Korean perilla (깻 잎)



Korean Perilla (wild sesame leaf)

 Korean Perilla leaves or kken eep has a very unique fragrance to it.  It is actually wild sesame leaf, not to confuse with the sesame that we all know as "sesame oil" and sesame seeds.  Perilla leaves do not grow from the sesame seeds that you can buy in just about any mega mart.

Perilla is from the dul kkeh (wild sesame) seeds.  koreans eat the perilla pickled and steamed as a side dish, cut into pieces for soups such as Gamja tang (korean potatoe soup with pork neck bone), and soon dae gook (blood sausage soup) and many others.
Perilla is also very popular to combine with red leaf lettuce and eaten as a wrap for the korean BBQ.

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Gochu jang (pepper paste) 고 추 장

The biggest challenge in cooking different ethnic cuisines is unfamiliar ingredients and spices.  This is Korean Cuisine 101, detailed expanations of korean veggies, spices, herbs and other ingredients.

Gochu jang (pepper paste)  고추장

Gochu jang is a very importan ingredient  because this fermented pepper paste is unique to korea only.  which mean that it can not be substituted.  it is made from the korean red chili, dried and then finely ground.  when i lived in Colorado Springs my mom worked us like slaves to pick these peppers in Pueblo.  it was one of those "u pick" and pay by the pounds.  she would dry these peppers on our yup you guessed it.... garage and drive way inside the Peterson Air Force Base.  after they were sufficiently dry she would take them somewhere and get them ground into coarse and fine fakes.  
The important ingredient in making homemade gochu jang is gochu garu (pepper flakes)  and the rest of it is made from sweet sticky rice, soy bean powder and salt and lots and lots of time to ferment.  i have 7 year old homemade gochujang sitting my house and it is delicious!  see recipe for gochu jang.

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Jeju Island

Jeju's famous Avalone and seafood jongol (stew)

Jeju is a beautiful Island; it is the Hawaii of Korea!  what i enjoyed the most other than the view and the weird speaking koreans is the excellent seafood.
to the left is Jun bok haemul jongol in other words it is a soup/stew with lots of veggies like nappa cabbage, turnip, green onions, tofu with fresh shellfish like Avalone, conch, shrimp, octopus and huge variety of clams.  unlike most korean haemul jongols (seafood stews) this one has a clear broth untainted by the korean crushed red pepper (gochugaku)
it was mild and refreshing.

horse back riding in Jeju

traditional korean kitchen in Jeju

green tea fields

 why do i have a picture of pineapples you ask?  I am from florida, i had a pineapple shrub in my fron yard when i lived in Brandon.  It is not a big deal to me however i went on a tour and this is where they took me to.  to see pineapples.
some of the other koreans made comments like "oh my goodness i guess pineapples don't grow on pineapple trees"!!
i just thought it was funny.

Jeju do has many smaller Islands with caves, both natural and man made. I asked my guide why there were so many man made caves and he told me that during WWII after the bombing of Pearl Harbor,  the Japanese in fear of the U.S. forced the people of jeju to make man made caves to hide supplies.   it was interesting.

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dae gu

Last May i went to visit my sister in Dae Gu South Korea.  We toured Seoul, Gimpo, Dae Gu and all the way south to the Jeju Islands.  My goal was to try local and regional cuisines and then try to figure out how to make it.  This was my husbands first trip to anything Asian.  He was in for a culture shock.

somewhere in between these buildings is a huge shi jang market

I've come back to my "mother land" several times since i came to the states but this was the first time in Dae gu. 

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Hawaii

Over the summer i went to Hawaii to meet my sister there as a half point.  She was stationed in Camp Walker in Dae Gu S Korea and i was coming from Tampa Florida.  I got to look around the beautiful main Island and check out the local "hawaiian" cuisine.

let me tell you, i had to remind myself that i was still in the United States because everything had a Asian feel to it. especially Japan.  It was an interesting and beautiful experience.



my little family





3 "cousins" climbing tree, and supposedly you can take one of the home with you after the luau

There was so much asian fusion going on it was difficult to distinguish the authentic Hawaiian cuisine.  One hawaiian restaurant served Galbee, eggs and rice as Hawaiian food.

