What I'm Cooking: Asian (Cooking) Invasion

It's no big surprise that I'm Korean!  Let's take a quick ride in my time machine....

  

Hipster circa 1984

I look like a baby doll

How presh!

Striking a pose with my little brother (He's not so little anymore)

I'm thinking this is when I was in 6th or 7th grade

Here are some fun facts: 

• 1) I was adopted. I was born in Seoul, S Korea and lived with a foster family until I was 3 months old. 
• 2) I don't speak the language, at all. I actually have 2 Caucasian cousins who have lived and taught English in Korea that speak the language fluently.  Also, I love (sense the sarcasm) when creepy, old Korean-war vets come up to me and try to say something to me in Korean. (Met with a blank stare)  It's often followed by "When I was over there...blah blah, I loved the food...blah blah, I loved the women..." (OK, time for me to go!)
• 3) In college, I briefly lived with another Korean girl who tried her best to help me learn the food. language and culture.  Hey Sandy! (if you happen to read this)  It was her who first introduced me to Korean barbecue (and Koreans' love for Karaoke).  

Thanks to this eye-opening introduction into Korean cuisine, I have had a major love affair ever since.  The flavors are so indigenous and unique and so far-removed from Chinese or Japanese cooking with the use of sweet sesame oil and the sour pickling of anything they can get their hands on.  

In my free time, I've been collecting recipes that I lie to tell myself I'll get around to trying. One.of.these.days.    

So I decided to try my hand at one of the more well-known Korean dishes: KALBI (Korean marinated short ribs).  I found a great recipe from Food Network.  

Kalbi Flank Steak - original recipe can be found here

2lbs flank steak

1 cup brown sugar

For the marinade:

1 small onion, peeled and finely grated

1 small Asian pear, peeled and finely grated

4 tablespoons minced garlic

1 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup rice wine

2 tablespoons sesame oil

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Garnish:

2 green onions, thinly sliced (optional)

To start, I generously massaged the flank steak with the brown sugar and set aside in a large bowl.  

To make the marinade, I decided to make my life a whole lot easier.  I took my onion, pear and garlic and tossed them together into my food processor.  All the fine chopping and dicing is done in a matter of seconds.  

In a medium sized bowl, I whisked the soy sauce, water, rice wine, sesame oil and black pepper in a medium sized bowl.  Then I combined the minced veggies.  I poured the marinade over the flank steak (still in the large bowl), covered it with saran wrap and stuck it in the fridge.  To make the most of the marinade and to really tenderize the steak, I let it marinate for 24 hours.

D was in charge of grilling it up.  I recommend searing it for 3.5-4 mins on each side to get a perfect medium rare.  Once it's done, let it sit and rest for 5 minutes.  

(I know the meat doesn't look like a true medium rare.  The pictures are from our first attempt.  We corrected ourselves when we made this meal again 2 days later.)  

I poured the remaining marinade back into a plastic container to use again at a later time.  This stuff is not something you let go to waste. 

Prior to finishing the Kalbi Flank Steak, I looked for some more recipes of side dishes that I thought would really compliment the beef.  Thanks to my love of other creative, magnificent bIoggers and websites, I discovered interesting recipes for Steamed Egg Cup Soup and Egg Fried Rice.  

I found the Steamed Egg Cup soup on the blog Escapades in Cookery.  This is based on a Japanese recipe called chawan mushi (steamed tea cup).  This was a risky recipe because I had to improvise the preparation based on the recipe I found and the equipment I had to work with (I don't own fancy tea cups).  

Chawan Mushi (Steamed Egg) - original recipe can be found here  

4 eggs

1 cup chicken stock

1/2 tsp rice wine

1/2 tsp soy sauce

pinch of salt

2 shiitake mushrooms, sliced into strips

1 green onion, chopped

I like to start all recipes by getting the veggies chopped so I sliced the shiitake mushrooms and chopped the green onions and set them aside.  

Then I whisked the eggs, chicken stock, rice wine, soy sauce and salt in a medium sized bowl.  

 The author of the original recipe had a wok with a steaming rack which I don't.  Instead, I used my rice/vegetable steamer and just prepared it in the steamer bowl.  I combined all of the ingredients and placed them in the steamer.  I just had to watch and continuously monitor how the soup was doing.  This took about 8-10 mins in all.  Once I poured the soup into 2 separate bowls, I topped it off with fresh, ground black pepper.

And lastly, I found the easiest Egg Fried Rice recipe from All Recipes.  I didn't want anything overly complicated because at this point, the marinade aroma from the flank steak was invading my nostrils and I was starving!!

• Egg Fried Rice - original recipe can be found here
• 
  
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 cup uncooked instant rice
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup green beans
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

In a medium sized sauce pan, I combined the first 3 ingredients and brought them to a boil.  I added the instant rice, stirred and then removed from heat and set it aside.

In a large, deep skillet (I NEED a real wok), I heated  the vegetable oil to medium heat and sauteed the onions and green beans for a couple minutes.  Then I poured in the lightly beaten egg to fry up and scramble (approximately 2 mins).  I introduced the rice into the skillet and let the whole combo mix and heat up together.  Lastly, I added freshly ground black pepper.

And finally!!...we were ready to chow down!!

I think my night's dessert was seeing D's face of complete enjoyment and satisfaction.  This was a team effort and we totally hit it out of the park.  


To my fellow bloggers, does your significant other get annoyed by you not letting them dig in until you've been able to capture a few glamour shots of the food? 


Luckily for us in the Indianapolis Area, if you're ever not in the mood to cook, there are quite a few Korean places around town.  I definitely recommend you try them out. Click on links for more information.

• Cafe Korea 
• Naked Tchopstix
• MaMa's
• Bando (no website) (317) 897-8277