tina & carol

Hello everyone, sorry I’ve been MIA lately… with the holidays and work being so busy and getting sick, I didn’t have much energy to put into blogging lately…  so today, I thought I would post my boo dae jigae recipe.  Since it seems like the most popular recipe I posted on my old blog.  I figured I should post for the rest of the world who don’t have Xanga ^__^

Below is a picture of what it looks like after assembly and before cooking.  Mark bought me a electric hot pot kind of thing at Hmart while we were dating, so he could request it at any time.

Here’s my version of boo dae jigae, remember this is just stuff I like putting in, you can mix it up any way you like, an unni in Korea made it with pork and beans once and it was delicious, but I didn’t know how to replicate.  This is similar to the one in Apgujung in Vancouver…  they have bean sprouts in their broth and the last time we went up there, it wasn’t as good as the first few times we went… hopefully they were just having an off day that day?
 
SOUP:
chicken stock about a box (not sure about can… maybe 2 cans?)
go chu jjang hot pepper paste (4-5 tablespoons)
minced garlic (2-3 large cloves)
kimchi (I liked it chopped small)
dduk (on top of everything above, to prevent it from sticking and burning on the bottom)
 
ON TOP:
tofu (cubed)
spam
sausage (mark loves hotlinks, but beware there’s some kinds that are super greasy…diagonal slices)
onions
green onions
carrots
mushrooms
1 slice of American cheese *Kraft works the best…
zucchini
 
ramen (minus the soup stock, unless you want it)
 
(quantity all to preference) put all the soup part into a shallow wide pot, then put all the top part on, with the ramen noodles, I either break it up-into the soup part or cook separately to get the palm oil to boil out of it (I heard palm oil is really bad for you, but not sure if this is true) and mix it in right before the onions turn see through…
 
cover and start boiling after you have everything in there and you’ll know when it’s ready when the onions are sort of see through.

*although an electric hot pot thing is nice (seen in picture above), you can also do this on a stove with a shallow wide pot and if you don’t care about presentation, just stick it all in a pot and boil.

**I like using this kind of dduk when I can find it.  It’s chewy, delicious and cook up pretty quickly without soaking in water beforehand but the flat ones used for dduk gook work fine too

Here’s my bibim neng myun sauce (mixed noodle) recipe ^__^

Ingredients:

• noodles
• brisket or flank steak (you’ll have left overs from the mool neng myun, if not cut some up and boil for a few minutes)
• asian pear or bosc pear
• hard boiled egg
• pickled daikon is almost always used, but I didn’t have any on hand, so I skipped this
• cucumber

Sauce:

•  2 heaping tablespoons of hot pepper paste (=about 5 or 6 regular tablespoons *I realized my heaping is a little bigger than most people, so I thought I would clarify)
• 2 tablespoons brown or white sugar  (I prefer brown, but regular works if you don’t have brown :))
•  2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic

*same as mool naeng myun:

Boil eggs first since this will take the longest.  Cook the noodles as directed on package (usually 2-3 minutes), ball up into the shape of a yarn ball. Repeat, then set aside until ready to assemble. 

Julienne cucumbers for bibim naeng myun

Pear-cut it up and soak in either lemon or salt water to keep it from browning. 

bibim naeng myun sauce: mix up ingredients and set aside 

assemble:  noodles pour on sauce, pear, cucumber, meat and egg and serve.  If your noodles are a little too dry add a little soup form the mool naeng myun or add some extra sesame oil

To add to my sister’s post from last week :D I thought I could share my naeng myun recipe that’s pretty easy too.   Since Mark and I like different things I make 2 different kinds when I do make it, I’ll start with the mool naeng myun today *sorry about the picture on the side, after I poured the soup in, my mool naeng myun wasn’t too pretty, so I’m only posting the picture before the soup was added *oops

first you’ll need the noodles:

 I like this one, I haven’t tried a lot of different ones, but I was told by my sister that Assi brand is pretty consistent.

*this is a wordy post because it was overly hot to take pictures for each step, sorry guys! Thankfully, as my sister mentioned yesterday, it has been cooling down a bit here in Seattle lately :)

Ingredients:

• noodles
• brisket or flank steak, I’ve also heard of people using beef shank?
• asian pear or bosc pear
• hard boiled egg
• pickled daikon is almost always used, but I didn’t have any on hand, so I skipped this
• cucumber
• vinegar
• hot pepper flakes
• salt

mool naeng myun soup base

• 1 lb brisket or flank steak
• 5-6 cups of water
• soup base packet (from the noodle package)
• 1/4 cup of 7up (yes, the soda)
• ice

naeng myun (noodles and toppings):

Boil eggs first since this will take the longest.  I like to boil a few (more than I will need so I can keep the rest in the fridge for a snack later on).

