I am very excited to introduce you to this surprise dish. It takes you only at $4 (for 3 persons) and several minutes to cook this. But, this is surprisingly delicious. In this dish, we use only one pan.
Ingredients: pork (front leg) 300g fish sauce 1 tablespoon sugar 1 tablespoon onion 1 chive to garnish salt and pepper
1. Cut vegetables.
2. Sprinkle sugar on the preheated pan. Make sure that the pan is very hot.
3. When sugar turns brown, place pork on the pan.
4. Season it with salt and pepper. Use a minimum amount of salt as we season this more with fish sauce.
5. When the surface of pork is cooked, add fish sauce and stir it.
6. Add vegetables. Place pork on top of vegetables.
I like eggs benedict. Who wouldn't? I really like my eggs soft cooked, which is best done when poached. The creamy sauce with acidity on top of eggs and savory bacons...and they are also pretty to look at.
There are lot of reasons to like eggs benedicts. However, I hate the fact that I end up eating 4 egg yolks. I don't mind cholesterol. But, why do I have to eat one item of food for a brunch, which in fact replaces two meals. So, I have found a perfect sauce for myself.
Ingredients
eggs 2 Canadian bacon 2 English muffin 1
sauce: heavy cream 1/2 cup lemon juice 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 1/2 teaspoon cheddar cheese 2 slices potato starch to cover 3 areas of cheddar cheese
1. Coat both sides of one of the cheddar slices with potato starch. Put the other cheddar slice on it. Sprinkle the top of the cheddar slice with potato starch. Only 3 areas should be coated with potato starch. This will give a perfect consistency to the sauce. Cut the cheese into smaller pieces.
2. Make the sauce. In a saucepan, pour 1/2 cup of heavy cream and add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice when the pan is not hot (lemon juice might break the cream if added at a high temperature). Stir the mixture well.
3. Add 1/2 teaspoon of Dijon mustard.
4. Put cheddar pieces in the sauce. Season it with salt and mix the sauce well.
5. Roast English muffin and Canadian bacon on a pan without oil.
6. Bring a pot to a boil. Place an egg in a small bowl.
7. When water starts to boil (around 80 degree C), place the above egg in the water, using a spatula. Keep the egg in water for 2-3 minutes.
Dduck-boggi is a Korean street food. The beauty of a street food is that we should go low-end at every element of a dish. Usually, we use dried-anchovy stock to make this. But, making fish stock to make a street food? I don't think so.
But, without the stock, we need to use MSG. But, that is not acceptable. Then, what should we do? I can't eat something not tasty.
I have found a perfect solution.
Ingredients (for two persons) rice cake 200g green onion 1-2 cabbage (sliced) 2 cups water 2 cups fish sauce 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes 2 tablespoon maltose syrup 1 tablespoon apple vinegar 1/2 teaspoon fish cake 2 sheets
1. Stir-fry green onion and cabbage on a preheated pan. Make sure that the pan is hot enough and there is not much liquid coming from vegetables.
If there is liquid from vegetables, the temperate of the pan doesn't go beyond 100 degree C. Then, there will not be enough caramelization or Maillard Reaction - which are developed at 120-180 degree C.
2. Pour fish sauce on the bottom of the pan - NOT on vegetables.
Fish sauce has protein and sugar in it. When protein and sugar are cooked at 120-170 degree C, they create explosive chemical reactions, which develop hundreds of different flavors - this is what they call "Maillard Reaction" or "browning reaction".
If we pour fish sauce over liquid, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to develop flavors from it. We will just get the Umani (savory) flavor from fish sauce. But, it is not enough to make the sauce flavorful.
3. Deglaze the pan with 2 cups of water. When we poured fish sauce on the pan, it got stuck to the pan and left brown bits. We need to melt these in water - this makes our dduck-boggi sauce tasty without stock or MSG.
4. Put rice cake in the pan. Put the lid on and wait until rice cake gets soft.
5. Pour red pepper flakes. Then turn the heat to a lower level and wait until dduck-boggi sauce thickens.
6. Taste it. Even though we have no sugar yet, it should be sweet from caramelization of green onion and cabbage. Put 1 tablespoon of maltose to make the sauce glossy.
7. Add 1/2 teaspoon of vinegar to take care of any fishiness from fish sauce and fish cakes.
8. Enjoy the dish with a cut of boiled egg.
I have a Korean maekbansok egg on my plate. I did this to make a point. This egg has also gone through the Maillard Reaction and that is why it is brown.
It is cooked at much lower temperature than 120 degree C though. It seems that each food has a different temperature to reach the browning point or the high pressure built under the egg shell during the cooking process helps increase the temperature in the shell.
Bulgogi is probably the most common Korean food. But, it is not so easy to make. Bulgogi was the first Korean food I tried to cook. I followed the standard recipe but failed miserably. It was shockingly salty and sweet.
