Healthy(?) Snack

Chloe (my niece) is growing up so fast. She eats a lot these days... and getting taller and taller. Good thing that she isn't getting fatter, but just taller. And with her appetite, it's hard not to have any snack at home. 

Usually, we (my sister and I) would just buy bread or chips from the supermarket and milk, usually flavored. But we decided that we should change it a bit and make it healthier. Though we are thankful that she eats with us during meals, and it's healthy food. 

We now are giving her healthier choice such as fruits (like strawberry), sweet potato, juice with no sugar additives, and home made snack. :P

One of the home made snack I tried to make was doughnut made of glutinous rice. I didn't make it from scratch. I am not that good cook to do that. There's a "mix" sold at the market. Of course I read the label and the calorie and the trans fat... etc. It was quite healthy, compared to the ones sold. All you need is this mix, egg, water and cooking oil. AND it doesn't need too much oil to fry.

Sikhye

Sikhye (also spelled shikhye or shikeh; also occasionally termed dansul or gamju) is a traditional sweet Korean rice beverage, usually served as a dessert. In addition to its liquid ingredients, sikhye also contains grains of cooked rice, and in some cases pine nuts (From Wikipedia)

Sikhye as the wikipedia says is Korean rice drink. It is made of malt My mom made it really well, actually her mom made it really well and thus the hand-down of the recipe. So I can really say I can make it well since all the people who have tried it said it so. hehehe

It's easier than people think. You just have to diligent and patient. So here goes my recipe!

INGREDIENTS:

500g malt
Sugar
rice
water

PROCEDURE:

First put the malt in a large bowl and pour water, about double the amount of the malt. Let it seat for about 3~4 hours if you are in hot area, but if it's winter you can let is seat overnight.

After letting it seat for a while, squeeze the malt in the water, pour it in another bowl and add some more water to and repeat squeezing.

Once done, let the liquid seat for about 20 mins. then pour the liquid extract into a pot, straining it in a clean piece of cloth. Be careful in pouring since you don't want the dregs to go in.

** For the Rice:

Cook the rice, but not to sticky. Pour the some of the liquid extract, triple the amount of the rice, add some sugar and mix well. If you have rice cooker, keep it in "warm" function for 4 hours or until the rice starts to float. 

Once the rice floats, remove it from heat, wash it with cold water and put it in a container with water. Some mixes it together with the drink but I like to keep it separated.

Boil the liquid extract, and while doing that remove the foams forming. Once it's clear, add sugar and turn the heat to low and keep it boiling for about an hour. 

Add sugar according to your taste but when the drink cools down, it's less sweeter than when it was hot. 

To enjoy this drink, put it in the refrigerator and make it really cold. Add rice in a cup, and then the drink. Pine nuts are for decorations but it tastes good together. ENJOY!

Komandu

A family friend of ours told us they opened a Korean restaurant in Polaris St., Bel-air Makati (just right across Masan Garden), and since my sister and I visited Manila last Oct., my brother, sister and I took Chloe to the restaurant even though it was raining crazy. It was the day that typhoon Meggi hit the Philippines. :P

Anyway Komandu, in my opinion, is short for Korean Mandu. Mandu means dumplings in Korean.So you will be expected to find different kinds of dumplings from Kimchi to meat, and from steamed to fried. And many more such as don katsu,  noodles, desserts and other special

The interior is quite simple and modern. They have enough staff members and the main cook is Korean. The price is not so expensive considering it's Korean and it is different from all the other Korean restaurants in Makati area where mostly sell grilling meats.

I am quite particular about food. Actually, all my family members are since my mom was such a good cook that out taste buds can only stand good quality food. I wouldn't go back to this place since I guess I am in Korea and the menu's not so special to me. But for those who haven't tried Korean fast food restaurants (not talking about Lotteria), it's a place you could go and try. Oh they have jjajangmyeon and jjamppong (saw a TV ad of Korean jjamppong in Manila hahaha).

