hot weather, cold noodles?

I live in the tropics. Hot (and the occasional rain ^^) weather is a given 365 days of the year. That means it's summer all year long here!

Since there's hardly any seasonal change (if you consider rain as seasonal), we do not have special foods to mark the seasons. Also berries do not grow on trees here ^^||.. Anyways, whatever we lack, we are blessed with an abundance of other stuff.. sunny weather (^^||).. cheap and good food, fruits and produce.. stability.. food.. did I mention food again? ^^ I count my blessings every day ^^

Anyways, despite the heat.. I mean sunny weather, we don't normally take our food cold. Though we enjoy our ice-creams and drinks icy-cold, we generally prefer our mains hot. So it is interesting to note that the koreans (the japanese too) enjoy cold noodles during summer.. and even better, they like them spicy ^^

So when I saw sook's spicy nengmyon sauce, it really piqued my interest.. especially when it's made from scratch with lots of fruits! and no cooking required! I knew I had to try it out!

Spicy naengmyeon sauce (recipe from sook ~ heartmindandseoul) 

1 korean melon/ asian pear or 1 cup pineapple chunks (I used a mix of pear + pineapples)

1/2 green apple, remove skin (I used a whole red apple) 

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup korean cider or sprite/7-up (I used sprite)

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 cloves garlic

2 green onions (I used green onions + 1 yellow onion)

1-inch ginger piece, remove skin

1/2 cup gochugaru (chili powder)

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp honey

a pinch of salt

3 tbsp toasted sesame oil (I used the usual sesame oil)

sesame seeds to garnish (optional) 

1. Process the fruits, water, cider, soy sauce, garlic, green onions and ginger till you get a smooth mixture.

2. Pour fruit mixture into a big mixing bowl. Add gochugaru, sugar, honey, salt and sesame oil one by one to the fruit mixture and mix till well combined. 

3. Serve cold with cold soba/noodles.. topped with julienned cucumber/pear, hard-boiled egg and sliced meat, if you like.. and enjoy ^^!

 

* see sook's post for the step by step of making this sauce and yummy pictures!

My very first made from scratch sauce!

Though I did find this cold noodle with spicy fruity sauce yummy and refreshing, I still prefer my noodle sauces a little bit more savory and robust. However, this could be just the thing for you! And for some strange reason, me and papa pig find this dish tasting a lot like the rojak mee we have here (minus the peanuts) (??!)

Anyways, I really enjoyed making the sauce.. it felt very wholesome.. and right. (^^)

Honey chicken?

Oooh.. I love the honey pork belly posted by sook of heart mind and seoul today! The recipe actually originated from nami of just one cookbook posted sometime in june, which I obviously missed as I had yet to discover her blog then.

Looking at sook's post, I'm suddenly reminded of how much I love stuffing my mouth with a FULLY LOADED lettuce wrap! So korean! So hearty and robust! Also so satisfying and FULL-filling! Yes, I can be quite the pig *oink!oink!* (^^) 

But when I saw nami's post, I was blown away by HER honey pork belly! She styled it so deliciously beautiful.. so delicate and tender.. and almost too pretty to be eaten ^^! Don't worry, I really have no issues eating beautiful food! (^^)

Anyways, I'm inspired to cook this dish because it "looks" simply do-able! Only 4 ingredients for sauce ~ honey, oyster sauce, soy sauce and minced garlic. All of which I have, yay! Alas! I've no pork belly and too lazy to go out to buy.. So I ended up defrosting a deboned chicken thigh and some breast meat. 

And since I have no lettuce too.. I couldn't do the "pig" thing.. So I had the yummy honey chicken with finely shred cabbage. Nom! Nom! Nom! So, so, so-ooo GOOD! 

I actually cannot believe that this delicious dish, doesn't require marinating! It's so easy and simple to cook too! And no frying either! So my kind of (lazy!) cooking! I like?? I love!!! Fatty hubby too! (^^) Thanks, sook! Thanks, nami!

p.s sorry about the pictures! no style, no composition.. i know.. sorry ^^|| hope my poor pictures doesn't put anyone off trying this super-yummy and easy dish! head over to nami's and sook's blog for beautiful pictures and recipe ^^ 

Tasty kimchi fried rice (kimchi bokkeumbap)

I love it when there's lots of leftover rice in the fridge!

And that, can only mean ONE thing ~ fried rice! Yay! And since I also have some cabbage kimchi on hand, it's kimchi bokkeumbap for dinner tonight, fatty! A super easy one, of course ^^.

