I wanted to write more about breakfast foods, and I want to mention a very simple, yet healthy and nourishing breakfast. I am talking rice and kimchi here and not like the fancy foods in the picture I posted.
Again, Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim was my source. She has a knack of knowing what does a body good, and what gives you energy to sustain you. Of course, rice and kim chi tastes great any time of day, but the way she showed me to expand on the concept, it’s a sure winner.
If you have a rice pot, make some mixed rice, with brown rice, some beans (soak them before you cook them), millet, sesame seeds or whatever you feel comfortable with. Korean stores sell some great already mixed bags of grain. When the rice is almost done, make a couple of eggs (about 2 – 3 per person) any style you like. I prefer scrambled myself, but this is entirely up to you. If you really want to go traditional, just as the rice cooker stops cooking, drop some eggs on top of the rice and close again. Let sit and after about 5 – 10 minutes you got some wonderfully cooked sunny side up eggs sitting right on the rice.
To put it all together, scoop out as much rice as you like, into a bowl. Mix with salt, sesame oil, pepper and some sesame seeds, mix it well, add the eggs and any kind of kimchi.
Now enjoy! This will keep you satisfied all morning without making you tired, and it’s great just before or after a Jung SuWon class! Now go and try it out!
So the reason I haven’t been posting for a while is that we had a big wedding to prepare. A couple of happy Jung SuwonWarriors got married! (Here is the happy couple at Jung Suwon….)
Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim recommends this after a long day, when you are all tired, had all the restaurant food you ever want to see, are caked out, and simply want to relax and have some good old home style meal. Of course, do make this ahead of time, the last thing you want to do that day is cook….
If you look at some of my previous posts, you could try any of the soups I mentioned – they would work well. If you need something more substantial, try to make a roast a couple of days before and keep on hand.
Or, if you really like a spicy pick-me-up, try this old and tried recipe for Gulasch.
Use stew meat – coat all pieces in flour that was seasoned with salt and pepper;
heat olive oil in a pot, put in a couple of tablespoons ground garlic, add sliced onions – about 1/2 as much onions in volume as you have meat and brown
add meat, brown on all sides, add Hungarian paprika if you can get it, else use regular paprika, if you like it really spicy, cut up a small hot green pepper and add
Add beef soup (water will do in a pinch) to at least cover the meat, you can use more if you like Gulasch more like a soup, cover, and cook until meat is soft. This dish improves when it cooks for long time over low heat and is ideal for a crock pot. Just before you serve it, add salt, paprika and red pepper to taste, and if you like, serve with a tablespoon of sour cream on top.
You could also add some cut up potatoes 10 minutes before serving. You can serve this with rice, or noodles, or simply with some French bread. I guarantee you, it’s good, soothing and thoroughly enjoyable.
I will leave you with this quote from Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, which comes in handy during the crazy time of wedding preparations:
“Always find something to appreciate – no matter what. Appreciation does wonders to keep your mind free from the heavy negativity that encloses you in limitation, fear, and oppression. You have seen those hot air balloons that rise so lightly? Appreciation is like the force that tosses out the weights that keep the balloons on the ground. Without those weights, the balloons rise naturally and freely. That’s how you can be when you allow appreciation and gratitude to fill your heart and mind. Appreciation keeps you focused on good things, and this causes more good to manifest.”(The Silent Master, page 156)
The fall/winter season has come with a vengeance right now, after a very warm early fall. It’s cold and dreary and rainy outside and I happen to love this kind of weather.
It’s also the perfect weather to work out at Jung Suwon. It’s not so hot that you sweat just changing your clothes. In fact you’ll need to work hard to stay warm!
I have found that soup is perfect for this time of year. But in addition, if you are not a good cook yet, and you are struggling with your culinary development, start with soup. Trust me, they are easy to make, it’s easy to be creative with soups, and it’s easy to impress people with your soup cooking.
For example, spicy Korean soups are my current favorites to make and eat. They are healthy, filling, but not fattening perfect foods and so easy to make. A perfect soup base would be some chicken soup as in the recipe earlier on this blog. Or the oxtail soup I mentioned. But, if you don’t happen to have that on hand, or just don’t want to bother, no problem!
Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim explained to me that during the Korean War times soup was always a great thing to make – whatever you had, you put into the soup and were able to feed several people for what otherwise would have been just one ingredient for one person!
So, here are some basics for some good soup. Let’s assume you don’t have any broth ready. Boil some water with ground or chopped garlic (and in my opinion there is no such thing as too much garlic). If you have some leftover potroast, add a couple of slices, or if you have some leftover broiled chicken, you could add that. Add whatever vegetables you have on hand and boil. Add salt and pepper to taste and if you like it spicy like I do, add some red pepper flakes. You could also add some kimchi to this.
