Description:

You possibly will not believe this, but actually, this recipe comes from Korean comfort food, kimchi stew (Kimchi Jjigae). If you like tuna kimchi stew, you definitely had some experience that all the tuna was shattered into the stew, and it was very hard to find a chuck of tuna in the stew. When I thought of this recipe, I just wanted to twist a bolognese recipe by using kimchi. However, then, the sauce was much similar with the taste of army stew (Budae Jjigae), and it was too heavy and hid the fresh flavor of kimchi. Thus, I remember the taste of tuna kimchi stew, and I found that actually tuna was better than meat. Solving the ‘tuna kimchi stew problem’ was not intentional, but I really liked the outcome.

Ingredients (for 4 servings):

• 0.5 lb of well-fermented¹ napa cabbage kimchi, minced or finely chopped
• Approx. 0.5 lb of canned tuna in oil (2 of 5 oz cans; oil drained)
• 2 strips of thick-cut bacon, sliced
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 4 green onions, chopped
• 1 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 oz of unsalted butter
• 1 cup of rice wine or white wine
• 1/2 cup of water
• A pinch of MSG
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp of fine Korean chili powder or parika
• Some of dried thyme and oregano
• Some of Tabasco hot sauce
• (optional) Some of dried chili pepper flakes (for more spiciness)
• Some of salt and black pepper

How to cook:

1. In a saute pan, drizzle olive oil, melt butter, and stir-fry the bacon dices on medium heat. Cook bacon until fat melts enough and becomes nice brown color.
2. Put drained tuna, chopped onion and green onions. Stir well for about 10 minutes so that all the ingredients become soft and some excess water can evaporate.
3. Pour wine into the pan. Turn up the heat to high and evaporate alcohol.
4. Add minced (or chopped) kimchi into the pan, and add the water and a pinch of MSG.
5. Reduce the heat to very low. Add spices including bay leaves, chili powder, dried thyme and oregano. Add 8 dashes of Tabasco hot sauce. You can also add some dried chili pepper if you want spicier sauce. Stir well.
6. Begin simmering on very low heat for about 1 hour,
7. After 1 hour, check the taste, and add salt and black pepper if necessary.
8. Enjoy with pasta!

1. The kimchi must be sour and tangy! ↩︎

Description:

I really missed ponytail radish kimchi, but the red radishes are available better at any grocery markets. Therefore, I tried to make this kimchi, and the result was awesome. I both liked the roots and greens. I will make more!

Ingredients (for a 32oz mason jar)

• 3 bunches of red radishes
• 1 bundle of green onions (cut into 1 in)
• 200g of kosher salt (for brine)
• 1 small yellow onion (chopped)
• 0.5 thumb of ginger (peeled and chopped/minced)
• 4-5 garlic cloves (chopped/minced)
• 2tbsp of rice flour
• 50-60g of coarse chili power (gochugaru)
• 0.25 cup of liquid aminos
• 2 tsp of sugar
• 2 pinches of MSG (for rice porridge)
• 300ml of water for rice porridge
• 2L of water for salted water

Note:

• The storage jars must be boiled so that the bacteria on the jar surface can be removed. The best way is, in cold water, putting jars so that the downside is up. Then, boil the water in medium heat. When the water boils, let it be boiling for 5 mins. After that, cool and dry the jars.
• Moreover, depending the amount of radishes, the volume of salted water can vary. Just keep the ratio. 1L:100g.
• There will be the leftover of radish greens. We will blanch these so that those can be used for some soy bean paste soup. (sirae-gi doenjang-guk)

How to make:

1. In 300ml of water, put two pinches of MSG and 2 tbsp of rice flour. Stir well, and boil it on medium heat. Cook 3 to 5 mins for this rice porridge. After it’s done, cool it.
2. While cooling the porridge, wash the red radishes, and trim the whisker parts of the roots. Moreover, cut radishes into root parts, stem parts and leaf parts, and separate them.
3. In a stock pot or huge bowl, add 2L of water and 200g of kosher salt. Stir well to make brine.
4. Put the root and stem parts of radishes into the brine. For the leaf parts, put only half amount of those.
5. Leave 30 mins so that the radishes and greens can be salted.
6. (optional) For a while, we blanch the leftover of leaf parts. In a pot, put 1.5L of water and add 1tbsp of salt. When the water is boil, reduce the heat to the low heat. Blanch leaves in it for about 3 mins, and after that, wash them. Put these ones into storage bags and freeze them. Those should have some excess moist. You can use these for various Korean dishes, for example, soy bean paste soup with radish leaves.
7. When the salting is done, wash radishes and leave them on a colander so that the moist can be removed.
8. For a while, we make the kimchi base. Mix chili powder with ginger, onion and garlic. Add liquid aminos and sugar, and then mix well. If it is not salty enough, add some salt.
9. Mix radishes and green onions with the base.
10. Store the kimchi in a jar, and leave them in the room temperature for 24 hours. After than, store in the fridge. For fermentation, at least 3 days are required.