Well, try it out and don't hesitate to comment. :D

Seaweed Soup

Seaweed soup or in Korean "Miyeok Guk", miyeok meaning seaweed and guk meaning soup, is a popular Korean birthday food. Actually, the Seaweed soup is given to newly moms who just gave birth since it contains a high content of calcium and iodine which is good for the health of the moms and the breastfed 

babies. 

I do like seaweed soup, but my sister doesn't like it anymore since after giving birth to Chloe, she ate this soup 3 times a day for one whole month. I guess I won't enjoy it as much after having that for so long. :P

The RECIPE: **As you may have noticed, I don't use measurements since I actually don't measure when cooking.. so bear with me 

Ingredients:

Dried seaweed

Beef (Don't know the part, but use the one with some fat)

Minced garlic

Sesame oil

Soy Sauce

Salt

Korean seasoning powder in beef flavor if you have any

Procedure:

1. Soak the dried seaweed in a bowl of water for about 1~2 hours. 
2. When the seaweed is ready (it will be soft), wash the seaweed and cut them into bite pieces.
3. Put the cut seaweed and beef (chopped to bite pieces as well), add a teaspoon of minced garlic, dash of salt and seasoning powder, about 2 tbsp. of soy sauce, and 2 tbsp of sesame oil.
4. Stir fry them in medium heat, until the meat turns brown.
5. Add water. It should be above the seaweed and meat, or more if you want more soup.
6. Boil for 20 mins. and when comes to boil, set the heat to low and boil for additional 15 minutes.
7. Season to taste. Use salt or the seasoning. 
8. Serve hot with rice :D

Hope you will enjoy this recipe. This is especially for Chiqui. :D 

Kimchi Stew

One of the common stews we Koreans enjoy is the Kimchi Stew. It's easy to make, you can't go wrong with this stew, of course that is if your Kimchi is delicious. There are some regions in Korea where they use a lot of fermented fish or shrimp sauce that it doensn't flatter me much. I often cook this when I am lazy and don't want to cook anything else :P

If you have overy riped Kimchi and it's too sour to eat, the best way to eat it is by cooking it. One of my favorite Kimchi stew is with pork. The fat from the pork makes the Kimchi tastier. Simply cut the Kimchi into bite sizes, and put in the Kimchi and pork in a pot. Put in also some of the juices from Kimchi, and stir fry it in medium heat. When the pork is cooked, add water, just enough to cover the kimchi and pork. You can add salt to season. If you want you can add Tofu cut into small cubes, but keep in mind that when you put the tofu, the stew becomes a bit bland so add extra salt. Boil until the Kimchi is soft (at the harder part).

If you don't have port at home, you can actually skip the stir frying part and just add a can of tuna or slice of spam, as you please. It's a different taste yet delicious nonetheless.

Ashoka Indian Restaurant

On Wednesday, my sister had to go to Yongsan US base to buy some stuff for Chloe so I tagged along with her bringing Chloe with us. Our day was a disaster! It started off when we arrived at the subway station, ready to walk towards the US base, and found out that I was raining so hard. We had to purchase an umbrella from 7-11. And if that wasn't enough, when we were about to enter the base, we realized that my ID wasn't inside my wallet. SHUCKS!!! I can't go in to the base without it so I just sent my sister in, and took Chloe with me. Finally... we wanted to eat at an Indian restaurant, and since I won an event from my credit card service some cash, I was going to treat my sister. So when we went to Itaewon, the restaurant we wanted to go was closed!!!! So we ended up going to this restaurant.. Ashoka. It's on the 3rd floor of Hamilton Hotel, Itaewon.

We ordered several dishes: Chicken Samosa, Chicken Tikka, Beef Masala, and Garlic Naan and sweet Lassi. 

It is quite a lot for just the two of us to eat, but we thought Chloe would enjoy the Lassi. This review is just in my opinion... so don't care what others who has tried this restaurant might think.

Positive Remarks:

• Lovely ambience. Although we weren't able to take a picture of the interior, it was quite cozy and modern at the same time. Of course it has a touch of India to it too.
• Quite good serving size. Compared to the Indian restaurant we tried before, here they served more. 
• Kind staff. The staff was kind, the service was fast enough.
• The Chicken Tikka was very good. The meat wasn't too chewy, it was quite soft. 
•  The sweet Lassi was good though I was too full to finish it and Chloe didn't like it at all.
• The Beef Masala was served with a heat at the bottom (don't know what to call them), so the dish was warm until we finished dining.
• The price was reasonable. 

