Korean Food

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Thanks Sakkarin, will send mailing details

The better Turkish (but in practice anything that will sell in Stokey) green grocer sells those mushrooms grown in Holland, I'm not aware of a Korean community here, perhaps the Vietnamese buy them?

[jeral Profile]

Here's a pic of eryngii muchrooms, a shedload,

Strangely, despite the volume shown, the website (trade only) says they're currently unavailable. Has that Torode chappy bought them all up?

[Sakkarin Profile]

Well two surprises.

Made a fourth batch of Dok Galbi, this time with the authentic rice cakes and korean chilli powder.

The rice cakes are weird. The texture is of wine gums, and they end up chewy and glutinous, in the middle of lots of soft meat and veg. I guess they like the texture in the same way that beef tendon is liked.

The chilli "powder": now it makes sense how they can get away with heaps in the recipes. I took the plunge and ate some raw. It is very mild, more like paprika than chilli, although it has a more robust flavour than (say) Mexican mild chillies. It is fine flakes rather than powder. I have a feeling that there are lots of uses for it where blistering heat is not required of the chillies.

However my mouth is still glowing, after all there are three lots of chillies in the dish, raw, powder and paste.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Your description of the chilli sounds very much like the Turkish pepper flakes I used instead, as dar as I could tell online same Scoville rating

[Sakkarin Profile]

Making some Miyeok-guk (seaweed soup).

I haven't done anything with it yet, but I am astonished how much just 25g of dried seaweed makes when it is rehydrated!

[Sakkarin Profile]

Miyeok-Guk - Seaweed Soup with Beef and Garlic
I was dubious all the way through making this, as the recipe seems half hearted, however it's actually rather good. The soup base reminds me of Thai Rice Soup, very garlicky (I love that soup).

This really is seaweed as an out-and-out vegetable, there really is a lot in the bowl, even though it started out as just 7g of dried seaweed. Sort of cabbagey, but more umami-ey, and a slight glutinousness to the bite. The small amount of beef (about 13g per portion!) does the job, adding another texture and adding flavour. In fact I liked it so much I had seconds!

It would make a fabulous starter for a seafood-themed spread.

EDIT: My version was a combination of the one in my Korean cookbook (mostly) and a recipe I found online.

Next on the list: Green Tea Pork, marinating this moment.

[Renée Profile]

Only 7g of seaweed! It expands quite a lot, doesn't it! Would that be wakame? I would love that.

If I don't reply to your answer, I'm going away tomorrow for a fortnight, just down south, so will catch up on my return.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Griddled Green Tea Pork
Another new ingredient. Very tasty, lots of chilli, as flakes (1 tbs!) in the salad and paste in the "chutney". Criticisms: some of the pork rind was a bit too chewy, and I could have been even more generous with the green tea powder. I think I'd like a little hint of sweetness in the "chutney" too, as the tea and the dressing both have a bitter tinge.

Previous post: yes Renee, it is apparently the same as wakame, in fact the receipt says it IS wakame. 200g for £2.98. At just 25g for four portions, it should last me forever! P.S. I see Japan Centre sells 40g of wakame for £1.79. That's three times the Ying Wip price. Have a great holiday...
https://www.japancentre.com/en/products ... ed-seaweed

[Renée Profile]

Wow! That's a good price at Wing Yip's compared to the Japan Centre. I'll look into it when I get back. I used to find that the Japan Centre's miso was always a good price.

Thanks for your good wishes for my holiday!

[Renée Profile]

Your Griddled Green Tea Pork looks lovely, but a shame about the rind. Would that be Gunpowder green tea?

[Sakkarin Profile]

Would that be Gunpowder green tea?

Nope, Tesco Green Tea teabags emptied and ground to powder in spice grinder

Today's first course:


Dubu Kimchi: Tofu with Kimchi and Crispy Pork
Very tasty snack or starter. No added chilli other than what comes in the kimchi, so not too fiery.

Not sure it would completely convert a tofu-hater, but I enjoyed it.

Not the recipe I used, but similar:
http://www.koreanbapsang.com/2010/10/du ... imchi.html

[Sakkarin Profile]

Beoseot Chungol - Beef and Mushroom Hotpot
Great. Another of those oriental dishes that seems innocuous on first mouthful, but the flavour evolves and builds as you eat it.

Used four types of mushroom, but you can't really see the Enoki, they've disappeared into it, you can see a few stringy bits near the front. Next time I'll add them near the end. Also used big fat Eryngii mushrooms for the first time, very meaty.

£1.35 worth of beef skirt (150g) stretched to this very beefy portion, and 4 portions of the beef and seaweed soup yesterday.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Japchae - Sweet Potato Noodles (with Chicken)
That was pretty good, the sweet potato noodles end up slithery and solid enough that the only way to eat them is to slurp them. Their texture and mouthfeel was vaguely familiar although I can't place it.

Slightly too much soy in the seasoning so it was a bit salty, I used 8 tablespoons as per the Torode recipe (actually 4 because I did half), I think I'd reduce it to 5 or 6. I also added a bit of mirin and garlic to the seasoning/marinade as per most of the YouTube vids I watched.

