« February 2010 | Main | April 2010 »
Within 30 minutes from the city by subway, I am transported to a little quiet medieval church setting somewhere in Europe. On the way to the Cloisters is Fort Tryon Park that's already having spring blooms of their own. It seems so far away when I'm sitting at home, then I realize it's so close when I'm sitting on a bench in the Cloisters I wonder why I don't come here more often.
| KOREAN WORDS | ||||
| spring (season) | 봄 | (bom) | ||
| park | 공원 | (gong won) | ||
| picnic | 소풍 | (so pung) | ||
| | |
|
"...and I'm bringing the thing that's scarier than a tiger."
It took me all 10 seconds to interpret my father's email a few days before his visit.
The Korean folk tale about dried persimmons goes something like this. Once upon a time, a mother was trying to calm her crying baby. She said, "if you don't stop crying, a tiger will take you away." The baby, now more scared at the thought of a tiger, cried louder. The mom was frustrated and didn't know how to stop this mad crying from her son, so she gave in and said, "ok, if you stop crying, I'll give you a gotgam (곶감; dried persimmon)." The baby, thinking of a sweet, soft gotgam, finally stopped crying.
All this time, a tiger was eavesdropping from outside. When gotgam finally stopped the baby's crying, the tiger said to himself, "this gotgam thing, whatever it is, must be something really scary, even scarier than me!" So the tiger ran away before the scary gotgam made its entrance.
Gotgam is enjoyed mostly as is for a snack, but also traditionally used to make a spicy sweet cinnamon drink (수정과; su jeong gwa) and dried persimmon wrap (곶감말이; gotgam mari), often with walnuts inside. It is also used as an ingredient for cakes and cookies. For me, it seems that I never get enough to do anything else with it because the few I get on occasion disappear so quickly.
The word gotgam is said to have come from got-da (곶다; old verb, to skewer) and gam (감; persimmon) because persimmons used to be dried skewered in twigs. The types of dried persimmons have evolved over time. From my childhood, I remember mostly the flattened, donut-shaped gotgam covered in white sugary powder that develops naturally in the drying process. Then over the years, I've seen different shapes of gotgam and tasted more variety in textures, yet with a consistently concentrated sweet flavor bursting in my mouth with each bite every time.
Despite the plentiful gotgam I've eaten in my lifetime, I didn't know how they transformed from persimmons to gotgam - other than the fact that some drying was involved. This time, as my dad and I were marveling over the gotgam he brought for me (one for dad, two for me...), I became curious.
(Source with more photos of drying persimmons)
Here is what I've gathered on the general persimmon drying process. Gotgam are made with 70-80% ripe persimmons when they are still relatively firm and easy to peel with the shape intact. Starting in October each year, persimmons are harvested, sorted for blemishes, peeled, then dried for about 45 days hung in threads or special hangers made for drying persimmons. The ones sold as half-dried persimmons (반건시; ban geon shi) would obviously require less drying time. They are kept in tents or warehouses with exposure to the sunlight by the day and below freezing temperature by the night. The continuous exposure to freezing then thawing with natural ventilation of wind allows persimmons to slowly dry and develop almost candy-like sweet flavor and moist consistency of a cross between jelly and coulis. Some drying method variations include controlling the level of exposure to the sunlight, massaging persimmons often throughout the drying period, shaping half-way through, and/or reshaping before packaging.
Even with some automation (e.g., persimmon peeling machines) in some large gotgam towns in places like Sangju which is responsible for 60% of the persimmons produced in the country, the whole process is very labor intensive. The hanging, harvesting and packaging are mostly done by hand. Also, because persimmons are prone to develop mold at the contact with other persimmons and moisture (i.e., rain or snow), not to mention the impact of temperature, ventilation and humidity on the color and the quality of gotgam, the drying period of almost two months is about constant care.
What I've come to appreciate as I was learning about the gotgam process is that this is really about how the best in a fruit comes out through patient human care combined with what the mother nature offers.
Although Slow Food USA has put dried persimmons in the Ark of Taste, as one of over 200 foods in danger of extinction, I am glad to see that gotgam continues to get better in Korea. It is a popular winter holiday gift item reflecting its seasonal release, but also available throughout the year. Still, most of the country's current production is consumed domestically, hence the reason we see so few of these even in Asian markets in the states. Although the price range reflects its laborious process, I wish we could find more gotgam in more markets.
Maybe when the cold winds come back at the end of this year, I can walk through gotgam aisles in a gotgam town and taste one right off of the gotgam hangers...
| DID YOU KNOW? | ||
| Types of Persimmon | ||
| Commercially, persimmons are largely categorized into the sweet and the astringent kinds, then further divided into specific varieties in Korea. Both are used to make gotgam. | ||
| Sweet (단감; dan gam) | ||
| - Should be eaten when firm | ||
| - Looks like flattened tomatoes | ||
| - Widely known as Fuyu persimmon in the U.S. | ||
| Astringent (떫은감; ddeorbeun gam or 땡감; ddaeng gam) | ||
| - 홍시 (hong shi) is the more common name referring to the ripened state once it becomes completely soft and sweet | ||
| - Tannin, which gives the astringency, is reduced as the persimmons mature | ||
| - Acorn shaped | ||
| - A well known kind in this family in the U.S. is Hachiya | ||
| - More widely used to make gotgam | ||
| KOREAN WORDS | ||||
| tiger | 호랑이 | (ho rang e) | ||
| winter | 겨울 | (gyeo wul) | ||
| fruit | 과일 | (gwa il) | ||
| | |
|
A couple of days after my dad arrived, he was still fighting jetleg and dozing off at random hours. When the dinner time came around, he just wanted something simple.