As to what to put into the soup, the sky is the limit. Try some noodles – either the very thin Japanese noodles (boil them seperately), or Korean glass noodles, or whatever size and shape noodle you like. Or, add some suchebi, or some ready made mandoo. Or add a few of each. You can also drop some eggs into the soup.
Ok ok, I better stop – I believe this will keep you busy for a while. But do go ahead and give soup a chance!
Spaghetti! Here is another one of those marvellous foods that has received such bad press because of the -gasp! – carbohydrates. But trust me, spaghetti, especially when you serve it with a nice green salad, is a wonderful and balanced meal that can turn your everyday dinner into a 5-star experience. And for the health conscious, let me just remind you that doctors highly recommend a mediterranean diet, complete with healthy carbs and healthy fats, all in moderation.
I am a snob when it comes to spaghetti and I don’t settle for opening a jar of sauce and heating it up, no matter how good the sauce is supposed to be. I insist on doing some work and the end result is worth it and should I have leftovers my guests ask to take them home!
Word to the wise: I am pretty sure there are as many recipes for spaghetti out there as there are cooks, and yes I do claim my recipe tastes fantastic. My source? Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, of Jung SuWon, of course.
For the sauce, I use a generous amount of ground beef, and boil and rinse before I use it. Once dried, I roast that in olive oil with chopped garlic and if you like, put in a little finely chopped pastrami, or some smoked meat. Roast that in the final cooking pan and once its nicely browned, set aside.
In flat pan, heat olive oil, add chopped onions, and sautee until yellow, then add a generous amount of sliced mushrooms. Sautee until the juices are almost all gone. Add to the meat. In the same pan you used to cook the onions, heat more olive oil, and put in a bunch of cut up tomatoes, some green and red bell peppers, finely chopped fresh basil, parsley, and add some fresh thyme. When the juice of the tomatoes has cooked down, add to the meat mixture, mix well together, and add some red wine. Cook until reduced and then add some tomatoe sauce from a jar. Newman’s is good, but any other good quality sauce will work.
I typically don’t add any more salt, but go ahead and add to your liking. Cook for at least an hour, on very low heat, or you can cook for several, it will only improve the taste. However, you need to stir frequently to prevent burning.
I am not good at giving exact quantities as you might have guessed by now, but if you have any idea about cooking you’ll catch on very quickly.
As for the noodles, use whatever shape you like. Lately I have fallen in love with whole wheat pasta and I cook that and sautee in olive oil where I have browned some chopped garlic, and mix in some fresh basil, finely chopped. Mix well and use that as base for your outstanding sauce.
Now sit down and enjoy. Part of the mediterranean diet is to take your time to eat and enjoy. For the Jung SuWon warriors among us, this is a great dish to make ahead for after class. You can make it the night before, or the same day – make the sauce, and boil the noodles. While you shower after class, start heating the sauce and then quickly sautee the noodes, or you could conceivably skip that step.
Enjoy, without guilt! You worked it off before you ate it!
A while ago I promised you that I would write more about bread, give recipes and so forth. Since I like to keep my promises, here is a “how to” video for you.
In this short video (please do watch with sound on and use the high quality setting on Youtube if available) you’ll see the Jung SuWon way of making bread, using a not so ancient recipe by Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim.
Here is another one of my favorites. It’s actually not just a breakfast food, but since it’s easy to make, nutritious, and similar to pancakes, I thought I would post it under breakfasts.
Yes it is like a pancake, although infinitely more healthy and nutritious. It contains a lot of vitamins, minerals and fiber, and keeps you going for hours.
One word of caution: there are many different recipes for this, and I am not saying mine is the one and only one, although I am prejudiced (this is my blog after all!) and I do think this is the best version. I got this recipe from Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, my Martial Arts teacher at Jung Suwon Academy, and it’s been proven time and again. I will also mention how you can make this in many different ways. But first things first.
In a blender, put in one egg, a handful cloves of garlic (you could use less), a couple of very hot peppers cut in chunks and enough water to fill to 3/4 of the blender container. Blend until very fine, then put in a bowl, and add a little salt and pepper. With a whisk, mix in either some flour, or some special buchu jan mix you can get at any Korean store. I personally prefer the mix, the end result tends to be better. Put in enough to make a thin pancake batter. Now add some buchu.
Where do you find Buchu and what is it? It basically looks like thin wheat grass (and I have a feeling if you used that it would work just fine) and I have only seen it in Korean stores. Ask for it there. And while you are there, pick up some fresh sesame leaves. Clean the buchu, and cut them in about 2 – 3 inch lengths. Finely cut the sesame leaves and mix in as well. There should be more vegetables than batter….
