Spicy Eggplant

Eggplants are so pretty raw, but after you cook them, they're one of the most unappetizing looking foods out there. And using a phone to take the picture because my camera was out of batteries and I couldn't find the charger doesn't help matters either. But it's the flavor that's more important, right? And with this dish, the flavor was definitely there!


Ingredients:
- Eggplants (I like using the thinner Japanese style ones)
- Ground meat (pork or turkey)
- Enoki mushrooms (totally optional, but I love the texture of these mushrooms)
- Garlic
- Chili sauce
Soy sauce
- Oil

Directions:
- Slice the eggplant into wedges about 2-3 inches long. The thinner you cut them, the faster they'll cook.
- Finely chop the garlic.
- Heat some oil in a pan or wok.
- Add the garlic and stir it for a few seconds until it's fragrant.
- Add the ground meat and some soy.
- Cook the meat, breaking it up as you go and then remove it from the pan and set it aside.
- To cook the eggplant, you can either deep fry it (faster, crispier, tastier and prettier, but not as healthy) or "boil" it.
- To deep fry, heat a lot of oil in the wok, toss the eggplant in (you may want to do this in batches to keep the oil hot) and keep the eggplant moving until it's cooked through.
- To "boil" it, just add the eggplant to the wok with some soy sauce and water. Keep the stirring the eggplant until it's cooked through, adding more water as necessary.
- Add the meat back in with the eggplant, add chili sauce and the enoki mushrooms and stir until everything is well combined and the mushrooms are cooked. It shouldn't take very long at all.
- Serve it over a bed of rice.

(Secret) Homemade BBQ Sauce

My husband always complains that I don't give him credit for his creations on this blog, but I always do. If he made it or helped, I mention him. He also complains that I don't post about all the goodies he makes around the house, but every time I ask him for the recipe so that I can post it, he refuses to tell me! I just can't win, can I? Well, hopefully this post will shut him up for a while :)

My husband has been wanting to break out the smoker one last time before the end of the year, so when pork butt went on sale, he bought two huge honking ones to make pulled pork sandwiches. Then he figured, if he's going to go through all the trouble of smoking the suckers for 14 hours, he might as well maximize his efforts. Since he can fit 4 pork butts on the smoker, he asked me to pick up 2 more. We ended up with 25 pounds of pork. No, I'm not kidding.

I went to bed at a normal person hour while my husband napped all afternoon. He woke up about an hour before I went to bed, and stayed up all night to smoke the pork. I kept waking up in the middle of night, smelling smoke, onions, garlic, and other tasty aromas that aren't exactly what you want to be smelling while you're trying to sleep, while he toiled away smoking the pork and making this awesome homemade BBQ sauce. It's nice and rich and full of flavor. It's the perfect consistency, isn't too sweet, has a bit of smokiness to it, has the perfect amount of acidity, and packs a lot of heat, just the way I like it.

And here is where I would usually share with you the recipe for this BBQ sauce... BUT HE WON'T SHARE IT WITH ME! In fact, he's joked (at least I hope he's joking) about splitting the recipe in two so that if someone ever finds it (ie me), they'll only have half of it.

So I apologize for posting this teaser of a post, but I had to do it so that he'll stop accusing me of taking credit for his work and for not posting the stuff he makes. If you want to try this magic BBQ sauce, maybe I can convince him to sell you a jar? Or maybe, if I do enough snooping, I can find both halves of recipe and expose it to the world!

Ingredients:
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Directions:
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Hot & Sour Cabbage

I love hot and sour flavors together, and I'm assuming I'm not the only one since hot and sour soup seems to be pretty popular (which I'm dying to make one of these days btw, so if you if you have a great recipe, please share it with me).

Anyway, this hot & sour cabbage is a quick and easy veggie dish to go with any meal. It's also decent alternative for when you're craving kimchi but don't have the patience to wait for it to ferment.


And since the secret ingredient for Weekend Wokking is cabbage this month, I'm submitting this to Erbe in Cucina who is hosting it this month.




Ingredients:
- Cabbage
- Dried chili peppers (chili pepper flakes will work too if you don't have the peppers)
- Chili oil (optional)
- Vinegar
- Salt
- Oil

Directions:
- Chop the cabbage into bit size squares. Wash and drain them.
- Heat up some oil in a wok or pan.
- Add the chili peppers or flakes and toast them until you can smell the spice. Be careful not to let them burn.
- Add the cabbage and salt and vinegar to taste. If it's not spicy enough, I also like to add a bit of chili oil too.
- Stir everything around until the cabbage is cooked through but still has some crunchiness to it.

Homemade Kimchi

I started eating kimchi at the ripe old age of 3. I thought that was pretty impressive until I met my friends' daughter who is eating at age 1! Anyway, I loved the stuff from the beginning and often wished I was Korean so that we could eat it with every meal. All I needed was kimchi and rice and I was a happy girl.

