Pepero and Veterans Day

image obtained from google images 

November 11th Veterans day in the U.S and Pepero Day in Korea.  Pepero are crunchy cookie sticks that are coated with chocolate.  In Korea on 11/11 you give your friends pepero because the long thin sticks look like the number 1.  While teaching in Korea I would get boxes and boxes of these tasty treats.  I wanted to celebrate the holiday state side with my Korean friends so I decided to make my very own pepero. 

pepero for the hubby

They still need some work but I really enjoyed how they turned out. Be sure to add a comment if you want the recipe!

pepero for friends!

November 11th is also veterans day and I wanted to do something to honor the men and women who have given their all to keep this country safe.

I made a U.S themed pepero to honor our veterans and remember that while in Korea it is fun to get a sweet treat on Nov. 11th it is even better to remember our veterans and all they have done for us.   

Did you thank a veteran on Veterans day?  Be sure to go out an spread your appreciation.  A simple thank you or a kind gesture will go far.  I would like to say a big Thank You to all the veterans out there for everything you have done to support our country!

image obtained from google images 

Tea Time Cookies

What's better than tea with a friend? Chai tea shortbread cookies, and tea with a friend.

These lovely cookies are my regular mix of shortbread with 2 bags of chai tea mixed in as well as lots of yummy spices.

They are iced with a chocolate royal icing and then painted with copper luster dust.
If you want any of the recipes just leave a message and I will type them all out.

Enjoy

I voted cookies

I hope you all voted today!  In celebration of election day I whipped up a quick batch of "I Voted" cookies.
I hope you enjoy them and I hope you get out there and vote!

Apple Chips

I was looking for a healthy sweet snack to make for one of my friends and I stumbled upon my new favorite snack, Apple Chips! These thin crispy bundles of goodness are perfect on a chilly night with a cup of apple cider or tea.
The best part is you don't need a food dehydrator to make them, you just need your oven and about 3 hours.

You will need:

2 apples sliced as thin as you possibly can

Cinnamon and any other spice you like with apples (I used ginger, cloves and cinnamon)

Preheat oven to 250 and place sliced apples on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper

Dust apples with spices

Bake for an hour and a half on one side and flip and another hour and a half

(bake until chips are crisp, they will only get a bit crispier once they cool, if they are still soggy, they are not done)

Place on a cooling rack and enjoy a few warm ones.

Package up nice to give to a friend or enjoy them yourself!

Sweet Korean Rice Cakes (Seong Peyon)

As promised I am back to sweets, while still keeping with the theme of Korean food that this week seems to be devoted to.

These chewy little balls of goodness are filled with dates, brown sugar or honey and sunflower seeds.  These are not the traditional fillings for seong peyon, however I am allergic to most of the traditional fillings so I made my own up.  If you want to make some with traditional fillings fill these little guys with sweet bean paste, chestnuts or a mixture of honey and sesame seeds. 

Un-steamed rice cakes

Seong Peyon are easy to find all over Korea but you most often see them around holiday time, especially for Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) and Korean New Years. 

Making these guys is a whole lot like playing with playdough, it is a blast!  I can't wait to make another batch, especially since my mother in law is sending me colored rice flour (colored with natural vegetables) from Korea so I can make all the different colors without using food coloring.

I hope you enjoy these guys, and if you want a batch for at home send me an e-mail or comment on the page and I will contact you about pricing and shipping options.

Enjoy

Braised Short Rib Stew

I will get back to the sweet stuff after this I swear (scouts honor) I just wanted to share with you one of my many favorite Korean foods.  I love this dish, it is the perfect cold weather rainy day food.  It was my go to comfort food in Korea.  I hope you enjoy it!

Based on recipe found in The Food and Cooking of Korea
What you will need:
        About 4 hours, you need to soak the ribs and this is a slow cooked meal so be sure to prep the night       before or have about 4 hours to make this delicious stew.

