Tag Archives: Korean

Munching Meals

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Lately I’ve had a habit of eating little bits of all sorts of things for dinner rather than just sitting down to a huge portion of something.  Especially when I spread it out over a few hours, I’ve found it to be more satisfying.  I also eat less, I think, which is both surprising and unsurprising.

Tonight, though, I decided to go for a combo-plate type dinner.  My combo plate made most things be about equal rather than having any one thing dominate.

Tonight’s menu:

  • Korean mixed grain rice (Microwaveable in 1.5 mins — this stuff is magic.  Find it at your local Japanese, Korean, or possibly Chinese market.)
  • Ohitashi with bell pepper (Cooked spinach with soy sauce.  Try microwaving washed spinach for 30 seconds, then adding a bit of soy sauce, a little lemon juice, and some sesame seeds for my favorite and super easy version).  Both Japanese spinach and bell peppers from the garden!
  • Tomato slices
  • Tamagoyaki (Mix beaten eggs with mirin and soy– mostly eggs, a little more mirin than soy, cook in a pan attending frequently. Periodically lift up cooked egg and allow runny egg to flow under cooked. Fold the layers as you go occasionally, aiming to get a rectangular block you can slice.  Cook until solid and with slight caramelization on either side.)
  • South East Asian inspired salad, with most of ingredients from the garden: peas, radishes, baby mustard greens, cilantro, opal basil, and (not from the garden) grapefruit and green onions.  Dressing: seasoned rice vinegar microwaved for 30 seconds with two coins of ginger to lightly infuse it and let cool before tossing the salad in it.
  • Garnish: lemon slice and home grown shiso.

Pretty satisfying, and the whole thing took maybe 30 minutes to prepare and was vegetarian.  And you can’t get much fresher than vegetables from the garden!

Nutrition tips I’ve learned lately:  in order to absorb all the nutrients from dark leafy vegetables, make sure to pair them with something with vitamin C.  Also, microwaving spinach is not only quicker and easier, but also retains the most nutrients!

Bento & Experimental Failure

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Well, the past couple of weeks have been interesting.  Remember how I posted about the porridge a while back?  Well, turns out that was only the tip of the iceberg on the sickday train, that little thing coming back to whollop me and put me out of commission last week almost entirely.

What did I eat?  Things I didn’t have to cook and didn’t have to clean up after…a slightly embellished premade thai soup was about as fancy as I got.  I’m going to go ahead and blame our recently crazy indecisive weather in the bay area for me being sick, and thus the distinct lack of blog posts.

Yesterday, I did something against my better judgement.  I was craving green beans au gratin really badly and had all sorts of nifty cheeses lying around (parmesan, manchego, chevre).  Make a little roux, add some milk, throw in the cheese, then some parcooked green beans– bound to be awesome! Here’s where I nod my head downward in shame: I only had unsweetened vanilla almond milk.  How vanilla-y could it be?  It wasn’t that sweet, and didn’t seem vanilla-y in my cereal.

Well, it was vanilla-y.  And so was my awful-gratin.   I knew better, but I tried anyway.  And I somehow managed to get myself to eat half of it before giving up.

Moral of the story: Trust your judgement.  And make sure you always have unflavored milk or alternative milks in your house for spontaneous au gratin or homemade mac & cheese or alfredo cravings.

Anyway, today’s craving for some reason was sushi.  Impatience was my nemesis today, boiling the rice while staring hungrily at the stove.  Boiling some unseasoned rice vinegar with brown sugar (not typical, but brown sugar works fine).  Mixing the two together.  Toasting the nori.

…Aw hell, do I really want to wait for this to cool?  No.  Spread the warm rice on the nori. Add ingredients. Roll.  Notice it’s soggy.  Hold the roll over the gas stove for a bit until the outside gets crisp again.  Slice. Eat.  Satisfying.

I’m not a sushi master and never will be.  My sushi was warm and soft.  I humbly bow to those who have the patience and can manipulate it to be perfect in every way.  But, let me tell you, if you have a desperate sushi craving and the right materials around, it can take you 30 minutes from start to start eating to pull it together.

