Food for Thought

Saewu Ganghwe (Spring Onion Tied Shrimp and Asparagus)

Saewu Ganghwe (Spring Onion Tied Shrimp and Asparagus)

It finally feels like spring here! After a cold March and a chilly April, we're having nice warm weather for the first time this spring. The cherry blossoms are beginning to bloom, and gorgeous spring vegetables are everywhere. Among them are asparagus, of course. Another spring treasure is tender, thin spring onions. They are called shilpa (실파) in Korean, which means thin as a thread. They are mild and slightly sweet. I decided to put these two beautiful spring vegetables together for these little rolls that are great as an appetizer or a side dish.

Ganghwe (강회) is a general term that refers to a dish, of small rolls, that is made by tying an ingredient(s) with a thin spring onion or minari (water dropwart). It's a spring favorite in Korea. They are prepared in bite size pieces and served with a dipping sauce. Nakji (octopus) ganghwe, ojingeo (squid) ganghwe are common variations. There are elaborate royal cuisine versions as well. I used shrimp and asparagus. Don't be daunted by the look of this dish. It's not that hard to tie the ingredients together once you get a hang of it. Also, try it with octopus, squid, imitation crab meat or colorful vegetables. You'll surely be able to impress your family or guests with these little Korean delicacies.

3 - 4 servings as appetizer

Ingredients:

16 medium shrimp (41 - 50 per pound sizes), peeled, tale on, and deveined

8 thin asparagus stalks

16 thin spring onions

Sweet and sour gochujang sauce:

1 tablespoon lemon juice (or vinegar)

1 tablespoon gochujang, Korean red chili pepper paste

1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon minced garlic (optional)

(Mix well and set aside.)

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add the shrimp, and cook briefly, about a minute. Quickly drain and dump in cold water to stop cooking. Drain. You can cut small slits on the inner curve of the curled up shrimp to flatten a little for easier wrapping.

Remove the tough ends of the asparagus. Cut into about 2-inch lengths. Blanch them in salted boiling water until softened, about a minute. Remove with a strainer, and shock in cold water. Drain. To the same pot of boiling water, add the white parts of the spring onions, and hold for about 30 seconds before submerging the whole scallions briefly to soften, about 20 seconds. Drain, and shock in cold water. Pat the spring onions dry with a kitchen towel or paper towel by gently pressing to remove excess water.

To assemble, hold a shrimp and an asparagus piece together along with the white end of a spring onion. Tie them together by wrapping the other end of the spring onion around the shrimp and asparagus several times.

Use a chopstick or a toothpick to tuck the end of the spring onion into the roll. Serve with the gochujang sauce.

Jjukkumi Gui

Jjukkumi Gui (Spicy Grilled Baby Octopus)

I know that a lot of people are intimidated by octopus. If you're one of them, I urge you to try your hand at it with baby octopus, jjukkumi. Baby octopus is naturally tender and easy to handle. They are usually sold frozen (and pre-cleaned) here in the U.S. In case you're wondering, unlike the name suggests, baby octopus is fully grown octopus of a small species. If you prefer, you can also use small squids for this recipe. Octopus, baby octopus and squid are popular ingredients in Korea. They are most commonly prepared with a spicy gochujang (Korean red chili pepper paste) sauce. In the past, I shared how to make a spicy stir-fried squid dish, ojingeo bokkeum. You can use baby octopus for that recipe as well. Here, these little guys are are marinated in a spicy gochujang sauce and seared quickly on the grill. Marinating helps tenderize the octopus, so give it sufficient time to marinate. It will be tender, enjoyably chewy, not to mention a burst of flavor with every bite!

2 to 3 servings
Ingredients:

1 pound (10 - 12) baby octopus

1 small cucumber, thinly sliced, for garnish (optional)

Marinade:

2 tablespoons Korean red chili pepper paste (gochujang)

1 to 2 teaspoons Korean red chili pepper flakes (gochugaru)

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice wine (or mirin)

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon finely grated ginger

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon sesame seeds

Defrost, if frozen. If not pre-cleaned, remove and discard the inside of the head and beak. See more here. Rinse the octopus well under cold running water.

Combine the marinade ingredients. Pour over the octopus and mix to coat well. Marinate for 2 to 3 hours (up to overnight) in the fridge. Heat a lightly oiled grill or a grill pan to medium high and sear for about 3 minutes, turning a couple of times. Do not overcook. Plate them on the optional cucumber slices to serve.

Western Style Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:

Servings:8

2 lbs ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 (10 ounce) can ro-tel tomatoes and green chilies
1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
3 3/4 cups water
1 tablespoon cumin
3 cups cooked rice (instant)
4 medium green peppers
1 1/2 lbs American cheese or 1 1/2 lbs cheddar cheese or 1 1/2 lbs monterey jack cheese
1 (10 ounce) can ro-tel tomatoes and green chilies

Directions:

1. In a large kettle, cook beef, green pepper, garlic, salt, and pepper until beef is browned; drain. Add Ro-Tel, tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, and cumin.

2. Simmer uncovered, for 10 minutes. Stir in rice; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat; cover and let stand 5 minutes.

3. Remove tops and seeds from the peppers; cut in halves lengthwise. Place in a large pot of boiling water; boil for 4 minutes. Drain peppers and stuff with meat mixture. Place any remaining meat mixture in an ungreased 9x13x2 inch baking dish; top with stuffed peppers, pressing down gently.