Negative Remarks:

• I didn't like their Beef Masala. The sauce was too salty, and the meat was like a chewing gum. Our teeth and jaws were aching afterwards.
• The naan was a bit burnt. The naan we had before was soft and cooked right before served.
• Chicken Samosa, well don't know if it is supposed to be that hard, but the outer crust was really hard. I remember trying that in the Philippines once before but it wasn't that hard. 

I would probably never go back to this restaurant ever again. 

Kimchi

Kimchi (김치; pronounced /ˈkɪmtʃi/, Korean pronunciation: [kimtɕʰi]), also spelled gimchi, kimchee, or kim chee, is a traditional Korean dish, made of vegetables with varied seasonings. Many varieties of kimchi are fermented although unfermented varieties also exist.There are hundreds of varieties of kimchi, made with a main vegetable ingredient such as napa cabbage, radish, green onion or cucumber.[4] Kimchi is the most common banchan, or side dish, in Korean cuisine. (from Wikipedia)

I watched a TV documentary on Kimchi. And realized that I could do something to promote Korea's most popular dish, Kimchi. It showed that most of the foreigners know only one kind of Kimchi, the chinese cabbage fermented and seasoned with chili powder. But, there are many kinds of Kimchi, and I am going to share the ones that I enjoy the most. :D  

• Baechu Kimchi - baechu is Chinese cabbage in Korean. This is the most common kimchi and the one that most foreigners know. In Korea, there's a time to make kimchi. It's during the winter time. The vegetables around December tastes the best so most household makes kimchi with 30~40 heads of cabbage. Since there's a "Kimchi Refrigerator" in most households now, keeping it fresh is not a problem.

•  Dongchimi - it's mostly made during the winter season. It's not spicy as the baechu kimchi and it is watery. The main ingridient of this kimchi is radish (usually whole), cabbage,  leeks, garlic and it is seasoned with salt. It usually takes 2~3 days to fement and it has really refreshing taste.

• Chonggak Kimchi - made of young radish, the seasoning is similar to baechu kimchi but only uses the raddish instead of baechu as the main ingridient.

• Cucumber Sobakgi - it's a stuffed cucumber pickles. It is one of my favorites in summer. Made with cucumber and stuffed with chives and onion withe chili powder seasoning.  

• Baek Kimchi - Baek in Korean means white, so it's a white kimchi. It doens't have chili powder but similar to dongchimi. It is picked chinese cabbage and most people who can't endure the taste of baechu kimchi could enjoy this.

Gimbap

Another recipe entry. I think people like my recipe entry more than anything else, and cooking is one of my main house chores, so it's not too hard for me. Today's recipe is "Gimbap". Gim in Korean is dried laver, and bap is cooked rice. It's the same as sushi rolls in Japan. 


As some of the Korean food, you don't have to use the same ingredients as I suggest. You can put other veggies and ingredients depending on your tastes such as avocado, tuna, etc.


Ingredients: 

Dried Laver , Yellow Radish, Eggs, Crab meat, Fish cake, Ham, Burdock weed (optional), Kimchi, Soy sauce, Sugar, Ground black pepper, Salt

For Rice:

Cooked rice

Sesame oil

Sesame seed

Ground beef

Salt

Procedure:

In a pan, add oil, kimchi, black pepper and a dash of salt. Stir fry them until the kimchi looks a little transparent (like an onion). Put Aside.

Cook egg in a rectangular pan. If you don't have it, you can cook them in a big round pan. Cool it for a while and cut them into stripes.

The crab meat, fish cake, and ham should be cut into stripes... in Korean store you can find ham and fish cake for gimbap. 

Add the striped fish cakes into a pan and add a bit of soy sauce and sugar. Stir fry them until caramelized. Put aside.

From left to right, ham, egg, fish cake, crab cake, burdock weed, and yellow radish. 

Add ground beef, black pepper and a dash of salt into a pan and stir fry until the juices are gone. 

