eG Foodblog: Domestic Goddess - Adobo & Fried Chicken in Korea

[gracewithfire]

Thank you for this, Dodds!

As you know, I'm a complete newbie when it comes to cooking (I still struggle with can openers!) and I would appreciate all the help, tips and support I can get!

Errr.. ummmm.... How do you make hotel-scrambled eggs?

Edited March 6, 2007 by gracewithfire (log)

[Domestic Goddess]

Today's brekkies:

Tiny Korean vienna sausages, potato-sausage hash and the eternal garlic fried garlic. I tried to cut the vienna sausages into octopi (Nakji!) and a couple of ears of corn. I doubt if you guys can see it.

[MarketStEl]

Sorry I'm late. By the time I got up to speed with reading the timetable, this blog had already left the station. But I'm glad I made it.

My first burning question concerns your home town:

The pics here were taken yesterday during my morning run. I run from our apartment building in Gamgok district to Janghowon.

The rising sun peaks behind our apartment building complex.

Technically, we live in another province called Chungcheongbuk-do (quite a mouthful eh? try writing it down everytime on documents asking for your addy). Janghowon is in Gyeonggido province (the same one where Seoul is located).

This is the tiny town square, or should I say town triangle. Down further on the right street is the bus terminal.

(other pix deleted)

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You say you live in a small town of only 7,000? Sure you didn't lose a zero? It looks to me like your apartment complex alone could hold 7,000 people. I couldn't imagine high-rise apartments like those in any US town that small, unless it was a small suburb of a large city.

My second question just struck me after looking at all those huge blocks of tofu at your farmers' market. Just how is tofu made?

Everything looks delicious, and your kids are adorable. As I haven't hung out on the Dinner! thread in quite a while, this is as much an introduction to you as to your cooking and your community. Blog on!

[Domestic Goddess]

You say you live in a small town of only 7,000?  Sure you didn't lose a zero?  It looks to me like your apartment complex alone could hold 7,000 people. I couldn't imagine high-rise apartments like those in any US town that small, unless it was a small suburb of a large city.

My second question just struck me after looking at all those huge blocks of tofu at your farmers' market.  Just how is tofu made?

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Hi Sandy! I am glad you can join me in my blog. I stand corrected with Janghowon's population - it's 10,000 people strong, not 7,000. It is really a tiny village.

Tofu is made fresh right there and then in the market with pre-soaked soy beans. The beans are ground up and then the curds are separated from the soy liquid, steamed and then pressed into blocks. Eating fresh tofu is so different from the ones you get in the supermarket. The flavor is fresh, light and so creamy, even the firm kind.

[Domestic Goddess]

Before I post my fabulous lunch, here is what I am having now for an afternoon snack.

Earl Grey tea...

Korean sweet rice balls filled with paste. Is this mochi?

[mizducky]

Tonight's Sinigang is a simple one with shrimps and bok choy. I will show you how my mother would make this comforting Filipino dish.

The ingredients:

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Okay, so using the flavoring packet is the commonly done thing. I had used a packet the one time I've made sinigang so far, and it's nice to know I was on the right track there. So does anyone still start with the tamarind? I've got a block of pulp in my pantry and was thinking of doing something yummy with it ...

What are some other common combinations of ingredients that recur in sinigang makings?

P.S. Your kids just make me go "awwwwwwww ... " with every photo.

[Domestic Goddess]

MizDucky - just mix a portion of the tamarind block with a little water to make some sort of a paste. Use that to flavor the sinigang. Make sure that the tamarind block is made out of unripe tamarinds and not the ripe ones - 'coz you'll end up with sweetly sour sinigang. LOL

The most common combination for a sinigang soup would be onions, tomatoes, eggplants, radish, yard long beans and bok choy. That's the very basic for pork sinigang.

Coming up is my lunch out in a traditional korean restaurant (lots of banchan for you MizDucky - 20 at least!).

[Domestic Goddess]

My best friend Catherine offered to take me and Billy to a traditional korean restaurant. So, we hopped in her car and rode down to...

Ichon Sal Bap Songhap Restaurant

The restuarant is delightfully rustic in its decor and ambiance. Here's a couple of traditional turn of the century hen house by the side of the restaurant.

Look at the charming welcoming counter and cashier desk.

There are places to sit down and eat at a table and places to sit on the floor.

The famous Ichon rice that I have been talking about. See the king on the logo on the package? This harkens to the time this rice was reserved for royalty. Now restaurants like this serve it daily with at least 20 side dishes.

Catherine explained to me that this bamboo screen was used all the time in the olden days for women to talk to men discreetly and even royalty to talk to commoners.

Now you get to see me and Catherine. Billy took this picture.

Appetizers served first were kimchi pajeon and acorn jelly with nori strips and soy sauce & greens.

Tripod burners sit on the side of the room that we are in.

Our feast has arrived. I think it has stunned Billy, too.

Close-ups of the food ... soy sauce marinated raw crabs (for Sheena)

Fried fish, called kongchi in korean. I'll be posting its English name in here later.

From top: greens with tofu bits, two spicy sauce side dish (I forgot what these were) and braised taro leaves.

Catherine ordered this special seasonal dish - Jejudo Sea Bream. It was so tasty! Billy ate most of it.

Ok, the red sauce side dish has fish in it but it was not spicy at all. It was mildy spicy with sweet undertones. There's kimchee on the side and jap chae noodles on the bottom.

Now we see the tripod burner at work, a small pot of bulgogi rests on it to keep it warm. Beside the burner is a pot of red sauce (to flavor and spice up the rice) and another pot containing dwenjjang jjige.

Now we have the eternal potato/macaroni salad, another view of the pajeon and spicy sauce, a saucer of SPICY beef with a quail egg and steamed savory egg custard.

Various leaves for wrapping the bulgogi and fish into ssam.

Have to break here... we'll go to part two in the next post.

[Domestic Goddess]

Part 2

Now we go to the Rice part of the meal. The boiled Ichon rice is served in a stone pot with watermelon seeds and ginko nuts on top.

The idea is to take it out of the stone pot and put the rice in a shallow bowl.

Then boiled rice water is poured into the still hot pot and set aside for another part of the meal.

We ate hearty and we ate good. When the end of the meal drew near, we had Billy press the button to summon the waitress.

Dessert is the sweet traditional korean drink called Shikhae.

You can see some rice grains at the bottom of the Shikhae cup.

Of course at the end of the meal, you get the bill. Here in Korea, the bill is left by your tableside and the server just keeps adding to it, if you order more.

I am so full from that wonderful meal. I really wanna thank Catherine for treating me and Billy to our first Ichon traditional rice meal. Tomorrow's lunch date is at a tofu restaurant.

[hzrt8w]

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I don't think I ever want to work as a dish-washer in Korea!

It's nice to see your photo, to tie a face to a name Doddie!

Edited March 7, 2007 by hzrt8w (log)

[Domestic Goddess]

It's nice to see your photo, to tie a face to a name Doddie!

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Thanks Ah Leung!

Supper tonight was a two-way affair. Hubby got his way and I got mine.

Hubby's supper - Beef Stew

Assemble the ingredients...

Brown the meat and then set aside...

In the same pan, cook your aromatics (garlic, onion)

Add carrots and celery.

Let carrots and celery cook. Then add the meat and potatoes. Cover with beef broth and let simmer until everything gets nice and tender.

Ladle in a bowl and serve with crusty bread or freshly cooked rice.

The kids and I went simple - CHINESE!. I fixed Ah Leung's crispy shrimp.

[CharlotteM]

Doddie, this a wonderful blog; I'm learning a lot. I'm fairly new to Korean food/cooking. Only eaten it a couple of times, but loved whatever I ate. I'm very curious about the raw crab, so... ignorant question coming up...what was the texture like? like (raw) fish?

Thanks!

[Domestic Goddess]

Charlotte - um, how do I say this? I haven't eaten one. Or will ever eat one. I can handle raw fish, sushi, raw beef but its the raw crab that gets me. I just can't handle it. Ask Sheena - she's gaga over it. LOL

[miladyinsanity]

Charlotte - um, how do I say this? I haven't eaten one. Or will ever eat one. I can handle raw fish, sushi, raw beef but its the raw crab that gets me. I just can't handle it. Ask Sheena - she's gaga over it. LOL

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Doddie, how do you eat it, though? Are you supposed to crack it open like you normally do crabs?

And did Billy try it?

[Domestic Goddess]

This is for Prasantrin.

Empanada

Empanadas are stuffed pastry or pocket pies. Empanada comes from the spanish word "empanar" which means "to cover". Filipino empanadas usually contain a filling flavored with soy sauce and containing ground beef or chicken meat, chopped onion, slices of hard boiled eggs and raisins in a wheat flour dough.

I don't like raisins in my empanadas and hubby & Billy don't like boiled eggs. My version is flavored with cream of asparagus soup. Here are the ingredients for my empanada.

