Gaji Namul -Eggplant Side from Korea

This is one of the simplest eggplant preparation or a salad that I have made. Very appetizing and an excellent side with rice and your choice of gravy. In fact the way of preparation intrigued me. Never before I have steamed eggplant and used. Anyway if I am to use cliche, this is a simple side easy to make and very appetizing or hunger enhancing. I have adapted it from Maangchi, an excellent site for Korean recipes.

Ingredients:

Eggplants:  2-3 medium sized Asian -purple coloured long thin - eggplants chopped into 1-2 inch strips lengthwise. 

Garlic Cloves: 2-3 small minced
Scallion/Spring Onions: 1 chopped
Toasted Sesame Seeds: 2 tsp
Hot Pepper Flakes: 1-2 tsp
Sesame oil :2 tsp +
 Soy Sauce: 2tbsp +

Preparation:

Chop the eggplant into small strips lengthwise. Steam the pieces in a bowl for about 10 minutes or until cooked in a steamer or pressure cooker on high-med heat. Remove and Keep aside to cool.Once cooled you can drain off all the water collected in the bowl.Lightly mash the eggplant.

Add in  the minced garlic,hot pepper flakes,sesame seeds,chopped scallion,sesame oil and soysauce to the eggplant bowl and mix well. I presume that spicy Korean hot pepper flakes are needed,but I have gone for the regular chilli flakes. Adjust the taste as needed. Salt is present is soysauce and is hence avoided. Serve at room temperature as an appetizing salad.

As per the original recipe, the more the sesame oil and garlic ,much better the salad is. I agree with oil part. But not too sure of the garlic part. I am not a fan of the raw garlic and if you are too lazy to mince the garlic while preparing the salad then you may end up biting into one garlic piece which will put others off you.!I went with the 2 small cloves and it was nicely garlicky without going overboard.But suit yourself. The perfect aroma from the dish will invite you to eat more dinner. 

Hotteok-Korean Stuffed Pancake

Hotteok(Ho duk) is a stuffed Pancake from Korean cuisine.Though it is similar to a pancake,it is an anytime snack and is supposed to be the national snack of Korea.These are made from yeasted dough and stuffed traditionally with a sweet filling made from peanuts,brownsugar and cinnamon.But you can go with a savoury filling as well.

Tteok (duk ) means the sweet cake or rice cake and some versions of this make use of glutinous rice flour as well.the Ho in Hotteok is supposed to be the first sound you produces after the first bite.Why? As you bite into the gooey filling it can burn your tongue as the filling can be very hot especially straight from the skillet.I found several recipe and am following this one and also referenced especially here as well.

Ingredients:
Warm Water: 1/4 cup
Active Dry Yeast:1/2 tsp
Sugar: 1/4 tsp

All Purpose Flour: 1.5 cups
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Milk: 1/4 cup + (Can also use soy milk)

Filling:
Walnuts/Peanuts/Any choice of nuts: 1/2 cup +/-
Brown Sugar: 1/4 cup +/-
Cinnamon powder:1/2 -1 tsp

Preparation:

Mix sugar and yeast in warm water and let it sit till frothy.This may take 10+ minutes.Mine took around 20 as it is very cold here.

In a big bowl,mix flour and salt.Make a well in the middle and add the yeast mix and 1/4 cup of milk and knead to form a dough.Add milk as needed to form a smooth soft dough.I added more milk than needed and hence my dough was a little sticky and I had to roll it in extra flour.So make sure you add only the required amount to form the dough.

Keep the dough in a lightly oiled bowl turning once and let it sit covered for atleast 3 hours or until it doubles in size.Meanwhile mix together the ingredients for filling and keep aside.I used pecans as well as peanuts in my filling.You can use whatever nuts you want.

With oiled hands take small portions of the dough,shape it into a flattened round,put aas much filling as needed into the round and re wrap it to form a ball covering the filling tighlty and then gently flatten it again.This flattening can also be done at cooking time though.It looks like...

Heat a skillet on medium heat and pan fry flattened hotteok on both sides pressing occasionally on top with a turner/spatula so that the filling gets cooked.This takes a few minutes per side only.Serve warm or at room temperature.But be cautious while biting into the filling and remember to say 'Ho' first ;).

Though this is basically a dessert,you can snack on them anytime of the day and can change the fillings to savoury as well.So I supose this can also be a part of the brunch menu and you can see hot hotteok in MM:Brunch hosted by the creator herself,Meeta.

Kamja Jorim -Potatoes in Soy Sauce

This is a simple vegetarian Korean side dish .Kamja means Potatoes and there are a variety of recipes with it as a part of Korean Banchan or sides.Jorim stand s for soy sauce or the light gravy or cooking sauce based on soy sauce and other spices or sugar.Now Korean cuisine is not so familiar to me -thanks PJ for making me do some work in this area.Anyway,I never ever expected to cook a vegetarian and easy Korean dish and that too using one of my favourites -Potato.I found this dish from here and followed it with little changes and also referenced some other sites.

Ingredients:

Potatoes: atleast 2
Onion: 1 small
Garlic: 1-2 cloves
Soy sauce: 1-2 tbsp
Corn syrup: 1-2 tsp (optional)
Olive/Vegetable oil: 1-2 tbsp
Water: as needed to cook the potatoes
Salt (optional) or very little as per taste
Sugar(I did not add any)

Garnish
Sesame Oil:
Sesame seeds (white or black)

Preparation:
Peel,cube and rinse the potatoes.Mince garlic and chop onion into bite size pieces.

Heat oil in a pan/wok/kadai.Add the potato cubes and saute for 1-2 minutes.Add the miced garlic and saute till the potato cubes start becoming transparent.Add onion pieces and saute again for 1-2 minutes.Add little water needed to cook the potatoes,soy sauce,corn syrup(I added dark corn syrup),sugar(I did not add) and little salt as soy sauce is salty.Simmer for 10 minutes till the potatoes become tender and the liquid evaporates.

Drizzle seasame oil and sesame seeds and serve as a side dish or banchan as they say in Korean.

If you do not have corn syrup add sugar only or both .I did not add sugar as it would have been too sweet for me.Soy sauce can be added or reduced as per taste.Adjust salt with each increase of soy sauce.Another version I referred to (Wiki cookbooks) had bell peppers along with potatoes.Whatever it is the hero in this dish is Kamja or Kam Ja or Gamja or plainly Potato.

This makes an excellent side dish and a hot plate is off to dear PJ who has been AWED with Korean Cuisine all this month,an event created by DK of CulinaryBazaar.Thanks PJ for introducing me to Korean as I enjoyed the dish.