Description:

This recipe is for a vegan napa cabbage cut kimchi with authentic flavor. Usually, kimchi contains various fish stock and sauce, so traditionally, it is not a vegan food, but I twisted the authentic recipe a bit so that vegan people also can enjoy the authentic flavor of kimchi.

Ingredients (for approximately 2 jars of 32 oz):

• 1 head of Napa cabbage (approximately 3 to 4 pounds)
• 250g of Daikon radish
• 3 to 5 shiitake mushrooms
• 20 g of Kelp flakes
• 200g of coarse sea/kosher salt
• 3 tbsp. of rice flour
• 100~120g of coarse chili power (gochugaru) (depending on your preference of spiciness)
• 8-9 cloves of garlic (approximately 1 bulb)
• 1 bulb of shallot
• 0.5 to 1 thumb of ginger (peeled)
• 0.5 cup of liquid aminos
• 1 tbsp of sugar
• 2 bundles of green onions (cut into 1 in)
• 1 bundle of green onions for stock (cut into 2 in)
• 750ml of water for stock and rice porridge
• 2L of water for salting cabbage

Note:

The storage jars must be boiled so that the bacteria on the jar surface can be removed. The best way is, in cold water, put jars so that the downside is up. Then, boil the water in medium heat. When the water boils, let it be boiling for 5 mins. After that, cool and dry the jars.

Moreover, depending the amount of cabbage, the volume of salted water can vary. Just keep the ratio. 1L:100g.

Recipe:

1. Remove the outmost leaves of napa cabbage. We will not use this part of cabbage.
2. Cut vertically a head of Napa cabbage into 4 pieces. Then, slightly cut the root part to get rid of some hard part, and cut cabbage in length of 1 in.
3. Pour 2L of water into a stock pot and melt 200g of sea salt in it well.
4. Put cut cabbage into salted water. We will leave this for 2 hours.
5. Now, we cook stock. With 750ml of cold water, put kelp flakes. Boil it, and soon after boiling begins, the kelp flakes will float on the water surface. Remove them or leave it 2~3 mins.
6. Into the kelp stock, put shiitake mushrooms and 1 bundle of green onions, and boil it with medium heat for 10 mins.
7. Remove the mushrooms, and filter this stock with a strainer.
8. We now make rice porridge. Put rice flour into the stock, and boil it while stirring well. It will take about 5 mins so that porridge is done. Well-cooked porridge has the texture like pudding.
9. Shimmer and cool down the porridge by letting it in room temperature. For faster cooling, you can put the pot inside iced water. Wait until cooling is done.
10. Now, we make seasoning. Chop garlic, ginger and shallot. Mix this with chili powder. Pour liquid aminos and sugar. Stir well. Pour rice porridge on this so that the seasoning has the texture like a paste. If the saltiness is not enough, add more salt.
11. Cut green onions in length of 1 in. Slice radish so that it has the 1 in square shape.
12. When salting cabbage is done, the stem part of cabbage can be bent easily not teared. Wash salted cabbage in a colander, and let the excess moist be removed.
13. In a huge bowl (or you can use the stock pot again), put salted cabbage, green onions and radish into it, and mix them with seasoning.
14. Put the kimchi into jars. For better fermentation, the jars should be filled without air gaps inside. Fill the jars as much as possible, but leave some space to the lid. When you lock the lid, seal the neck with plastic wrap, and push it inside so that the inside can be air tighten.
15. Leave the kimchi in the room temparature for 24 houes, and store in a fridge for at least 3 days. After that you can enjoy it, or for better fermentation, you can leave the kimchi for more than 1 week.

Description:

This is a Korean fusion dish with complex taste and flavor. It is quite common stir fry beef and cabbage together for making bulgogi, but I twisted a traditional recipe to make a new and different Korean fusion food. Try this! It’s delicious!

Ingredients 1:

• A half pound of beef chuck/sirloin, stir-fry cut
• A half head of cabbage, diced
• A serrano pepper (or Cheongyang chilli pepper), sliced
• 1 Tbsp of butter
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• A bit of sesame for garnish
• 2Tbsp of cooking wine
• 2 ounces of water
• 2Tbsp of cooking oil (canola/corn/vegetable)

Ingredients 2, for sauce: Mix the following ingredients for preparing the sauce.