Cream of asparagus mix, chopped bell pepper, chopped onion, diced carrots & potatoes, minced garlic and cooked shredded chicken.

First, you saute the garlic and onion until they are golden brown. Add the carrots first to caramelize and soften them.

When the carrots are cooked, add the potatoes and bell pepper.

Dissolve the cream of asparagus mix in a cup of water. If you have in a can, just use it as is (without mixing with water). Add this and the chicken to the veggies in the pan. Let simmer until nice and thick.

Let the contents of the pan cool down. Don't make the mistake of using hot filling to stuff the pastry - this will result in soggy empanadas. So while the filling is cooling, let's make the empanada dough.

Dough ingredients: 1 tsp salt, 2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsps lard, 2 cups flour and ice water.

Add the butter, lard and salt to the flour.

Cut the butter/lard into the flour using whatever instrument you fancy (knife, pastry cutter, etc). I like using my fingers.

When the butter and lard are thoroughly mixed into the flour (they resemble rice pellets), add a little bit of water at a time and mix. When you have added enough water to bring the whole mixture together, knead until smooth and shape into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Now we get to assemble the empanada. Cut a golf-size ball from the dough and roll it into a ball. Flatten and roll out into a thin circular shape between two sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper.

Add two tbsp of filling on one side of the circle and close.

Flute or pinch the edges together.

To avoid these babies from exploding in your oven, prick all over with a fork to make steam vents.

Brush with eggwash (beaten egg mixed with a little milk) to make them nice and golden when cooked.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. You get to see my versatile and trusty turbo oven in this pic.

See the pies baking away? Bake them from 25 to 35 minutes or until they are nicely browned.

Presenting - TA DA!!! Empanadas for Prasantrin.

Of course we need to do some quality control testing. Hmmmm...

Before dishing it out on the kids plates (with a serving of Mac & Cheese).

Rona - hubby actually requested me to make this again tomorrow. He really, REALLY LIKED IT. LOL

Edited March 7, 2007 by Domestic Goddess (log)

[Domestic Goddess]

Charlotte - um, how do I say this? I haven't eaten one. Or will ever eat one. I can handle raw fish, sushi, raw beef but its the raw crab that gets me. I just can't handle it. Ask Sheena - she's gaga over it. LOL

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Doddie, how do you eat it, though? Are you supposed to crack it open like you normally do crabs?

And did Billy try it?

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You're suppose to hold the crab with it's legs and squeeze the body until all the flesh comes out. Then, you suck it all in and then take a bite of rice. I sw them do this on Home TV shopping (they were advertising the soy sauce crabs and the red spicy ones). The legs you break off and suck too.

Billy doesn't eat it either. He does like steamed crabs and king crab legs.

[bavila]

Are the soy sauce crabs actually soft shells before they go into the marinade?

[Chufi]

Our feast has arrived. I think it has stunned Billy, too.

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I LOVE that picture!

Doddie, you're showing us some great food. I can't get over that huge bag of minced garlic though! I thought I use a lot of garlic, but it would take me a loooong time to use that up. How long does it last in your kitchen?

I'm saving your recipe for empanada dough. Mmm, lard pastry

[nakji]

I tried to cut the vienna sausages into octopi (Nakji!)

This is very special. I thank you.

You're suppose to hold the crab with it's legs and squeeze the body until all the flesh comes out. Then, you suck it all in and then take a bite of rice. I sw them do this on Home TV shopping (they were advertising the soy sauce crabs and the red spicy ones). The legs you break off and suck too.

I can see them doing this now-

"Ooooh! Eeeeeeeeee! (small guttural noise) mashisseoyo!" (pls excuse bad romanisation)

My boss took my mum and I to a similar meal in Ichon. My mum was stunned by the breadth and volume of side dishes offered.

Do you often prepare different meals for your husband and kids? When I worked in Korea, I worked really late at night, so it really messed up my meal schedule.

edited for tags.

Edited March 7, 2007 by nakji (log)

[little ms foodie]

that lunch looks amazing!!! WOW really great picture of Billy with all that food!

[racheld]

When the butter and lard are thoroughly mixed into the flour (they resemble rice pellets), add a little bit of water at a time and mix.

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How wonderful that you use rice as the measure of the crumb size!! I wonder how many recipes I've used that measured the size as "the size of small peas?"

It's all in the familiar and the everyday.