Heat some oil in a pan, and when very hot, add some of the mixture. Spread it out with a couple of forks or spoons until very thin. When you turn them over, flatten the pancake further with a spatula. Cook until barely brown on both sides and repeat until batter is gone.
Server with the soy sauce you learned to make earlier in this blog (as used for tofu).
I have a feeling you’ll be making this a lot! So what if you cannot get buchu? You can make this with old kim chi – squeeze it very very dry and cut up into thin strips and this is very delicious as well.
So from the comment to my last blog entry you can see that there is a demand for specific recipes. I am not a native Korean cook, and I won’t make any claims about the authenticity of my recipes. I am only going to tell you how I I have learned to make this from Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim. She sometimes teaches about food and food preparation right at her school, Jung SuWon, or in more depth and detail, at the Self Discovery programs.
For the freshly made rice – I use a rice cooker. Simply go by the instructions that come with the cooker. Get a cooker the size you need – if you have a big family, get a big pot. If it’s just you, get the smallest one. Fresh cooked rice is always a lot better! Once you are familiar with the basics, try adding some brown rice and beans, barley, are some of the possibilities.
For the radish soup, start with some soup meat. First, slice the meat or cut into small pieces. For each person, about 1/4 cup is plenty. Boil it in some salted water, enough to cover the meat. Boil only until the dirty foam comes up, then rinse. For most recipes that involve meat, I treat the meat this way. Grandmaster Kim explains that this pulls out all the pollutants, antibiotics and other things that aren’t good for you.
Put the meat in water, add coarsley chopped garlic, dried anchovies, and sliced Korean Radish. These are the big, plump, white radishes. Cook until radishes are tender, then add salt and pepper and a touch of Korean Soy sauce. You can also add a spoon of finely chopped green onions for the final touch.
As for the fried fish, I like to use the smaller King fish, available in Korean stores. You can of course use other fish, but this and mackerel seems to be the more authentic ones. Ask the store person to clean the fish for you – they usually do that free of charge. At home, make 3 shallow incisions on the top of the fish, then coat it with flour seasoned with salt and pepper. You can then fry the fish in a pan, on both sides, which will take about 15 – 25 minutes depending on the size of the fish.
Or, you could put the fish on aluminum foil, and put some crushed garlic and soy sauce on the fish, close the foil and bake in a pre-heated oven at 375. Again, the timing depends on the size of the fish.
To serve and enjoy your Korean breakfast, you would put some kim chi (of course you picked up a jar when you purchased the fish, right? ) in a little bowl, then you take some rice in a bowl, and some soup, and arrange the fish nicely on a plate. Eye appeal is important at the Korean table, and Grandmaster Kim also emphasizes that in order for your body to enjoy the meal, it should look nice and inviting.
So go ahead and start your day with a delicious, light, yet satisfying meal! And by the way, this tastes good any time of day, too!
A couple of friends called me to remind me that while it’s nice getting so many dinner and a couple of dessert ideas from my blog, I haven’t said anything about breakfast or lunch yet.
Well, number one, I haven’t been blogging for that long, so give me a break please! And for number two – my philosophy about breakfast is – its the first meal of the day, and whatever you happen to eat first you call it breakfast! How did we ever come up with the rule that you should have cereal or some eggs in some form for breakfast! As long as it’s nutritious and balanced, anything goes!
My mother, on the other hand, had different ideas. When I grew up, I got my birthday cake in the morning! Her idea was that if you have to “sin” in the food consumption department, it should be first thing in the morning so that you got all day to make up for it – eat healthy stuff, work out – in short, make up for the hunk of cake you just had. Cake after dinner? Dessert after dinner? Never! It just turns into fat instantly!
So, what should I tell you? I asked Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, of course, what an acceptable breakfast would be. It turns out that I wasn’t too far off. As long as the food is fresh, nutritious, and well balanced – go for it! She recommended I try a Korean breakfast.
I remember a few years ago I was in Korea, and in the hotel they had three breakfast options: Continental breakfast, American Style, and Korean. Of course I ordered the Korean breakfast. In came a tray, and the smell was overwhelmingly good and appetizing. I received a small bowl of radish soup, very light and very good, a bowl of fresh steamed rice, cooked to perfection, sauteed fish, and of course, various kim chees. (For those not knowing: Kim chee is the Korean version of very spicy pickled cabbage. Stay in tune, I’ll blog about that very soon!)
It was one of the best breakfasts I ever had. Light, yet satifsying, and I didn’t feel hungry for several hours. It’s something you’d want to have before going to Jung SuWon, especially before a testing, when you need good nutrition without being weighed down.
