ChryZ

Hiroyuki, I tried your gyudon recipe. It was delcious! Many thanks! Extra sauce is indeed great!

Last weekend I made: Fajitas De Pollo (homemade corn tortillas with chicken and roasted veggies) Arroz A La Mexicana (traditional Mexican red rice) Frijoles Negros (black beans in their broth with epazote)

Thanks for your nice comment, melonpan. I'm 100% Caucasian, hehe ... but your comment made my day, even though I'm in the game for the delicous food and not to gain a Korean passport The seafood jajang myeon sounds great. I have to try that some day! No idea what's next. I still want to make seolleongtang, but it's pretty time consuming and I'd like to do it the proper way. I already bought the sweet-potato-starch noodles for japchae so that's an option. Marcs' Changjorim sounds very nice too. What Korean dishes are you guys cooking?

I always wanted to try omuraisu. I don't eat ketchup that often, but not because I don't like it, it's more the lack of opportunities (I rarely eat fries, hotdogs, hamburgers, etc). But the concept of rice dressed with tomato-based sauce isn't that alien to me: jambalaya and arroz rojo (Mexican red rice) are great. So I finally made omuraisu: It was delicious! The ketchup flavour wasn't dominant to my surprise. I used diced red thai chili, onion, chicken, shiitake, ketchup and of course rice for the fried filling. The topping is ketchup, the dab with the chili sticking out is sriracha. My omu skills are weak. I need more practice!

So I made Jajang Myeon for the very first time: (wheat noodles topped with a thick sauce made of black bean paste, pork and veggies)

Thanks for the kind feedback!

So I've made Jajang Myeon for the very first time: "A popular Korean dish consisting of wheat noodles topped with a thick sauce made of black bean paste." (1) ingredients 100 G pork (3.5 oz, diced) 180 G wheat noodles (6.3 oz) 1 X onion (diced) 1 X chili pepper (minced) 1 X potatoes (diced) 1 X carrot (diced) 1 X small zucchini (diced) 2 X garlic clove (mashed) 1/2 CUP cabbage (red, diced) 2-3 TBSP cucumber (sliced into matchsticks) 2-3 TBSP jajang paste 2-3 TBSP veg oil 1 TBSP starch 4-8 TBSP water or stock 1 TSP salt (to taste) 1 TSP sugar (to taste) the black-bean-based jajang paste on the left and the myun (noodles) on the right saute the diced onion and chile, then add the pork and stir-fry at medium to high heat add the diced carrot and potato when the pork starts to brown, continue to stir-fry bring water to boil, add some salt and noodles to it, set timer to recommended cooking time add cabbage to pan, continue to stir-fry for a moment park veggies and pork in a bowl, lower heat, saute garlic and jajang in 2-3 tablespoons oil rinse off the noodles with cold water when they are done and transfer them to the serving bowl add pork/veggies back to the sauted jajang, stir well, mix starch and water/stock and thicken the sauce with it, season to taste with salt and sugar serve the hot black bean sauce on top of the noodles and garnish with cucumber mix sauce and noodles before shovel time, watch your cloth I liked it a lot next time I'm going for ground pork, shrimp, leek/scallion and ginger

I had to make it! ← Anyone indeed! Bruce, look what you've done! I couldn't help it: This is becoming some kind of renegade cook-off offspring.

Waaza, thank you for your reply. I've reflected quite a bit on the way how I cooked the dish and what I'm going to change in my next attempt. Your comment about the liquid is spot on, there was definitely too little of it. I'm also going for a less leaner cut next time, there was very little fat and I've made the mistake not to provide any substitution in form of some other additional oil or fat. I think another shortcoming: I was too careful with the heat while a) preparing the spices and b) while cooking the whole dish. I've never exceed light browning, because I was too worried to burn the spices or the involved garlic. Clearly a lack of experience. Can't wait to give it another shot.

I used to cook my Vindaloo with a store-bought paste and tomatoes. Grubs' thread(s) made me want to try it from scratch too. I've stacked up on spices and gave it a shot: The load of details and directions here is really mind boggling, almost overwhelming. So I wasn't quite sure what I was doing. The dish came out tasty ... but I'm unsure about the color and texture of my dish. The stew pork was cooked tender, but the sauce looks a bit off?

Okay, next time I'm going to give unstrained another chance Not sure yet ... maybe jajangmyeon, japchae, sujaebi or seolleongtang. BTW, I've bought jajang the other day and they had something called chunjang, also black bean based. It wasn't expensive, so I took a 500g jar home. Are jajang and chunjang the same, if not what is chunjang good for?

