One of the last days we were able to checkout brooks from Seattle Public Libraries, Brooks and I visited and I went immediately to the cookbook aisle. I grabbed two books on Korean cooking, one I'd read before ("Koreatown") and one new one, "Seoul Food".
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| I checked out "Koreatown" from Juneau Public Library before we sold the house and moved into 1-bedroom rental |
While Brooks was out of town skiing at Crystal, I stayed home and reviewed the cookbook while chowing down on bbqd raddicio, something I knew Brooks wouldn't love as much as I would:
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| New recipe to eat while I search for new recipes to cook... and a little NPR spotify playlist |
Once Brooks returned, the Korean cooking commenced! A lot of these recipes call for 1 day for marinade flavors to meld and then two days with the meat in the marinade. We also had to take a trip to Uwajimaya for some traditional flavors! I went in with gloves and face mask and when I returned, Brooks met me with hand-sani and Clorox wipes to wipe it all down with. (Those of you feminist friends out there, before you get irritated that I went in and Brooks didn't go with me, let me just remind you how much LESS you purchase when you don't have your man tossing bags of candy in the cart AND how much faster shopping is...)
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| Notice the gloved hand--needed Brooks' approval before purchasing his rice topping |
Brooks loves his
Tamaki Gold rice and because rice is flying off the shelves lately, all they had was a 50# bag... check out our pantry!
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| That's what a 50# bag of rice looks like, friends, just like a bag 50# bag of dog food... |
We started with tried-and-true Bulgogi. We made this before in Juneau when I checked out this book. This time we used an elk flank (pretty sure we used Elk brisket in Juneau because I remember not liking the chewiness of it... yes, I'm particular).
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We're out of bbq gas, so we used the inside grill-mark pan and sauteed some bok choy
Brooks is the grillmaster!
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| Dinner! |
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| Koreatown recipe for Bulgogi |
Hank Shaw's
Buck, Buck, Moose also has a Bulgogi recipe that's delish as well as a
Korean BBQ sauce on his website. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention him as his cookbook really opened the world of cooking red meat for me.
Then we moved on to Kalbi. First, we made the marinade. Then we did the meatball recipe as it took fewer days to marinate.
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| Koreatown Recipe for Kalbi meatballs. Unfortunately, we did not get photos of our plates or the cooking process... like I said, only my selfie camera is working so I'm relying lately on Brooks for all my photos. |
Then we moved on to Kalbi meat. Now, this is usually served with ribs, but we don't do ribs, ask Brooks why--funny story, well, several of them. So, we again used flank. Much sweeter marinade (lots of fruit: Pineapple, pears, and apples, oh my!) than bulgogi.
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| Koreatown's Kalbi recipe |
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| Kalbi! Yum! We did lettuce wraps for everything! |
It's been a fun adventure! Last night we did two recipes from Cook's Illustrated from the magazine that came in the mail. Brooks came in as sous chef just at the crux! We made
Salade Lyonnaise and
Banh Xeo, aka Sizzling Vietnamese Crepes. No portk or shrimp in our crepes; I substituted mushrooms we had in the fridge that needed to be eaten. Not quite Korean, but Italian & Vietnamese so we're still traveling with our culinary destinations.
What have you been cooking?
