Korean Cooking

Recipes to Korean dishes, cultural backgrounds, and more!

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Korean Pancakes- jeon

Korean “pancakes” are quite different that actual pancakes. They are called jeon in Korean, and may be one of the most diverse types of food in Korean cuisine. Put simply, Jeon is rather a loose term for any kind of side dish that is coated in flour and egg and is then fried. However, there are jeon that do not meet these requirements but are still called jeon. Take my word for it, jeon is a very loose term. They can contain everything between fish, meat, seafood, and vegetables. To make them even more diverse, they can be appetizers, side dishes, and even desserts.

Im going to go over the main types of jeon, and maybe a couple of iconic ones too.

Meat jeon

One of the types of meat jeon would be “donggeurrang ddaeng” and it is more or less a patty about 1-2 centimeters wide that is coated in flour and egg and then cooked. This is one of the three jeons I cooked today, and for simplicity’s sake, I’ll call it meat jeon.

Fish jeon/ seafood jeon

Fish jeon are called saeng seon jeon in Korea, which directly translates to... well, fish jeon. There’s countless different kinds of it, because chances are, there’s a type of jeon for every single type of fish. As you may have already seen, I cooked a jeon with cod. Haemul jeon, are jeons with made of other seafoods as well, such as shrimps, octopus, and even oysters.

Vegetable jeon

Again, there are countless types of vegetable jeon, because not only will there most likely be a jeon for each vegetable, but there are often mixtures of different vegetables as well. Common vegetable jeons are made of potatoes, spring onions, perilla leaves, etc.

Flower jeon

Yes, you read that correctly. For me, the most interesting type of jeon is made of edible flowers. In Korean, they are called hwa jeon. These jeon are usually sweet and contain honey. When I said that jeon could be a dessert, it would probably be one of these.

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Cooking... shiitake mushroom jeon

This jeon is primarily made of shiitake mushrooms, but it also has many other ingredients in it. Also, this jeon is a little bit different because it is not coated in flour and egg before cooking.

Here’s a picture of all the jeon, from shiitake, meat, to fish from left to right.

Ingredient:

1shiitake mushrooms

1/5 onion

2spring onions

1 cm length Korean squash

1 cm carrot

2 eggs

4 crab meat

Recipe:

First, take the crab sticks and mushrooms out of the package and cut them into 4 pieces to shorten their lengths. Then break them up and put them in a bowl.

Dice the onions, spring onions, squash, and add them to the bowl too.

Mix all of this up, and add 2 eggs to the mixture. Mix after as well.

Next, you can cook it on a frying pan with some olive oil directly. Cook it until it starts to cook, then flip it over, but once again, don’t forget to add more olive oil when you flip it over.

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Cooking meat jeon

Ok, so this is one type of meat jeon called donggeurang ddaeng in Korean, but for simplicity’s sake, let’s just call it meat jeon. This will represent the meat jeon between the 3 jeons I will be cooking today, and its name comes from its round shape.

Ingredients:

spring onions

onions

ground pork

pepper

carrot

salt

tofu

ground garlic

egg

flour

Recipe:

First, dice the 1/6 of an onion and about 1 cm length of a carrot, and thinly slice 3 spring onions.

Cut off about 1 sixth of the tofu as well, and squash the it with the flat of you knife.

Add about a fistful of ground pork, and 1 teaspoon of ground garlic.

Add salt ant pepper on top, and you should end up with this.

With a glove, mix the different ingredients together thoroughly. Then, cut off small pieces then flatten the to small discs about 1 centimeter wide. Make sure that the center is the flattest so that it cooks well.

Now with this, you will do the same thing as you did with the fish jeon. If you have not seen it yet, I suggest you go see it. You have to coat the patty in flour, then egg, and then place it onto a frying pan with olive oil.

Don’t forget to add olive oil before you flip them for the first time.