For the last several years, 80% of my bulgogi failed. One day, I made some mistakes while I was making it. However, it turned out very delicious. It was perfectly seasoned. The recipe, which was consummated by my mistakes, is as follows.
Ingredients: Beef 2.5kg
To marinate: onion 1 (350g) pear* 1 (500g) green onion 2 (white parts only) garlic 20 cloves soy sauce 150ml cooking wine 50ml green plum syrup** 50ml brown sugar 2 tablespoon sesame oil 2 tablespoon pepper
To pan-fry***: apple mushroom onion green onion carrot
* in case you don't have a pear, replace it with onions (500g). ** if there is no green plum syrup, use sugar (30ml) and lemon juice (20ml) ***any vegetables except for "buchu", a Korean chive, will do for bulgogi. Buchu and beef can give an indigestion if eaten together.
1. Put all ingredients except for beef in a blender. Then, blend it. That is it.
2. Pour sauce at the bottom of a container. Place a thin strip of beef. Repeat this until all beef is marinated.
3. Keep the above in a refrigerator.
Usually, I have a pear in the sauce. But, I didn't have one this time. How I cope with that is as follows.
4. Cut a 1/4 apple into thin strips.
5. Pan-fry marinated beef with apple strips and vegetables.
In fact, apple strips at the time of pan-frying add enormous fruitiness and great texture, more than replacing a pear.
What was the original recipe and what were my mistakes?
The original recipe called for only 3 tablespoons of onion and pear juice respectively to marinate 1.5kg of beef.
I put a whole pear and an onion in a blender to make juice. But, the blender didn't work due to the lack of liquid. Instead of water, I poured soy sauce and other liquid ingredients, which are the same measurement in my recipe above.
I came to realize that I had too much of pear and onion juice and thought that I failed again, which was no big deal. My sauce was way too much underseasoned. But, I could add more soy sauce, sugar and etc.
But, my mistake-altered sauce was just right for me in terms of saltiness and sweetness. It was just right to marinate up to 3kg of beef. Also, it is so simple. Instead of cutting vegetables and layering them with meat, I just put everything in a blender and then just pour over meat.
Have you ever tried mochi (sweet rice cake)? Mochi is a popular dessert in Korea. Usually, we have red bean paste in mochi. When I was travelling in Japan 20 years ago, someone gave me mochi. When I bit into it, I was nicely surprised -- what was inside was a strawberry. I thought that it was creative and delicious.
On a separate note, I had a dilemma. I really like to eat seedless grapes together with cream cheese. I made the cheese ball several times and it needed something to seal the cheese in. I tried sesame seeds, almond flakes, coconut powder. None of these worked. One day, it occurred to me, "why don't I have it in mochi?"
Ingredients seedless grapes 12 sweet rice flour 1 cup white sugar 2 tablespoons water 1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons cream cheese 20g
1. Coat grapes with cream cheese by using two teaspoons.
2. Mix sweet rice flour with sugar and water. Put it in a steamer for 20 minutes. Check it a couple of times and stir it.
3. Knead the dough strongly with spoon after turning the heat off.
4. Generously sprinkle potato starch over a paper foil. Place the rice flour dough over it. Flatten the rice flour dough by using potato starch coated spoons.
5. When the above cools off, place a plastic wrap over it. Put a tray on top of it and turn it over.
6. By using a pair of scissors, cut the rice flour dough in the size to cover the grape cheese ball.
7. Make the dough into a ball shape by using a plastic wrap.
I remember the time when I first made this for my family. My nieces and nephews went crazy. My brother in law and a niece are still asking "where did you buy those ribs?" I myself was nicely surprised by the taste of my ribs.
Ingredients
Baby ribs 1.5kg
For steaming green onion 1-2 minced garlic 2-3 bay leaf 1
For sauce (measuring unit: a quarter cup) sugar 6 sriracha 3 worcester sauce 1.5 soy sauce 1.5 rum 1.5 ketchup 1.5 mustard powder 1 teaspoon pepper
1. Soak ribs in cold water to get rid of blood
2. Remove silver skin on the back of ribs by using paper towels.
3. Blanching ribs in boiling water (with green onions, garlic and bay leaves) for 1-2 minutes. Then, take them out and put in icy water.
4. Rinse off any blood and impurities on ribs.
5. Put ribs back on the steamer and steam it for one hour at a very low temperature. By doing this, we keep all moisture in meat but it is still falling off the bone.
6. Make the sauce. Leave the sauce at room temperature.
7. Cool off the ribs after steaming it. Put sauce and ribs in a zipper bag. Keep it in a refrigerator for 1-2 days.
8. Put marinated ribs in a preheated pan. Add more sauce. Braise ribs until they get nice brown color and sauce is fully caramelized.
