Cooking Korean: Manju (Sweet white bean buns)

I love to make buns, so when I was invited to my friend Ahsik-bot's bbq I decided I would make a sweet bun.  Maangchi had just posted a new recipe for Manju on her site - decision made.  The manju recipe is made with lima beans (for a white bean filling).  Lima beans are often sold as butterbeans.  Lima beans are nice and big ie easy to work with and mash nicely.  I'm sure you could replace them with a different large white bean (lima beans can be difficult to find in different places)



Now that you've seen the video, you know exactly what I did.  I used canned beans . . . with no negative lasting effect I think, as my buns were a huge hit.  I found I had to cook my beans a bit longer with the sugar in them to get them to thicken up.  I doubled the recipe, so I don't know if that was a factor.  I found that though I doubled the recipe and formed 16 buns, they were a bit small.  It seemed more like 1.5 the recipe - even though I did the math right.  It didn't seem to effect taste.

dough is on the left filling on the right

Going into the oven!

Coming out of the oven, they don't rise too much

Ninja trapped by manju!

As I mentioned the buns were a big hit.  I would definitely make them again.  It was quick and easy, while utilizing easy to find ingredients.  If your just starting out making buns this is a pretty forgiving recipe and dough, so probably a good place to start.

Cooking Korean: Yangnyeom tongdak (seasoned fried chicken) and hobakjeon (Squash Pancakes)

I made a two recipes from Maangchi.com for dinner tonight.  The seasoned fried chicken and the squash pancakes(zucchini) - you know to have a well rounded meal.  I had some chicken left over from a big grocery store sale, so I was in the market for a chicken recipe (I'm trying to clean out my freezer before going to Japan). I remembered seeing a interesting spicy friend chicken recipe at Maangchi's site on a day when I didn't have chicken.  Unlike today . . . when I do have chicken.  You can see the recipes at the links.  Or you can watch the videos here!





I made a half batch of the chicken.  It was easy to half the recipe(I used an entire egg).  I also used honey as I don't keep corn syrup.  As the meal was super super delicious I imagine it didn't effect the taste any.  The whole thing turned out really well. I made the squash pancakes during the final fry of the chicken and it worked out perfect.

zucchini ready to go

Chicken breaded and ready

Oil getting hot!

Fry number 1

Resting

Double fried!

Frying away in the pan

Coated in sauce!

See cooked all the way through!

Nice and brown

Super delicious dinner with ninja

I must say this might be the best chicken I have ever made.  Ever.  It is just fantastic.  In fact, it might be the best fried chicken I've ever eaten.  The crust was just so crispy and stayed on great!  I imagine it is the mochiko flour that makes it awesome . . . and all the potato starch.  It is just perfectly spicy and awesome.  The squash pancakes were also delicious.  Not quite as mind blowing, but a really nice veggi side for the meal.  The whole thing was really easy to make and pretty fast.  Took may be 40 minutes to get everything done.  I will note that I used chucks of chicken breast (fairly small ones) and I did not have to fry for nearly as long as Maangchi did (about 5 minutes each time).  Don't worry it was cooked through, no pink chicken!

Cooking Korean: Chamchijeon (tuna pancakes)

This is a super simply recipe from Maangchi! I wanted something nice and light and summery last night and this fit the bill.  I made the Chamchijeon exactly like the recipe. I know can you believe it (I would use 1/2 the amount of salt next time).  If you have a can of tuna in the house you can probably make this tonight! For the recipe watch the video!



For dinner I had my chamchijeon with a nice chopped salad (Avocado, tomato, green onion, and a little gomae dressing).

All the ingredients ready to go!

Mixed and ready to fry!

Nice little tuna pancakes!

Ninjas like chamchijeon and summer salad!

It was a great light summer mean.  I highly recommend it!

Cooking Korean: Gyeran malyee (rolled omelet)

I have a great love for Tamago(japanese layered omelet) and can never quite make it right (despite trying many blogger's recipes of how to do it without a tomago pan - these efforts always involve rolling).  That is why I knew I had to make this rolled omelet when I saw it at Maangchi's site!  I finally made it tonight . . . after I dropped my box of eggs on the floor and had exactly 3 eggs to use (the recipe calls for 3 so it was fate).



If you've watched the video you'll see how easy the recipe is.  It was also very tasty. MOST importantly it turned out right for once!

Ninjas take their omelet very seriously . . .

Super easy recipe. Great for dinner or for bentos!

Sunday Cooking: Sweet Potato Extravaganza!

I love making steamed buns . . . if you read this blog you know that.  My very good friend Ahsik-bot does not eat pork.  These means she has never eaten my delicious buns.  I follow a fantastic blog called My Little Space, which has just fantastic recipes.  This is where I found a recipe for curried sweet potato buns!  Doesn't that sound like the best ever!  I knew I had to make it for Ahsik-bot.  So, this is the story of our lovely Sunday dinner.
The recipe is in two parts.  One for the curried sweet potato filling (click for it).  And one for the sweet potato buns (clickity click).  Have a look and come back.  I'll wait . . . so now you know your suppose to make up the filling ahead and let it sit before using it.  As I always follow recipes to the letter, I made my filling Saturday night.  You may not that the recipe calls for things in grams, which I'm not particularly good with.  So, I bought rather more sweet potatoes than would be considered necessary.  So, a sweet potato extravaganza indeed.  I ended up making my filling and fried some extra sweet potato for my dinner - stir fried sweet potato and onions on spinach pasta topped with Parmesan cheese.  It was good . . . really. 