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Cooking... Jeon part I

I will be cooking 3 different types of jeon, and this will be the first type. The first type of jeon will be a fish jeon, consisting of cod as my fish. In Korean, it is called daegu jeon, because cod is called daegu (there is no relation to the city of daegu).

Ingredients:

cod

salt

flour

eggs

olive oil (not in picture)

Recipe:

This jeon is probably the most simplest out of the 3 I am going to do.

First, you have to cut the cod into thin slices as if you are cutting sushi. Just cut down on the fish at an angle.

When you’re done cutting the fish up, spray some salt over the fish. Spraying one side will be sufficient.

Whisk up 2-3 eggs, and add some salt. Then I recommend that you pour the egg into a bowl or high plate. 

In addition, pour some flour into another bowl of similar size.

The egg and flour are used to coat the fish, and they can also be reused for other jeon.

First, place a fish fillet into the flour and coat it with flour. Then, prepare a pan with olive oil.  

Take the cod coated with flour, dip it in the egg, then place it onto the pan. 

Wait until the fish is cooked on one side, then it’s time to cook, but wait. Before flipping this jeon or any jeon for the first time, sprinkle some olive oil on top of the jeon before you flip it. Keep flipping the jeon until it is cooked, and you’re done! Right after cooking, it is good to place the jeon on an oil absorbing paper if possible.

[donnapie]

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Here you go, there’s even a meme about how much you can learn from this drama.

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Dae Jang Geum

Today’s cultural blog is a bit different. Dae Jang Geum, also called Jewel in the Palace is actually a Korean drama that tells the story of an orphaned little girl. Although it is based off of a real historical figure Seo Jang Geum, the drama series is a historical fiction about the adventures of Dae Jang Geum. If you ever want to learn more about Korean food cultures and ancient Korean culture in general, this is an excellent and fun way to learn about it. The beginning of the drama is heavily focused on Korean foods, and later on, it advances to other fields to, such as Eastern medicine.

The series has been exported to 91 other countries, and earned a total of 103.4 million dollars worldwide. 

To see the drama and maybe some reviews, here is an IMDb review: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409546/

Sources:

Wikipedia

IMDb

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Cooking bulgogi

Bulgogi is rather famous in the United States and other parts of the world as Korean barbecue. One reason would be because not only is it tasty, it is another of Korea’s most traditional dishes. 

Ingredients:

soy sauce

Beef slices

sugar

apple

onion

ground garlic

pepper

spring onions

carrot

Recipe:

First, we have to make the sauce. In a mixer, add 1/2 cup of soy sauce, 1/2 cup of water, 1/4 cup of sugar, and a quarter of an apple and onion. Also add 1/2 table spoon of ground garlic and a bit of pepper on top. Just grind this, and you have your sauce, easy as pie.

Next, cut another quarter of an onions, 2 spring onions, and about 5 cm’s length of carrots into strips again. 

Stir fry these vegetables.

Once cooked, add the meat and the sauce. Add about 3 table spoons of sauce first, then add some more after if you want more of it.

Voila, the end.

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Background info... jap chae

Jap chae is a dish that is usually served on special holidays or occasions. It was first invented in Korea in the 1600′s. It was created by Yi Chung, a liege of the king at the time. The king liked the dish so much, that Yi Chung was immediately promoted to a position similar to today’s secretary of treasury.

The name jab chae originally comes from Chinese, as most Korean words are. This is similar to how English originated from Latin. Jab means a mixture, and chae means vegetables, so jab chae means “mixed vegetables”. Now the name says nothing about cellophane noodles, but this is because noodles was not part of the dish when Yi Chung invented it. Noodles were incorporated into the dish only by the 20th century, where it became an integral part of the dish. The noodles are called dang-myun in Korea, and are made from potato starch.

Sources: Wikipedia

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Cooking... Japchae

Jap chae, or stir fried glass noodles, is a traditional dish of Korea. The main noodle is actually called cellophane noodle, which I have been calling it in previous blogs, but they are also called glass noodles. They are made of potato starch, and is used widely in Asian cuisine.

