to try I.

One of two untested recipes from a cookbook that I had zero faith in but the first (third?) recipe I cooked from it was really great. For this one I think I'd sub actual parmesan for the nutritional yeast. 

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rice cakes with white beans and gochujang. 

INGREDIENTS
5 garlic cloves, peeled
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
125g carrots, roughly chopped
1 celery stalk, roughly chopped

15g basil, leaves cut into strips and stems kept separately
3 tbsp olive oil
1 x 400g can peeled tomatoes

2 x 400g cans of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
10g gochujang
100g ricecake sticks

cheesy sesame topping
1 and ½ tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp gochugaru 
¼ tsp coarse sea salt

METHOD
Finely grind the garlic in a food processor. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and basil stems to the garlic and grind into small pieces.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped vegetables and ¼ teaspoon of salt and cook for 7 to 8 minutes until softened.

Meanwhile, blend the contents of the can of peeled tomatoes and a scoop of borlotti or cannellini beans in a blender until smooth.

Stir the gochujang into the vegetables and cook for 1 minute. Then add the tomato-bean mixture and cook for another 4 to 5 minutes until the liquid has largely reduced. Add 450ml water, the rice cake sticks, the remaining beans, and ¾ teaspoon of salt, and bring to a boil while stirring regularly.

Let simmer uncovered for 10 to 12 minutes until the rice cake sticks are cooked.

Mix the ingredients for the cheesy sesame topping: divide the rice cake sticks with beans among the bowls and garnish with basil leaves and the sesame topping.

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rice cakes.

Not the styrofoamy ones.  Tteokbokki.

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doenjang jjigae.

I haven't enjoyed many of The Korean Vegan's recipes to date, but maybe my expectations were too high, you know how that can go. Yesterday I made an adapted version of her doenjang jjigae and it's great. 

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doenjang jjigae. 

INGREDIENTS
2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 tbsp gochugaru

1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 green onions, greens and whites separate
5 large shiitake mushrooms, sliced

1 substantial sweet potato, peeled and cubed
3 tbsp doenjang
2 tbsp soy sauce

500ml vegetable stock, I used mushroom
400-500g firm tofu, Nguyen-d and cubed

METHOD
Need to write. 

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sloppy go.

This worked pretty well as something to put on a witte puntje so as not to slit ones wrists due to boredom. 

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sloppy go. 

1 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp gochujang
2 tsp vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sake
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp honey

1 small onion, diced small
200g plant-based ground meat, unflavored 

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kimchi.

I think I made half of this last time, it was perfect.

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green cabbage kimchi.

INGREDIENTS
1 about 3.5 lb (1.5 kg) green cabbage
6 tbsp Korean coarse sea salt divided
2 cup (480 ml) water
1/2 - 1 cup (120 -240 mll) extra water for kimchi brine

1/2 small onion diced
4 cloves garlic
1/2 inch piece ginger chopped
3 tbsp vegetarian fish sauce
2 tbsp cooked white rice 
1 red apple, cored (optional?)
2 tbsp water
4 fresh red chili diced, optional
7 tbsp Korean chili flakes (gochugaru)
1 tbsp sugar
3 green onion chopped

METHOD
Cut and dice the cabbage into 1-1/2 inch pieces. Try to separate the cabbage layers. Rinse them well and place them in a large mixing bowl.

Mix 4 tablespoons of salt with 2 cups of water until the salt dissolves. Pour it over the cabbage and toss well. Sprinkle the remaining salt on top, pressing down gently. Let the cabbage soak for 1 hour, turning it once halfway through.

To make the kimchi paste, combine the onion, garlic, ginger, apple, fish sauce, cooked rice, and about 2 tablespoons of water in a blender to help the blades run smoothly. Puree them until very smooth. Add the fresh chili and pulse a few times to finely process the chili but not pureed completely. Pour the mixture in a bowl and add the gochugaru (Korean chili flakes) and sugar; mix well.

Once the cabbage is wilted, rinse it twice and drain well. Place it in a large mixing bowl, add the green onion and kimchi paste, and, wearing plastic kitchen gloves, toss everything together to coat the cabbage evenly with the seasoning.

Transfer the kimchi to an airtight container. Pour the extra 1/2 to 1 cup of water into the kimchi mixing bowl, swirl it around to collect any remaining kimchi paste, and then pour it back over the kimchi.

Cover the kimchi with the lid and let it sit on a counter for 1 day and then, store in the refrigerator for 3-4 more days for better fermentation.

koreatown.

Tonight, the multi-component wonderfulness of bibimbap. This one featured that same old great spinach, a tofu teriyaki, a tamago-y egg, a fusion-y risotto, sesame carrots, scallions, peppers, and the following steak.