It seems that every culture in the history of mankind has developed a noodle or dumpling, a bread, and a brewed beverage. It's so wonderful to see the other side of the world through the eyes of a lifelong dweller, and especially through the beautiful clear gaze of a small boy.

Thank you for all the wonderful pictures of your life---the markets, the streets, your home and family, and that enormous feast laid out for three like a banquet. Our own favorite Korean restaurant puts down myriad small dishes even before a beverage is ordered, and we enjoy the taste and texture contrasts, as well as the greens of the pickled cucumber, the brown and brilliant red of the kimchee turnip, the silver of inch-long fish perfect to the delicate fins small as eyelashes.

This is just lovely.

(And your Vienna octopi remind me of a thread which advertized the molds and cutters for forming all sorts of animal and vegetable shapes from a "Winny"---thinking of it always makes me smile).

[SuzySushi]

Stunning photos of lunch and a crystal clear explanation of how to make empanadas. It's just after breakfast here and I'm salivating! (Nice to see a photo of you, too!)

I'm curious: throughout the blog, I've seen very few signs or labels in English. You've been living in Korea for a while, so I imagine you can get through many of your daily activities speaking Korean. Do you read Korean fluently? Although it's written phonetically, it still takes time to catch on to reading a non-Roman-alphabet.

[Rebecca263]

What is Vienna sausage? Is it from Vienna, or is that name something Koreans call it for some other reason? I confess, it looks like little hot dogs, to me!

Edited: Um, never mind, I just googled it. Dumb me!!!!

PS: Your sons must have black and blue cheeks after outings, they are really beautiful children. And, hey, your smile isn't too shabby itself! I'm so glad to have a face to put to the writings now!

Edited March 7, 2007 by Rebecca263 (log)

[SheenaGreena]

I'll answer everyone's questions about the raw crab, because I love it so much and well doddie doesn't.

Its made with crabs that aren't soft, they are hard shelled regular crabs. The texture of the raw crab is very similar to mucous. It sounds disgusting, but oh my god the taste is so good...its incredibly sweet and goes really really well with hot rice. My mother makes them every summer with blue crabs that my father and I catch in the chesapeake bay. You can season them with gochujang, garlic, ginger, and some sugar or you can season them with just some soysauce, ginger, and garlic. Either way is really popular, I could never choose a favorite preparation.

To eat the crabs you simply break off a leg or a claw, put it in your mouth, suck on it, and take the shell out of your mouth. Or you can dig out the claw with the metal chopsticks. Another popular way to eat them is to take off the body shell (with the seasonings and maybe roe still attached), put a spoonful of rice in it, mix it up, and then spoon it back out into your mouth.

oh and by the way, your inchon meal looks delicious. I think that fish you ate was mackerel pike, I ate some for dinner last night. I also think that one of the spicy namul dishes you ate was toraji or bell flower root

also, what happened to jai? I wanna see more pics of the other cute son!

eta: good to finally see a pic of you!!!!!

Edited March 7, 2007 by SheenaGreena (log)

[Domestic Goddess]

Doddie, you're showing us some great food. I can't get over that huge bag of minced garlic though! I thought I use a lot of garlic, but it would take me a loooong time to use that up. How long does it last in your kitchen?

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It last about a week in my household. I use a lot of garlic in my stews and fried rice.

Do you often prepare different meals for your husband and kids? When I worked in Korea, I worked really late at night, so it really messed up my meal schedule.

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Yes, I do. I usually have leftovers for him and I prepare fresh food for me and the kids. Or it's the other way around. Sometimes, I prepare two different meals all together, esp. when I'm craving for seafood (hubby doesn't eat any kind of seafood at all).

Now you know why my freezer is stuffed to the gills.

I'm curious: throughout the blog, I've seen very few signs or labels in English. You've been living in Korea for a while, so I imagine you can get through many of your daily activities speaking Korean. Do you read Korean fluently? Although it's written phonetically, it still takes time to catch on to reading a non-Roman-alphabet.

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Susy - I can read korean a little bit and know enough korean to get around (meaning shop, ask how much, etc). Most of the times, Jai helps out by translating the signs and names for me. LOL

also, what happened to jai?  I wanna see more pics of the other cute son!

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Jai was in school that time. Jai is usually in school from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm. Billy is always with me hence more pics of him. LOL.

Here's Jai with his best friend Kim Young-Guen during one of his sleepovers at our house.

Littlemissfoodie, Racheld, Rebecca263 - Thank you for your wonderful thoughts and kind words. It makes this blog so worthwhile.