Ingredients:

onion

egg

fishcake

shiitake mushrooms

carrot (not all of the carrot in the picture below will be used)

spinach

soy sauce

sugar

sesame seeds

sesame oil

Recipe:

Before you even start, put 3 mushrooms in water, and the cellophane noodles in another container of water. The amount of cellophane noodles is largely dependent on your preferences, but I recommend a handful. Let these ingredients soak for at least an hour.

Next, wash one fourth onion and about 1 cm length of carrot and peel them. Cut all of them into thin strips. 

Cut the stumps off of the mushroom after soaking, and then cut these into thin strips as well.

In addition, cut 1 sheet of fishcake into the same thin strips, after thawing if frozen.

Take the mushroom and fishcake, and add 1/2 tsp of sugar, and 2 tsp of soy sauce. Mix the ingredients with the sauce.

Boil some water in preparation for the spinach. Once the water is boiling, add some salt, and put in the spinach (fully submerged), only for about a minute.

After that, take it out, squeeze out extra moisture, and add salt, sesame, and sesame oil to flavor it.

Next is stir frying the onions, carrot, and fishcake/mushrooms. Stir fry each of these individually with some olive oil. Once done, add all of them to a bowl.

After that, add some water to the pan, and add the noodles. Have just enough water to submerge the noodles, and the noodles should soak it all up later. Add 1/2 table spoon of sugar and 1 table spoon of soy sauce.. After about 2 minutes, add this to the other ingredients as well. 

Finally, crack an egg, add salt, and whisk it. Once done, place it onto a pan and cook it. Then, place it on a cutting board, and cut it into the same thin strips like everything else. It might be easier to do this when it is cooled.

Now, add the spinach and the eggs together, and you’re all done! Jap chae can be enjoyed hot or cold.

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Culture...Dumplings

Dumplings! 

As previously stated, one of my favorite foods by far. It is also quite popular across all of Korea. The filling gives the food for diversity, and the different districts of Korea sometimes have a specialty to offer. 

It is believed that dumplings were introduced to Korea in the 13th century. There was a famous song of the time called “ssanghwa jum” which means a dumpling shop. Although the story of the song is completely unrelated, the story takes place at a dumpling store which indicates that dumplings may have been popular at this time.

in Korean, dumpling is called mandu. It was also called ssang hwa in ancient times (just like in the song). Dumplings can be steamed, cooked, fried, or put into soups. There are some soups that are just called dumpling soups with dumplings as the main ingredient.

In modern day, you can buy frozen dumplings in the super markets for some fast and easy dumplings too, which makes it popular amongst college students too.

sources: 

Korean Cuisine, an Illustrated History by Michael Pettid

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Cooking... Dumplings

DUMPLINGS

Arguably my favorite dishes of all time, definitely my favorite side dish. I can eat dumplings for days without getting tired of it; I absolutely love dumplings. Get ready, because this is going to be a LONG recipe. This one is for a kimchi, meat dumpling.

Ingredients: long list today.

ground pork

kimchi

tofu

onion

spring onion

egg

ground garlic

olive oil

soy sauce

salt

pepper

sesame oil

cellophane noodles

mung bean sprouts

dumpling skin

eggs

sugar

Recipe:

First of all, let’s prepare the ingredients. Dice 1.7 pounds of regular kimchi and add 1 tsp of sugar, 1/2 tsp of sesame oil, and 1 tsp of olive oil. Then, stir fry the ichi, until it is cooked.

In another bowl, add 1.7 pounds of the ground pork, 4 tsp of olive oil, 1 tsp of ground garlic, and 1/s tsp of soy sauce. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top as well. 

Take one onion and dice it. Add it into a salt and cold water solution. This should get rid of some of the hotness of the onion. 

After a couple minutes, maybe 5, take the onions out, and rinse it. After, squeeze all moisture out of the onions.