Thanks! It really turned out great, that 1 kg dwenjang bucket will soon be gone This was actually the first time that I've strained a paste and the "idea" came from quite a few Korean recipes/pictorials: 1, 2, 3, etc I'm more the "better creamy than crunchy" peanut butter type and strained was veeeery nice

Okay, like mentioned before, my first version of Dwenjang Jjiigae from page two was a bit off. I'd like to give it another shot: Dwenjang Jjiigae ingredients 1 X big potato (quartered, thinly sliced) 1 X firm tofu (cubed) 1 X paengee beosut (enoki mushrooms, optional) 4 X dried anchovy 1 X red chili (sliced) 1 X zucchini (quartered, sliced) 3 X scallion (sliced) 3 X garlic clove (quartered) 1 X dasima (dried kelp, optional) 150 G pork (5.25 oz, thinly sliced, optional) 6 CUP water 1-2 CUP cooked rice 3-4 TBSP dwenjang (bean paste) 1 TBSP gochujang (red chili paste) 1 TBSP gochugaru (red chili flakes) 2 TBSP sesame oil (pressed from roasted seeds) banchan #1 ingredients (side-dish, warm chrysanthemum salad, optional) 1 X bunch gughwasog (chrysanthemum leaves, shungiku) 1 X garlic clove (crushed) 2 TBSP veg oil 1 TBSP gochugaru (red chili flakes) banchan #2 ingredients (side-dish, purple coleslaw, optional) 1 X half red cabbage (shredded) 2 TBSP veg oil 2 TBSP rice wine vinegar 1 TSP soy sauce 1/2 TSP honey or sugar 1 TSP salt and pepper (more or less) no pics of the coleslaw prep, just shred the cabbage and mix with the other banchan #2 ingredients, best done a couple of hours in advance, the coleslaw needs some time to develop its full flavour first some slicing and dicing gently saute the pork in one table-spoon of sesame oil, remove from pot, add water, garlic and kelp bring to boil, then lower heat and simmer for 15 min, remove spend kelp and anchovies add dwenjang and gochujang to a fine colander and dip it into the broth stir dwenjang and gochujang in the colander to dissolve them remove the colander with the chunky remains add potato, zucchini, scallion, red chili and tofu simmer until the potato and zucchini chunks are done trim and clean chrysanthemum greens saute crushed garlic and red chili flakes add chrysanthemum greens and turn until slightly wilted serve warm chrysanthemum salad topped with roasted sesame seeds and another drizzle of sesame oil serve dwenjang jjiigae with enoki mushrooms, rice and sidedishes I guess this recipe should be okay.

Interesting! I've checked the term "tsuyudaku" at WWWJDIC: つゆだく (n) soupy; containing more broth or sauce than usual (of gyudon, etc.) ねぎだく; ネギだく (n) (see つゆだく) containing more onions or leeks than usual (of gyudon, etc.) The Japanese wikipedia is also mentioning the term at their entry for gyudon. So soupy/brothy is actually quite valid. Good to know.

Thanks for the recipe. I'm wondering though, that is a lot of liquid and very little simmering time. Some moistness/juiciness is great, but isn't your rice drowning? Do you got any insights, directions or recipes regarding butadon / 豚丼? I've already did some research, but there are so many variations: some recipes are gyudon with pork instead of beef, other recipes are pretty much BBQ'd or pan-fried pork slices on a bed of rice. You're input would be most welcome!

I've made a pictorial for dwaeng jang chi gae / dwenjang jjigae. It's on page two, but please don't look at it. I got a few things wrong, even tough my dish is tasty, it's just not a appropriate recipe for dwaeng jang chi gae / dwenjang jjigae. I've already planned to re-do the pictorial and correct my "mistakes". I wasn't paying a lot of attention to authenticity back then, nowadays I do ... well, as much as I can. So I'm always grateful for constructive criticism.

In 2007, I will eat more wholesome. I will make more kimchi and more kinds of it. I will find new ways to challenge myself cuisine wise. I will learn about Indian food. This is the year I will try to exel on plating. I will taste food that I don't like to revaluate, to give them another chance. I will use less bolder, more subtle flavours from time to time. I will give more thought to seasoning. I will bake more. We're going to have LOTS of fun, it should NEVER become a chore. I will teach and share my successes and failures. I will read more cookbooks, recipes and background infos.

Thanks for your insights, they are hard to come by. I guess my next take is going to be with lamb, less tomatoes (I think, they've mellowed the peanut flavour) and no carrots.

