Baechu Kimchi (Korean Spicy Pickled Napa Cabbage)

Source: http://www.whats4eats.com, http://www.epicurious.com


Prep time: 5-6 hrs + 30 mins

Spicy pickled and fermented Napa cabbage is the most popular and recognizable form of kimchi.  It is not only good as a side dish to almost every Korean meal, but it is also the foundation for many soups, stews, stir fries, and rice dishes.

Cure time: 2-3 days


Ingredients:
Napa cabbage, ~1.5kg size, cut into quarters or 2" wedges, 2 units
Coarse salt*, 300g

Stuffing Paste Mixture:
Korean dried shrimp**, 90g
Kochukaru (Korean chilli pepper powder), 70g
Onion, cleaned & peeled & finely chopped, 100g
Garlic, cleaned & peeled & finely chopped, 7 cloves
Ginger, 1 inch size, cleaned & peeled & finely chopped, 1 pc
Radish, cleaned & peeled & finely chopped, 300g
Scallion, cleaned & cut into 1" length, 2 stalks
Salt, 2 tbsp
Sugar, 2 tbsp

* Can substitue with Kosher salt
** Can substitute with fish sauce



Method:
1. Mix napa cabbage with coarse salt in large non-metal bowl.  Toss well, then cover with clingwrap and set aside to stand for 5-6 hrs.

2. After 5-6 hrs, the cabbage should be soften.  Rinse cabbage under water and squeeze out as much water as possible to remove excess curing salt.

3. Mix well all stuffing paste ingredients.  Place stuffing between softened cabbage leaves, starting with largest leaf to smallest, working from outside in.  Do not overstuff, but make sure radish mixture adequately fills leaves.  When entire cabbage is stuffed, take one of the larger leaves and wrap tightly around the rest of the cabbage.  Divide cabbage among 4 (1-quart) jars or 1-gallon jar, pressing down firmly to remove any air bubbles.  Cover with lid and let it stand to ferment for 2-3 days in dark & cool place before serving.  Open lid occasionally to release pressure from carbon dioxide formed during fermentation

4. Remove Kimchi from jar and cut into 1" length piece.  Tranfer to a new container and keep in refrigerator.



Serving:
1. For kimchi fermented <3 wks, it can be eaten straight.

2. For kimchi fermented >4 wks, it will be too fermented to eat straight.  It is recommended to use it instead in cooking, e.g. stew, pancake, fried rice, etc.

Manul Changaji (Korean Pickled Spring Garlic)

Source: http://koreanfood.about.com


This banchan (side dish) is crunchy, salty and a little spicy.  Though not a flashy banchan, but is almost universally loved among Koreans.

Prep time: 15 mins
Cure time: 3 wks

Ingredients:
Young garlic, cleaned, peeled & keep whole,

Prickling Solution:
Light soy sauce, 3 parts
Rice vinegar, 1 part
Sugar, 1 part



Method:
1. Placed cleaned whole garlic in pickling jar with good cover.  Fill jar with water till it covers 2/3 of the garlic cloves.  Then pour out water and measure its quantiy.  This will be the quantity of light soy sauce needed.

2. For pickling solution, use 3 part light soy sauce with 1 part vinegar and 1 part sugar.  Bring prickling solution to boil and allow to simmer for 10 mins.  Then allow to cool before pour into the pickling jar containing garlic cloves.  Ensure all garlics are completely covered in pickling solution.  Keep at room temperature for 3 wks.

3. Keep in refrigerator after opening the pickling jar.

Duk Boki (Korean Spicy Rice Cake)

Source: http://koreanfood.about.com




Duk Boki is a popular Korean street food, which is cylindrical rice cake (= duk in Korean) covered in thick & spicy sauce.  It is also eaten as casual meal at home or as a drinking snack.  Recipe here used fish cake and Napa cabbage as cooking ingredients, but it is also possible to include meat of choice, or just with vegetable of choice for the vegetarian verson.




Prep Time: 1 hr
Cook time: 15 mins
Serves ~4

Ingredients:
Cylindrical rice cake (duk), cut into 2" length & soaked in water for 1 hr, 500g
Napa cabbage, cleaned & cut into 1" squares, 500g
Fish cake*, ~150g size, cut into half then slices, 2 pcs
Shitake mushroom, soaked then sliced, 3 pcs 

Sauce:
Water, 3 cups
Kochujang (hot chilli pepper sauce)**, 1 tbsp
Kochukaru (hot chilli pepper powder)***, 1 tsp
Sugar, 1 tbsp
Light soy sauce, 1½ tbspGarlic, minced, 1 tsp (~2 cloves)

* I used the giant fried fish cake bought from Tiong Bahru Fried Fish Ball stall in Singapore in this recipe
** & *** If not using Kochukaru, may increase Kochujang used from 1 tbsp to 2-4 tbsp, according to preferred spiciness



Method:
1. While soaking the rice cakes, cut cabbage and prepare other ingredients needed.

