Updating My Go-To Cooking Repertoire

Oh my goodness, it's just about two months since I've last posted. Shame on me as a supposed blogger!! I let life events and work consume much of my energy the past couple months but realized, I really need to keep this up as an outlet that is completely separate from everything else I daily tend to.

So, what have I been up to in the kitchen??  Last week I finally visited the local Korean market here on the island, Palama Market. Like many Asian markets, it's cluttered with all sorts of food and random goods. I completed my task of learning some new Korean recipes other than making bulgogi or jap chae. My cousin in law, who is an incredible cook, shared with me a Korean food blog - Korean Bapsang. I chose two recipes to try last week: Jajangmyun and Dakdoritang.

Dakdoritang

L: Jajangmyun, R: Palama Market finds
 

I won't go into all the details of how I followed the recipes.  I encourage you all to go to the Korean food blog itself and discover recipes yourselves. Just know they turned out savory and tasty.  My husband enjoyed not having the Asian-like recipes I sometimes revert to that tend to all taste similar. These two dishes were distinct on their own and broadened our taste buds in the realm of Korean cuisine.

Don't be afraid of your kitchen or afraid to try new recipes outside your current cooking repertoire. Discover what other cultures you can bring into your kitchen and most of all, have fun in the kitchen!

Want some Hotteok?

 

Back in my piano teaching days, I taught three children of a Korean family. It was at their hospitable home, I was introduced to the most authentic Korean food I will ever have. One memorable snack in particular was a fried dough pancake of some sort that was filled with brown sugar. I never knew what it was called until I stumbled upon this Korean cooking website about a month ago. This tasty traditional Korean snack is called Hotteok. Simply put, a yeast dough that was filled with brown sugar, pecans and cinnamon that was then fried. My daughter offered some helping hands in the process filling the dough.  

The result: a deliciously crisped pancake with a warm soft dough filled with sweet brown sugar syrup and crunchy pecans. I actually took mine just one extra step and drizzled some honey over it. 

If you want to try some Korean cooking in your kitchen, I urge you to watch some of the tutorials on the Maangchi website and try something out! Cheers to new recipes!

Valentine's Saturday Fail and Success

Every Valentine's since 2011 or so, I've been making Nutella and fruit crepes with homemade whipped cream. I've mastered the crepe making technique with my pan: pour about 1/3 cup of batter and rotate the pan around quickly until the surface of the pan is covered. If you feel you need to buy an actual crepe pan to make crepes, by all means, go ahead. Just remember, the pan doesn't make the crepe, you do and I really don't think its necessary to buy a single use pan such as a crepe pan to take up space in your cupboard. Speaking of useless kitchen items and kitchen consumerism....that's another blog post.

Fondue Fail and Crepe Success

 After our crepe brunch was over, I ran a few errands such as picking up a savignon blanc for the cheese fondue.  Oh, and here is the so called "recipe" I used. I slowly added the cheeses of very low heat and whisked constantly before adding a new handful of cheese...the results: clumps of cheese that just clumped together at the end. I'm going to blame half of myself and half the recipe. Next time, I'm going to refer to the professionals at Food Network or at least YouTube a professional chef making fondue. I was incredibly peeved to say the least. Fortunately, the rest of dinner was good; we just couldn't dip any it into the fondue clump. Otherwise, these were the sides: marinated steak bites, roasted broccoli and cauliflower and roasted garlic potatoes. 

The plan earlier was to also do chocolate fondue. After having a rich brunch and quite the filling dinner, we just could not see ourselves enjoying rich chocolate fondue. I do have all the ingredients for chocolate fondue and all the sides...maybe tonight. We'll see. 

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine, and by that I mean, enjoyed good food and chocolatey goodness <3.