Japchae 잡채

Here's a picture of the Korean noodle dish Japchae. I made this for a Korean Language Meetup in Seattle. It's considered one of the best Korean dishes to take to a potluck dinner. It can be served at room temperature and keeps well. This version of Japchae contains flank steak, noodles, 3 kinds of mushrooms, onion, carrot, cucumber and bellflower root. It sounds simple but it's fairly labor intensive. All the ingredients are prepared separately and then tossed together at the end. I've made it several times and it's only become a little easier to prepare. I use a mandoline slicer to get the long strips of carrot and cucumber.

Shredded Radish Salad 무생채

Mu saengchae is one of my favorite side dishes. I always eat way more than I should and it's easy to make. This picture doesn't convey how spicy this version is. I used plenty of fine red pepper powder along with sugar, Korean brown rice vinegar and salt. I used two large radishes and I think the three of us will have it gone in another day. I use a Japanese mandoline to cut the radish. It makes it easy and looks good too. The recipe doesn't call for any garnishing but it looks naked without at least a sprinkling of sesame seeds for chopped green onion.

Pre-Cut Kimchi 막김치

Considering the cost of kimchi at Paldo, I've started investing the time to make our own kimchi. I made a couple of gallons of cubed radish kimchi a couple of weeks ago and Monday I made just as much cabbage kimchi.

I hadn't made kimchi in about a year so I was a little worried but the recipes I started with were apparently good. The students have eaten about 20% of the cabbage kimchi in two days with a lot of discussion between them about how good it is. At this rate there may not be any left for kimchi jjigae.

My parents picked up 6 heads of cabbage and 2 radishes (about $12) on their way over from Prosser and I already had everything else so it worked out well. I put in the usual cabbage, radish, green onion, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, red pepper and sugar. The only thing different from a lot of recipes was I used fresh shrimp (or thawed Costco shrimp in this case) instead of the salted shrimp I've used in the past. It was important to me to use Costco shrimp because it's not soaked in chemicals like a lot of other seafood.

Jeotgal 젓갈 Part 2

Seeing and eating the jeotgal reminded me of a great experience when I was in Seoul last November. Professor C and I went to Noryangjin Seafood Market노량진수산시장 to see the sights and eat some fish. The professor escorted me around while I took tons of pictures and then we got down to the business of seafood. We stopped at a live fish monger and picked out a couple of strange looking fish. They were sent to a restaurant in another part of the market to be cooked for us later. We also stopped and bought several varieties of jeotgal. I was overwhelmed by the display and the quantity. Some of the small shrimp vats were as big as barrels. My favorite from that day was the oyster jeotgal. My mouth waters just thinking about it. I was planning on bringing some back to Mount Vernon but decided that customs might have a problem with raw seafood. We ate the jeotgal little by little over the rest of my stay.

Jeotgal 젓갈 at Aurora Market

I drove down to Shoreline and Lynnwood to buy Korean groceries. The first stop was Aurora Oriental Market at 15202 Aurora Ave N in Shoreline. It's across the parking lot from Old Village Korean Restaurant. I've shopped at this market since the early 90's. I think that is why I developed a taste for jeotgal. Jeotgal is raw seafood preserved by salting and fermenting it. Aurora has a self serve case with many kinds that you use tongs to pack into plastic containers. My favorites are raw squid strips and baby octopus. I've also eaten prepared fish intestines, oysters and clams. Naturally it's all very salty and not meant to be eaten in great quantities. I think a few pieces with steamed rice is best. Aurora Market is a great place to shop and seems to have better prices than the bigger Korean stores farther north in Edmonds and Lynnwood.

Shigumchi (Spinach) Namul 시금치나물

I made Shigumchi namul today. It's a Korean side dish that both of my foreign students really like. It's basically blanched spinach that's been wrapped in a towel to dry and then cut into bite size pieces. A soy sauce / sesame oil dressing is then added. Washing the spinach is a bit of a pain but other than that it's an easy way to get tasty vegetables on the table. Sorry for the Ziploc container but that is what functions as a serving dish in my house.