Kong Jaban - Black Beans in Soy Sauce and Sugar - (콩자반)

Each week I TRY and make at least two new banchans (side dishes). This week I decided to use up the remaining black beans I had in the cupboard.

Ingredients Needed:

• 1 cup black beans (I ended up with slightly more than a cup)
• 3 cups water
• 6 TB soy sauce
• 5 TB sugar
• 1 TB brown sugar
• 2 TB honey powder
• 1 TB corn starch
• splash of sesame oil
• 2 TB sesame seeds
  

First go and get some black beans. I had this sitting in my cupboard and decided I wanted to use up the whole bag. I'm actually on a mission this week to clear out my freezer and pantry. I'm making meals up as I go because I don't want all the food in my freezer to go to waste.



I used what I had left in my bag and it ended up being almost 2 cups of beans.



Let it soak in water for about 4-5 hours and the beans will expand and double in size.



Then throw out the water it was in and give the beans a good rinse. Add 3 CUPS water and put the beans into a pot and turn up the heat on high.



While it's cooking and ready to boil add: 6 TB soy sauce, 5 TB sugar, 1 TB brown sugar, 2 TB honey powder and let it boil on medium heat for about 30 minutes.



Eventually all the liquid will reduce down quite a bit. At this point add 2 TB of cornstarch and keep boiling it on low heat. Keep an eye on it and make sure you don't burn it!



When there is barely any liquid left, you're ready to throw in 2 TB of sesame seeds. Mix it around thoroughly and then turn off the heat and let it cool down.



You're ready to serve! You can store it in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Persian Meatballs...

Sorry for the lack of updates again. We've been eating out almost every day this week. I haven't stepped into the kitchen except to make Munchkin some grilled cheese sandwiches. We're going grocery shopping tomorrow, so hopefully I will think of a new post for next week.

Until then....

I will cheat by recycling another post on my other blog~



Get 1 LB. of ground beef and add generous amounts of parsley, mint (lots), cilantro (just a little), garlic and onions. Season it with a dash of salt and pepper. Sorry there are no exact measurements. Just add enough of everything to give the meatballs color like shown above.



Form into little meatballs about an inch in diameter.



Heat a skillet with minimal oil since there will be oil coming from the fat of the meat...



And just cook until done.



Plate it with basmati rice, lavash (flat bread), and some yummy cucumber yogurt!

Cucumber yogurt: Just get plain yogurt and chop some Persian cucumbers and squeeze out all the excess juice. Add it to the yogurt and season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. I actually added some chopped parsley into the yogurt too and it came out yummy. Next time I'm going to make yogurt with shallots and garlic.

Basmati rice: I like to sautee the rice in LOADS of butter and I add small bits of onion and brown everything. Then I add water (2:1 ratio. 2 parts water to 1 part rice. I use about 1.5 cups rice to 3 cups water) and let boil...when the water is almost all gone, reduce the heat to LOW and cover and let simmer for about 20 minutes until the rice is done. You can even season it with saffron water...which I didn't have the time to do tonight.

Kimbap - Korean Style Rice Rolls - (김밥)

There are many ways to make kimbap and you can pretty much put whatever you want into them. Tuna, kimchi, beef, etc. This is my version of kimbap and it's always a hit in our household.



First gather your ingredients. Here I have dan-moo-ji (which is precut for kimbap use), sushi nori (gim), fish cakes, imitation crab, spinach (I cheated and got store-made), carrots, pickles...



Get some type of seasoned beef and slice it up thin - again I cheated by using pre-marinaded galbi from the store. You can use boolgogi or even ground beef marinaded lightly in soysauce and sugar.




And lastly some fried eggs and slice it up thinly like so. The key to frying an egg like this is using LOW heat. Just pour the egg onto the frying pan on low heat and leave it there until it's firm and easy to flip over.



Begin by using a mandolin to thinly slice your cucumber.



Do the same with your carrots and lightly sautee it with some sesame oil.



Lightly heat your fishcakes on a frying pan and slice it up thin also.



Eventually you will have your ingredients ready like this...



Get as much rice as you want to use and season it with some sesame oil and sesame seeds and let it cool down to room temperature. You don't want the rice o be hot or else it will just crumple the gim.



After the rice and all the other ingredients have cooled down, create a work station like this...



Start by placing your gim on a sushi roller.



Spread the rice out as thinly and evenly as possible. Leave a little room at the bottom without rice because this makes wrapping it a lot easier.



Add whatever ingredients you have towards the bottom like this.



The MR was kind enough to take a picture from the other side of me wrapping up the gimbap. Fold the empty part over everything as tightly as possible and use the roller to roll up it tightly.



Use your roller to make the roll firm.



When you're done rolling set aside and continue until you run out of ingredients.



I ended up making A LOT of gimbap today. This isn't even all of it because both the MR and Munchkin were eating as I was making it so they probably ate at least 5 rolls amongst the two of them. LOL.



Take a sharp knife and cut it up like this.



You're now ready to serve!!!



I ended up with tupperwares full of kimbap. I'm going to drop some off to my parents at work tomorrow!

Mandoo w/pork - Korean style pork dumplings - (돼지 만두)

This is not like a traditional Korean Cuisine recipe. I wasn't able to take as many step-by step pictures as I would have liked. Here goes...



First get about 1.5 cups of ground pork and 1 TB of minced garlic. Saute the pork on a frying pan with about 1 TB of sesame oil.



Chop up about 1 cup each of green onions, chives, and bean sprouts. Make sure to boil the bean sprouts and squeeze out all the excess liquid.



Then add about 1 cup of chopped up onions, 2 cups of chopped up glass noodles, 1/2 cup of chopped up carrots, and mix it around well.



Mix everything well like this and add a dash of pepper and some salt to taste.



Get some white egg wash and begin stuffing your mandoos. There are many ways to do this. We chose to stuff them in this form. When you're finished using all the stuffing you can take these and freeze them for later use. Steam them or fry them!

This is a picture of mandoo I made before. These came out much prettier so I thought I would post them up as well. =P

Anchovie Dwen-jang gook - (멸치 된장국)

Tap. Tap. Tap. Are you still there? It seems just as I start to build up site traffic on this blog, I go on a hiatus. It's tough trying to keep up this blog sometimes...especially when I don't step foot into the kitchen for two weeks at a time. =P Also, I realized that every since I upgraded my camera (50D baby!) that I'm afraid to take it into the kitchen for fear it might get splashed on, dropped, etc.

Anyhow, here goes a simple dwenjang gook using anchovy broth.

I add roughly 7 cups of water to a pot along with 5-6 dried anchovies and some dried sea kelp.



After everything comes to a boil, add 1TB dwenjang, 1/2 TB minced garlic, 1TB gook ganjang, 1/2 TB minced garlic and let boil on low heat.



I decided to use bokchoy today. I washed and cut up 3 bunches of it.



Toss the bokchoy in and continue to boil.



I also threw in a handful of chopped up moo (daikon radish).



A handful of sliced onions...



And finally some kongnamool.



Let everything boil together for about 30 minutes.



And you're ready to serve! It's a fresh and light gook perfect for picky little Korean toddlers. =)