OOriYOri

It’s still raining in Los Angeles. There was even hail, which freaked out my husband enough that he had to go out and cover the car. Anyway, when it is raining outside we Koreans think of Jeun also called “boochimgae”, which translates as pancakes or frittatas.

You can make different kind of Jeun using all sorts of vegetables and meats. Today we made Kimchi jeun, which uses Kimchi as the main ingredient.

To make this you will need three (3) cups of chopped kimchi, one (1) cup of chopped mixed seafood(optional), half (1/2) cup of meat (here we used beef, my mom doesn’t eat chicken or pork so we kind of only have beef at home. Again, this is also optional), two(2) cups of korean pancake mix (you can buy this at Korean market. If you don’t have it at home, you can substitute this with two (2) cups flour and one egg), one cup and a half (1 1/2) cup water, pepper, olive oil (or any kind of cooking oil).

My favorite kind of Kimchi is from Galleria brand kimchi. Galleria market is located at Western and Olympic in Los Angeles Koreatown.

Using my probably not so green but handy plastic glove, take the kimchi out from the jar and chop them into quarter inch squares. (A little larger is ok, but you don’t want them to be bigger than 1/2 an inch)

Rinse seafood mix and chop them so they are slightly smaller than your chopped up kimchi. You can get the seafood mix in the frozen food section at any korean market.

Also chop up the beef to seafood mix size. You can even use ground beef.

In a bowl mix kimchi, seafood mix, and beef after you add in the korean pancake mix, little bit of black pepper and water. If you decide to get the korean pancake mix, it is called buchimgaru it’s usually next to flour, breadcrumbs and tempura batters. Because pancake mix is like “just add water” pancake mix, if you don’t have them you can use flour and eggs instead.

Heat up a pan with a bit of oil. You don’t want to be too stingy on the oil since you have to pan fry the pancake mixture. I used olive oil, but you can use regular frying oil. (just don’t use butter since it will burn) If you like, you can use non stick pan, but I am using my trusty cast iron skillet which I use to cook virtually everything…

Start the pan on high heat. Once the pan is hot scoop the pancake mixture to the pan and reduce the heat to medium strength. Depending on your stove you might have to raise the heat a little. Since pancake takes a while to cook, you want the heat to be low enough not to burn them but high enough to fry the pancake.

You can make a big one and cut them up like the way they do it at restaurants, or you can even make them small so it is easier to share. It usually takes me 10 to 12 minutes to cook, because i like them a little crispy on the edges.

Try not to flip them too often. They might break. When they are all cooked enjoy them by the rainy window!

mani deuseyo!

We pack lunch for work and when we are out of sandwich meat we make egg salad the night before so we can make a quick sandwich in the morning.

The following recipe makes three (3) sandwiches.

You will need, six (6) slices of bread (i like the white/wheat square bread for this), six (6) eggs, one (1) cup of ham of any type of salty meat (i love spam), two thirds (2/3) cup of carrots for crunch and color, a half (1/2) cup of bell peppers (here I used a quarter (1/4) cup of green onions and a quarter (1/4) cup of serrano peppers since I was out of bell peppers – again this is for crunch and color), a third (1/3) cup of diced and squeezed pickle. You will also need three (3) tablespoon of mayonnaise, one (1) tablespoon of dijon mustard (or any other type of mustard you like), a little it of pepper and maybe salt if want more salt (I usually don’t need to put more salt because I am happy with the saltiness that comes from the ham).

1. Boil six (6) eggs and peel them. Put eggs and cold water on the stove bring it to boil, and when it starts to boil set your timer for 15 more minutes. You will have perfect hard boiled eggs every time! When eggs are done immediately drop them in cold water – this makes it easier to peel them.

Once the eggs are peeled you want to dice them. I use this Egg Slicer and it makes dicing the eggs a snap.

2. Chop Carrots, Bell peppers (here green onions and serrano peppers), ham, and pickle. After you dice them all, you will need to squeeze the pickle in a cheese cloth to squeeze out the juice.

3. Once all your ingredients are chopped up and ready, add them all in a big bowl. Then you will add 3 tablespoons of mayo, 1 tablespoon of dijon, add some pepper then mix. You got yourself an awesome egg salad! You can eat them just the way it is if you prefer, but what I like to do is to put them overnight in the fridge then make a sandwich for lunch for next day.

I cut them in triangle pieces for this picture, but for lunch, I just cut it in half and put them in a sandwich container and they are ready to go!

Mani deuseyo!!