2. Mix all sauce ingredients and bring to boil in a big saucepan.  Stir occasionally as sauce will slowly thicken throughout cooking time.

3. Add in fish cake, stir well and bring to boil again.

4. Add in rice cake and remaining ingredients, and mix well with the sauce.  When boils, simmer for 3 mins and then turn off heat.

Korean Fried Chicken Wing - Soy Ginger Flavour

Source: http://ravenouscouple.blogspot.com

Serves ~10 as part of a shared meal

Ingredients:
Chicken wing, ~1 kg


Coating flour:
Wondra flour*, 1 cup
Salt, 1 tsp
Pepper, 1 tsp

Soy Ginger Sauce:
Water, 1 cup
Young ginger, thinly sliced, 1 cup
Light soy sauce, 3 tbsp
Brown sugar, ½ cup
Rice vinegar, ¼ cup
Honey/corn syrup, 2 tbsp
Korean fermented chilli**, 1-2 tbsp
Sesame seed (optional), roasted, ¼ cup


* Wondra brand instant flour is a low protein, pregelatinised wheat flour.  It can be substituted with all purpose flour for use in thickening purpose or with cake flour for use in baking purpose.

** Can substitue with Rooster brand garlic chilli or red pepper chilli flakes.



Method:
1. Prepare chicken.  Clean & pat dry.  For easy eating, it is best to cut each wing into 3 separate parts: drumlet, mid-wing and tip.

2. Coat chicken. Mix well coating flour ingredients.  Add in chicken parts and ensure all are evenly thinly coated.

3. Heat oil to 175 degC.  Deep fry chicken parts first round for ~5 mins.  Dish out and drain off excess oil.

4. Increase heat to 180 degC and deep fry 2nd round, for ~5-8 mins till golden brown.  Dish out and drain off excess oil.

5. Prepare sauce. In a saucepan, except for honey, heat all other sauce ingredients and bring to boil.  Add in honey at this point, stir well till sauce reduces by half and thickens.  Lastly, add in toasted sesame seeds.

6. Add in 2nd fry chicken parts.  Toss well to ensure sauce is thinly coated well evenly.

Serving:
1. Serve with steamed rice.

Korean Fried Chicken Wing - Sweet & Spicy Flavour

Source: http://www.insanitytheory.net

Serves 6-8 as part of a shared meal

Ingredients:
Chicken wing, cleaned, ~3 kg

Marinade:
Milk*, 1 cup (or ~16 tbsp)
Salt, 2 tsp
Pepper, 3 tsp
Sugar, 2 tbsp
Ginger, peeled & minced, ½ tsp
Garlic, peeled & minced, 5 cloves
Red onion, grated, ½ unit

* Can substitue with soya milk

Coating flour:
Korean curry powder, preferred Ottugi brand, 3 tbsp
Potato starch, 8 tbsp (or ~½ cup)
Tempura flour, 24 tbsp (or ~1½ cup)

Sweet & Spicy Sauce:
Onion, diced, ½ unit
Tomato sauce, Western style, 1/3 cup
Sweet chilli sauce, ½ cup
Worcestershire sauce, 1 tbsp
Chilli flake, 2 tsp
Water, ½ cup
Cooking oil, 1 tbsp

Garnish:
Spring onion, chopped, some



Method:
1. Prepare wing.  Cut each wing at joints into 3 separate parts: drumlet, mid-wing & tip.  Cut off thick chuck of skin from mid-wing.  Make 3 slits on each drumlet and mid-wing to enable marinade to be more effective.

2. Mix well marinating ingredients. 

3. Add in chicken parts and toss well to ensure each is evenly coated.  All it to stand for 1 hr, then drain well for at least 15 mins.

4. Place ingredients for coating flour in a plastic bag and shake well.  Add in drained chicken and ensure all parts are evenly coated.

5. Fry chicken wings.  Heat oil to 160 degC.  Shake off excess coating flour before frying in hot oil.  Deep fry each side for around 5 mins, till light golden brown.  Dish out and allow to drain.

6. Increase oil temperature to 180 degC.  Return chicken to oil for 2nd deep fry.  Fry ~ 5 mins on each side till golden brown.  Drain oil.

7. Prepare sauce.  Stir fry onion with oil till it softens.  Add in remaining ingredients.  Stir well and allow it to simmer till thicken slightly.

8. Add in fried chicken parts, a few at a time, and allow sauce to thinly coat each piece evenly.  If too much sauce coated, it will overpower other flavours in chicken.

9. Dish out.



Serving:
1. Sprinkle chopped spring onion on chicken and serve with steamed rice.