• 2Tbsp of soy sauce
• 0.5Tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
• 1Tbsp of oyster sauce
• 1Tbsp of sugar
• 1Tbsp of mirin
• A bit of ginger powder
• A bit of onion powder
• A bit of water
• A bit of ground black pepper

How to cook:

1. Heat a stainless steel Sauté pan or wok with high heat, and add the cooking oil.
2. Remove any moist from beef, and put this into the pan. Stir well.
3. When the beef becomes nice brown, put the cooking wine. Deglaze the fond well. You may need to put more water for deglazing.
4. When the pan becomes dry enough, reduce the heat as medium-high, and put garlic and serrano pepper. Stir well.
5. When you can smell garlic and pepper enough, put water into the pan. Add all cabbage, and stir well.
6. Cover the pan with a lid, and leave it for 1 minute.
7. Open the lid, and while stirring, add the butter. When the butter is melted all, add the prepared sauce. Stir well.
8. Stir for about 2 minutes.
9. Done. Move all to a plate, and put some sesame for garnish.
10. Enjoy!

Description:

This recipe is for mapo tofu in the Sichuan style using Sichuan peppercorns and chili bean paste. I prefer this style to a common style of mapo tofu because it has stronger flavor and is considered to be in more Sichuan style. I use ground pork usually, but one can substitute this by ground beef.

Ingredients:

• 1 block of firm tofu (approx. 1 lb)
• 1/6 lb of ground pork (or beef)
• 1 thumb of ginger (chopped)
• 3 cloves of garlic (minced or chopped)
• 1Tbsp of Sichuan peppercorns
• Some dried chili peppers (approx. twice volume of peppercorns)
• 1Tbsp of chili bean paste
• 1Tbsp of oyster sauce
• 1Tbsp of dark soy sauce (lao chou)
• 1tsp of sugar
• some salt and MSG
• Some cooking oil (canola or corn)
• Some water
• Some cornstarch mixed with water by 1:1

How to cook:

1. Prepare ginger and garlic as above. Also, dice the tofu as 1 in cubes.
2. Now, we will fry dried chili and Sichuan peppercorns. In the medium heat, add some oil in your pan, and put dried chili and Sichuan peppercorns. Stir fry until pepper becomes brown.
3. Remove chili and peppercorns from the pan and move them to a bowl.
4. We now fry chili bean paste in oil. Add more oil in the pan, and fry chili bean paste for about 3 mins. While frying the paste, move the fried chili and peppercorns to the cutting board.
5. When the chili bean paste is done for frying, move the paste to the bowl you used, and chop fried chili and peppercorns well. Mix these with chili bean paste well. This will be the essence of the flavor of the mapo tofu.
6. With medium-high heat, stir fry ground meat in oil until it becomes dried and brown.
7. Then, add garlic and ginger, and add our essence made by chili, Sichuan peppercorn and chili bean paste.
8. After that, put some water, and boil the sauce with high heat. While stirring, add oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar. Taste the sauce, and if it is not salty or savory enough, add more salt or MSG.
9. Add tofu. Stir and boil for about 3-5 mins.
10. Add cornstarch over 3 times until you get the desired thickness.
11. Enjoy!

Description:

Jjajang is a favorite Korean Chinese sauce which is usually served with Chinese noodles. You can use jjajang with rice steamed or fried, or even you can cook spaghetti using jjajang. Its taste is rich sweet and savory, and also some nutty flavor from the bean paste. You can use one of sweet bean paste (tian mian jiang), chunjang (Korean version of tian mian jiang) or soy bean paste (Doenjang).

Ingredients:

• 4Tbsp of sweet bean paste (tian mian jiang) or chunjang
  or
• 2Tbsp of soy bean paste

• 0.5 lbs of stew pork
• 1-1.5 onion (depending on size, chuncked)
• 0.5 zucchini (optional, chuncked)
• 1Tbsp of soy sauce
• 2Tbsp of rice cooking wine
• Some dark soy sauce (Lao chou)
• Some cooking oil (corn or peanut recommended)
• Some water
• Some sugar
• Some MSG
• Some cornstarch mixed with water by 1:1

How to cook:

1. First, fry bean paste in oil. Heat the pan in around 300-320 F. Add some oil in the pan. The amount of oil should be enough for frying the paste.
2. Put the bean paste in the pan. Fry the paste for about 7 mins. The purpose of this process is to dry the paste and soak paste with oil. After fried well, the paste have smooth and nutty flavor. When it is done for frying, put the paste in a bowl with all the oil.
3. Wipe off the pan by paper towel, and wash it with water. Dry the pan, and heat it in 400 F.
4. Add some oil in the pan, and stir fry the pork. Fry it well until it becomes nice brown.
5. When the pork becomes brown, add soy sauce to make flavor, and then put cooking wine to deglaze.
6. Without reducing the heat, add onion, and stir well. Then, add zucchini, too, if you have.
7. When onion get enough heat, put the fried bean paste. Mix it with the pork and onion well.
8. Add some sugar and MSG to add sweet and savory taste. Caution: Taste it first, and try from little amount! Especially, if you use the sweet bean paste, the sauce is already very sweet.
9. Use dark soy sauce to add color to your sauce.
10. If you stop at this moment, you have made Gan-jjajang. It is already good with Chinese noodles.
11. Add some water in the pan, and stir. The amount of water is not fixed and it depends on your taste. Add enough water until you get your preferred taste.
12. Mix prepared cornstarch with water well, and add cornstarch in your sauce until it becomes thick enough.
13. Enjoy with rice or noodles!