Then put them in the cooked rice, and add sesame oil, sesame seed, and salt to flavor. Mix them well. 

The bamboo sheet is used to help in rolling the gimbap. If you don't have one, you can use wax paper instead. On the sheet put the laver, then rice, then the rest of the ingredients. Roll half way starting form the part close to you, squeezing lightly... until you form a roll. 

To be honest... am not so good at rolling... but hey can't be good at everything :P Hope you enjoy this recipe. :D

**NOTE** Tuna gimbap is good... you can put tuna, mayo and sesame leaf... 

Chapchae

I cooked Chapchae last night for my sister's birthday today. Well, it's the first birthday she's celebrating without our mom, so I decided I should at least cook her something. Chapchae is common party food in Korea. It's just like spaghetti or pancit. One of the reason it is presented in a party, especially for a birthday, is for prosperous long life.

Chapchae is easy to make but needs a lot of preparations... heheh. I don't cook with measuring cups or spoons. So, this recipe won't have any measurements indicated. Up to you to just season it.. it's not so hard anyways.

INGRIDIENTS:

1 large bag-for 20 Korean Vermicelli (you can find this in all Korean stores)

1 handful of Tree Ear mushrooms (optional)

1 medium size onion

1/2 medium size carrot

1 pimiento

1 yellow bell pepper

300g beef thinly sliced (without the fat)

Soy sauce

Vegetable Oil

Sesame Oil

Salt

Sugar

Sesame seed

Ground black pepper

Minced garlic

Procedure:

Soak the Tree Ear mushroom in water. It will absorb the water and double the volume. Once the mushroom are soft... remove the hard part at the center, then cut them into bite sizes.

 

Cut all of the vegetables into julienne cut. Saute each of the vegetables and put them all together in a large mixing bowl to cool. Don't saute them all at once since the time for each vegetable to cook is different, and the whites might get dyed. :D

In the pan, put the meat and mushroom together. Add a teaspoon of minced garlic, ground pepper, a bit of soy sauce, and a dash of salt. Mix them well, and saute. Saute in medium heat, until there are only little meat juice left. Put it in the mixing bowl.

Boil water in a pot. Once the water is boiled, add the vermicelli and stir them once in a while. Don't follow the instruction on the package.. boil them until the noodles are soft.. you can take one out, and eat to check. Cook until the noodles are soft. Afterwards, wash the noodles in cold water and let it drain.

In a pan, add vegetable oil, and put the vermicelli in it (do grab the noodles and cut them up.. since they are very long). In a medium heat, add soy sauce (just pour around the noodles a bit) and saute the noodles. The color might be different from the image since there are different kinds of soy sauce.. make sure it's not too salty. Once the whole noodles are covered in soy sauce, pour them in the mixing bowl. You have to repeat this procedure  2~3 times depending on the size of the pan.

Finally.... whew it's harder to write then actually cook... add about 3 tbsp. of sugar (approximate), soy sauce, sesame oil, and sesame seed. NOTE: the noodles and the meat has already been little seasoned so don't put too much salt and soy sauce at first. Mix them all together first and taste them. Add more sugar according to your desired taste... the final chapchae should be a little bit sweet.

Well, if you followed my recipe and successfully made chapchae, GOOD FOR YOU!!!

Leave a comment and let me know how it turned out!!! :D

Bulgogi

Due to some request... I give you the recipe for Bulgogi.. another famous traditional Korean dish. :D

Bulgoi is quite easy to make, and you can put in vegetables of your choice too. Almost similar to Korea BBQ.

INGRIDIENTS:

Beef (thinly sliced) 600g - like suki yaki style in Japan

Onions 100g
Green onion 70g
Soy sauce 77ml

Sugar 30g

Black pepper
Minced garlic
Sesame oil 14 ml
Sesame seed

PROCEDURE:

1. Slice onion, green onions (you can add carrots, mushrooms, or any other vegetables you like)

2. Add soy sauce, sugar, dash of black pepper, teaspoon of garlic, sesame oil, and sesame seed. Mix.
3. Marinate the vegetables and beef with the sauce, making sure to mix the meat together... (kind of kneading a dough but not as much and hard) and let it sit for about an hour in the ref.
4. In a pan, add a bit of vegetable oil, put the heat to medium and cook!!!
5. Enjoy.

