Korean potato pancake or Gamjajoen

   It is rainy in these days in Korea and it still rains today.  
 Koreans say that rainy day reminds people of Korean pancakes. Maybe it is because the chill weather make them crave for  the heat from the pan, or the sound of rain is like the sound of popping oil you hear when the Korean pancake is made.
  As a Korean, I liked to eat some Korean pancake. Potato pancake will be the good choice as it is easy to make and tasty.
 With some cold beer, it made today's afternoon perfect. 


Ingredients
must-have: potatoes, vegetable oil

good -to-have; paprika or red pepper , shrimp, squid, soy sauce

tools: grater or hand blender

 

 How to cook

1. Peel potatoes and cut it into small pieces. Use the hand blender or electric chopper and blend it well. I added some paprika. A little bit of red pepper will be nice, if you like spicy food. If you like seafood, put some shrimp or squid a little bit.

1-1 You can use g grater and they say that taste better. But that is not quick and easy, is it?

 

2. Put the chopped potato in a colander to drain. Or put them in a bowl and wait until there get some liquid over and pour the liquid carefully.  

 

3. Add some salt. You will not need much, if you added paprika or something. I recommend put the salt little, and use the soy sauce dipping when you eat.

 

4. Heat up a pan make the potato pancake over medium heat. The size should be smaller than American pancake.

 

4. If one side cooked enough, turn them over and cook them until they turns golden brown.

 

5. Dipping sauce: put the soy sauce in a small bowl and add some vinegar as half of the soy sauce. 

 

Enjoy the potato pancake when it is still warm!
It will be nice if you have cold beer or Korean rice wine.

Kimchi stew or kinchi jjigae(김치찌개)

  I love kimchi stew. And I will recommend Kimchi stew, if someone like to taste hot and spicy Korean food. It is easy to make, hard to fail.
 If you have too many Kimchi and it starts to became sour, you must try kimchi stew cause it taste better when it is made by sour kimchi.

Ingredients
must-have: a quater plants of kimchi, 200g of pork with some fat, sugar
good to have: onions, green onions, tofu, soy sauce, hot pepper flakes
special tool: electric pressure cooker

How to cook
1. Place kimchi and pork in a pot. If your pork lacks of fat, add one table spoon of vegetable oil. If  your kimchi is too sour or not tasty enough, add one table spoon of sugar.
    If you have onion or tofu, place it on the top.
2. Pour water. If you use electric pressure cooker, you may not add water but the juice from kimchi. Set the menu to any kinds of 'zzim(찜)' or 'steam', set the timer as 30-40 minute.
Now forget it and do something else till the alarm of cooker calls you.
2-1. If you do not have electric pressure cooker, boil it over a high heat until it start boiling. Once it starts boiling, keep boiling about one hour over medium heat. Pour more water if you need.
You can eat kimchi stew if the pork got cooked enough, however, I recommend take some time.
3. Add some green onions or hot pepper flakes as you like. If you feel slight bitterness from your kimchi stew, or think it need to be more salty, put one table spoon of soy sauce.
Enjoy your kimchi stew with rice!

Korean Chicken soup_ bagsook(백숙) or samgyetang(삼계탕)

  There is a tradition of eating chicken soup at a hot summer day in Korea. That will make you sweat, but the nutrition from chicken will keep you healthy in the hot and humid summer of Korea.

  I like this chicken soup very much myself, and I heard that the Korean chicken soup is always a popluar menu of my husband's non-korean-nationality freinds.

  The soup of my recipe is actually something between samgyetang(삼계탕 ginseng chicken soup) and bagsook; a little bit away from authentic recipes.  As a mother of fourteen month baby, it sould be quick and easy. So the recipe goes quick and easy, and it is tasty!

Ingredients
must-have:  Small chicken,  sweet rice (sweet rice or sticky rice is recommended, normal rice will do, annam rice is not good), a dozen cloves of garlic
good to have: several jujubes, green onion, one or two small ginseng
special tool:  electric pressure cooker

How to cook
1. Wash your chicken and other ingredients.
1-1. If you use sweet rice instead of rice, you need to soak the sweet rice for more than 3hour.

2. Stuff the chicken with rice and garlic. Do not forget garlic. If you have jujubes and ginsengs, stuff them. Then you can call your chicken soup a samgyetang(삼계탕), as the 'sam(삼)' means ginseng.
2-1. I like the rice part of this chicken soup, so I just put the rest of rice in the pot with the stuffed chicken. Put the rest of garlic, too. That may not look good, but I do not care.


3. Place it in a electric pressure cooker. Pour water, be careful not to pour water too much. Follow the gradation of your cooker. As the chicken take the space of your cooker, you won't need much water.
Set the menu to any kinds of 'zzim(찜)' or 'steam', set the timer as 45 minute.
Now forget it and do something else till the alarm of cooker calls you.
3-1. If you do not have electric pressure cooker, place it in a pot.  Pour water in the pot and boil it over a high heat until it start boiling. Once it starts boiling, keep boiling about one hour over medium heat. Pour more water if you need.

4. Make sure if it cooked properly, especially the rice inside of  the chicken. Poke a chopstick to the chicken.

5. Add some green onion, salt and pepper.

Enjoy your chicken soup!