Cut 5 spring onion into small slices too.

Next, boil water and add some salt as if you are cooking spaghetti. Once the water boils, add the bean sprouts in the water. After only about 30 seconds, take them out right away and cool. Once, cooled down, squeeze all moisture out.

Boil some more water, and when boiling, add some cellophane noodles. Quantity is up to you, but I am a fan of noodles, so I added a lot. When the stiff cellophane turns limp, take it out and rinse with cold water. On a cutting board, cut the cellophane into smaller pieces so that they are not too long.

In a pan, stir fry the pork. Once it is cooked, add the onions and spring onions. Add this to the kimchi.

Open a pack of tofu, and cut it into small slices. it doesn’t matter how small, because the next step is to squash it as well as you can. After it loses its shape, take a piece of cloth (hopefully clean) and place the tofu inside. Squeeze as tightly as you can and take out all of the moisture possible.

Add everything, and I mean everything, the meat, kimchi, tofu, noodles, bean sprout, onions, into one huge bowl and mix.

Now time to make the dumplings. Take one dumpling skin, scoops up a bit of the filling and place it in the middle. Dip your hand in water and wet the edges of the skin to make them stickier. Fold the skin carefully over to the other side with the filling inside. Be careful not to put in too much or too little filling.

Repeat previous steps >100 times (This is why you probably want someone to help you). After you use all of the filling, you can steam or fry the dumplings. My family usually steams all of it and eat it. We refrigerate the leftover and cook it with a frying pan when we want to eat them again. Enjoy your dumplings! (they should last a decent bit).

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Cultural background...fish

South Korea is a peninsular country, meaning it surrounded by water on 3 sides. This is the reason why there is so much seafood in Korea. It is said that it is almost impossible to come across a full meal without any seafood in it.  Everything from fish to shellfish to clams and squids are utilized in Korean foods. Seafoods range from various fishes, shrimps, anchovies, abalone, mussels and other clams. Even marine plants like seaweed are enjoyed. Fish are enjoyed, raw, cooked, dried, or in our case, steamed. Seafood are also used as an accessory of many other dishes. They can be in kimchi, soups, and just as an extra ingredient in almost any dish, even ramen.

One example of a Korean seafood dish is a side dish called jut gal. Jut gal includes a massive collection of side dishes that are salt-fermented. These side dishes last a long time, so in the past before refrigeration they were easy to maintain. 

There are various types of quids and octopi that Koreans enjoy too. There are the regular squids and octopi, but there are also smaller versions of these animals such as jjuggumi. Jjuggumi are a very small types of squid and octopi and they are often called “baby octopi, but they are NOT baby octopi. They are a different species altogether. Animal rights activists often criticize Koreans for eating these “baby octopi”, but they are another species altogether. Don’t worry. Another controversial topic is eating these animals live. Although many Koreans do enjoy these live dishes, some Koreans, including myself, cannot work ourselves to do it. It’s all up to you.

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Steamed fish (soy sauce)

Today’s dish is very different than any other dish i have ever covered yet. When i originally made a list of the foods I would cook, I realized that I did not include any more fish dishes. Thus, here is a quick, very simple fish-dish, steamed fish in soy sauce. Just a warning, if you are not used to whole fish, you might want to skip this one.

Ingredients:

olive oil

Korean cooking wine

soy sauce

oyster sauce

sugar

4 spring onions

1 sea bass

Recipe:

Cut the spring onions into very thin vertical slice. This will go over the fish and is technically not part of the actual dish, so the exact size does not matter too much. It should somewhat look like this:

First, we need to steam the fish.

Pour some water into a pot (enough so that it boils long enough, but not so much that it takes forever to boil), and place a steamer basket on top.

While the water boils, cut three slices into the side of the sea bass. This is to help the fish cook, and to help the sauces penetrate the fish’s skin. The cuts should be substantial, but not quite to the fish’s backbone.

