Hello Readers! It has been such a long time since our last post! Almost half a year! Hopefully, this delicious recipe will make up for our long absence. Today’s post is on the famous Korean braised short ribs–galbi jjim. It is served on special occasions due to the high cost of purchasing ribs. Nevertheless, this dish is hearty and full of flavor. It is a sweet salty flavor that will be a hit with kids of all ages! The meat is so tender and soft, it will melt in your mouth. Furthermore, unlike other recipes which require hours of slow cooking, this dish only takes a couple hours! Thank you to my grandmother for this delicious dish! It has now become a staple in my household. I hope it becomes yours as well!

Things You Need

• 11-12 pieces of short ribs (will feed a family of four)
• 2 carrots
• 1/4 of a grated Korean pear or 1 whole kiwi
• 1 grated onion
• 2 potato
• 2-3 stalks of green onion
• 1-2 tablespoons of minced garlic
• 7 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons of sugar
• 1/4 tablespoon of hon dashi
• 1 tablespoon of sesame oil
• black pepper to taste
• sesame seeds for decor (optional)

What to Do

First, if the ribs are not sliced, please slice like pictured below. Get a large bowl of cold water and place the meat for 30 minutes-1 hour. This is a step to purify the meat.

Meanwhile, we can make the marinade while we wait. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, dashi, garlic, pear (or kiwi), onion, and  black pepper (1/4 tablespoon) into a bowl. This is such a simple marinade to make, isn’t it?

Set the marinade aside. Now, slice in the green onion, potato (peeled), and carrots like so.

in a large pot (dutch oven is good), place the meat in water and boil. Once it starts boiling, after about 15 seconds, turn off the heat and place the meat aside.

Throw the water away and rinse the pot clean. This is to further clean the meat. Place the cleaned pot back on the stove. Place the meat in the bottom of the pot. Pour water into the bowl until the meat is about 2/3 emerged into the water. Cover and boil for about 10-15 minutes.

Next, pour in the marinade and simmer for 10 minutes.

Place the vegetables into the pot and cover and simmer for 15 more minutes.

Voila! You are done! Enjoy!

Hello everyone! Here is our first pickled vegetable dish! A few months ago, H and her family volunteered to serve food for a group of christian North Korean defectors after a church service. The menu was bibimbap with a side of Oi Jang Ah Jjee (pickled cucumber). The latter was made by a local restaurant owner. Well, it was delicious, crunchy, and very fresh tasting! It is also tangy, sweet, and soy saucy…if we can call that a description of the taste.  Anyhow, after contemplating on the recipe, H’s mom called and found out how to make this tasty side dish. Surprisingly, it is very very easy to make and fun because you can choose what you want to pickle! We are thrilled to share this with you!

Before we start this post, we want to stop and thank all our readers for coming to our site. It’s been a couple years since we first began our little food blog, and we are truly pleasantly surprised whenever anyone subscribes, writes comments, etc. We are so happy that our recipes have served as inspirations for your cooking adventures!

WHAT YOU NEED: Serves 6-7 people as side dishes

• 1 whole cucumber–doesn’t really matter what kind, sliced into long slices (think baby carrot size)
• 1-1/2 onion (we used yellow)
• ~10 small garlic (we used extra small ones! you may want to slice garlic in half if the taste is too strong
• 1/2 stalk of celery sticks (we love the crunch!!)
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• ***NOTE: the amounts of soy, vinegar, sugar, and water are all pretty relative–everyone makes it differently. Here we use ratio as 1 soy: 1/2 vinegar: 1/2 sugar as well as 1 water. If you want to make a larger batch, use the ratio as a ball park measure.
• OPTIONAL: Asian Green peppers or jalapeno–a very popular one that is used for this dish (we didn’t have any around), Radish….try to avoid carrots. We tried this, and hated the texture.

WHAT TO DO:

It’s somewhat embarrassing to even have a what to do. Get a large container and just pour everything in. Leave in the fridge for a day and enjoy it the next day! Remember to store any leftovers in the fridge.

Like mentioned before, there are several ways on how to make this dish, and people can argue for days on which is the proper way. We say, the one that tastes the best for you is the best way.

Now, most recipes out there actually boil the liquids and sugar and then let cool. Afterwards, pour the cooled liquid into the jar with vegetables–whether to pour liquid when it is completely cooled or not is up to debate. The original recipe lady said that it does not taste as fresh and light if the boiling is done. However, she does recommend boiling the liquid if you want to let the vegetables really marinate and enjoy this dish for months on.

Most recipes do not even include water, but…because we don’t want this dish to be super salty and soy saucy, we use water to make the taste less powerful.  We are aiming for a very lightly pickled flavor in this recipe. However, it is your preference. What I would do to taste the difference is enjoy the dish fresh for a couple days and then try boiling the liquid only afterwards and trying it that way…and enjoying the dish for a longer period of time.

ENJOY!

Hello readers!

When I was having a food slump, I decided I needed a spurt of spice and flavor to reawaken my depressed taste buds. I finally decided to make this simple dish because it is very flavorful, hearty (chicken and potato!), and spicy plus  an added sweetness. It is good as a main dish with a side of rice and some pickled radishes. How shall I describe its flavor? Hm…it is a Korean red pepper spicy, but not overpowering due to the added sweetness of pumpkin, onions and honey. Also the flavor is rich because the chicken is stewed for a quite a long time. Due to this, the meat is not dry, but moist and juicy. I love mixing the extra liquid from the dish with my rice–my taste buds are in tears of joy!

WHAT YOU NEED

• whole chicken butchered
• 1 onion sliced in quarters
• 1-2 potato cubed
• butternut pumpkin/squash sliced without flesh and seed –can sub with sweet potato
• 1 korean red pepper and 1 green pepper sliced
• small nappa cabbage (optional)
• 2 tablespoons korean red pepper paste
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 tablespoon korean red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 cup of dried anchovy broth–can also use 1 cup of chicken broth
• salt and pepper to taste

WHAT TO DO:

Aside from the sauce, there is not much to do for this dish! JOY! Mix the garlic, red pepper paste, red pepper flakes, ginger, soy sauce, honey, and oil together to create the sauce.

Load a large pot (like a dutch oven size –I struggled with my pot, because it was too small!)  with all the ingredients except the cabbage. Try to put the chicken towards the very bottom of the pot so it will cook evenly.

Cover and bring to boil. Once it is boiling, remove cover and simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour–until chicken is done. Add in the cabbage about 15 minutes prior to serving time.

After 1 hour….

ENJOY!! How simple was that?