Mine had onion, carrot, courgette, fresh spinach, spring onion and the last of that eryngii mushroom, with dried shiitake cooking in with the marinated meat.

EDIT: Just counted back, and this is the 12th dish I've made in this second flirtation with Korean food, and I've still got a couple more up my sleeve!

[Stokey Sue Profile]

OK, so this is tonight's version of a pork bulgogi rice bowl
This time I had perilla and kinchi, as required and as Sakkarin gave me some rice sticks I did them as a side dish
I think I probably dislike them less, but it is a bit like chewing a school pencil eraser even when carefully cooked

IMG_20170810_2047210_rewind.jpg (763.58 KiB) Viewed 8214 times

[Sakkarin Profile]

Looks very different to my Bulgogi on page 2 in this thread! I guess as the Bulgogi bit is the cooked beef, you can basically do what you want with it, although I confess my one was done in that 1950s "framed by the rice" style that my mum used to do with curries - and with a bit of kimchi strewn around as an afterthought...

Your rice cakes look like the ones on display in a "streetfood" section of the Torode programme, in which they snipped those longer chunks up into bite-size pieces as they served them. Doesn't make them any less chewinggummy though.

This thread has been running 4 months now! Still a few left to go personally, the Gimbap sushi rolls and some pork and tofu dumplings, maybe the mung pancakes; there's a couple of other ones I spotted but can't recall.

[Sakkarin Profile]

I'm intrigued tp find out how the Korean chilli compared with your Turkish flakes, Stokey, have you done a side-by-side?

I actually tasted some of the Korean stuff raw to check its heat, it really is that mild. I wouldn't call it "flakes" though, rather coarsely ground "not quite powder".

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Well, here it is

Chilli Chilli Chilli

IMG_20170812_0943004_rewind.jpg (739.83 KiB) Viewed 8179 times

The Korean is weirdly granular, like aquarium gravel
When you taste it, because it is dried so hard, at first you get nothing, then the heat and a bit of fruity flavour hit you

The Aleppo pepper is dried with a trace of veg oil so it stays as supple flakes that can be sprinkled over meze dishes. So the heat and flavour hit you more quickly as you don't have to wait for your saliva to rehydrate it

Not a lot of obvious difference in heat, not much in flavour either but writing this it has just occurred to me that I'll get a better comparison of how they will be when cooked if I hydrate them before tasting, so I'll go and do that

[Stokey Sue Profile]

OK, results just in from the kitchen

I put 2 level tsp of each with 60 ml boiling water , stirred well and left until cold

Colour: the gochugaru was a nice clear pinky red, much more eye appeal than the rather brownish red of the Turkish which was a bit scummy looking due to the oil

Odour: this surprised me, the Turkish smelled like a fruit tea, quite noticeable, the Korean had hardly odour just a faintly savoury smell

Heat: really much the same and not very hot

Flavour: just what you'd expect from the odour, not much flavour in the Korean, the Turkish had much more fruity flavour, and that rich fruity paprika like flavour is supposed to be the characteristic of Aleppo pepper

So, there it is. Now I need to get some French piment d'Espelette to try, think it will be similar to the Turkish

Eta PS the Korean softens nicely when hydrated

[kavey Profile Website]

I adore the cylindrical Korean rice cakes precisely for that chewy texture, like mochi, I just love it against the soft meat and crunchy cabbage and onions...

Korean chilli powder that I got from local Korean restaurant was finely grown but more robust flavour than other powders I knew, fairly fiery but you could use a large amount - which sounds like a contradiction I know!

[Sakkarin Profile]

Had to Google "mochi" (glutinous rice cake) - I tried the chewy rice sweets back in the Yeohin Plaza days, and they were quite good, like extra chewy marshmallows. Good enough to get them a second time on a subsequent trip! The rice sticks I have are a chewiness too far for me, though. I've still got loads left, maybe I'll look for a recipe that involves more cooking. In the recipe I used, they were just immersed in hot water for 10 minutes before adding to the stew. There again for all I know I might have OVERcooked them in the stew. (EDIT: This is the recipe I am going to use - I even have the dried anchovies and kelp (kombu) to hand)

Yesterday's delights:

Kimbap/Gimbap - Korean Sushi Rolls
The Korean version of Sushi. Not the prettiest, as it's got to be at least a decade since I last made sushi rolls! My filling: bulgogi, yellow pickled radish, egg strips, cucumber, spinach and carrot. Next time I'd add in a bit of extra gochugang sauce. Much prefer these to Japanese sushi as they are not ashamed to ramp up the savouriness, ate the lot. I also like that the filling takes precedence over the rice...



"Naked" Bulgogi
I thought I'd include a piccy of the unadulterated Bulgogi, as it's hidden by the other ingredients in my main Bulgogi and Kimbap pics. It really does shrink an awful lot, so a surprising amount of beef needed - this little plateful (a cappucino saucer) took 150g of skirt beef.