삼계탕 Sam Gye Tang: Korean Chicken and Ginseng Soup

I thought I would take a break from posting sweets and share with you one of my favorite Korean foods:

During my 3 years in Korea I learned a lot of wonderful things....and some strange things that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get use to.  One of those things was eating hot food when it was crazy hot out.  The idea was that you would feel cooler after eating something hot because it was closer to the temperature outside.  I however just felt extra hot and sweaty.  That being said I will eat 삼계탕 (sam gye tang) no matter the weather just because I like it sooo much.
Mr. Lee's mom would frequently make it when I came to visit the house.  I was close to 90 degrees inside but let me tell you that didn't stop me from enjoying this delicious soup.
It is a fairly easy soup to make, and I have adapted it a bit so I am able to make it in the U.S.

For 2 servings you will need:
2 Cornish game hens
8 dried dates (jujube's)
2 pieces of ginseng root (or ginseng powder)
6-8 cloves of garlic
1-2 cups of sweet rice partially cooked
Green onion (garnish)
Water
Salt and Pepper
Tooth picks
Optional: Sam gye tang soup package

Before even starting to make the soup you are going to want to soak your rice.  1st wash is till the water runs clear then let it soak for 4 hours.... or at least this is what most recipes will tell you.  I have never had much luck using the rice this way.  I find the Cornish game hens cook too quickly (because of their size) and the rice doesn't have enough time to cook.  Instead I cook the rice about half way and let it cool and then use it to make 삼계탕.

If you have a Korean market near you, you could pick up one of these lovely soup seasoning packages.  I have made 삼계탕 with it and with out it and it tastes great both ways.  If you do have the soup flavoring package add the contents to some water and let it boil for about 10 min. 

While your water is boiling you can get the rest of your ingredients ready.  Here I have my sweet rice jujube's and garlic ready to go to stuff the game hens  

Before stuffing the game hens you will want to wash them off, and trim off as much fat as you can and be sure the inside cavity is nice and clean.  After washing the chickens pat them dry and close up the smaller opening (by the neck) with tooth picks. 

Turn your birds over and fill with rice garlic and jujube's.  I like to put 3 jujube's inside and 2-3 cloves of garlic and then leave the rest to add to the broth. 

Once filled close up the opening with more tooth picks. 

Broth with flavor package

Put your hen in a large pot and fill with water, I never fully cover the bird because then you end up with a weaker flavored broth.  At this time if you used a flavoring package remove all the pieces (leave the ginseng root and jujube) If not using a flavor package add your additional jujube's and garlic as well as some ginseng powder to flavor the broth (you can make the broth without ginseng but it isn't quite as good)

Broth with ginseng powder

Bring the soup to a boil and skim off any fat/foam that forms on the surface.  Once foam stops forming add a little salt and pepper and cover the pot with a lid.  Cook until the meat is just about to fall off the bone.  

Garnish with thinly chopped green onion and a side of salt for dipping the meat into.  Kimchi and pickled daikon radish are great side dishes with sam gye tang.  

Be sure to remove the tooth picks before serving or let your guests know that they are there.  Crack open the hen and mix the rice with the broth and dip the chicken into your dish of salt eat and enjoy! 

There is a great video tutorial here: http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/samgyetang just in case you didn't follow my directions.  

Feel free to ask questions if you have them and enjoy your 삼계탕!

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.

Korean Savory Rice Cakes

As most of you know I taught English in South Korea for 3 years, and met my husband over there.  Living in the US is great but we both really miss the food.  Tonight I surprised him with a little taste of home.  I made him tteokbokki a popular Korean street food.  I decided to go all out and make the ddeok (rice cakes) from scratch.

Ddeok in Korean

I have to say I am very proud with how well the rice cakes turned out.  I can't wait to try the sweet version some time this week!

To make these yummy rice cakes, this is what you will need:

1 1/2 cup rice flour (not sweet rice flour)
1/2 tsp salt (you may want to reduce this just a bit I am still toying with the measurments)
3/4 cup water

Add the rice flour, salt and water into a bowl and mix till combined. The mixture should be sticky but not smooth... it will look like large cheese curds (sort of).

cheese curd-ish looking mixture

Once the mixture is combined you will steam it for about 30 min.  You can use whatever kind of steamer you have.  I have a bamboo one which normally I would line with cheese cloth...but I was fresh out so wet paper towels had to do instead.

Remove the rice cake from the steamer after 30 min, either place in a bowl to kneed by hand or if you are lucky throw it in your bread machine.  I am not lucky so I had to kneed it by hand.  Be careful, the mixture is really hot.  I wore kitchen gloves to kneed the whole thing until it cooled down enough to hold with my bare hands.  You need to kneed the dough for quite some time about 20min or so.  The dough should be smooth with no lumps.

Smooth dough with no lumps

Next you get to have a lot of fun and play with the dough like it's play-dough.  All those years of making play-dough snakes will finally come in handy.  Take a chunk off your dough ball and role it into a snake about the width of your thumb.  

Finally cut your snake into 1 inch pieces, or into whatever size rice cake you want.  

Now you are ready to make lots of different delicious foods with your ddeok like tteokbokki!

I will post a recipe for tteokbokkie later, I am still refining it, but here are some pictures to tide you over until then ^^  

The finished product

Onion, hard boiled eggs, and green onions (missing fish paste and cabbage)

This is most of whats in the sauce

Simmering

Everyone is in the pan

Mmmmm enjoy!