KOREAN - Cuisine of the Quarter, Winter 2019 (Jan-Mar)

Is there a Korean brand you like?

My mom likes the Sempio brand, they have some nice soy sauces. I’m personally not picky on soy sauce, I usually pick up a tub of Kikkoman and call it a day.

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This is my current line-up. So I, too, am on the cusp of “soy crazy.” The Bragg’s is great. When it’s on sale at Whole Foods, I buy up a bunch.
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Oh…ummmmm…
I didn’t count my Braggs as soy! :joy:
It’s “liquid aminos”! I used to have a jar like the one on the far right of this photo but last time i was in chinatown I apparently was dazed by the condiment wall and forgot to get it

What do you use the rightmost one for?

I bought dark soy ages ago for a recipe and now it just sits there… next to some of its close relatives :joy:

You could probably get away with replacing all 4 bottles with a regular Japanese Kikkoman type soy sauce.

I see thick soy sauce (the 1st jar on the right) usually in stir fry or braise recipes. It’s really more like a paste than the thin “pourable” soy sauces we think of.

Dark soy sauce is indispensible in my house. I use it quite a bit for making other sauces where I don’t want a predominantly salty profile that regular soy sauce leaves. E.g., dumpling dipping sauces, sesame/peanut noodle sauce, etc.

I have tamari, a Japanese “light” soy sauce (rarely use this; not very fond of this product), regular soy sauce, dark soy sauce. I used to have a sweet soy sauce, that I’ve since gotten rid of after little use, so I’m back within the range of “not crazy”.

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Finally have time to make bibimbap, Bulgogi, soy marines grilled beef recipe based on the recipe from Koreatown. As for toppings, they were aged cabbage kimchi, radish leaves kimchi, enoki mushrooms, baby cucumber pickles and ginger pickles. I read somewhere that this rice is in fact a good way to use up leftovers. With gochujang sauce and an egg. Bulgogi was very good, as for the topping, there were too many variations of flavours and a bit confusing.

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This was a recipe in a Korean cookbook?

Beautiful presentation! If I may add a couple of points / suggestions

To start, there are generally no rules for bibimbap. If you mix it up and eat it, it’s bibimbap and what you like in it is up to you.

Having said that…

All foods items in BBB should be small pieces or strips. You want to mix up the whole thing and get a bit of everything in each bite. A common mistake for example is keeping meat in large chunks, it will be disruptive to achieving that goal.

Kimchi should be left out of bibimbap and eaten as a side palate cleanser. You want to be able to have that back and forth with the savoryness of BBB and tartness of the kimchi. If you mix kimchi into BBB, it dominates the other flavors. Same with the ginger pickles.

That mushroom would probably be much better lightly sauteed, but personal preference and all.

Also, be sure to use plenty of sesame oil!

And yes BBB is a great vehicle for leftovers. In fact, in most cases Koreans don’t “make” bibimbap at home. It’s just something that’s thrown together with existing banchan (side dishes) that are in the fridge.

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Yes and no, the recipe is called “This is not a Bibimbap recipe”. But I didn’t follow the suggestions exactly, I used what was already in the fridge, so all the pickles and fermented stuff dominated the dish.

Thanks a lot for suggestion. Another problem I have is when I mixed everything, due to the fermented vegetables even in room temperature, made the rice mixture tepid. I think your are right about sautéed vegetables.

Yes and no, the recipe is called “This is not a Bibimbap recipe”.

That’s hysterical. Nothing wrong with adding fermented stuff to bibimbap but you generally want a lot less of it because the flavor will be so strong.

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I can’t believe I didn’t make anything Korean all of first quarter…

Tonight, shrimp and scallion pajeon! I used a ready Korean pancake mix for the first time, ingredients included seasonings. I added some doenjang and gochugaru.

Made 3 “small” and one big pancake. Never crispy enough for me, but then I never use the amount of oil that a restaurant would :joy:

Loved the dipping sauce tonight - gochujang, soy, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and a splash of water.

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Is there a new cuisine of the quarter? Though given my love for Korean food and appalling participation, I’m happy to keep going here :grimacing:

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Thanks for the reminder, trying to contact @biondanonima. A bit of problem these days, since notification is down. She’s the queen of Cuisine of the Quarter…

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In the meantime, another pancake for me.

BINDAETTEOK / MUNG BEAN PANCAKE

I used the Maangchi recipe as a guide.

Green mung beans (split but skin on), soaked for a few hours. Skipped the egg, and didn’t have bean sprouts. But I had a good amount of fermenting cabbage for crunch and kimchi paste for flavor.

Dipping sauce of soy and vinegar was a nice complement; I added a splash of sesame oil and scallions after tasting it.

I’m familiar with indian mung bean pancakes (puda / chilla), which don’t usually have add-ins other than the occasional onion and green chilli. This was an interesting change.

Tasty, and crisp while hot. I couldn’t really taste the pork (I used diced pork shoulder), but the cabbage gave a nice crunch.

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My mom and I foraged some wild chives and dandelion greens and made kimchi. Delicious and fun!

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Voting is up for the next Cuisine of the Quarter!

Isn’t that very bitter?

How does wild chives taste like compared to farmed chives?

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Wow!! I love everything about this!

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Yes it’s pretty bitter. I personally enjoy bitter foods, but to counteract the bitterness this kimchi is made very sweet, it gets a ton of rice syrup and sugar. Also according to my mother you don’t want this kind of kimchi to get sour, so the additional sugar helps prevent that.

The wild chives have a much stronger garlic/onion flavor and are a bit tough to chew. Not in an unpleasant way though. My mom claims that you can only make kimchi with the wild chives when they first sprout, in a week they become too tough for regular consumption.

Went to HMart yesterday and they had some wild chives in the produce section, they were like 20$ a lb!

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