*** You can boil vermicelli noodles, drain it and cook it together with the meat. It's yummier!

Korean BBQ

I never really new that Korean BBQ was so popular around the globe (okay maybe not around the globe but as far as I know Japan, US and the Philippines :P). A few years back, a friend in LA told me he loved Korean bbq and asked me for it's recipe, and these days I met new people online who told me they love Korean bbq and my friend from high school is crazy about it too.

To be honest I don't know what they refer to when they say Korean bbq... if it's seasoned meat or the fresh meat grilled on charcoal... but I guess it's the seasoned one 'cause why would they ask me for the recipe if it's the fresh meat, right?

In Korea, you can find different kinds of restaurants serving Korean bbq in different ways. One of the most famous is grilling on top of charcoal, the other is "Yeon tan" (a coal briquette which in the older days, used to heat rooms), or electric stove. These are the popular ones but you can find more depending on the province and the style popular. I prefer the charcoal. I just like the smell of charcoal and the meat cooking moderately, and not burning it too much.

So... due to so many requests received... I give you the recipe for Korean BBQ:

INGRIDIENTS:

300g Pork ribs

100 ml Soy sauce

80g minced Onion

20g minced green onion

10g sugar

15g sesame seed

7g ground black pepper

PROCEDURE:

1. Very simple... mix all the ingridients together, except the meat.

2. Marinate the meat in the sauce for about 1~2 hours and cook.

(If you happen to have sesame oil, a dash of it would be nice)

Grilling on top of charcoal

Side dishes

Bibimbap

If you are a housewife or houseband... you can't avoid the stress of choosing the menu for your family. It's hard enough to cook... but to think of the food to prepare.. it's really a headache.

One of the easiest and convinient menu that I usually come up with is Bibimbap... bibim in Korean means mix and bap means rice... so literally, you mix rice with different ingridients. The reason it is convinient is that you can prepare the ingridients and let your family eat whenever and whatever they like. The ingridients are flexible, whatever you like or whatever is in your ref :)

Mushroom and Onion

My bibimbap had stir fried mushroom and onion, seasoned bean sprouts, fresh vegetable sprouts, lettuce, ground beef, fried egg, sesame oil, rice... and of course the most important thing is RED PEPPER PASTE!Some people might say it's too spicy but you can just put a little bit for taste... all the other ingridients are seasoned so it won't be too bland to eat.

Seasoned bean sprout (with chili powder)

If you love Gwyneth Paltrow... I think you will know that she lost weight by choosing bibimbap as her diet. So it's not just convient for housewives and housebands... but it's good for your diet. If you really want low calorie diet, you can omit the rice and just eat the mixed vegetables.

Bibimbap

So... if you decide to come to Korea or go to a Korean restaurant, you should try bibimbap.. which has different varieties but all the same, they are really good.

Dessert: Green Tea Ice Flakes and smoothie

It was really warm last Saturday. After I attended a wedding of a friend, I met up with some of my few friends in Korea at Myeongdong (Korea's famous shopping district) to catch up.

We went to a small coffe shop... famous for it's desserts. Cafe Coin's interior is a bit vintage, with antique furnitures and wooden ceiling... big windows on open sides which made the place cozy and relaxing.

The first order arrived... Green Tea Ice Flakes... the ice flakes were made from Green tea with Green tea flavored ice cream on top, red beans at the bottom. It's really hard to mix them up but it's worth it. You can really taste the green tea flavor and cools you down during a warm day.

Another of our orders were smoothies... we ordered yougurt and strawberry smoothie. I personally recommend yougurt smoothie. It's not too sweet but you can taste the yougurt flavor and really cool :D.

*Other famous treats here are waffles and cakes. I would like to try them again next time :D

** Philippines similar treat at my friend's blog>> http://around-the-limbo-world.blogspot.com/2010/05/food-trip-cavite-part-1-halo-halo.html  -- it's my favorite!