Today’s combos:

  • umeboshi, cucumber, daikon, carrot, maguro
  • cucumber, umeboshi, carrot
  • maguro, gochujang, carrot, daikon

The leftovers are tomorrow’s bento, along with some hamachi and fukujinzuke, as you can probably tell from the picture above.

I’m not sure I’ll have another chance to post before I go off to South America for vacation for 2 weeks.  I’ll be hitting up Peru for the tourist classic Macchu Picchu, ceviche (and the potential post-ceviche digestive regret), some additional adventures, and a few pisco sours to be followed by a visit with friends in Ecuador with an itinerary that is still TBD.

I won’t be cooking, most likely (unless my friends in Ecuador want me to cook for them), but I’ll try to post some foodie pictures and tell tales of my adventures if I have the time and internet capability.  So, don’t hold your breath, but keep your eyes open. :)

Riso Carbonara

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If you can make fettucini carbonara, spaghetti carbonara…why not rice? The essence of carbonara is the pancetta/bacon, cheese, salt & pepper, and raw egg thrown in at the last minute to cook ever so briefly, not the pasta itself.

I felt like spaghetti was not a good substitute for fettucini when it comes to carbonara, so I decided to do rice.  Wehani rice (whole grain, red/brown rice, how fiberful).  Wehani rice is nice because it has a chewy texture, reddish color, and a moist, flavorful center.

The end result was a slightly sophisticated dish, like an elevated version of what my mom ingloriously used to call “Tuna Glop” (rice/cheese/milk/tuna/mushrooms/onions or something like that).  I know, that sounds awful, but don’t let it turn you off.  Some of the ingredients I used are a little rare, but you could substitute as you see fit.  In the honor of the romance of Italy, I’d say this is probably the love child of risotto and carbonara.

To be honest, I was a little wary of cooking with squash blossoms because of my parents’ reports that they “taste funky” and are best “battered with egg and deep fried”.  With the ham and onions and everything in a creamy sauce, though, they taste awesome.  Thanks to Anthony Bourdain’s episode on Rome for spiking my curiosity on this one, because it’s really awesome.  The squash blossoms are super tender with a slight but not overpowering squashy flavor and an absolutely gorgeous color to add to any dish!  Fettucini alfredo with squash blossoms?  Yes pleaseeeee.  I intend to eat many squash blossoms now before their season runs out!

Slightly Healthy Riso Carbonara

  • 1 cup wehani brown rice, cooked according to package directions (1 cup rice, 2 cups water, bring to a boil, simmer for 40 minutes or so)
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 12 slices Canadian bacon or other salty pork product (pancetta, bacon, ham), cut into strips
  • 1 bunch maitake mushrooms, chopped roughly (flavor is somewhere in between standard US store mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms in terms of pungency, you could substitute crimini)
  • Salt, red pepper (I used Korean red pepper), and a dash of garlic powder to taste
  • 1/3 red onion, finely diced
  • 12 leaves fresh basil
  • a few sprigs fresh parsley (minced up with the basil)
  • 10 squash blossoms, sliced up into rings
  • 1 cup fresh shelled green peas
  • 1/3 cup skim milk
  • 3 wedges Laughing Cow cheese (swiss or french onion flavor), or 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan if you’ve got it.  Just some cheese, preferably of a white zingy variety.
  • 1 whole raw egg

Cook the rice, as stated above.  Set it aside and let it cool.

Melt the butter in a big frying pan.  On high heat, add the mushrooms, onions, and ham along with the salt, red pepper, and garlic powder.  Stir frequently until browned.  Turn down the heat to medium low. (I use the Korean red pepper because it’s slightly but not too spicy and comes in nice big flakes which add good color to dishes. For salt, I usually pick kosher or sea salt.)

Add the squash blossoms, basil, and parsley and stir in.

Add the peas.  Stir them in well and let them cook a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the sauteed mixture to the rice and mix it all up.  Bring the heat up to low and mix it throughly so it gets a little warmed.

Add the milk, egg, and cheese and mix it all in quite well.

Serve with fresh ground pepper on top.