Kimchi ‘Pancakes’ aka Kimchi Jun

Kimchi ‘Pancakes’ are a comfort side dish back at home. I recently met my mom and begged her to teach me how to make it…. and she finally gave in! I tried these today, and my oh my~brings me back home! LOVE IT! Here is the super easy and quick recipe!

Things You Need (makes about four):

• Good fermented Kimchi
• Flour
• Egg
• Sugar

 

What to Do:

First get a good handful of kimchi and dice it up like so:

 

Next, crack open an egg in a bowl and break the egg yolk–mix mix mix! Next add in 2-3 spoonfuls of flour as well as a good pinchful of sugar. Eye the amount of flour you put in. You don’t want it too thick, but just enough so that you can make a good ‘pancake’ like batter.

 

 

Now add in the kimchi into the mixture.

Now heat up the pan with oil and when the pan is hot, put in a good spoonful of the mixture (like pancakes!).

 

Don’t forget to flip them over once!

 

You are done! These are delicious plain, or with a dipping sauce. Just in case you want to dip them in a sauce, here is my recipe for the sauce:

In a small sauce dish, put in about 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar. Next add in about 1/2 tablespoon of sugar and a good sprinkle of Korean Red Pepper Flakes. Top that off with a sprinkle of sesame seeds! For an added kick, you can dice up a little bit of green onions and mix it into the sauce.

 

 

 

 

ENJOY!

 

Tasty Asian Beef Stew

This is a dish that H particularly enjoys. It is inspired from both the Western Beef Stew and the Chinese Beef Noodle Soup. The combination of Western and Asian ingredients marry beautifully together and brings about a delcious flavor that one cannot quite place a finger on–”what is IN this?” Well, it is a combination of many things. To name a few: beef (duh), tomato, soy sauce, star anise, and ginger. Are you excited yet? 

Another great thing about this recipe is that it is very cheap to make. You can make a whole pot of this and enjoy it for the rest of the week with rice…with bread…with noodles…or just alone. Please, next time you are craving beef stew, give this stew a chance. You do not want to miss out on this dish!

What You Need:

• Beef for stewing (beef shank brings great flavor!)
• Soy Sauce
• Whole Star Anise (We found this at the local Asian Store)
• Ginger (ginger flavor is not too strong, so for you ginger haters, don’t worry)
• Garlic
• 1 Can of Beef Broth
• 1 Can of diced tomato
• Hon Dashi
• sugar
• Carrot
• Onion

What to Do:

First, we have to cut the carrots and onion–cut into bite size pieces. Let’s also dice the garlic and slice the ginger.

Next, cut the beef into a nice stew-size:

Now, heat up some oil in a big pot and brown the meat.

After the meat has browned, you can either take the meat out while you cook the onions, but being lazy, we decided to just add the onions, garlic, and ginger in the pot with the meat. Stir, stir, stir!

Next, add in the carrots.

Ok, the hard part is done. Open the can of tomatoes and pour it into the pot.

Open up the can of beef broth, and pour that in. Pour in one and 1/2 cans of water into the can, and pour that in as well.

Now put in 3-4 star anises into the pot. You can choose to put them in a cheese cloth if you do not want to deal with the star anise when you eat the stew–up to you.

Next, put in 4-5 spoons of soy sauce.

And now for the last step, put in a pinchful of hon dashi and about 1/2 spoonful of sugar.

Now, bring the stew to a boil…then turn down to heat, cover and let simmer for a couple hours.

Now DIG IN! ENJOY! YUM!

 

 

Quick and Easy Spinach (tasty too!)

We love veggies–raw, boiled, steamed, you name it. One way we enjoy our greens is to saute them with garlic. It’s tasty as a side dish as well as on its own. This particular recipe uses spinach, but it can be used with any kind of green. Here is the super duper easy recipe:

What You Need:

• Spinach
• Oil
• diced garlic
• Salt
• Hondashi

What to Do

Heat a pan with oil. Saute the garlic in the oil. Once you smell the garlic in the oil, add in the spinach. Sprinkle in a small pinch of salt and hon dashi. Make sure the garlic doesn’t burn, so when you see it turning brown, turn off the heat!

You are done! Can you believe it? Incredibly easy and fast! Enjoy!