together till evenly combined.

2. Add the flour and egg and mix altogether, then slowly add the water, stirring briskly after each addition. Stop once the batter has thinned a bit but isn’t quite as thin as normal pancake batter.

3. Heat up some oil in a large skillet/frying pan over low-medium heat, and once it’s nice and hot, pour a ladle of batter into the pan in the shape of a circle, using the back of the ladle to spread out the mixture and thin out the pancake (you want a nice thin pancake to get a good ratio of crispy outer to soft inner).

4. Once the edges have become set and the bottom is nice and crispy, carefully flip the pancake and fry for another 2-3 minutes or till it has also crisped up nicely.

5. Place on a bamboo tray lined with paper towels to drain (or just a plate lined with paper towels), slice into squares before serving.

TIPS FOR THIS DISH:

‘Jeon’ is traditionally drained on trays made from thin strands of bamboo woven together - the reason for this is that this allows the steam from the hot batter to get away and not make the fritters/pancakes soggy.

While the amount of gochujjang you use does depend on taste, it is what gives this dish it’s beautiful colour, without it the pancakes will be an awful pale pinky white, and not how you’d ever find it served by any self-respecting Korean cook.

Kimchi Bokeum Bap
(Kimchi fried rice)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups day old dry cooked rice (ideally a medium grain like calrose - we eat brown calrose at home as it’s the closest to Korean rice we have found in Australia)
100g protein (usual/popular choices are crumbled firm tofu, mince or pork belly)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp toasted/dark sesame oil
150g kimchi, liquid drained and reserved and diced
1 spring onion, finely sliced
2 eggs

*Optional: Any variety of diced/sliced veg that you want. None but blanched spinach or any other ‘namul’ would be traditional, but is perfectly acceptable. These should be added at stage 2 after the kimchi.

1. Season your protein with the garlic, pepper and sesame oil and massage in. Heat some oil in a skillet/frying pan over a medium-high flame and when it’s nice and hot, add the protein and fry till cooked.

2. Add the kimchi and continue to saute till it softens, then add the rice and mix quickly with a very light touch (you don’t want to mush the rice grains). Pour the reserved liquid from the drained kimchi into the frying pan and quickly mix in.

3. Turn off the heat and with a very light hand, quickly stir through the sliced spring onion. Divide the mixture onto two plates, fry the eggs and top each serve with a fried egg.

4. Enjoy whilst piping hot, breaking the yolk and mixing it through the cooked rice

TIPS FOR THIS DISH

You cannot make this with fresh rice, this dish (like bibimbap) is one that Korean mothers use to make the most of rice leftover from the previous night’s meal. Ideally, you want to make your rice, allow it to cool then leave it out overnight (covered with cling film). By the next evening it should be nice and dry/firm enough to withstand this cooking process without going mushy.

Kimchi Jjigae
(Kimchi Stew)

Ingredients
100g pork rump, diced (can be substituted with tofu or beef)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp dark/toasted sesame oil
Freshly ground black pepper
350g kimchi, cut into bite-size pieces
2 cups water
1/2 tsp gochugaru (Korean chilli powder - PLEASE do not think you can substitute this with cayenne or any other chilli powder)
1 tsp gochujjang (Korean chilli paste)
1 spring onion, rinsed and finely sliced

1. Massage the garlic, black pepper and sesame oil into the pork and set aside. Heat a little sesame oil in a stoneware/earthenware/regular metal pot and once it’s hot, add the pork, gochugaru and gochujjang and fry till cooked.

2. Add the kimchi to the pot and saute with the pork till it has cooked and softened. Add the water and carefully stir through, then lower the heat and allow to simmer for 30-45mins.

3. Once cooked, turn off the flame, garnish with sliced spring onion and serve with bowls of rice.

TIPS FOR THIS DISH

While using a stone pot is the traditional method for this dish, there’s no problem with just using a regular pot to make it. Just bear in mind that you’ll need to be careful that the kimchi does not stick to the bottom and give it the occasional stir.

Also, this is a very strongly-flavoured dish and consequently, not meant to be served in individual portions (as they’d be quite small and cool down too quickly). It is generally eaten communally, with 2-3 people spooning from a serve. This is incidentally why many Koreans don’t eat their rice with spoons when there is a jjigae (stew) on the table, medium grain rice has the ability to stick together and therefore they’ll eat it with their chopsticks and use the spoon for the stew. No, we’re not a culture that’s particular scared of cooties!

Technorati Tags: kimchi, recipes, Korean, food, culture, heritage, family

Comments

Leave a comment

Name (required)

E-mail (required)

URI

Your Comment

Anti-spam text: (Required)*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security text shown in the picture. Click on the image to regenerate some new text.

Powered by Wordpress | Theme adapted from WP Premium theme by WP Remix
All content © Elizabeth Won (aka Kitchen Wench). All rights reserved

• Home
• Subscribe to Posts
• Archives
• About Me
• Recipe Index
• Blogroll

Australian Food Bloggers Ring
list >> random >> join
Site Ring from Bravenet