s h i n s h i n e

Snow

  

   

It feels like there has been snow - so much snow - almost every other week this year.  Despite the puddles and slushy sidewalks, this time around turned out to be a blessing for me.

First Full Moon Day (정월대보름) and Energy Tteok

  

The first full moon day (정월대보름; jeong wol dae bo reum or dae bo reum) of the year by lunar calendar, which is February 28th this year, is recognized as one of the five traditional Korean holidays.  Yet maybe because it comes so close after the double celebrations of the new year, or the daeboreum activities such as jwi bul nori (쥐불놀이) happen in big open fields (plus playing with fire was never part of my family tradition), it became a healthy eating day for my family - which wasn't too different from other days.  As a kid, daeboreum food was not exactly the most exciting part.  My sister had fun cracking shelled walnuts with her nutcracker that she got as a Christmas gift for about 5 walnuts, then it was time to move on to more exciting things in life.  Some of the traditional daeboreum food include:

5 grains and beans rice (오곡밥; oh gok bap) - usually made with glutinous rice, red beans, black beans, millet, and sorghum, +/- your favorite/not-so-favorite grains and beans.

Assortment of vegetables (나물; na mul) - traditionally this is the day to clean out the dried vegetables stored for the winter.  

Glutinous rice flavored with chestnuts, dates, pine nuts and brown sugar (약식; yak shik or yak sik)

Nuts with hard shells - wishing for no skin problems and a healthy set of teeth in the new year by cracking the nuts with teeth, a tradition called bu reum (부럼)

Chilled rice wine in the early morning -  wishing for hearing well, or hearing only good news in the new year, a tradition called gui bal gi sul (귀밝이술)

I've become more appreciative of the seemingly simple daeboreum food because each element in one bowl and one plate requires careful preparation of its own.  With 5 or more grains and beans, they cannot be just mixed together and left alone to be cooked in a rice cooker, which will result in undercooked beans and porridge-like rice and a whole range of textures in-between.  A pressure cooker simplifies a few steps, but beans still need to be pre-soaked.  Dried vegetables require soaking in water and cooking separately to bring out the flavors of their own.  All the effort results in deceivingly simple, clean-tasting dishes.

In recent years, my own celebration of daeboreum has been limited to looking for the full moon at night.  Something that seems to capture more of the spirit of daeboreum is an oven baked rice cake commonly known as LA chap ssal tteok (LA 찹쌀떡).  For a while, every time I made this, I added more and more beans, nuts, and dried fruits, using the base batter to hold everything together.  Right out of the oven, the edges are crispy and the inside is sticky-soft.  Once it's cooled to room temperature, I cut it into smaller pieces, wrap them in plastic, and keep them in the freezer.  Then I take one with me when I know I'll have a long day out - it thaws nicely and tastes just like sticky tteok as it should (without the crispiness) in a couple of hours.  It's filling and loaded with energy boosting ingredients - ohgokbap and bureum in one, a tteok version of trail mix and energy bars.  For these reasons, I've re-named my version as energy tteok.

The receipe below makes one block of about 11"x7"x1" (about 28x18x2.5cm).  If you make this for the crispiness of oven-baked tteok and plan to finish it all right after baking, you can spread it on a cookie sheet pan to maximize the crust part. 

Here is how you can start making your own energy tteok. 

Dry Base ingredients) 2 Cups (C) glutinous rice flour (찹쌀가루; chap ssal ga ru, mochiko or sweet rice flour), 1 teaspoon (ts) baking powder, 1/2 ts salt, 2 Tablespoon (TBSP) sugar --> mix well.

Wet Base ingredients) 1 egg, 1 1/2 C milk --> mix well.

Additions) 1/4 C dried plums, 1/2 C dried cranberries, 1/2 C toasted pecans, 1/4 C toasted sunflower seeds, 2 C boiled, drained chickpeas

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F/180C.  * Grease a baking pan.  * Line the pan with greased parchment paper. *This is the most important step.  Without the greased lining, you will get tteok stuck to the pan.  You lose most of tteok and the pan is a pain to clean up.  Believe me, I know this part too well.

2. Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients together.  The consistency should be pretty thick, yet still runny enough to pour into the pan.

3. Fold in dried fruits, nuts, then beans separately, in the order of sturdy to soft ingredients.

4. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until the top becomes golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

5. Cool to room temperature before cutting.  Wrap individual pieces in plastic and freeze for longer storage. 

Additions above - variety and ratio - are a suggestion and my favorite combination these days.  I've also used kidney beans, black beans, toasted walnuts, almonds, dried dates, dried apricots...  Just make sure beans are cooked before folding into the base batter.  Also, fold in from the sturdiest ingredients (usually dried fruits) to the softest (cooked beans). 

KOREAN WORDS
	full moon	보름	(bo reum)
	walnut	호두	(ho du)
	bean	콩	(kong)

Lasagna with Sliced Tteok

     

Do you have any leftover sliced tteok after making the rice cake soup (떡국; tteok guk) on New Year's Day?  Tteok guk is good any day and also one of the best hangover food for me, so I always keep a package of thinly sliced tteok in the freezer.  The thinly sliced, coin-shaped version also cuts down the rubbery texture of the tubular kind of rice cakes which some people are not used to.  This makes the sliced version a good substitute for the tubular kind in making tteokbokki.  Another way to make an easy use of sliced tteok is to make lasagna with it.  Just replace lasagna sheets with thinly sliced tteok, and it adds pleasantly sticky bites to the dish. 

Here is a basic lasagna with sliced tteok recipe)  Soak sliced tteok in boiling hot water for 5 minutes then drain.  Pre-heat the oven to 350F/180C.  Mix ricotta cheese with an egg.  Layer from the bottom of the pan - tomato sauce - bulgogi meat (or thinly sliced beef) - sliced tteok - ricotta-egg mix and repeat the layers one more time.  Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove the cover and bake for another 20 minutes.  Top with mozzarella cheese (or mix with grated parmesan) and broil for 5 minutes to melt the cheese on top.  Take the pan out.  Let it rest for a few minutes before serving.

I've also used just stracchino cheese which adds slightly tangy flavor (pictures above).  Meat is optional, as well as other bells and whistles of your liking.  Just make sure to start with the sauce at the bottom of the pan and majority of cooking ingredients is done before baking in the oven.  Pick cheeses that stand well as a layer and melt well on top.  At the end of the day, it's just a fun way to enjoy sliced tteok and lasagna together - a warm, hearty dish on a cold wintry night...

KOREAN WORDS
	rice cake (in general)	떡	(tteok)
	soup	국	(guk)
	food (in general)	음식	(eum shik)

Happy New Year...One More Time!

 
What a weekend - The Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Valentine's Day, and Lunar New Year in one bundle!  Seol (설; Lunar New Year Day) is the day for families, memorial service for ancestors, lots of eating (including the signature dish of rice cake soup (떡국; tteok guk)), and sharing good wishes (덕담; deok dam).  For me, it is also the day I reset my mind to Day 1 of the year and think about what it takes to realize infinite possibilities...

From top to bottom, right to left - an old way of writing which is still common in calligraphy - is 새해(sae hae; New Year) 복(bok; luck) 많이 (mani; a lot) 받으세요(ba deu se yo; I hope you receive).  The most popular deok dam heard on the day and the Korean equivalent of - Happy New Year! 

My new year wish for you comes written in black sesame porridge (검은깨죽; geom eun kkae juk or 흑임자죽; heuk im ja juk) with pine nut porridge (잣죽; jat juk) background.

KOREAN WORDS
	sesame	깨	(kkae)
	pine nut	잣	(jat)
	porridge	죽	(juk or jook)

Thoughts After The Essence of Japanese Food

I wrote an article for ZenKimchi Food Journal on my observations and thoughts after attending The Essence of Japanese Food - Discover Authentic Japanese Ingredients on January 24th and 25th.  It was a 4-day event that introduced Japanese ingredients and food culture to culinary professionals in New York area, sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan. 

To read the full article, please go here.

For photos of chef David Bouley's cooking demonstration during this event, go here.