cooking for a working korean girl

Bin Dae Duk

Ingredients
1 cup peeled mung beans
2/3 cup chopped onions
2/3 cup chopped mushrooms
1 cup of kimchee
2 kochu peppers
2/3 cup sliced pork (optional)
olive oil for cooking
water

I used about a cup of mung beans. I bought a bag at the korean grocery store - the peeled ones.

Soak the mung beans overnight in water. As they soak in water, they will soften so I usually leave them in the fridge overnight.

This is what it looked like the next day

I used the food processor to grind this up. I put about half of it in at first

Make sure you drain out the excess water. I added some water maybe half a TB? You can always add water later but better to start out with less water then more ~

I ground up half and then added the rest

Pour it into a large bowl and set it aside. Now its time to chop the mushrooms and onions. I used about 2/3 cup each. You can do this by hand using a knife, but I was lazy so I just used the food processor since it was already out

I used the chop setting

Add to the mung bean mixture

Chop up kimchee and add as well...you can chop the kimchee by hand if you like larger pieces in yours but it's all personal preference!

Add sliced kochu

Pork~ (optional)

Mix it around

Heat up a pan with some oil and start to fry! I try to make each one as thin as possible, so they (1) cook more evenly and faster and (2) it's easier to get the crispiness on the outside!

I usually serve with just plain soy sauce but you can add kochu peppers directly into the soy sauce to give it a little kick!

Beansprout soup 콩나물국

2 cups of beansprouts
1 red chili - seeded and cut
3 cups water
8-10 dried anchovies
1 chopped scallion
3 garlic cloves minced
Salt to taste
1 tp kochugaru - optional

Bring water to a boil and add the anchovies to make the broth - boil for about 15-20 minutes. You should see the water change color a bit

Add the beansprouts and cook for about 5 minutes. Then add the scallions, red chili and garlic

I added some kochugaru to make it a bit spicier

Add salt to taste and then serve. It's really meant as a side dish, not a main

Dumplings 만두

1 cup kimchee
1 cup tofu
1 egg yolk
2 garlic
Sesame oil
Dash of pepper
2 chopped scallions
1 lb Ground pork / chicken / beef
1 package of mandu skins

Chop up the kimchee and put it in a big bowl

In a separate small bowl, put 1 tp sesame oil and some gochukaru on the tofu and then mash it up

Add to the kimchee

Add the yolk and scallions

The garlic and pepper

And mix together

Prepare the meat in a separate bowl. I ended up using chicken, pork and beef to see what it's like but you can use all one type if you want. Add some minced garlic and scallion and mix it together

Time for mandu making! I am not the best at shaping them!

Put some of the meat mix on first

Then the kimchee / tofu mix

Then close and shape as you like

I ended up making a variety - some with the meat mixture only, some with tofu/kimchee only etc

I know it's not pretty ha. I ended up getting lazy and didn't care about the kimchee stains you see ha. Make sure to do this on wax paper with some flour so it doesn't stick. I ended up freezing alot of these

Pork Bossam 보쌈

1 pound of pork (shoulder, belly etc)
1 whole onion
1 ginger (peeled)
1 sliced jalapeno
10-12 cloves of garlic
1 TB soybean paste
dash of pepper
2-3 scallions
1 teaspoon of coffee
Spicy dduk side (below, optional)
Pureed kimchee (optional)
Lettuce leaves
Samjjang for dipping
Grilled garlic (optional)

I made this once using shoulder and forgot to take pictures until the end! Then I made it again but used pork loin (I usually use shoulder or belly, but they didn't have any so I used pork loin in the first set of pictures)

First wash the pork and then put it in water on the stove to boil. I added the coffee and brought the water to a boil for about 30 minutes to get (for lack of a better work) gunk out!

It's going to boil for about 30 minutes. While it's boiling get the veggies ready. I just peeled the onion and cut the ends off the scallion. I used this strainer for the rest of the veggies but you can use tea bags too.

After thirty minutes take it off the stove and throw away the water and wash the pork

I switched to my Le Creuset pot for the rest of this. Now I put the pork and veggies into the pot to boil again

Add the soy bean paste and dash of pepper

And cover with water and start to boil on low/medium heat. I boiled it probably for about 6-8 hours over the course of two days. Most people only do it for 3 hours if you want it like the traditional bo ssam, but I was making mine a bit different. So you can cook it less if you like!

When you finally are ready to prepare it to eat, throw out everything but the pork for the last hour.

I pureed kimchee in a food processor to use with the pork

I also made some spicy dduk to eat with it (optional)
If you want to, mix a marinade of 2 TB soy sauce, 2 TB kochujang, 1 tb sesame oil, 1 minced garlic, dash of pepper, dash of ginger powder, 1 tb sugar, 1 tb kochugaru. I heated a pan, added some dduk with the marinade and cooked it while waiting on the pork

One thing that is hard is that once things like dduk are off the stove, it doesn't take long for them to cook down! I bought this Staub pan at Willams Sonoma and it's AWESOME. I let it heat on the stove while cooking other things (nothing on it) to warm it up. Once we are ready to eat, I transfer the dduk to the pot and it's still sizzling on the table!

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/staub-6-inch-round-gratin-baking-dish_51/?pkey=ccookware-staub|ckwstbred

Keep in mind all this is going on while the pork is cooking so make sure to time everything. Before the dduk is done take the pork out. It should be really tender now... you can cut / tear it apart and throw out any fat

(back to when I used pork shoulder ha)

Now you can see what I mean by the difference - most times bossam is still "put together" ie like sam kyup sal pieces just boiled. The above is more shredded, so it's a matter of preference.

Then you are ready to eat!