4. Cover and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

5. In a saucepan, heat remaining Ro-Tel and cheese, stirring until cheese is melted. Serve over peppers.

Japanese Marinated Chicken

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

3 lbs chicken parts, on bone with skin
pepper
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup olive oil or 1/4 cup peanut oil
Marinade
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sake
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon gingerroot, grated
2 shallots, finely chopped
4 lemon slices, coarsely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped

Directions:

1. Sprinkle chicken generously with pepper.

2. Combine all marinade ingredients and stir to blend well.

3. Sprinkle cornstarch on a plate and toss chicken pieces to coat, shaking off any excess.

4.Transfer the coated pieces of chicken to the marinade and let marinate for at least 4 hours, turning occasionally.

5. Heat oven to 325°F.

6. Arrange chicken in a shallow baking dish and sprinkle with oil and bake uncovered, basting occasionally, for 1 1/4 hours, or until the chicken is cooked and juices run clear.

Rainbow Layer Cake

Ingredients

Cake

•  2 boxes Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® vanilla cake mix 

•  2 cups water 

•  1 cup vegetable oil 

•  6 eggs 

•  2 packages (2.7 oz each) Betty Crocker® classic gel food colors

Buttercream Frosting 

•  1 cup shortening 

•  1 cup butter, softened 

•  1 bag (2 lb) powdered sugar 

•  2 teaspoons vanilla 

•  3 to 4 tablespoons milk 

Directions

STEP 1
Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 3 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray.
STEP 2
In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and eggs with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Divide batter evenly among 6 small bowls, about 1 1/3 cups each.
STEP 3
Using food colors, tint batter in 1 bowl blue, 1 bowl red, 1 bowl green, 1 bowl yellow, 1 bowl orange (using red and yellow) and 1 bowl purple (using blue and red).
STEP 4
Refrigerate 3 colors of batter until ready to bake. Pour remaining 3 colors of batter into cake pans.
STEP 5
Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center and begins to pull away from side of pan. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans to cooling racks; cool completely.
STEP 6
Wash cake pans. Bake and cool remaining 3 cake layers as directed.
STEP 7
In large bowl, beat shortening and butter with electric mixer on medium speed until light yellow. On low speed, gradually beat in powdered sugar. Beat in vanilla. Add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until frosting is smooth. Beat on high speed until light and fluffy.
STEP 8
Trim rounded tops off cakes to level, if needed. On serving plate, place purple cake layer. Spread with frosting to within 1/4 inch of edge. Repeat with blue, green, yellow, orange and red cake layers. Spread light coat of frosting on top and side of cake to seal in crumbs, then frost with remaining frosting.

 

Rainbow's make people smile :) So does sugar.

The Reincarnate of Satan's Taint

                                                      The Reincarnate Of Satan's Taint

(this is for a very large batch of chili)
Ingredients;
8 large cans of crushed tomatos
4 heads of Garlic
4 packages of McCormicks Chili powder
1 large red onion
4 medium sized yellow onions
48 oz of Jalapenos
6 fresh Jalapenos
6 fresh Habaneros
3 - 4 lbs ground beef
2 large packages of Hot Italian Sausage


Directions;
1) Crush and chop Garlic (all 4 heads)
2) Chop onions
3) Slice fresh Jalapenos & Habaneros
4) Add these cut/chopped veggies along with: 8 cans of crushed tomato, 4 jars of jalapenos, 2 packages of Chili powder.
5) in skillet, cook ground beef, adding remaining chili powder to the meat as it cooks.
6) turn on grill, and cook up the italian sausage.
7) slice up cooked italian sausage
8) add sausage and ground beef to the pot.

Cook on low/medium for several hours. The longer you cook it, the hotter it gets. The juices from the pepers and Habaneros infiltrate everything, making it evenly hot.

At first taste, the back part of the roof of your mouth will go numb. You will enjoy it. Your eyes may water a bit. It's very tasty and most people usually can't stop eating it.

This was discovered  during my kick for all things spicy and I can easily replace the ground beef with morning star ground beef imitation meat, it's just like black magic. Tastes so good and you don't know what you got into until you consume it and are told it's not what you were led to belief.

Tequila-Lime Shrimp

Requested by my darling boyfriend Nathan, who has the stomach equivalent to a black hole, I decided to make this my first recipe post. This would be wonderful complimented with jasmine rice I think and toasted over the barbie.

Original recipe makes (4 servings)

Makes servings USMetricAdjust Recipe (Help)

• 2 tablespoonslime juice
• 2 tablespoonstequila
• 1/4 cupolive oil
• 1 pinchgarlic salt
• 1 pinchground cumin

• ground black pepper to taste
• 1 poundlarge shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 6(10 inch) wooden skewers
• 1 largelime, quartered

Directions

1. Whisk together the lime juice, tequila, olive oil, garlic salt, cumin, and black pepper in a bowl until well blended. Pour into a large resealable plastic bag; add the shrimp, seal bag and turn to coat evenly. Refrigerate 1 to 4 hours before grilling.
2. Soak skewers at least 30 minutes in water to prevent burning.
3. Preheat outdoor grill for medium-high heat. Lightly oil grill grate, and place about 4 inches from heat source.
4. Drain and discard marinade from shrimp. Thread shrimp onto prepared skewers, 5 to 6 per skewer.
5. Cook, uncovered, on preheated grill until shrimp turn pink, turning once, for 5 to 7 minutes. Serve with lime wedges for garnish.

This dish sounds wonderful during the summer out on the beach or just cooking on the BBQ with family and friends out back.