Fantastic chicken, sweet potato, and onion curry!

Yummy sweet potato and spinach pasta dinner . . . now with more ninja!!

Today I made up the dough.  I bought what was labeled purple sweet potatoes . . . which was really orange sweet potatoes.  So, instead of pretty purple buns I have pretty orange buns.  The taste is still delicious.  I loved the dough recipe.  It was super easy to make and the resulting dough had a great texture.  I had to add about double the water due to the extreme dryness of Edmonton.  The Edmonton effect as I call it.

Starter . . .

Sweet potato for the bun recipe . . .

dough ready to rise . . .

Big steamed buns

You can see how great the results were.  We had a great dinner of curried sweet potato buns, spinach salad, and korean spicy squid side dish! Yummy!  For desert I made black sesame cupcakes! Recipe found at TheSweetArt (click away).  I doubled it for 12 cakes.  They came out delicious and were a really great end to the meal.

Doesn't that look like a great dinner!

Black sesame cupcakes!

For a great dinner party.  Stuff and steam the buns when the guest arrive.  You can have them help, but it will take longer if they aren't used to bun making.  Make sure to remind them to pinch the dough like they don't like it.  While the buns rest for 10 minutes before steaming mix up the cake batter.  Put the buns on to steam and the cake in to bake.  My cakes took about twice as long to cook as the recipe mentioned.  Serve up the plates while the cake finishes cooking.  Salad takes no time to plate and korean squid side dish can be made in advance (up to a month in advance actually) and plated.  You may have to take the cakes out of the oven in the middle of your meal.  It is worth it though!  Perfect!

Cooking Korean: Ojingeochae muchim (spicy squid)

When I was traveling back from England I stopped at Yo!Sushi.  It is a fun little place where the sushi goes about on the conveyer and you pick the plates you want.  Different colors mean different prices.  One of the dishes I chose was spicy squid.  I love squid, so it was worth a try.  It was delicious bright reddish orange squid on a plate of greens.  Very very good . . . and the most expensive plate I got, but worth it.  It was definitely not a particularly cheap airport lunch.

it looks fun right?

Randomly I was looking at recipes before going shopping (I had no food in the house due to traveling so much lately).  I found a recipe for Ojingeochae muchim (spicy squid) at Maangchi's site that looked a lot like what I ate.  Click on the link to go to the site and watch the video if your inclined.   This recipe involves stirring the ingredients and that is all.  It doesn't get easier.  I halved the recipe as I didn't know if I'd like anything made with dried squid or not . . . half makes quite a lot.

Ninja got stuck in the squid . . .

Overall, I really like it.  It was super easy to make and apparently keeps in the fridge for 1 month.  It was very very spicy, which I like.  You may want to use caution though.  If you have any inclinaiton toward squid I would suggest it.

Cooking Korean: Japchae (stirfried noodles)

I decided to make something new from Maangchi's site today: Japchae or stirfried noodles and vegetables.  It just looked so good . . . I like to stirfry things . . . woks  are fun.  The recipe also looks like it will heat up well so I can many meals out of it.  That is how I like to cook.  Complicated recipes that will last me for a bit . . . but not too hard, I don't like failure. As always I recommend starting with the video to get an idea of the recipe.

As often happens I changed the recipe up a bit based on ingredients I have/could get.  It is beautiful spring here in Edmonton (finally), so I walked to the nearby grocery store rather than going somewhere fancy.  I couldn't find the starch noodles, so I used regular rice noodles . . . okay brown rice noodles . . . they seemed the most fun of my options.  I also used ground beef that I had to use like now rather than slicing up some beef I would have had to purchase today.  Overall, I think the soul of the recipe is intact.

bowl of ingredients!

Its a ninja trap . . .

The result? Fantastic!  And super easy.  I would make this again.  I changed up the recipe a bit and cooked more of my veggies together at each step . . . but I don't think it hurt the quality . . . I was very hungry at the time.

Cooking Korean . . . Redue: Hoddeok . . . kinda

Awhile back I made some very very delicious Hoddeok following Maangchi's recipe. See the video for the full recipe. See my old post for my adventure.  It was super delicious and yummy, but as I was making and eating it I thought . . . what else can I put in this.  This is my new adventure with alternative fillings.


To me the best part of Hoddeok is the nice chewy sweet dough the filling is wrapped in.  So, I thought it would be good to see what else you could put in the middle of it.  For quite some time now I've had a large bag of lotus seed paste that I've been meaning to use.  It is a very delicious Chinese dessert filling.  Very rich, but not too sweet.  Much like a red or while been filling you get in some Japanese desserts.  Having picked my filling it was time to get started.

Bought at the T&T of course!

It is super thick so easy to use as a filling!