I got to eat a lot of galbee, lots of bulgogi, lots of spam and lots of loco moco. 

Loco moco was something new to me so i tried 5 different loco mocos all over the island.  it seems like whether it is fine dining to your loco fast breakfast joint loco moco was always on the menu.  the best loco moco that i had was actually from a pub and sports bar by our hotel in waikiki.  loco moco tasted like hamburger meat with rice and eggs drowning in brown gravy.  i wasn't impressed until i tried it at the pub.  it had 3 scoops of rice with a nice flavorful hamburger meat loaf topped with over easy eggs and their signature brown gravy.  the secret is in the gravy.  It had a taste of  rich french onion soup with a hint of butter.  Delicious.   my version of Loco moco recipe was inspired by this dish.

my version of loco moco the recipe is coming soon

I came back from Hawaii and had a Luau of my own with my meet up group Lets cook Tampa.   

my hand in the poor piggys back during my Luau in tampa

this is my kalua pig, and in the boat is poki tuna and chicken longrice

I thought it went well,  i really captured the essence of Hawaii with authentic fusion foods like spam musubi (japanese influence), chicken long rice (chinese), kimchi and galbee (korean), lomi lomi salmon (native), poki tuna, loco moco.... and others.

pancake souffle with bananas

burgandy beef with rice and omlette

varieties of spam

limit 3 case per customer.... like you have to put a cap on how much spam you can buy...crazy!!!

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Bul dak bal (fire chicken feet)

Ingredients

3 lb chicken feet

3 1/2 inch chips of ginger

Preparation Chicken feet

Boil chicken feet with several chips of ginger for prox 35 minute

Wash feet and clip nails and then add sauce and mix well.  broil or grill the seasoned feet till it has a little flame chars or "blacken" it

This is served as is with a cold glass of beer.  Chicken feet is not a meal it is what Koreans call anju.  Anju is foods that koreans like to eat while drinking.

Sauce

2 tbsp soju (optional)

11/2 tbsp Soy Sauce

2 tbsp Sugar

1tbsp  crushed  fresh ginger

2 tbsp  crushed fresh garlic

2tbsp Gochu jang (korean fermented pepper paste)

2 gigantic jalepeno  or more!!!!!! Roughly chopped

1/2  of a onion roughly chopped

3 tbsp gochu garu (korean coarse pepper flakes)

1 tsp sesame oil

2 green onions minced or sliced thin

Blend all the fresh veggies except for the green onion in a food processor, then add all the dried ingredients like the pepper flakes and mix well and add to the feet along with minced green onion.

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Loubieh bi Zait (green beans with olive oil)

Loubieh bi Zait (green beans with olive oil

Ingredients (6 servings)

• 1 large bag of frozen whole green beans (by all means if you have fresh green beans use it)

• 2  onions chopped
• 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• 2tsp Lebanese 7-spices (equal parts of powder ginger, fenugreek powder, clove, cinnamon, black pepper, and all spice)



• 1tsp salt or to taste

Preparation

1. Defrost green beans or if they are fresh wash and remove stems.
2. chop onions then saute them in olive oil and salt in a pan deep enough to hold all the green beans.  Saute in medium heat till the onions are soft and almost threatening to brown. Prox 10 min.
3.  add the green beans, a little more salt and 1tsp 7-spices, mix well. Let green bean simmer for 25 min stirring occasionally.
4. When  the green beans are done it will be fairly dark. Turn off the heat and sprinkle the rest of the 7 spice and mix  before serving.
5. Serve hot or cold but I prefer just room temperature.

 servings (yield): 6

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