My kimchi fried rice = rice, kimchi, garlic, onion, minced meat (marinate with some soy sauce, sesame oil and gochugaru), sesame oil, gochugaru and soy sauce (season to taste). Cook and add ingredients in any sequence/way you like. Feel free to add other veg like diced carrot, peas, etc. You don't have to add minced meat (meatless mondays??) if you don't want to. I added eggs as I used very little minced meat in my fried rice. Super-duper easy, right? (^^)

not sure why it  looks like saffron rice here ^^|| 

A deliciously tangy and robust bokkeumbap with a side of sweet, organic blanched okra.. Yums! (^^)

Cheat's doenjang jiggae

I'm really not into miso soup.. but the korean version is nice!

I made tofu and vegetable bean paste stew/soup, doenjang jiggae, for fatty hubby today. He's been feeling a bit under the weather and I thought something warm and soupy would make him feel better ^^.

Basically, to make doenjang jiggae, you need soybean paste or doenjang, which is similar to the chinese taucheo or the japanese miso. It's not expensive, and is widely available in the supermarts and the korean marts. I noticed the smell of doenjang is not as strong as the chinese taucheo, and it looks darker too. It is also not as salty ^^ that's really good! i like!

Anyways, this is my first time making doenjang jiggae. And I don't really have the ingredients as per the recipe (^^||).. so I tweaked it to suit what I have. I think my version is pretty good too. (^^)

Doenjang jiggae (adapted from my favorite little korean cookbook, korean favorites) ~ serves 4

2 liters water
40g dried baby anchovies
6 tbsp korean soybean paste, doenjang
1 tbsp korean hot chili bean paste, gochujang
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 onion, diced or sliced
1 zucchini, sliced
6 fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1 green chili, chopped
250g soft tofu, dubu, cubed
1 spring onion, cut into lengths

1. Bring water to a boil. Add anchovies, boil for 5 minutes and remove from stock.

2. Add doenjang and gochugaru to boiling stock. Add potatoes, onion, zucchini, mushrooms and chili, and simmer till vegetables are tender.

3. Add tofu and spring onion, and simmer for 1 minute. Cover the pot and serve after 2 minutes.
  

This recipe actually calls for a base stock of dried baby anchovies.. but since I had none, I just replaced with some pork meatballs (cut to small pieces) to make stock ^^. Then I added doenjang and gochujang.. and onions, japanese cucumber and soft organic tofu. So simple and easy, yet tastes good and not at all salty! (^^)

Fatty hubby loves this jiggae! I'm happy (^^)

Sesame ginger grilled chicken (dakjim gui)

I've been a bad girl and not been cooking dinner for the past week. (><||)

Everyday is a tomorrow when it came to dinners lately! I feel so lethargic just thinking about it! Must be the sweltering heat and suffocating weather (isn't it always the weather ^^)! Ok.. I do have some things on my mind too..

Anyways, fatty hubby's not complaining yet.. but I did promise I'll work on my cooking (^^).. So I decided to do something about it today and we had dakjim gui and stir-fried spinach tonight!

Here's the recipe from my favorite little korean cookbook, korean favorites.

Sesame ginger grilled (?) chicken

8 chicken thighs, legs or wings

Marinade 
1 spring onion, chopped (optional)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup (90ml) soy sauce
4 tbsp rice wine
4 tsp ginger juice, from grated ginger
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp sugar

1. Make 4-5 shallow incisions on the skin/meat. Set aside.

2. Mix the marinade ingredients together and pour over chicken. Rub till well coated. Cover and marinate for 3-4 hours (I only managed 2 hours, and it was still delicious!) or overnight in the fridge.

3. Preheat pan grill or broiler over medium heat, and grill the marinated chicken. I grilled/baked the marinated chicken in the oven at 200C for 40 minutes. Baste with marinade often, until crisp and cooked. Serve immediately.

This is quite a simple dish, using commonly found ingredients in the kitchen ^^, don't you think? Anyways, whatever you don't have, just skip! Of course, you MUST have ginger and sesame seeds/oil for this dish.. or it wouldn't be called sesame ginger grilled chicken!

This is a really tasty dish.. despite only marinating the meat for 2 hours (^^||). The meat is tender, and nicely infused with flavors (ginger, garlic and sesame) ~ and that's fatty hubby's very words (^^).

I love korean grilled meats! And this is, DELICIOUS!!! (^^)

Cheat's bibimbap

We love bibimbap! (^^)

That's rice topped with vegetables, egg and meat (optional), and special sauce (gochujang), served in a hot stone / earthenware pot. And it's really easy to replicate at home.. plus minus a few ingredients (^^||).. well mostly minus, in my case.. so here's my easy and fun take on bibimbap..  cheat's way (^^)

spicy hot gochujang.. i like!