• 2Ib short ribs cut into 2in squares (I used spare ribs and cut them to size myself)
• 3 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in warm water for about 30 min. until softened (you could also use fresh if you can't find dried, I think the dried ones add a stronger flavor to the whole shabang)
• 1/2 onion, roughly cubed
• 1/2 carrot, roughly cubed
• 1/2 potato roughly cubed 
• 3oz Chinese white radish, peeled and roughly diced
• 2 spring onions (scallions) finely sliced
• 4 chestnuts (I left these out but feel free to add them)
• 2 red dates (I used dried ones that were pitted, use what you can find, these do add a bit of flavor to the stew so I suggest adding them if you can find them.)
• 2 tbsp rice wine (I just used a white cooking wine)
• 4 ginkgo nuts, to garnish (I didn't bother with these, pine nuts would also work, I just sliced up a green onion for garnish)

Seasoning 

• 1/2 Asian pear 
• 4 tbsp light soy sauce (I have a hard time finding different types of soy sauce here so I just use 2 tbsp regular and 2 tbsp low sodium, if you just use regular soy sauce you will end up with a salty stew)
• 4 tsp sugar
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp ginger, grated
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds (I left these out because I am not a big fan, but they do add nice flavor if you like the little guys)
• 4 tsp sesame oil 
• ground black pepper to taste

All the veggies cut up

Seasoning Marinade 

1. Soak the ribs in a bowl of cold water for about 3 hours to drain the blood.  Change the water 1-2 times as it becomes discolored.  
2. Drain the ribs and place in a medium-large sized pot, cover with water and bring to a boil.  Once boiling remove ribs from heat, place them in a strainer and rinse with cold water.  Strain and reserve the boiling broth for later.  
3. Slice the soaked shiitake mushrooms and throw out the stems.  Cut the rest of the vegetables at this time.  
4. To make the seasoning peel the pear and grate, be sure to reserve the juice and the pear gratings.  
5. Add the pear  (juice and all) into a bowl and mix in all the other seasonings.
6. Use a knife to make deep cuts in the ribs and place them in the bowl of seasoning, work the seasoning into the ribs with your hands and then let sit for 20 min. (If you are in a hurry you can skip this step but it will taste much better if you let the whole thing sit)
7. Transfer ribs and seasoning mixture into a large pan.  Add the veggies and pour in a scant cup of the boiling broth.  Set heat to high and bring stew to a boil.
8. Once the liquid is boiling add the rice wine and cover the pan, reduce the heat and let simmer for 1 hour.  Keep an eye on the stew and add more broth as needed to ensure all the veggies and ribs are covered.
9. Garnish wish sesame seeds, ginkgo nuts and sliced green onion.

Everything in the pot.

Serve this delicious stew with steamed rice and radish kimchi if you happen to have some. 

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Korean Chicken

So I took a quick little break from making sweets and took some time to focus on my other passion, cooking.  The hubby and I have been back in the U.S. for a little more than a year now and we are both really missing Korean food.  Lee is especially missing fried chicken...who knew, out of all the foods in Korea fried chicken is one of his favorites  which is easy to understand once you taste Korean fried chicken, it is juice  flavorful, and has a great crunch.  I have been searching high and low for the recipe for yangneong chicken, which is fried chicken with a sweet, salty and a bit spicy garlicky gingery glaze.  I finally found it at Olivia Jason Kim they have loads of great recipes that I can't wait to try out!
And now without further ado, bring on the Chicken!

The glaze is a mix of soy sauce, ketchup, lots of garlic, some ginger, honey, sugar, sesame oil and red pepper flakes. 

The chicken is dipped in a mixture of corn starch salt and pepper then dipped in a batter of corn starch and water.  This makes for some really crispy chicken. 

Mmmmm yummie!

You can find the full recipe right here I would add a bit more spice and ginger to the sauce next time and cut down on the salt by using half regular soy sauce and half low sodium soy sauce....I thought the whole thing was just a bit too salty. 

Lee loved it and was finally happy he was able to have something really close to his favorite food from home.