Great job, Hiroyuki. I love the in-depth remarks. I'm looking forward to your Tendon session.

I've studied like 10 recipes and this is my take on the dish: Mafé / Groundnut Stew / Peanut Stew ingredients 6 X chicken breast (cubed) 2 X bay leave 3 X onions (diced) 9 X dried chiles (roasted, ground) 8 X green beans (topped, tailed and halved) 1 X sweet potato (chunk'd) 3 X carrots (chunk'd) 1 X turnip (chunk'd) 3 X celery stalk (chopped) 400 G skinned tomatoes in their juice (14 oz) 1 CUP peanuts (fresh/raw, roasted, ground) 2 CUP chicken stock 2 TBSP tyhme 4 TBSP peanut oil 1 TBSP butter prep work first (so I made fresh peanut butter for the very first time ... accidentally, hehe) the stew itself was pretty straight forwards, browned the chicken in peanut oil and butter, sauted onions/celery/carrots, added tomatoes, then chicken stock, then turnip chunks, then ground peanut paste, then tyhme, then sweet potato and green beans and simmered it until done (~60 min in total) served with a mix of wild and long grain rice final thoughts on the dish: the ground nuts really add a nice thick, creamy, nuttiness (without an overly strong peanutty flavour!) and the thyme really cuts right through it in a very refreshing way, truely delicious ... instant classic indeed, highly recommendable regarding the seasoning, I found these combinations: -bay leave, thyme -cumin, cinnamon, cloves, coriander -cumin, cinnamon, clove, bay leave, thyme, allspice -cinnamon, paprika for my first try I wanted to keep it as simple as possible, maybe I'll toy around with another combo next time, but I'm not really sure about the other ones: cumin, cinnamon, cloves are all very earthy and they might dull down the dish too much, but I might be wrong

Hm, never heard of it. So I googled for details, from their english product page: Cold pressed sesame oil on the other hand is less darker in color, almost bright yellow/golden, sometimes even colorless, less aromatic, less dominant and a lot more subtle. Both kinds and even their mixes got their very own distinctive applications. From my experience the rule of thumb is: the higher the cooking heat the better it is to use cold pressed, roasted shouldn't be handled to rough, it's more like a spice or flavoring agent. Deep frying Tempura in roasted sesame oil might be an exception, but the frying time is pretty brief, no deep browning is desired and there is a big amount of oil ... or it's mixed/stretched with other oils/fats to boot. Sorry for the rambling

Thanks! Yeah, it's really a delicious way to warm you up. Oh, the sesame oil question came up before and I forgot to answer it, now here then: I got a strong affection for sesame, but I wouldn't go so far to press my own sesame oil. I like to mention it though, since there are two kinds of sesame oil, cold pressed and pressed from roasted sesame. The one from roasted sesame is a lot more fragrant and I'm pointing it out so specifically since it's a flavoring agent in the dish.

So, today I made: Soondooboo Jjigae Korean stew with dried anchovy/shrimp broth, kimchi, pork, soft tofu, clams and some veggies. main ingredients 100 G soft tofu (3.5 oz) 150 G pork (5.25 oz, sliced) 8 X clams 1 X red chili (sliced) 8 X fresh or frozen shrimp 2 X dried anchovy 1 X egg yolk 2 X scallion (roughly sliced) 1 CUP kimchi (1:1 ratio to pork, sliced) 2 CUP water 1/2 CUP dried shrimp 1 TBSP sesame oil (pressed from toasted seeds) 2 TBSP chili flakes marinade ingredients 1 TSP soy sauce 1 TSP ginger 1 TSP garlic 1 TSP sesame oil (pressed from toasted seeds) directions -slice pork and marinate with marinade ingredients for at least 30 min -heat pot, bring 2 cups of water to boil, add dried anchovies/shrimp, simmer for 10 min -heat and oil pan, saute pork and kimchi until the pinkness of the pork is gone -add anchovies/shrimp broth to pan, spoon tofu into the stew, add half the scallions and chili -simmer for a few minutes, bring to boil and add clams, shrimps, chili and scallions -transfer piping hot and bubbling to a bowl, serve topped with egg yolk and a drizzle of sesame oil My first take on the dish. Very savoury From now on I'm going to have a hard time deciding between this dish and Kimchi Jjigae ... hehe

I used piripiri in the past and they're very hot. Twice as hot as cayenne, half as hot as habanero. Pequin might be a very decent option.

Sounds great! I'm in and already reading up.