Cook the noodles as directed on package (usually 2-3 minutes, noodles should be chewy not crunchy or soggy), secret to the yarn ball presentation is after rinsing the noodles, get a handful under running water.  Keep the water running, the noodles will straighten out and untangle a bit.  When it’s almost all untangled (doesn’t have to be perfect) use your free hand to wrap the hanging noodles around the hand holding the noodles.  Turn the water off and gently slide off your hand out of the noodles and squeeze out as much water as possible,  and set aside in a colander.  Repeat, then set aside until ready to assemble (I usually keep my “yarn balls” cover with a damp paper towel, to help it from drying out).  As you can tell by my pictures I haven’t quite mastered the art of balling up the noodles, but my mom is amazing at this.  I figure in about 5-10 years I will be able to make it look like a perfect ball of yarn.  :) 

Cucumbers for mool neng myun (soup) I like to cut it up a little bigger and add 2 tablespoons of vinegar, a dash of salt and hot pepper flakes and let it sit while I get the rest of the stuff ready.  Pear-cut it up and soak in either lemon or salt water to keep it from browning.  Since I’ve been busing to work, I rarely ever have time to go to the Korean store, so I’ve been using bosc pear, it’s really good, but a friend told me you can use anything and that she uses apples when they don’t have pears at home:), isn’t she genius.

mool neng myun soup:

boil the brisket or flank steak (the store by my house doesn’t carry brisket that has all the fat trimmed off, so I’ve been using flank steak instead) for at least an hour, I try to do this on a cooler day and refrigerate the broth until I’m ready to use and freeze the meat.  There will probably be a lot of foamy stuff and oil that comes out of the meat, so skim the top of the broth, until all you have left is the broth.  If you have a lot of time, you can set it in your fridge until the fat hardens and then scrape it off.  Remove the meat and set aside to cool.  Combine the broth (same amount as water in directions, I think I did 1 1/2 - 2 cups per packet), the soup base packet found in the noodle package and 7 up  (I know… 7 up seems weird to be adding to a Korean dish, but it’s good, trust me :))  add pour over the noodles and add some ice and serve *remember the soup base should be a tiny bit saltier than you’re used to, since the noodles and ice will water it down… the purpose of the “beef broth” is just to add a more rounded flavor, not really saltiness or anything.

assembling:

in a larger bowl, add the yarn ball noodles, and start stacking everything on top, pear, cucumbers, pickled daikon (if you have some on hand), sliced meat, and egg.  Then carefully, pour the soup into the bowl without destroying the towers, like I managed to do, add a few ice cubes and *hot mustard oil and *vinegar to taste and enjoy ^__^

*some people like to add hot mustard oil? I think that’s what it’s called…  You can find it in the noodle package.   I prefer the pure taste minus the spice but it’s up to your taste buds.  Also, I add a little bit of vinegar right before I eat it to add a little more tang, but once again, up to your taste buds.

This is one of the first dishes I tried making all by myself.  The first time I had attempted it, was without a recipe and no idea of how it should be made (I think I was a 10th grader? at the time).  I just knew both my sister and I were starving and I was craving it.  It was awful to say the least… watery, bland, words can not express how bad it was :T

So when Mark and I started dating and he told me that dduk bokki was one of his favorite foods, I was determined to perfect it.  I researched a few different recipes and tried many many different things and Mark finally gave me a double high five at how delicious this one turned out.  He said it was as good as a street vendor in Korea (which is his highest praise) ^__^. 

Here is my version of street vendor dduk bokki enjoy!

1 package of dduk (Korean rice cakes) *although I prefer fresh even though you have to pull apart yourself, but frozen works, just remember to soak in water for about an hour.

Broth:

• 7 dried anchovies (without head and intestines)
• 3 cups of water (unless you are adding ramen, then 5 cups)

in a fry pan (or a everyday 12″ caphalon pan ^__^ my favorite pan) bring 5 cups of water to a boil and add the 7 anchovies - I used a tea strainer thing because I don’t like the little flecks of skin in my broth… but you don’t have to use, it’s just my preference.

Sauce:

• 5-6 tablespoons of hot pepper paste (ggoht chu jang)
• 2 tablespoons of minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons of hot pepper flakes (ggoht chu gah ryul)

mix all the above ingredients into a bowl, while broth is boiling

Other ingredients:

• O-deng or fish cakes (I only used 2 of the 3 sheets, but Mark said I could have added all 3)
• 1/4 of a large onion or half of a medium onion

I usually buy whatever is on sale for the fish cake since I can’t tell the difference, this brand won out this time around:

cut it up however you like:

by the time you’re done with making the sauce and cutting up the o-deng (fish cakes) and onions, the broth should be perfect.  Remove the anchovies and add the dduk (rice cakes), onions, and sauce and bring to a boil, keep stirring to keep it from sticking.

Add odeng last because it only takes a minute or two to cook:

mix:

I had some frozen green onions so added some and some sesame seeds as well…

mix, plate, and enjoy: