Samgyetang (삼계탕) Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup

HERE comes another soup recipe you may say, but I cannot tell you enough times how much I love soups and stews. This soup definitely is a special occasion type of soup not because it is hard to make but because of the ingredients I have to gather before making it. I have never ever bought fresh ginseng till I made this soup the other day and it was pricey. I am sure getting dried ginseng would have saved me money but I wanted to follow this recipe from Norecipes exactly. I encourage you to visit the original website mentioned to see all the fun pictures too. I read that this soup is served in the summer in Korean but I made this on a cold rainy day. I love hot soups on a cold day! I aslo doubled the recipe because I had company. I made a special trip to a Korean gerocery store and found all the ingredients needed and I bought everything fresh. I wouldn't leave anything out, but I must say that I loved the chestnuts in the soup very much because they are so sweet and add a little crunch in the soup. I also bought a premade package with dried ginseng, jujubes, rice , and etc to try another time and compare and the taste and convenience.
I am so thankful for Internet and fellow food blogger such as Norecipes for sharing the recipes and allowing me to learn. This is the recipe I used.

Serves 2 hungry people

1/2 cup sticky rice (also known as “sweet rice” or “glutinous rice”)
2 Cornish game hens
2 tablespoons kosher salt (halve if using regular salt)
2 tablespoons pine nuts
3 small fresh ginseng roots (dried works okay too)
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
10 jujubes
4 whole chestnuts
4 cups low sodium chicken stock (preferably home made)
1 scallion thinly sliced
sea salt for serving

The morning you want to make the Samgyetang, wash the rice and soak it in a bowl full of cold water. Rub each hen with a tablespoon of kosher salt, both inside and out.

When you’re ready to start cooking, drain the rice and mix it with the pine nuts. Add a ginseng root, garlic clove, jujube, and chestnut into the cavity of each hen, then split the rice between the two hens. Add another garlic clove, jujube, and chestnut to each chicken, then cut a small slit into the flap of skin just above each drumstick and thread the end of each drumstick through both flaps as shown in the photo below. You could also use a toothpick to “stitch” the opening shut, you just want to keep the opening closed so the stuffing doesn’t all fall out.

Add the chicken stock and remaining ginseng root, garlic, and jujubes to a pot that’s just big enough to hold both hens. Bring to a boil, then carefully add both hens. Return the soup to a boil then cover and turn the heat down to low and simmer for one hour.

Serve the Samgyetang in a small pot or stone bowl along with the soup, then garnish with the scallions. Give each person a small plate of salt that can be added to the soup to taste, or be used to dip the chicken meat into.

Smothered Pork Chops

I love southern food and this is one of them. I recently got a dutch oven as a gift and it is perfect for for making tender thick cut pork chops browned and smothered ( slow cooked in gravy). I just love gravy and this dish is perfect over white rice. Basically, you will be eating rice and brown gravy with a bonus, tender pork chop. I will not be giving you the exact measurements of the ingredients but will walk you through the basic smothering steps with pictures and all. so enjoy and feel free to email me with questions and comments.

Ingredients (Approximate)

1.5 to 2 lb pork chops of your choice ( I used bone in, thick cuts)
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1 Tsp Cajun seasoning powder, optional (salt and peeper will work too)
2 TBS soy sauce
4 Cups stock/broth/ or water
2 TBS oil
3/4 Cup flour

Rinse and dry the pork with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper or Cajun seasoning powder.

Heat the oil the Dutch oven or big skillet.

Put the flour in a plastic bag and shake the pork chops one by one and add to the hot oil and brown them on both sides. Take them out and set aside.

Add the onions and peppers to the pan and saute them till tender about 5 minutes. Then add the soy sauce. Cook for a minute or two.

Then add your choice of stock ( I used turkey stock I made after Thanksgiving. Bring to a slow boil.

Add your pork chops back into the boiling gravy and cover. Let simmer till pork is fork tender. (this will depend on your pork and the cook ware you use) I did about 2 hours. Taste the gravy and season as needed.

The final results looks like this. Serve with rice.

Homemade Kimchi in Two Hours!

Making kimchi is easier than you think...or at least I think so. maybe because I love cooking and making everything from scratch when I can. My family loves kimchi so I enjoy making a big batch and giving some away to my family and friends. I have never made whole Kimchi but usually make the already chopped Kimchi. I think it is considered the "easy" Kimchi. I have not noticed the taste difference in the two. So, I choose to make this cut Kimchi using Maangchi's Kimchi Recipe.. I did double the recipe because I have so many people to share.


You will need:

Vegetables:

10 lb Napa cabbage
10 Green onions, cut in 2 inch pieces
1/2 Cop julienned carrot
2 Cups julienned Daikon radish
2 Cups leek, chopped

1 Cup sea salt


For the Porridge:

1/4 Cup sugar
3 Cups water
1/2 Cup sweet rice flour, see picture below

Seasonings:

1 Cup fish sauce
3 Cup hot pepper flakes

1 Cup whole garlic cloves
2 TBS minced ginger
1 Cup onion, chopped

*Tip: Use a food processor.

