OOriYOri

This is my husband’s favorite snack. Usually in Korea people eat this as a side dish and it was one of my favorite lunch menu, but at our house whenever we make it we eat it while we prepare for dinner. If you are planning to eat this as a snack, I would make it a little less salty.

This dish takes about 5 minutes to make and only need a package of fishcakes (I have the square sheet kind here, but you can use any type of fishcake you get at the market), couple stalks of green onions, soy sauce, corn syrup(moolyoht) or oligosaccharide(oligodang) which you can get at the Korean market, minced garlic, sesame oil, pepper and sesame seeds.

First boil a pot of water. While you are boiling the water, cut up the fishcakes to the size and shape of your choice.

Leave the cut up fishcakes in a bowl then clean three (3) stalks of green onions.Then get a large pan and heat it up with some olive oil.  Here I am using a wok.

While pan is heating up, dice the green onions.

By now, your pan will be hot and ready to go. Reduce the heat to medium so your food doesn’t burn. Add Green onions, tablespoon of soysauce and a table spoon of corn syrup to your pan.

In the meantime, get your boiling water and pour it to your fishcakes and drain the water. Fishcakes are fried so by doing this step, you can eliminate some of the oil and also cleans it at the same time. Once drained, add the fishcake with a tablespoon of minced garlic to the pan and cook it for about 2-3 minutes. When it’s almost done add a pinch of  black pepper.

When you feel your fishcake is hot and soft, and all the ingredients are cooked, add a couple teaspoons of sesame oil and transfer your fishcake to your serving dish. Once it’s on the dish sprinkle it with some sesame seeds.

mani deuseyo!!

It’s been cold and raining cats and dogs in Los Angeles so I have been in the mood for soup. Spicy Beef Soup is one of my favorite Korean soups, and since everyone in our family likes it we decided to make it. There are several ways to make this soup and some version requires you to cook it for almost a day, but this version it takes about hour and a half so if you are in the mood for this soup and don’t have all day to prepare for it then use this recipe.

If you have some left over, it is yummy to make this with some rice cake and dumplings for next day lunch! Just boil the soup first, add dumplings and rice cake and voila! you got an awesome lunch.

In order to make this soup, you will need one (1) cup of  dried Gosari (dried fern brake), one (1) pound of beef brisket, five to seven (5-7) stalks of green onions, 2 tablespoons of ground up chili peppers, one (1) tablespoon of minced garlic, half (1/2) teaspoon of minced ginger, two (2) tablespoons of soy sauce, salt, black pepper, and half (1/2) tablespoon of sesame seed oil.

To make the soup, First you need to soak gosari in water. Gosari is fernbrake in English and it looks like this at the market. You can find them in the dried vegetable section.

Soak one (1) cup of dried gosari in water overnight. (it’s better to soak it over night because they are pretty tough)

Soak the beef brisket in cold water for about an hour to get rid of blood in the meat. (I change the water about 2-3 times during the hour)

When this is all done, bring ten (10) cups of water to boil in a big pot. Once the water starts to boil drop the meat into the boiling water and cook it for about forty (40) minutes with the pot lid open. During this time periodically skim off the top of the broth to get rid of whatever floats to the top – such as fat.

While the meat is cooking boil gosari in a separate pot for about 15 minutes then drain the gosari and leave it on the side. (You can do this in advance and boil it twice to get rid of the bitter taste.)

In a separate bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of ground up chili peppers, one (1) tablespoon of minced garlic, half (1/2) teaspoon of minced ginger, two (2) tablespoons of soy sauce, salt, black pepper, and half (1/2) tablespoon of sesame oil and leave it on the side.

In a separate bowl, get four (4) cups of water then add and dissolve one (1) tablespoon of salt. Take the meat out from the boiling water and put it in the salt water. Since the water is cold, you will be able to shred the beef without burning your fingers.

Once the beef has been shredded, add the meat with the salt water into the boiling beef broth and boil it for 20 minutes.

Take the meat out of the broth in to a bowl, add the gosari and the spice mixture/paste and mix them all together.

Cut 5-7 stalks of green onions into 4 inch pieces .

Add beef mix and green onions in the broth and cook it for another 20 minutes.

Now it is ready to be devoured!

Mani deuseyo!!

I know it looks complicated, but compared to the other way of making this soup which takes over 8 hours, this is a simplified easy version I will post the long version when we make it again soon.