But I guess one should be careful of what they wish for. One of my childhood friends who is Korean explained to me that her grandmother was the family kimchi maker, as I'm sure is the case in many Korean households. Unfortunately, her grandma's taste buds weren't what they used to be, so the kimchi she made was waaay too spicy for the rest of the family. But because no one wanted to hurt grandma's feelings, everyone grinned and beared it. Then again, I always find myself wishing that store bought kimchi was spicier, so maybe I'd fit in perfectly with their family!
I've always wanted to try making my own kimchi but just never got around to it. Well, one day, I found myself with an abundance of napa cabbage in the fridge while my supply of kimchi was running dangerously low. It was like the stars aligned and told me "you must make your own kimchi". So I did. And you know what? It was sooo darn easy and way more tasty. I don't think I'm ever going to get the store-bought stuff again! And you can make lots of other goodies with it like Kimchi Jigae, Duk Bokki, Kimchi Fried Rice, and much more!

Regional Recipes is highlighting Korean food this month, and what's more Korean than kimchi? The host this round is Wandering Chopsticks.

Recipe from Kitchen Experiments
Ingredients:
(this makes a lot so feel free to make smaller batches if you're not a frequent kimchi eater, although this will keep in the fridge practically forever without going bad)
- 2 heads of napa cabbage
- Lots of salt
- 1 cup of glutinous rice flour or mochi flour
- 2 cups of water
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 cup of fish sauce
- 2/3 cup of Korean chili powder (I just used regular chili powder - and trust me, it's definitely spicy enough. You may want to start with less to begin with. Be warned, the spice seems to intensify as it ferments.)
- 1 bulb of garlic
- 1 onion
- 2 inches of ginger
- 1/2 cup of julienned carrots
- 1 bunch of garlic chives (I skipped this and used scallions instead and it turned out fine)
- 1/2 cup shredded daikon radish (I skipped this also and it was fine)
- 10 pieces of fresh oysters (optional) (I skipped this as well)

Directions:
- Cut the cabbage in to quarters length-wise and rinse them.
- Sprinkle salt on every single leaf by lifting each of them and salting in between. Put more towards the base because it's thicker. Let them sit in the sink or a large bowl for 4 hours, flipping them half way through.
- After 4 hours, the cabbage should be wilted like shown below. Rinse off all the excess salt so that your kimchi won't be too salty. Squeeze out the excess water.

- To make the kimchi paste, mix the glutinous rice flour and water in a pot and bring it to a boil. Stir it constantly until it reaches the consistency of rice congee or a watery pudding. Keep a vigilant eye on it because the point it can quickly overcook. I had to make a second batch because I stepped away from it for a second and ruined it.
- Add the fish sauce and chili powder and mix well.
- In a food processor, process the ginger, garlic and onion. Add this to the rice flour, chili, fish sauce mixture.
- Stir in the julienned vegetables. If you're using oysters, add those now too.
- If you want to keep your kimchi in quarters, spread the paste on each leaf of the cabbage (using your hands it the best way). Or cut the cabbage into bite size pieces and mix it into the paste.
- Put the kimchi in a jar and keep it at room temperatures for approximately 2 days (I ended up leaving mine out for 3). Yes, this made me nervous too, but trust me, it's how it's done.
- You'll know it's done fermenting when you open the jar and hear or see bubbles and smell a bit of "sourness".
- When it's done fermenting, keep it in the fridge and eat it with rice or cook with it.

Duk Bokki (Rice Pinkies)

As you may already know, I love the chewy texture of rice cakes. Some time during high school, I was introduced to korean rice pinkies and I fell in love all over again. It's like rice cakes, but on steroids! I do have to admit that my jaw gets kinda tired after a few of these guys, but it's totally worth it.

I've only had it a few times, but I usually see this served with some ramen (mixed in the same sauce) and fish cake. But since I didn't have any fish cake in the house and figured I'd rather use my carb allotment on more rice pinkies instead of ramen, so I left those two ingredients out. I also usually see it served with sliced hard boiled eggs, but I thought I'd do a fried egg with a runny center instead.

I'm also submitting these rice pinkies to Joelen's Wine & Dine event featuring Korean food. Posts are accepted until April 18th, so get your entries in and check out the roundup!

Ingredients*:
- Rice pinkies
- Kimchi or napa cabbage (I used kimchi)
- Egg
- Korean chili paste
- Soy bean paste (optional)
- Water or chicken stock
- Soy sauce
- Sesame seeds and/or green onions for garnish (I skipped this)
* You can also easily add meat, more veggies, etc depending on your preferences

Directions:
- Heat some water or chicken stock in a wok/pan.
- Stir in a few tablespoons of the korean chili paste (to taste). If it's too spicy for you, replace some of it with the soy bean paste instead.
- If you're adding meat to the dish, do it now.
- Add the cabbage or kimchi and any other veggies you would like to use.
- Add the rice pinkies.
- Mix everything and let it simmer until the rice pinkies are soft, adding more liquid if necessary.
- Add soy or more chili paste/soy bean paste to taste.
- Top everything with a fried egg.
- Garnish with sesame seeds and sliced green onions.