I made the dough exactly as instructed in the video.  Don't be put off by it.  It is much easier to work with then it appears.  Just make sure you have flour for your hands etc, when working with it.  You end up with 8 largish hoddeok.  The filling it really rich, so one is probably enough for a portion.  Or two is you have some tea and a break.

Nice bubble dough after all done rising twice

dough balls ready to be filled

Filling them is super easy

One done!

Filled and ready to cook!

Frying side one . . .

Flipped and smashed!

First one done . . . it goes to the ninja . . .

Big plate of Hoddeok!

The results were pretty good.  I was worried the filling might totally overwhelm the delicate taste of the dough, but it didn't.  Not as good as the original brown sugar filling, but a fun and interesting variation.  I can't wait to try other stuff in there!

Cooking Korean: Kimchijeon (kimchi pancake)

Lets start with my first experience with Kimchi.  In college I had two Hawaiian roommates and a number of Hawaiian friends (this is why I eat so much Asian food).  Anyway.  My roommate IAM-bot loved(s) kimchi.  So, when we finally found an Asian grocery story she bought a big vat of it.  She said it was fermented cabbage, which she knew I loved as sauerkraut.  Then she opened it . . . and I smelled one of the worst smells I have ever smelled.  I flatly refused to eat it.  That's right, I refused.  Based on smell I wasn't going near it.  I stayed a way from it to.  No matter how much Korean food I ate, I never touched kimchi.  I should mention something . . . I have a MS is forensic anthropology, without being too gross . . . I've been around some "strong" smells.

But, over time the number of people who told me it doesn't taste the way it smells began to add up.  And then, I made sauerkraut and sausage for a friend who had never had sauerkraut and said . . . it doesn't taste like it smells.  I decided I needed to try it.  So, this is my first Kimchi experiment.  I decided to make Kimchijeon.  Why?  Because, it is intensely kimchi, but cooked . . . I'm not sure why this makes it better.  Maangchi seems to like it and she doesn't usually steer me wrong.  So, I decided to use her Kimchijeon recipe.  At my last trip to the T&T I picked up a little pot of kimchi - premade.  I didn't want to commit to making my own at this point.

If its from Korea it must be good, right?

First, I opened the jar.  the hated smell meet my nose.  I'm not sure why I hate the smell so much.  I like sour cabbage and I like spicy things, but it just hurts.  I tasted it anyway.  It was fine.  I don't think I'll eat it out of the pot with a fork for a snack, but it is edible despite olfactory proof to the contrary. And so we begin with the cooking.

Ludo - SMELL BAD

I followed the recipe pretty exactly.  I use a bit more than a cup of kimchi (as my little pot contained a bit over this amount).  It also didn't have any kimchi juice . . . so I skipped it.  I mixed up the batter and it turned out looking like pancake . . . which is good.

Ready to cook . . . the smell had subsided by this point . . .

I got my pan ready and poured scooped in the batter.  I flattened it out and then realized something . . . my pan was too small and steep sided for the flipper to work . . . and I can't do the awesome flip Maangchi did on her video.

So, I divided it up into smaller pancakes in the pan.  I soon learned that my kimchi was still a bit large for what I was trying to do, but it more or less worked as I ended up with pancakes!

Big pancake fail . . .

Delicious little pancakes with Ninjas

I had a bite and it was pretty good.  I felt it could use a sauce so I used some mayo like I do when I make Japanese pancakes.  It went really well together so I feel I can suggest this.  In the end, I at about a 1/3 of a pancake and enjoyed it.  I don't think I could eat more than that in one sitting, but it is good.  I might be convinced to eat kimchi again and just try really hard not to smell it.

Cooking Korean: Jjajangmyun (black bean noodles)

I've been cooking Korean again.  I made Jjajangmyun (black bean noodles).  I love noodles, but haven't been eating them much lately, so this seemed like a good recipe to try.  Once again the recipes can be found at Maangchi.com.  Like always the video is helpful!  Plus, the music is very fun for this one . . . I love The Clash!

Jjajangmyun from Maangchi on Vimeo.

I followed the recipe very closely, but I did use a different brand of black bean sauce and a daikon instead of a Korean radish (which I couldn't find).  Plus, I added some leftover shitake mushrooms I had.  I did find Korean noodles though! However, I decided to use the buckwheat variety.

Root veg and crispy pork belly!

Everything delicious cooking away!

Yummy fresh pasta!

The past gives me permission to add stuff to the pasta ie radish juice . . .

Sauce all done (I may have made it a bit thick . . .)

Look at that delicious pasta!

I cut everything at the start and put it in different bowls.  I think cooked the black bean paste at the same time that I stir fried the pork belly.  I also made sure it was very well cooked as I like it very crispy. I then added the root veg.  Cooked that for 3 minutes and then added the other veg and fired for 3 more minutes.   I followed the direction for the rest, but I didn't add the sugar as it was already pretty sweet (the bought paste or extra sweet sweet potatoes I don't know).

Lunch! Ninja Optional.

In the end, it turned out good.  The veggies are super soft and the pork belly super crisp.  It did turn out a bit salty though . . . I think its the black bean paste I bought.  I would use a different type next time, but I'm still pretty happy with it.  Yum!