Which! Is also a recipe for KFC, or Korean Fried Chicken. Basically instead of using the below as a marinade, you puree it and use it as a sauce in which you toss your properly baked or fried chicken wings. Fascinating stuff, I know.

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ginger-marinated steak with gochujang.

4 scallions, chopped
1 cup cilantro leaves with tender stems
3 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
2 tbsp gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)
1 tbsp grated peeled ginger
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp roasted sesame oil
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp raw sugar
2 or 4 garlic cloves, minced
400g steak

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sigemuchi namul.

My picture doesn't do it justice, but basically following this recipe exactly resulted in a simply perfect room temperature Korean/Japanese side dish.

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sesame and garlic spinach.

1 big bag of spinach, washed
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
2 scallions, chopped fine
1 tbsp soy sauce, or more, to taste
2 tsp sesame oil, or more to taste
1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

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bao project @ scimmieland.

Baooooooooo!!! Bao bao! B'bao!

It's always a great thing when the Mara meets a new exotic foodstuff that she feels passionate about, because that means our kitchen will be producing a pretty fucking authentic version of said foodstuff before you can say lickety-split (?...ignore me).


















Which brings us to tonight's story: a few weeks ago (as documented here and here) the flaming mooperbird encountered her first ever Taiwanese bao, served up by the Bao Project ladies at a couple of different locations in our hood. And so tonight? We have our own bao.























And Jesus, fuck! This is no piddly trial run: as lovely as the Bao Project ladies' wares were, Jimmy hit the jackpot tonight. In the interest of politeness, I will say that ours are at least as good.

I shall try to adequately notate our wonderland of eating adventure, primarily so that we can make all this shitz for you next time you come over. These were all four stellar, in all probability barely-improvable, at least by me.

Here's what we hadz, in descending order of greatness (qua my taste buds), but they were within decimal points of each other on the goodness scale:

1) "Char siu" tofu with Momofuku salt/sugar cucumber pickles, toasted sesame seeds, roasted peanuts, cilantro. A few drops of Szechuan chili oil would also not suck I imagine.

2) Lemongrass-coconut milk chicken, toasted coconut, Momofuku pickled carrots, peanuts, sriracha, cilantro. A close second place.

3) Teriyaki salmon, salt+sugar cukes, wasabi/mayo, sesame seeds, furikake, peanuts, scallions. I liked this more than Mara did, it possibly needed a little more moisture. Possibly Momofuku's pickled mustard seeds would fix that right up.

4) BBQ tofu, pickled carrots, salt+sugar cukes.This is in 4th place for me but was still totally lekker and was Mara's fave I think.























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momofuku's steamed buns, adapted. 

makes 30 buns

1 tbsp plus 1 tsp active dry yeast
1 and 1/2 cups water, at room temperature
4 and 1/4 cups plain ol' flour (not self-rising)
6 tbsp white sugar
3 tbsp coffee cream (was supposed to be milk powder but toko was closed)
1 tbsp salt

rounded 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup soft butter, at room temperature (should've been lard but we don't use lard)



















Combine everything, knead it a bit. Put it in an oiled bowl to rise in a warmish place for 90 minutes or until doubled in size. Punch it down and turn out onto a surface. Slice into strips, roll strips into logs, cut logs into ping-pong-ball-size shapes (this is for a smallish bao). Let them rest and rise for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, for the number of balls you have, cut out small pieces of parchment paper for them to steam on. When they've risen then you flatten them and roll them with a rolling pin into oval shapes. The next thing is fold them, we did do the Momofuku buttered chopstick thing, but MT is skeptical as to whether or not this is critical. In any case, after they're folded, let them rest for 30-40 minutes. DO NOT PUT THEM IN OR ON A WARM OVEN, cuz the little bao mouths fuse together.

Put them on the parchment, steam for 10 minujos.

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char siu tofu.

200 grams tofu
3 tbsp mirin + 1 tbsp red wine (we were lacking proper ingredients, but this was delicious)
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp grated ginger
1 garlic clove, optional
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 drop red food coloring, yes, probably made from crushed bugskulls, i know, gross.

This was perfect under our circumstances, but this could be more finely tuned probably. Was still great. Cut tofu, fry in neutral oil and a little butter, coat with sauce and brown to correct brownness. Not much of a recipe I guess.

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day eleven.

I mean yes, I do like both of those things.

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Progress report: DJ gig successful; tofu pancakes way better than I imagined; everything else still proving a bit problematic.