Kimchi Tofu Stew

Argh, terrible picture, but oh so delicious dinner! I took this picture before I stirred the tofu in, that's why it looks so pasty white. Stir carefully when you do so that the tofu doesn't break.

Kimchi tofu stew or kimchi jigae is like korean comfort food (at least to me it is). It comes in a burning hot black stone bowl still bubbling at restaurants. At our house, it comes in a dutch oven.

So after going for a hike with my friend Stephanie, we were talking about going out to dinner. She suggested Korean. Then after some more discussion, we decided we'd come over to my house and MAKE Korean instead. We made the kimchi fried rice that I posted earlier and this! It was much better than the restaurants if I do say so myself =P Now, I just need to go get some of those special bowls they serve these in!

I usually put seafood (shrimp, imitation crab, baby clams, etc) but since this was a spur of the moment thing, I didn't have any. Steph suggested ground pork. OMG, sooo much better and I'm not going back to the seafood version again.

Kimchi tofu soup is easy, delicious and healthy.

Ingredients:
- One onion sliced thinly
- 4-5 cloves of garlic sliced thinly
- 5-6 mushrooms (I used shitake, but button or cremini is fine too) sliced thinly
- 1/3 lb of ground pork
- 3/4 cups of kimchi and kimchi juice
- 1 box of tofu (soft or silken, I prefer silken) cut into cubes
- soy or fish sauce to taste
- korean chili paste or chili flakes/powder to taste
- egg (optional)

Method:
- Heat up your pot and add a bit of oil. Add the onions and cook until soft.
- Add garlic and mushrooms.
- Add ground pork and break it up with your spatula.
- Add kimchi and some kimchi juice (to taste). If you used dried shitake mushrooms, add the water that you soaked the mushrooms in, minus the gritty stuff that fell to the bottom.
- Add tofu and stir gently to avoid breaking the tofu.
- Taste. If it's not salty enough, add a bit of soy or fish sauce. If you want more liquid, add some water or chicken broth. If you want it spicier, add a bit of chili paste or chili flakes.
- If you want, you can add an egg at this point like they do at restaurants.
- Serve over rice.

Kimchi Fried Rice

Fried rice to me is one of those things that you make to get rid of leftovers or when clearing out the fridge. It's so versatile that you can put more or less anything you'd like.

This was not one of those times. My friend had a craving for kimchi fried rice, so we made it! Kimchi is the main component, and I paired it with spam. I'm embarrassed to say, I love spam. But any other meat, or no meat at all would work too.

As usual, no real measurements, just do it to taste.

Ingredients:
- Kimchi (chopped into bite-size pieces)
- Rice (I used brown rice this time)
- Spam (cut into small cubes)
- Juice from the Kimchi
- Soy and/or fish sauce for flavoring if necessary
- Egg(s)

Method:
- Heat the wok until almost smoking.
- (Optional) Add oil to the wok and heat the oil. I skipped this step because my wok is already nicely seasoned and the spam has plenty of oil in it already.
- Fry the spam. I like to fry it until there is a bit of color.
- Push the spam to the side. Crack the egg in the middle of the wok and scramble until mostly cooked.
- Add the rice and heat it through.
- Add chopped up kimchi and some of the juice (to taste).
- Add more soy/fish sauce if necessary
- Add frozen veggies (peas, carrots, etc) if desired.

Mapo Tofu

I bought some szechuan peppercorns and was so excited to use them. Alas, they were weak or imitation peppercorns and just not up to par. I was so disappointed. Szechuan peppercorns are supposed to literally make your tongue numb when you bite into them (usually accidentally since you're not really supposed to eat them). The "Ma" part of mapo tofu actually means "numb". But even without the proper spices, this dish is always a good one.

There are so many ways to make mapo tofu and as usual, I pull my recipes out of my ***, so this is by no means the only or best or traditional way of making it. In fact, almost everytime I make it, I make it a little differently. This is what I put into it this time around....


Ingredients:
- 1 block of soft tofu cut into cubes
- 1/2 pound of ground pork, turkey or chicken
- 1 clove of minced garlic
- 2 tbsp of hot bean paste (if you don't have this, you can use a regular chili paste)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- cornstarch slurry (~1-2 tsp cornstarch mixed in a tiny bit of cold water until dissolved)
- 1 tsp ground szechuan peppercorns (optional)
- 1 scallion sliced for garnish (optional)

Direction:
- Heat up your wok/pan and put enough oil in to coat the bottom
- Put the ground meat and the minced garlic and the soy sauce and cook until most of the pink in the meat is gone.
- Add in the tofu, chili paste and peppercorns. Stir gently to avoid breaking the tofu. Taste and adjust accordingly. Sometimes I'll add a bit more chili, salt, or even some sugar, depending on how it tastes.
- The tofu should release some water. If it's pretty dry, feel free to add a bit of water or chicken stock. Then add the cornstarch slurry to thicken the liquid. If it doesn't thicken up immediately, don't worry, it will thicken more after you turn off the heat. Or you can always add more cornstarch slurry. This step is actually completely optional, you'll just get a more watery sauce.
- Add the scallion
- Eat over rice!