Description:

You might have heard about sole meunière, a famous French dish. Japanese people adopts the recipe of this food to cook salmon deliciously. The following recipe is my version of salmon meunière, which is good with rice, sake or white wine.

Ingredients:

• 1 frozen salmon thawed (usually, it takes a day for thawing inside the fridge; instead, you can thaw the packed salmon in cold water.)
• 1Tbsp of butter (salted or unsalted)
• 1Tbsp of cooking oil (pure olive oil is preferred)
• Some salt and black pepper
• Some dried oregano
• Some all-purpose flour
• 2Tbsp of soy sauce
• 1Tbsp of mirin
• 1Tbsp of rice vinegar
• 1tsp of Worcestershire sauce
• 1tsp of minced or chopped garlic.

How to cook:

1. Remove all moist from on the surfaces of salmon. Season salt and black pepper on the flesh side of salmon. Wait for 3 to 5 mins for the salmon to be seasoned well.
2. While the salmon is being seasoned, prepare the sauce. Mix soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar and Worcestershire sauce Grind some black pepper in the sauce and add some oregano.
3. Dredge salmon with flour. This gives another layer on the salmon so that it is fried and soaked in sauce well. So, dredge salmon well for a thin layer of flour.
4. Heat your skillet in around 320 F. Add cooking oil and butter.
5. When the butter is fully melted, put salmon in the skillet with the skin down.
6. Turn over the salmon every 30 to 40 secs until the surface becomes nice brown.
7. If the salmon is cooked, remove it from the skillet, and plate it.
8. Now, turn off the heat, and add garlic in it. By the remaining heat, garlic will be fried. If you can smell the flavor of garlic (at this point, the garlic becomes brown), add the sauce mix in the skillet.
9. Stir the sauce well with the butter and oil in the skillet. Then, the sauce will be reduced, and leave it until you get the desired thickness.
10. Pour sauce on the cooked salmon with a spoon. If sauce is too much, then the salmon can be salty, so adjust the amount well.
11. Serve it, and enjoy!

Description:

This is a popular Chinese dish in Korea, which is basically stir-fried peppers with pork. An American variant of this dish is pepper steak which is stir-fried peppers with beef. It has (a bit) spicy and savory flavor and is good with steamed rice or Chinese flower buns (Hua Juan). Also, you can pair this dish with some mild red wine, pale lager or baijiu.

Ingredients (for serving 1-2 people):

• 2 Anaheim peppers and 1 jalapeno (if you are not good at spicy food, you can substitute this by 2 green bell peppers)
• 1 onion
• 0.5 lbs of pork loin (stir-fry cut or stew pork)
• 2-4 shiitake mushrooms (depending on the size)
• 1tsp of dried chili peppers
• 1tsp of ground black pepper
• 1Tbsp of soy sauce
• 1Tbsp of oyster sauce
• 2Tbsp of rice cooking wine
• 1Tbsp of dark soy sauce (lao chou)
• 1Tbsp of sesame oil
• Some cooking oil (canola or corn preferred and olive oil is not recommended)
• Some cornstarch mixed with water by 1:1
• Some gingers and bamboo shoots (optional)

How to cook:

1. Julienne peppers and onion in thin and long shape, and slice mushrooms. If it is hard to slice mushrooms, blanch them and slice. If you use gingers and bamboo shoots, slice them, too.
2. Prepare your cornstarch mix with water.
3. Remove the outside moist of pork using paper towel.
4. After checking no water inside your skillet, heat your skillet with very high temperature (around 400 F). Add some oil, and stir fry the pork (at this moment, you can hear nice sizzling sound) until it becomes brown by the Maillard reaction.
5. Now, we add some flavor to the pork. Without reducing the heat, add dried chili peppers and soy sauce. Stir well quickly, then the pork becomes dark brown.
6. Then, add cooking wine to deglaze. Stir well quickly.
7. Still, we do not reduce the heat. Add julienned peppers and onions and stir well, and then put shiitake mushrooms. Add gingers and bamboo shoots if you have.
8. Stir all the ingredients until peppers and onions get enough heat but before they become soft.
9. Now, while stirring, add oyster sauce, and then add dark soy sauce. Stir well.
10. Slightly reduce the heat, and add ground black pepper and sesame oil. Stir well.
11. Finally, mix your cornstarch well, and add a bit of it. Check the thickness, and add cornstarch until you get the desired thickness.
12. Serve the dish, and enjoy!