Tonight: some kind of kimchi chicken thing, haven't worked out the details. Though I don't imagine there are too many details to work out: kimchi, chicken, sesame oil, scallions, maybe an extra blast of ginger, my head is congested all of the sudden.

UPDATE: In reality, this chicken ended up being pretty dynamite b/c I found this last bit of red dragon sauce, so imagine: all of the above ingredients, plus cilantro, plus this red dragon sauce. Goooooood. 

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on the beet.

Just made something really pretty great that I should make a note about, because I've basically been making variations of it for three days now and they're good every time. It's kind of Momofuku-based, but meatless. Bonus: it was nice with a side of hash browns.

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butter-browned tofu and mushrooms with ginger-scallion sauce and quick-pickled beets and cucumbers. 

1/2 block firm tofu, cubed
1 cup some kind of mushroom, sliced
an onion of some sort, chopped
1 or 2 tbsp butter
2 tsp gochujang (or sriracha for a different heat)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 or 2 tsp raw sugar
salt
black pepper
1/2 cup scallions, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

from Momofuku:
2 tbsp ginger-scallion sauce
kimchi puree (optional)
quick pickled cucumbers
quick pickled beets

Saute mushrooms in dry pan until nicely browned. Remove. Add butter, tofu, and onion, saute on low heat until tofu is nicely browned. Return mushrooms and add everything else except kimchee puree and pickles. Saute for a few more minutes, adjust seasoning, serve with kimchi puree and pickles as garnish.

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you. keep. on. eatin' cars.

Ja. Still not blogging, this isn't blogging, this is just pre-coffee typing to document a couple of facts.

1) I have taken something out of the freezer that no one can identify, and I am thinking about eating it. It has many of the characteristics of pumpkin soup, and yet it smells strongly of fish and smoke. No one remembers making this, but it must have been made since December when we cleaned out the freezer. I know I made a smoked pumpkin soup in November, but this can't be that. I mention all of this in case I die from eating this. UPDATE: it seems to be a smoked mackerel and pumpkin soup. I remember talking about trying this, but I remember nothing about making it. It's pretty good, if it doesn't kill me.

2) In the past couple of weeks I've twice made a very good Mexican roasted chicken recipe from Zarela Martinez: basically rub the chicken with a mixture of black pepper, cumin, cloves, oregano, and thyme; stick a couple of cloves of sliced garlic under the skin in strategic places; give the whole thing a splash of apple cider vinegar and and salt liberally. Marinate for more than 1 and less than 6 hours. Roast as you would a regular old chicken. I served with basic black beans and a quick chile sauce from Elizabeth Lambert Ortiz's Book of Latin American Cooking, called salsa de chile ancho y almendra. Really good.

3) Yesterday, Korean food. Every single time we make Korean food I say something like "why don't we make this more often": it's fast, easy, healthy, and great. Last night was "salmon bulgogi" (based on a Rozanne Gold recipe) with a side of kim chi, perfectly good.

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salmon bulgogi.

2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/3 cup scallions, chopped
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
one 3/4-inch cube peeled fresh ginger
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
3/4 tsp dochujang

four 125 gr salmon fillets

Process first eight ingredients in a food processor til smooth, pour over salmon (possibly reserving a little marinade to drizzle over at the end if you don't mind raw garlic), marinate for an hour. Bake salmon in the oven for 15 minutes at 200C. Serve with kim chi on the side maybe, or some kind of other milder pickle.

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boo, hiss, slurp.

I'm sick. Hopefully not with Mara's 3-week-long head cold. Time for some homeopathic sinus deblockificationizer and een beetje bed rest.

Plus a quick and desperate kimchi jigae.

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kimchi jigae.

1 cup kimchi, cut into manageable bites
3 tbsp mirin
1 fa chong
1/2 cup scallion whites
1/2 cup scallion greens
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1 cup tofu, cubed
2 cups dashi

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dit is wat je niet mag doen.

Mara found this lying in a puddle on the street and was compelled to rescue it due to its awesome sad weirdness. At the top it says "Dit is wat je niet mag doen", or "This is what you mustn't do". And then there's the illustration of this thing that must not be done, which is mysterious in the extreme. Obviously a family, but where are they? In a tent? And what could possibly be inadvisable about their supplicating posture? I'd love to hear any ideas.

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Below, top: last night's unphotogenic but excellent bibimbap by Mara. Middle: current inhabitants of the kitchen island, also by Mara. Bottom: Surinamese snijbonen by me, easy and good.

pinks, blues.

I won't bore you with most of the details of what happened after my fast, let me just assure you that most of the details were boring and even worse predictably so.