First, you MUST have gochujang (korean hot chili pepper paste), the main ingredient for making bibimbap. You can easily get gochujang in korean marts as well as some better stocked supermarkets. I have only tried and trust Haechandle (pronounce hae-chan-deul) brand, which contains no MSG. I love that it's piquantly spicy hot, yet a bit sweetish too.

Next, you MUST have rice. Best if you have japanese / korean short grain rice. They are the fluffiest, yummiest staple that god created (^^)! I used a mix of brown and white long grain rice for "healthier" reasons. (^^||)

best quality sesame oil

And more importantly, a good bottle of sesame oil too. It's the make-or-break ingredient for bibimbap!

Then you can start assembling whatever ingredients you can find in the fridge to make your bibimbap.. could be anything.. spinach, cucumber, carrots, bean sprouts, toasted seaweed, sliced cooked shiitake mushrooms, ferns (?!).. whatever is available.. If using greens, do blanch them before using. If using cucumber or carrots, julienne finely. As you can see, I only have cucumber, carrots and seaweed (^^||)..

You are now ready to prepare your bibimbap. Mix all the ingredients, rice, veggies, toasted seaweed, 1 tablespoon of gochujang and 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, together. And don't forget the egg (raw, sunny side-up, poached, well done..) now (^^||). I don't recommend using any raw eggs at home, unless you are using a hot stone pot like the ones they use in the restaurants. Season to taste with more gochujang or sesame oil if you like. Mix well, and lunch or dinner is served (^^)!

Oh yes, if you are not too lazy, and want your bibimbap to be AWESOME.. add some cooked minced beef. You can cook your meat any way you like. I stir fried mine with some soy sauce, minced garlic, sliced shallots, diced yellow onions, grated ginger, sesame oil and a pinch of salt (season to taste).

messy mix.. just trying to keep things real (^^||)

So bon apetit! .. serve with a long handle korean spoon, of course! (^^)

Grilled pork ribs (doeji kalbi gui)

I love korean grilled meat.

But I don't always get to order bbq at our favorite korean restaurants, as there's usually a minimum order of 2 portions of meat required.. which is just too much for fatty hubby and me. So we usually end up eating our other favorite korean dishes like bibimbap and yuk gae jang.

I've always had a soft spot for korean food.. ok, I'm MAD about korean food.. and dramas and almost all things korean!!! There's a robustness and homey-ness about korean dishes that is oh-so familiar and endearing. Perhaps it's the use of garlic, ginger and chilli powder that evokes such "warm" feelings. Whatever it is, it is hitting the best spot in my belly (^^). 

I was not planning on cooking doeji kalbi gui today. But I suddenly remembered to look up my favorite korean recipe book, korean favorites ~ periplus mini cookbook.. and found this scrumptious spicy dish.

Grilled Pork Ribs ~ Doeji Kalbi Gui

As there's no mention on how to cook the meat using the oven in the recipe, I used the grill function at 200 degrees Celcius, and grilled for 30 minutes. And even though I didn't turn the meat, it still cooked perfectly.

This is a really easy, and delicious dish to prepare. Best served with hot rice. My kind of dinner ~ a hot 'n spicy dish with rice (^^|||).. yums!

Hot and piquant on its own, but even better with rice! 

Korean cucumber salad (Oi namul)

Another all time favorite of everyone except baby pig and me.

oinamul

If you like garlic and korean side dishes, this is a refreshing, crisp and easy salad to make. Best served chilled.

japanese cucumber, garlic, sesame oil. gochugaru

This is a pungent dish, so beware. But it is also easy to make. You would most likely have all the ingredients at home already. Replace or omit gochugaru with other chili powder if you don't have it. This salad would still be as tasty without chili powder, toasted sesame seeds or spring onion. So don't worry about it. It's the garlic and good sesame oil that makes it special.

Oinamul (adapted from korean favorites)

4 japanese cucumbers, sliced into discs (choose long, thin ones)
1 1/2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp sesame oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp gochugaru chili powder
1 tbsp sesame seeds (optional)
1 spring onion, chopped (optional)

1. Combine cucumber and salt, and mix well. Set aside for 30 minutes. Then rinse in cold water and drain well. Squeeze out excess water from cucumber with your hands.

2. Combine all other ingredients together. Mix thoroughly into cucumbers. Cover in plastic wrap and chill cucumbers for at least 30 minutes before serving. Serve with spring onion.

Easy, right? However today's attempt has kinda of failed, as I overdosed on salt and left the cucumber marinating in salt too long. As big pig puts it, it's more like a pickle than a salad (> <). Still my best guinea pig, big pig likes it. Fatty hubby too.

Salty, but edible.