Once the water boils and steam is rising through the basket, place the sea bass into the pot. Make sure that it is gutted and its scales are off. You may have to figure out a way to fit it if the fish is too large.

After steaming for maybe 10 minutes, poke into the fish with a chopstick. If the chopstick slides in easily, it should be cooked. If the meat is still a little firm, you may want to steam it a bit longer. Even after this, you may want to check to make sure it is cooked after taking it out. Here’s about how it should look.

Sauce: mix 3 tsp of olive oil and cooking wine each, 2 tsp of soy sauce, 1/2 tsp of oyster sauce, 1 tsp of sugar, and 2 cups of water. Heat this mixture this mixture just until it boils, then stop. 

Take out the fish and put it on a plate. Spread the spring onions over it, then pour the sauce onto it. That’s it!

When eating, make sure to be careful of the bones and some possible scales that are still on the fish. It is quite a hard dish to eat.

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Cultural background: dessert

Today’s cultural post is relatively unrelated to my recipe, but who doesn’t want to talk about everyone’s favorite course: dessert.

Korean desserts are quite different than in other countries. Well, the traditional ones anyways. Modern desserts are very similar to other parts of the world. There’s ice cream, pastries, and coffee. In addition to these, there are many different desserts exclusive to East Asia, including Korea.

Traditional desserts are not usually all that sweet. As I have previously talked about, Korean foods are very healthy, so not too much sugar. The first dessert I want to talk about ddeok, which is the Korea word for rice cake. I have briefly mentioned from time to time about how Asian rice cakes are quite different from their Western kin. There are dozens of varieties, each with different ingredients and tastes. Most are chewy instead of being brittle, and none are overly sweet.

Below is a picture of honey rice cake, which is a rice cake that is filled with honey inside like a balloon.

Fruits are common desserts throughout the world, but I want to focus on one particular fruit in Korea: the pear. Korean pears are considered to be the best in the world. Instead of the irregular iconic pear shape, the Korean pear has a plump and round shape, and is packaged individually in a box to make sure nothing happens to it.

A last dessert I want to talk about is bing soo, which is essentially shaved ice. But yet again, Korean shaved ice has a twist. The most common type is red bean shaved ice (shown below), but there are many other types including mixed fruit shaved ice, chocolate, or one specific fruit. The ice in bing soo is crushed ice, sometimes frozen milk, depending on the place you are buying. There are even various types of toppings for bing soo, this one containing some mochi.

Uniqueness of Korean desserts- Chad Meyer

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Hamburger Steak

Now now before you say anything, I know this is a Korean cooking blog, and hamburger steak probably strikes u as an American dish. In a way I guess, but there’s a twist...

Ingredients:

ground beef

ground pork

onions

bread crumbs

egg

ground garlic

worstershire sauce

ketchup

butter

cooking oil

salt

pepper

sugar

soy sauce

mushrooms

Recipe: This recipe will also be divided into the meat and sauce.

First, the meat.

Ingredient preparation comes first as usual. Dice one onion into very small cubes.

Heat a pan with 1 tsp cooking oil and 2 tsp butter in it.

Add the onions when the butter finished melting, and stir fry until the onions are a nice golden color. Add salt and pepper, then cool.

Combine:

1 pound beef

2/3 pound pork

1.5 cups of bread crumbs

1 tsp of ground garlic

1 egg

1 tsp of ketchup

1 tsp of worstershire sauce

Mix the ingredients thoroughly, then tear out small chunks and flatten it into patties. Make sure that the center is the thinest so that it is easier to cook.

Now all you have to do is cook the patty on a frying pan, but a handy tip while cooking thick meat all the way to the inside is to pour a little water on the patty and closing a lid on top of it, so that the meat cooks on the inside too like steaming.

 Also, I add a slice of cheese and a sunny side egg on top of it, but that’s optional.

