New Eats // Deep-fried Meatballs in Sweet and Sour Sauce (깐쇼 미트볼)

Ingredients:

Meatballs (same stuffing made for Eggplant Dumpling) and dill for deep-frying (you can add more veggies if you want)

Coating- Twikim garu (튀김가루), water

For the Sauce: 

Bell peppers, green onions, garlic, onion

Soy sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar, ketchup, sugar, corn starch, water

1. Coat meatballs and dills thoroughly with twikim garu mix (it shouldn't be too runny, but more like yogurt)

2. Deep fry them in a pot with hot oil.

3. Take them out. Put it aside.

4. In a different pan, put all the chopped vegetables. For garlic, save it for later.

5. Put all the sauces in one by one, starting with about 1 spoon soy sauce, 2 spoon oyster sauce, 3 spoon vinegar, 2 spoon ketchup, 1 spoon sugar, 3 spoon corn starch mix (1 spoon corn starch, 3 spoon water. Must be mixed with cold water in a small bowl, then added into the pan, otherwise it will all get lumpy!). Taste to see if you want to add any more of them. If you want it to be more sweet, add more sugar, if you want it to be more sour, add more vinegar! Then, add garlic and stir.

6. Put meatballs into the sauce pan and toss lightly to cover them with sauce. 

Housewarming Party

It has been a month since we moved to a new place. And we probably had the most people yesterday for a housewarming party. A group of 12 for lunch and a group of 16 for dinner in one day. I knew I wouldn't be able to cook the amount of food needed for one dish on a stove. Since it is late summer, although it was rainy and stormy two days ago, we could still serve something that was not supposed to be hot. Even though I crossed the idea of using a stove out of the option, we had an oven available for cooking ahead and reheating. I brainstormed for many dishes and thought about what would make a good combination (I wanted a variety in flavour and texture) and finally these are what we came up with.

Menu

Caprese Salad Skewer, Celery Salad, Greek Pasta Salad, 

Hasselback Potatoes and Yams, Roasted Pork Tenderloin

Caprese Salad Skewers
Ingredients: cherry tomatoes, mini mozzarella, basil leaves (grown at home), balsamic glaze
Make a skewer with toothpicks. Basil can fall out if it's on either end when you are presenting them lying down like that, so basil should go in the middle. I placed them on the cake stand and drizzled balsamic glaze on top, making sure it covers every skewer. You can make the skewer ahead of time.

Celery Salad

Ingredients: celery, purple cabbage, lettuce, carrot, green onion, shrimp, cranberries

Dressing: mayonnaise, mustard, salt, pepper, olive oil

Greek Pasta Salad

Ingredients: bow-tie pasta, tomatoes, cucumber, broccoli, onion, olives, sun-dried tomato

Dressing: red pepper flakes, greek feta dressing, salt

Swedish Hasselback Potatoes and Yams

Ingredients: potatoes, yams, salt, pepper, vegetable oil, butter, paprika powder (optional: basil flakes)

Glaze: soy sauce, sugar, hot pepper paste (gochujang, 고추장), yoridang (요리당)

As you can see in the ingredient list, this is a Korean version of Hasselback Potatoes and Yams. I wanted it to be spicy and sweet at the same time so after baking in the oven for about 30 min. at 350 with salt and pepper,  I first glazed with soy sauce mixture (soy sauce, a bit of water and sugar), bake again for about 15 min., then finally glaze them with gochujang mixture (gochujang, soy sauce, sugar) just before the last reheating stage. Remove from the oven and coat one last time with yoridang and serve!

Roasted Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients: pork tenderloin, peaches, ginger and garlic sauce, paprika powder

Korean Eats // Grilled Eel on Rice (Jang Uh Dupbap)

This grilled eel is one of my favourite dishes to make. Since I use the marinated frozen eel, it is also quick and easy to make. First you take the frozen eel out of the fridge and defrost it. Put them in a pan and grill it until the sauce is sizzling. Cut them into bite size pieces and serve on a bowl of rice with finely chopped ginger and perilla leaves! I also always make extra sauce to drizzle on the rice.


Ingredients:
Frozen eel (3 packs for 5 people)
Ginger
Perilla leaves

Sauce:
Mizkan soup base
Mirin

New Eats // Boneless Lamb Rib

This boneless lamb rib must be the best lamb I have ever had !! Cooked by my wonderful husband, Jason Tjen, this lamb was juicy, flavourful and it was melting in my mouth... while exuding the lamb smell only slightly. I guarantee you will not go wrong with this part of the lamb. Here is how he cooked this. He marinated with Mirin, salt and pepper, added a bit more salt and pepper when he was grilling and added a little bit of beer a few minutes before he turned off the heat. It can be a bit greasy if you eat only the lamb, so I recommend you to have it with perilla leaves.We had it with Kimchi jigae (김치찌개), they went along really well too. ;)

House Warming Menu

2 Appetizers (Deviled eggs, Caprese salad)

Sliced potatoes with Bocconcini and Parmasan cheese

Kimchi bokeumbap (김치볶음밥) by my wonderful husband

Celery salad with purple cabbage, shrimp and cranberries

Oven Smoked Drumsticks (half regular, half spicy) with green onions

Korean Eats // Deep-fried Eggplant Dumpling

Deep-fried Eggplant Dumpling - Gaji Tuikim 가지튀김

Ingredients:

1 Eggplant

1 cup Ground pork

1 spoon finely chopped ginger

1 finely chopped green onion

1/2 cup finely chopped chive

1/2 spoon salt

1/4 cup Twikim garu (튀김가루)

a pinch of pepper

1/2 spoon sesame oil

Coating: 1 cup Twikim garu and water

1. Cut the eggplant so each piece looks like a castanet.

2. Stuffing: Mix together ground pork, all the finely chopped vegetables, salt, pepper, Twikim garu and sesame oil in a bowl.

3. Put the stuffing into the opening of each eggplant.

4. Make the coating with 1 cup Twikim garu and water.

5. Dip the stuffed eggplant into the coating mix.

6. Take each piece out and deep fry in a wok or in a deep fryer.

And... Fried Rice - Bokkeum Bap 볶음밥

New Eats // Creamless Creamy Yam Carrot Soup

Ingredients:
2 Yams
1 Carrot
1 Onion
4 Sun-dried tomatoes
3 1/2 cup Vegetable broth (Depending on the thickness you want, you can add or reduce the broth)
1/2 cup Anchovy broth (You can skip this one if you don't have it. I had some I made it for shabu shabu broth and I decided to use it as well)
1 spoon garlic
Basil (garnish)

1. Chop the vegetables.
2. Fry the onion for about 7 min. until the sweetness comes out of the onion. Add sun-dried tomatoes and fry together.
3. Add the rest of the vegetables and the broths.
4. Boil on high heat until you see water bubbles coming up and reduce to medium heat and keep boiling until yams and carrots are tender.
5. Turn off the heat. Using a hand blender, blend everything in the pot until smooth. I use this one and it works really well.

This serves 4 people.