Preparing the cabbage:

Trim the discolored outer leaves of 10 pounds of napa cabbage.
Cut the cabbage lengthwise into quarters and remove the cores. Chop it up into bite size pieces
Rinse cabbage in cold water and put the soaked cabbage into a large basin. Sprinkle salt.

Every 30 minutes, turn the cabbage over to salt evenly (total salting time will be 1½ hours).
1½ hours later, rinse the cabbage in cold water 3 times to clean it thoroughly

Drain the cabbage and set aside in a huge basin or plastic bowl..

Add the other vegetables (green onions, leek, carrot, and radish).

Making the Porridge:
Put cups of water and sweet rice flour in a pot and mix it well and bring to a boil.

Keep stirring until the porridge makes bubbles (about 5 minutes).

Add the sugar.
Stir and cook for a few more minutes until it’s translucent.

Cool it down.

Making Kimchi Sauce:

Place the cold porridge into a large bowl.

Using a food processor, puree the ginger, garlic, and onions. Add this to the porridge along with fish sauce, hot pepper flakes.

Now you have Kimchi Sauce.

Add the kimchi sauce to your bowl of prepared veggies.

Mix well by hand ( must wear gloves or your hands will burn!!!).

Now that you have your well mixed fresh Kimchi, put it in wide mouth glass jars or air tight plastic containers. (Korean stores sell different containers for kimchi storage). This is ready to eat if you choose to.

A little "Kimchi Knowledge".......for those that ask me when Kimchi will be ready to eat after making it. Eat it Right away!!

Fresh Kimchi: Just made, not fermented, not sour yet.
"Old" Kimchi: Well fermented. Sour and great for cooking such as making Kimchi stew, stir fry, pancakes, fried rice etc.

Kinchi Tips:

* make sure your hands, all you utensils and bowl, knives etc are clean.
* Wear Gloves.
* Vinegar can be used to get rid of strong smells in the jar after kimchi is all gone and you want to clean your jar for reuse.
* Keeping the jar of kimchi in the sun for several hours will speed up the fermentation process and kimchi will sour fast.
* Keep a small container full of kimchi at room temperature to get "old" kimchi for cooking and majority in the fridge for the fresh kimchi.

ENJOY!!!

Galbi Tang ( Korean Beef Short Rib Soup): The Daring Cooks’ September 2011 Challenge

Peta, of the blog Peta Eats, was our lovely hostess for the Daring Cook‟s September 2011 challenge, “Stock to Soup to Consommé”. We were taught the meaning between the three dishes, how to make a crystal clear Consommé if we so chose to do so, and encouraged to share our own delicious soup recipes!

Being a soup lover, this challenge gave me so many ideas of what I wanted to make. I picked this Korean Beef Short Rib Soup because my family requested it and also I found a great deal on the short ribs.
I am not Korean but I LOVE Korean food and learned to make many Korean dishes mainly from blogs, sometimes friends and from eating out. Galbi Tang is simple to make if you have some time to make the stock and let the beef become tender. Tang in Korean means soup. This website lifeinkorea has a great list of Korean soups, the meanings, and even how to eat them.

Wiki also has some good information on this dish including how to prepare too.

Here is how I make mine.

Ingredients

2 LB Beef Short Ribs (in big chunks)
1 Large Onion
5 Garlic Cloves
1 TBS whole Black peppercorns
1 tsp salt
5 Green Onions (white part only)
1 6 inch piece of Daikon Radish
2 eggs

Seasonings for the Beef:

2 TBS Light Soy Sauce
1TBS Ground Toasted Sesame Seeds
1 tsp Sesame oil
1 TBS Minced Garlic

Garnish:
chopped green Onions
Sesame seeds

To get rid of some blood from the bones, soak the ribs in a cold water for at least 1hours changing the water a couple times.

Place the ribs in a pot and cover with new cold water and boil vigorously for 5 minutes. There will be scum /foam on the top. Remove the pot from the heat and strain the ribs. Wash the pot and the ribs so there is no more scum.

Place the clean pieces of beef back in the clean pot and fill the pot with 10-12 cups of water. Add salt, Daikon Radish, onion, green onions, peppercorns, and whole cloves of garlic.

Bring to a boil, and then simmer over low heat till the meat it tender ( about 2-3 hours. You want the meat to be falling off the bones when you eat. Must simmer over low heat or the stock will be cloudy. )

After about an hour, take the radish out and slice the radish and keep aside to put back into the soup later.

When the meat is tender, strain the meat and veggies. Discard the veggies. Season the meat with seasonings above.

Let the stock cool in the fridge for several hours or overnight so the fat will come up to the top and you can skim and throw away the fat. This step is necessary to obtain a good Galbi Tang that is not oily. If you are in a hurry, you can also scoop out the oil that comes up to the top as much as you can.

Bring the broth back to a boil along with Daikon and seasoned meat when ready to eat.

If everyone likes eggs in your soup, crack the eggs directly into the boiling broth before serving and break the egg up in the pot. Otherwise, you can make a thin omelet, slice it up and add that to the individual bowls.