Sauce time:

Cut one more onion and mushroom vertically. (picture below)

Add 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of ketchup, 1/2 teaspoon of soy sauce, and 2 teaspoons of water. and mix thoroughly 

Cook until the mushroom and onions are cooked, then add to your steak with some rice. All done!

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Cultural background... kimchi

Kimchi, is unarguably the most common side dish in Korean cuisine. Some Koreans would not be able to imagine a meal without some form of kimchi. It is so popular that there are over 200 different types of kimchi in Korea, with regional specialties. Kimchi is rather quite a vague category however, because there are so many varieties. They are made by slating and fermenting a variety of vegetables, most commonly cabbage or radish. The most common type is kimchi made up of cabbage, which is called baechu kimchi. Other types are made of radish, cucumbers, spring onions, or even mustard leaves. Some types do not even resemble kimchi. Nabak and dong-chimi kimchi are types of kimchi that are completely submerged in water. Baek kimchi completely abandons kimchi’s typical red look, because it has no red pepper sauce in it whatsoever. I will include pictures of the various types of kimchi below.

Kimchi’s origin can be found in the chosun dynasty, centuries ago, but it took a very different form than what we are used to today. The famous red pepper of Korea was actually not native to the land. It was introduced to the peninsula in the 1600′s so before then, kimchi would be seasoned only by garlic ginger and Chinese peppercorns. Soon after the introduction of the red pepper, it would become one of the main ingredients for kimchi.

There are also many health benefits to kimchi too. it is a food rich in vitamin A, B, and C and minerals such as calcium, potassium and iron. Some types of kimchi add different seafoods, which adds protein. Kimchi’s fermentation also enhances digestion.

Most common cabbage kimchi

Baek kimchi, or white kimchi, which has no red pepper powder.

Kimchi made of radish called kkakdugi.

Ponytail Radish kimchi, or chonggak kimchi

Kimchi made of cucumber called oi sobagi

Nabak Kimchi, a kimchi served in a cold soup

Source:

Korean Cuisine, An Illustrated History by Michael Pettid

Beyond the Cabbage: 10 Types of Kimchi by Lorraine Murray

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Cooking... kkakdugi (Diced Radish Kimchi)

Kimchi is probably one of the most popular side dishes, or banchan in Korea. it is also one of their iconic foods, but I will cover that in the cultural background post. There are dozens of different types of kimchi, with a variety of different ingredients. I will be making kkakdugi, which is a kimchi that is made of diced radishes. It is one of the more simpler types of kimchi, but it is still a very popular type of kimchi in Korea.

Ingredients:

 Radish

spring onions

ginger

rice flour

red pepper powder

salted fermented shrimp

ground garlic

salt

sweetener

Korean yogurt

Recipe:

Peel and dice the 2 radishes into a cube with lengths of about 1.5 cm.

In 3 cups of water, dissolve 9 table spoons of salt and 3 packs of sweeteners, and pour into a very large bowl.

Pour the radish into water, and let the radish soak for about 1.5 hours. It is natural that that all of the radish will not be submerged. Mix every 30 minutes, and there should be more water after than before as the water inside the radishes are pulled out.

While the radishes soak, take 1 cup of water and 2 tablespoons of rice flour and whisk. Boil the white mixture and constantly stir, or the mixture may harden or burn. Once the mixture become thick and starts to boil, cool for about 1.5 hours as well.

Before boiling

After boiling

After the radish is soaked and the rice flour is cooled, take the radish, take it out of the water, and quickly rinse in cold water.

In another bowl again, add 9 tablespoons of red pepper powder and mix.

In a grinder, grind 3 tablespoons of salted fermented shrimp, 0.5 tablespoons of ginger, and 1 bottle of Korean yogurt.

Then add the mixture to the radish along with the rice flour goo and 4 tablespoons of ground garlic.

Mix once again, then add in 4-5 cut spring onions.

Place in an air tight container and place in room temperature for one day, then refrigerate for further storage.

This should serve dozens of servings, so it will be a reliable side dish for many meals. Enjoy!