Thank you to Sarah Bates of The Chef Next Door for hosting today's Hot and Spicy #SundaySupper event! Have you heard of the 10,000-hour rule? Author Malcolm Gladwell theorizes that to truly master something, you will have had to log in at least 10,000 hours of practice. This theory was based on a study by Swedish psychologist Anders Ericsson. So what does this have to do with kimchi? Well, I feel like kimchi-making requires some level of practice to get to a point where it's easy to make and, most importantly, it consistently tastes awesome. When I first posted a recipe for this same dish, I had only made it a few times and it turned out a decent kimchi...50 percent of the time. Now 5 years later, I've made this particular kimchi a little less than 100 times. And if we're following the 10,000-hour rule, I've got about 9,900 hours become an expert kimchi maker. But I feel like after 5 years or about 100 hours, I've got this dish down. I've gotten rid of a couple of steps, streamlined ...
Perilla Pancakes
Originally published September 11, 2011. I thought I'd revive this recipe for Chuseok! Happy Chuseok! The cool fall weather is here to stay and school is in full swing. It is also the end of the season for kaenip (perilla) and the leaves are fading into a yellowish light green hue. The other weekend, I plucked the remaining leaves and decided to do a few experiments after speaking with my mom. She mentioned that the older leaves tend to be a less tender and a little tougher. Sometimes she steams a bunch of leaves and makes ssam (wraps) or chops them up and makes jun (pancakes) or jang dduk, a special recipe that my mom culled from her mother that sounded really hearty and quite simply, yummy. The recipe incorporates a spoonful of dwaen jang into the batter. (I know, dwaen jang!) I've never actually had the dish before or even heard of such a thing, but the combination of the pungent salty, nutty dwaen jang, and the strong peppery, minty kaenip sounded enticing. If you ...
Some Korean Flavor…
Gettin’ jiggy wit’ dwaenjang jigae
Okay…I agree that it’s a corny title and that I’m totally dating myself, but I couldn’t resist. Anyway, this is another dish that I have been futzing with for the past twenty or so years. Jigaes are great in general because they are quick and easy to make, don’t require hard-to-find ingredients (at least with…
Video: How to Make Kimchi Jigae
Jigae, or what I like to call a soupy stew, is typically made with meat, seafood, or vegetables and seasoned with dwaen jang and/or kochujang. It’s served boiling hot with a side of rice. Kimchi jigae is definitely a bowl of comfort for me. Try this recipe the next time you have some overly ripe…
I. Love. Eggs.
I don’t remember ever liking this dish as a kid. Perhaps it was my aversion to egg yolks at the time. And restaurant versions never appealed to me. It was always given as “service” (free) and always lacked flavor. But my mom made it for us during a recent visit and it was not the…
Easy Weeknight Soy Chicken (Ddak Bulgogi)
It’s been a crazy few weeks for me. I just got a part-time gig as a kitchen designer and the hours are pretty perfect since I’m in the office while the kids are in school, but which also means, I have given up all the little free time that I had before. Needless to say,…