Sprinkle with green onions and sesame seeds. Serve very hot with rice. Hope you have yummy kimchi to go with it too!

Chicken Tikka Masala ( Easy Version)

If you like Indian flavors and want to try making some at home quickly, this would be one recipe you may like. Have you ever seen jars of different Indian curry sauces in ethnic stores? Well, I bought one for Tikka Masala and used it for this easy dish. Hope the step by step pictures will help you to make a similar dish at home. This is probably far from what an Indian mom or grandma would call Tikka Marsala but HEY! it sure was an easy yummy curry!

You will need:

1 Lb Chicken ( I used boneless skinless thighs)
Veggies of your choice (I used 1 yellow squash, 1 red bell peppers)
Some cilantro leaves, chopped
1 TBS oil
salt, to taste
1/2 Cup water or broth

Tikka Masala Sauce Jar (see picture below)




Cut the chicken into bite size piece. Sprinkle some salt.

Have your veggies cut up and ready.

Heat up the oil in a wok.

Add and saute the chicken about 5 minutes.

Add the veggies and cook for a few minutes.

Add about 1/2 jar of the sauce. Mix well.

Add the broth or water and cilantro leaves. Simmer about 20 minutes with low heat, uncovered till meat and veggies are tender and sauce has thickened.




Serve this colorful dish with some rice.

Apple Walnut Gorgonzola Turnovers

I love gorgonzola cheese and was searching for recipes that use this cheese for a party. I found several recipes that sounded good but I chose to make these mini turnovers from simply recipe because I love the combination of apples, gorgonzola and honey. They turned out well and we enjoyed them. I will make this again and when I do, I will put a little more gorgonzola than the original recipe calls for. The combination of the sweetness of honey and apples, the crunchy walnuts and the cheese was AWESOME!


Recipe:

If using prepared frozen puff pastry sheets, they need to be defrosted in the refrigerator at least 3 hours before using.

Ingredients
* 1 1/2 cups peeled, cored, chopped apples (use a good cooking apple such as Jonagold, Pippin, Granny Smith, Jonathan, Golden Delicious, Gravenstein, Mcintosh)
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
* 1/4 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese
* 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves (or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled)
* 2 Tbsp honey
* 2 7-ounce prepared puff pastry sheets (total 14 ounces)
* 1 egg, beaten

Method

1 Place chopped apples in a bowl, microwave on high heat for 5 minutes until apples are cooked through. Remove from heat and let cool. Drain excess moisture. Once cooled, chop further so that the pieces are between 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch square. (Note you can skip this step if you want; the main purpose is to get the apples to release some of their moisture before cooking into the pastry.)

2 Combine apples, walnuts, gorgonzola, thyme and honey in a small bowl.


3 Preheat oven to 400°F. Working with one puff pastry sheet at a time (leave the second one in the refrigerator until using it) roll out the pastry to a size of 9-inches by 12-inches. Cut into 12 3x3-inch squares (a pizza slicer works great for this). Paint 1/2-inch of border around each square with beaten egg (this will help the pastry seal). Place a heaping teaspoon of the apple walnut mixture in the center of the squares. Fold over the squares into a triangle shape, stretching the dough if necessary to cover the filling. Use the tines of a fork to crimp the edges. Place triangles on a silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet, with space between the triangles. Chill for 5 minutes in the refrigerator before baking, or chill while you prepare the second puff pastry sheet.

4 Whisk in a half teaspoon of water into the remaining beaten egg. Use a pastry brush to paint on the tops of the pastry triangles for a nice glaze. ( I sprinkled some sea salt on the top too). Place in oven and cook for 15-20 minutes until nicely puffed up and lightly browned. Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.

Makes 24 turnovers. Serve either warm or at room temperature. Can be made several hours in advance.

Irish Cream Brownies with Toffee Bits

Brownies are so easy to make and so yummy! Also, there are many little twists and varations you can create which makes them so FUN to make. I found an awesome recipe from allrecipe for these Irish Cream Brownies. I have been making these for almost every potluck or gatherings since. Hope you try these yummy little treats and enjoy them. I think they are very tasty!

Here is the recipe:

Yield 24 brownies


Ingredients
* 1 (20 ounce) package brownie mix
* 1/2 cup Irish cream liqueur
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 2 eggs

* 2 teaspoons milk
* 2 tablespoons Irish cream liqueur
* 1 teaspoon brewed coffee
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 2 cups confectioners' sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup toffee baking bits (such as Heath Bits 'O Brickle®) (optional)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. Stir together the brownie mix, the 1/2 cup Irish cream liqueur, vegetable oil, and eggs. Spread in the prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until the top is dry and the edges have started to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven to cool completely on a wire rack.
4. Place the milk, 2 tablespoons Irish cream liqueur, and coffee in a small, microwave safe bowl. Microwave on High until the mixture boils. Set aside to cool completely.
5. Beat the butter and confectioners' sugar with an electric mixer in a bowl until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and the cooled Irish cream mixture, and beat well. Spread evenly over the cooled brownies. Sprinkle evenly with the toffee bits.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 276 | Total Fat: 14.2g | Cholesterol: 32mg