멸치볶음 - Myulchi Bokkeum

 Fried Spicy and Sweet Dried Anchovy Side Dish

I know what your thinking.  Anchovies?  Yes, anchovies!  They are so tasty in this side dish.  Maangchi.com's recipe is great for this.  I don't change anything.  These little dried anchovies are about 1 inch long.  They are found in the freezer section of my local Koren market.  This is one of my favorite side dishes.  I love the spicy and sweet combination and the texture of the dried anchovies.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dried anchovies
• 1 TBSP olive oil
• 1 TBSP sugar
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 TBSP hot pepper paste
• 1 TBSP water
• 1 tsp sesame oil, 
• 1 TBSP sesame seeds

First I mixed the sugar, garlic, hot pepper paste, and water in a bowl and set aside.

Then I put the anchovies in a frying pan and fried for a couple of minutes.  Then added the olive oil and fried for another couple of minutes.  Then pushed the fish to the side and put the sauce on the cleared space in the pan and let it cook the sauce for 20-30 seconds and then mixed it with the anchovies.  Mix well and take of the stove.  Then add the sesame oil and sesame seeds and mix.  Put in a dish with a lid and store in the fridge or eat right away as a side with rice.

콩나물무침 - Kongnamul Muchim

Seasoned Soybean Sprout Side Dish

A simple side dish to eat with rice.  I got the recipe from maangchi.com.  I pretty much followed the recipe, but I found that the seasoning was a little light so I doubled the amounts of the seasonings.  I've only found the soybean sprouts at my local Korean market.  Or you can use a can of soybean sprouts from the Asian section in your grocery store.  Although, fresh is a lot better.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of soybean sprouts, rinsed and drained
• 1 tsp salt for the water
• 2 tsp minced garlic cloves
• 1 green onion, chopped
• 1 tsp of Korean hot pepper flakes
• 2 tsp fish sauce (or salt)
• 2 tsp roasted sesame seeds,
• 1 1/2 TBSP roasted sesame oil 

I put 1 cup of water in a pot and added 1 tsp of salt, then put in the soybean sprouts and set to med-high and covered.  After 10 minutes are drained the water and added the rest of the ingredients and mixed.  That's it!  Put in a contained with a lid and store in the fridge for later use or eat right away with rice.  Many Korean side dishes are eaten cold with hot rice, so when you are ready to eat it later, just pull it out of the fridge and set on the table.

깻잎김치 - Kkaennip Kimchi

 Perilla Leaf Kimchi 

I got this recipe from this blog.   There are so many recipes out there for making this Korean side dish, but this one is my favorite.  Perilla leaves have a very distinct flavor and texture kind of like mint.  My first time eating it I didn't like it much because I'd never tasted something like that before.  But now I can't get enough of this stuff.  I buy this leaves from a local Korean market.  The leaves are usually large, like the size of your hand (if you're a petite woman like me).  Also you can plant and grow this yourself.  It's very easy to grow because it grows like a weed.  I bought some seeds for it from Kitazawa Seed Company.

The blog I got the recipe from is a vegan blog so I changed it up so that it's not a vegan version.


Ingredients

2 TBSP Korean red pepper powder
2 TBSP  soy sauce
1 TBSP fish sauce
1 TBSP garlic, minced
1/2 - 1 TBSP sugar
1/4 tsp ginger powder
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sesame seeds
4-6 bunches of perilla leaves

First I rinse the leaves and stacked them up nicely on top of each other, making 2 piles (one pile was a little too tall) and put in a dish.  Then I put a cup or two of water in a pot to boil.  Once it was boiling I poured the water over the leaves and immediately drained the water.  This very slightly blanched the leaves.  Perilla leaves are very delicate and cook very quickly.

While the leaves cooled I mixed together the sauce.  I put all ingredients, except the leaves in a bowl and mixed.  Then I took one leaf out of the dish and put on a plate and spread a little bit of the spicy sauce on the top of the leaf.   The next leaf I laid on top of the leaf I just seasoned and put some sauce on that leaf.  I continued with this until all the leaves were coated in the spicy sauce.  Then I put them in a dish, put a lid on, and put in the fridge for eating later, or you can eat right away.

When eating this side dish I grab the stem of the leaf on top with my chopsticks and pull the top leaf off the stack, then lay it over the top of rice and grab a bunch of rice underneath it, wrapping the large leaf around with the chopsticks and eat it.

짬뽕 - Jjamppong

 

Korean Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup.

I got the recipe for this from maangchi.com.  She has great recipes.  I made a spicy and non-spicy version.  I was in the mood to eat this and have made it one time before.  This time I didn't have all the ingredients, but it turned out just as good.

Here's how I made it.  (I change the recipe up a little from how the recipe is on maangchi.com.)

Ingredients

8 cups of water.
1-2 TBSP of fish sauce
1/2 onion chopped
4 inches by 4 of dried kelp
1 TBSP crushed garlic
2 TBSP Korean red pepper flakes
1 1/2 TBSP canola oil
2 carrots chopped
1 small zucchini chopped
10-15 medium sized shrimp
Spaghetti like noodles (Korean noodles)

First I cook the noodles.  Because it is sometimes hard to come by the korean noodles for the soup or hard to keep stocked up in my home for when I'm in the mood for this dish I just use thin spaghetti noodles.  The ones I used were wheat.  Once the noodles are done I set them aside unto I finish the soup.

To make the soup I put the 8 cups water in a pot and added the dried kelp.  I broke the kelp up into bit size pieces because I don't take the kelp out after boiling it and actually leave it in to eat.  I put the chopped onion in and the fish sauce and bring it to a boil.  Then I mix the red pepper flakes with the oil and let it sit while I chop the carrots. Once it's boiling I add the carrots and the red pepper flakes.  Then I chop the zucchini and put that in.  And lastly put in the shrimp.  After a minute or 2 the shrimp are cooked (when they turn pink) and it's ready to eat.  I put some in a bowl and then put the noodles on top.

Very simple and very tasty!

The non-spicy version is exactly the same as the first, but I left out the red pepper flakes and oil.  Tastes great too and is perfect for the kids.

The time before when I made this I used cabbage, green onions, mushrooms as well as all the other ingredients.

The maangchi website has good pictures for some of the Korean ingredients.  I linked those items under my ingredients list.   I've found that all Korean red pepper flakes that are available locally are not very tasty nor spicy.  If you look at the package you will probably see that it comes from China.  The ones from China don't have the right flavor.  So I looked on amazon.com for some and made sure that they came from Korea and NOT China.  I ordered a great one that's very spicy!