Me) How about roasted sweet potatoes for dinner? (저녁으로 군고구마 어때요?)
Dad) That sounds great! (좋지!)
M) Want a glass? (한잔 하실래요?)
D) Of course, don't you know roasted sweet potatoes are great with wine? (물론이지! 군고구마가 와인하고 잘 어울리는 걸 니는 모르나?)
M) Oh?
So it has been declared. My dad's declaration precedes any and all logical, objective flavor parings. I take out the one bottle of red I have, along with toasted nuts in residence. After reaching his alcohol limit of one glass, blaming his jetleg, he dozes off again on the couch.
In my family, sweet pancakes (호떡; ho tteok), roasted chestnuts (군밤; gun bam) and roasted sweet potatoes (군고구마; gun go gu ma) have always been the trinity of favorite winter street food. We bought them often from the neighborhood stands when we lived in Korea. After moving to the U.S., we eventually figured out how to make-do with available tools at home. We roasted sweet potatoes wrapped in foil in the fireplace just after putting out the fire. My mom's experimentations with flour, sweet rice flour and yeast to make hotteok always came out delicious.
Roasting sweet potatoes on a stovetop is simple, but just takes a bit of time. It's very similar to roasting chestnuts. Rinse and place sweet potatoes in a cast iron pan over low heat. Turn them every 10 minutes or so for even cooking on all sides. Depending on the size, it may take 30 minutes to an hour. When a toothpick (or a chopstick) is inserted through with no resistence, it is done!
I microwave sweet potatoes first for 3 minutes before putting them in a cast iron pan to shorten the cooking time - although I don't think it makes that much difference at the end. It can also be done using a regular pot, but the cleanup would be a bit messier. I find that with its size and concentrated sweet flavor, the smaller, longer kind - commonly known as Japanese sweet potato - works well for the stove top roasting.
One common paring with roasted sweet potoates in Korea is to eat them with kimchi. It sounds like an unlikely combination, but the soft sweet potatoes that can be a bit dry on their own go surprisingly well with spicy, tart, crunchy kimchi.
| KOREAN WORDS | ||||
| sweet potato | 고구마 | (go gu ma) | ||
| potato | 감자 | (gam ja) | ||
| chopstick(s) | 젓가락 | (jeot ga rak) | ||
| | |
|
My father is coming. After moving back to Korea last year, my father's visiting for a few days. My mind is going in all directions and the first thing I think of is - I gotta clean out my fridge.
Sometimes I end up with random stuff, other times I buy things to poke around and figure out what to do with them on top of my usual grocery items and leftovers after various cooking trials. With a bit of exaggeration, my small kitchen is stocked to feed everyone in my apartment building for a week at any given point.
Just to minimize the moment of sheer shock when he opens my refrigerator, I started the process of cleaning it out. The first one was pickling pearl onions, then baking potatoes and eggs that didn't work out (but still made a good lunch). This time is turkey tacos, an idea I got from the Beer-Braised Turkey Tacos Recipe from the magazine Food & Wine. The innocent looking turkey tacos above have hodgepodge of ingredients from my refrigerator, including bekseju (백세주), gochujang (고추장) and doenjang (된장) - which, combined together, help bring out an earthy, warm flavor of the familiar winter meat dish, yet something that makes you wonder what else is in this...?
To make turkey tacos for 2) After sauteing 1 chopped onion and 3 cloves of sliced garlic, add a defrosted turkey leg and a thigh along with 1/2 bottle of bekseju (백세주), a Korean rice wine.* Reduce until the liquid is just covering the bottom of the pot. Take out the turkey meat and pull off the meat from the bones. Reserve the meat and discard the bones. Add about 3 cups of stock or water and a tablespoon of doenjang (된장; fermented bean paste or miso) and 2 tablespoons of gochujang (고추장; Korean hot pepper paste). Bring up to a boil. Add back the turkey meat, a tablespoon of grated ginger and a seeded, sliced jalapeno. Simmer over low heat for about an hour until the meat is tender and the liquid is reduced and thickened to your desired consistency. Mix in enoki mushrooms (팽이버섯; paeng e beo seot) and chopped scallions right before removing from heat. Salt is not necessary because there is enough in gochujang and doenjang.
Warm up wonton wrappers over low heat just until soft and turning translucent on a pan coated lightly with oil. Make sure to shape them like shells as the wrappers tend to get crispy soon after taking off from heat.
The recipe is purely based on the available items in my refrigerator. As with recipes in general, it is up for revision based on what you have in your own refrigerator.
* I wanted to test it for myself what I heard about leftover soju and bekseju. Usually, these can't be saved for later because they go flat once opened. One way to resolve this is to freeze the leftover then defrost it in the refrigerator before drinking it again. And now I know that at least for bekseju, it works.
| KOREAN WORDS | ||||
| turkey | 칠면조 | (chil myeon jo) | ||
| wonton wrapper | 만두피 | (man du pi) | ||
| scallion | 파 | (pa) | ||
| | |
|
As pretty as they are, pearl onions require careful peeling to show their bright colors and shapes. After cleaning them up, I got about 2 cups of pearl onions. Combine 2 cups of Champagne vinegar, 1/4 cups of honey, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2 teaspoons of salt, about 20 peppercorns and 2 whole cloves. Taste to see if the liquid tastes like the pickles you'd want to eat, then adjust as necessary. Bring the liquid up to a boil, then pour over the onions. Let it cool to room temperature, then put it in an airtight container and keep it in the refrigerator.
Simply bright, pretty pickles!
| KOREAN WORDS | ||||
| onion | 양파 | (yang pa) | ||
| vinegar | 식초 | (shik cho) | ||
| salt | 소금 | (so geum) | ||
| | |
|