The above picture is a subtle hint that I did succeed at making a vegetarian borscht, and it was very good (caraway and dill together are confusingly complementary), although I have to say that I had a hard time remaining enthusiastic about the beets themselves for more than a meal or two, what with the 4 days of beet-juice-only that preceded the borscht.













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Something I am quite enthusiastic about at the moment is tonight's bibimbap, even though I just overcooked the fucking broccoli because I forgot that I didn't really know how to use the lovely Robot Steamer that Klary gifted to me:













I was a tad skeptical about whether or not this would be better/easier than my bamboo steamer, and I must admit, I think it is. Assuming that one manages to remember to check on the damn items being steamed.

Luckily my gochujang condiment thingie didn't require any steaming so I couldn't fuck it up. I've been looking for some new and exciting things to do with broccoli, and this gochujang business is, though not "new", pretty great on broccoli. Score.

The paste itself is called gochujang, I'm sure that the condiment I'm about to provide the recipe for is called something different, I just don't feel like looking it up at the mo.

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gochujang condiment business for bibimbap.

3 healthy tbsp gochujang paste
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp rice vinegar or 2 tbsp cider vinegar + 1 tbsp water
1-2 tbsp water

I just shzoomed all of this up in the food processor b/c the gochujang is really thick and resists whisking pretty fiercely. The ratios above resulted in a better-than-usual mix of spicy, sweet, and salty. Just go easy on the water at first.

ten fat seconds.

The Filipino-style Chinese donut, or shtekeleh, is the great contribution of the District of Sitka to the food lovers of the world. In its present form, it cannot be found in the Phillippines. No Chinese trencherman would recognize it as the fruit of his native fry kettles. Like the storm god Yahweh of Sumeria, the shtekeleh was not invented by the Jews, but the world would sport neither God nor the shtekeleh without Jews and their desires. A panatela of fried dough not quite sweet, not quite salty, rolled in sugar, crisp-skinned, tender inside, and honeycombed with air pockets. You sink it in your paper cup of milky tea and close your eyes, and for ten fat seconds, you seem to glimpse the possibility of finer things.

Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policeman's Union

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We had some folks over for a semi-impromptu dinner the other night, and I decided that, rather than continue to borrow Andy's Korean cookbook every couple of months and then forget I had it, I would return the cookbook once and for all, and commemorate the occasion by actually cooking some things out of it. And invite him over to eat it, since he's actually spent some time in Korea and would have some idea about accuracy.

So, I decided to try bibimbap (eG thread here) for the first time, since it seems to be one of those dishes that people get hooked on, and you know me, I can't help but enjoy getting hooked on all manner of things. When I told Klary that I was making bibimbap, she told me to "be careful, this could turn into a very healthy dinner," and I quickly realized she was absolutely correct. So we added donuts to the menu (hoddeok).

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The bibimbap was fun to make, essentially very easy, and yes...healthy. It also provided a useful cooking lesson, in that the cooked vegetables were prepared with almost exclusively sesame oil, salt and garlic, with no soy sauce at all. I didn't realize that this was an option: it's actually way more multi-dimensional on the tongue than using soy sauce as the salty element, and more effectively highlights the natural flavors of the vegetables themselves, and in more distinctive ways. Me likey.

We used carrots, zucchini, gai lan, pak soi (each cooked separately and then separately dressed with sesame oil, salt, and garlic), mung bean sprouts (same dressing plus a little rice vinegar and a surprising amount of sugar) and bulgogi. We served it over our standard, completely non-traditional bulgur recipe: a little butter and a little soy sauce, sprinkled with furikake. We almost never make white rice anymore, it just seems to lose on every front in a direct comparison with bulgur: taste, texture, nutrition.

We also did pa jeon, scallion pancakes with minced shellfish (we used crayfish/rivierkreeften). These were good, I think they could've been better with more shellfish. And the dipping sauce recipe I used failed a last minute taste test and had to be scrapped in favor of a diluted soy sauce and sesame oil thing with a dash of black vinegar. Anyway, I'd like to try them again.

And then Mara, in addition to actually cooking the bulgur and pa jeon, decided to go nuts and bust out some hoddoek. I love it when she does this: I dive into an ambitious cooking project and she jumps right after me into the dessert end of the pool.

Hoddeok are donuts, like Chabon's shtekeleh above, that are not overly sweet, and sometimes rolled in sugar after they're fried. The molten center can contain a variety of fillings: ours contained either brown sugar and cinnamon, or honey and peanuts.

You know this, but I'll say it anyway: there's nothing like a hot donut. These were excellent, and yes, dipping them in a hot breakfast liquid the next day yielded shtekeleh-esque results.































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