I love a simple, roasted, moist chicken. The only thing is, who has the time to “babysit” a chicken while it’s in the oven? Especially for dinner, when you are off at Jung SuWon training, working up an appetite. And, what do you do to prevent this chicken from drying out?
I asked Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim about this and here is her “secret.” First, you put the chicken in a roasting pan. Then, you cut up some very cold butter into 1/4 inch thick slices (works best actually if you cut the butter in slices, then freeze it, then use it). Have some crushed garlic on hand, as well as some fresh sprigs of rosemary, salt and pepper. With your hands, gently lift the skin away from the breast of the chicken, and put in the slices of butter, crushed garlic that you have mixed with salt and pepper, and some of the rosemary. So in effect, you are putting all this UNDER the skin. In addition, put a little of the salt, pepper and garlic paste on the outside of the chicken. Pour some good white wine into the pan, about 2 inches high, add a couple handful mushrooms. Put some rosemary into the chicken cavity, along with some garlic. Now cover it all up very tightly either with a lid or with aluminum foil, put in preheated oven, 350 degrees. Since I usually get a couple large sized chickens for this, it takes about 2 hours to cook them.
So you got plenty of time to come home after class, take off the lid or foil, and let the chicken brown and crispy, which will take about 15 – minutes. You will enjoy a wonderfully moist and delicious chicken! The butter, and the steam created through the wine, will ensure that the chicken doesn’t dry out.
If you have a timer, you can set it before you leave, just in case you end up in a class where we sparr longer than we expect…….
To make it really easy on yourself, start the rice cooker before you go, and voila! When you come home you got a nice dinner ready – add a salad and you’ll be all set.
PS: should you have an leftovers – which is doubtful – they are most excellent in a chicken salad the next day! Or add the leftover to the pasta salad in the recipe I posted earlier.
Yes, this recipe is a bit involved, but just trust me, this is really worth the effort. Actually, come to think about it, it’s not all that time consuming if you are managing that time well.
This is one of my very treasured recipes, one that i received directly from Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim. She told me this soup reminded her of Korea, when she grew up during the war time. Back then, the soup was a lot more “bare basics” and didn’t have any meat or mushrooms or anything fancy. The current version is old-style Korean with a new twist. But most of all its just plain good.
You start with a base of oxtail soup. Here’s a quick primer if you are not familiar with that. You get a package of oxtails, and put them in a pot with cold water, crushed garlic and kosher salt. Bring to boiling, then let boil for about 15 minutes or until there is a lot of dark foam on top. Drain the oxtails, rinse well, and wash out the pot. Bring water to boiling again, add the oxtails, crushed garlic and Kosher salt. Cover, and let boil on low heat at least an hour, but you can let it boil for several hours – the soup only gets better. It’s best when it gets milky white. The meat will get so tender it will fall off the bones.
About half hour before you want to serve this soup, bring some water and salt to boiling in a seperate pot, and add a handful of chap chae noodles (glass noodles, made of sweet potatoes) per serving of soup you want to make. Cook until still very al dente, then rinse with cold water and set aside.
Meanwhile, cut a handful green onions – the white part into 1 inch long chunks and put right in soup. The rest, chop very fine and set aside. For the suchebi = dumplings, you can either start from scratch – and any recipe for noodle dough you have will probably do fine. I like to make noodle dough from 2 eggs mixed with salt and a little oil, about 2 Tsp per 2 eggs, and about 3/4 cups warm water. Add enough flour and mix until the dough holds shape, then knead on floured board until no longer sticky. Add flour as needed. If you are not using the dough right away – which is actually better – you can let it rest at room temperature under a small porcellain bowl. Just before serving, pull off very thin pieces of the dough and add to the soup. You won’t have to cook it very long.
If you are a bit queasy or, heaven forbid, intimidated, by this recipe so far, take heart. You don’t have to make the dumplings from scratch. Just get a box of suchebi mix from a Korean store. This is what the box looks like:
With your hands/fingers, flatten one end of the wad of dough and pinch off (or cut off with scissors) flat, relatively thin, pieces of the dough and put into soup as you go along. At this point, you can also put in straw mushrooms if you like. Season soup with salt, pepper, and red pepper.
To serve, ideally, put a little broth into a Korean soup pot like the one above, add the glass noodles, add more broth and suchebi. Top with the finely chopped green onions, cover, and serve piping hot. Traditionally, and I do make it this way – you would bring the soup and contents to boiling in the soup pot directly on open fire, and then serve like this, while it’s still boiling inside the pot. But you don’t have to do this. It will taste great even if you don’t.
This tastes incredible after a hard class at Jung SuWon, it will rejuvenate and strengthen you. Especially on a dark and blustery fall or winter night.
I am talking rice and kimchi here and not like the fancy foods in the picture I posted.
