s h i n s h i n e

'Smoked' Fish at Home

The first time I had a sip of lapsang souchong tea, it made me think of smoky, savory broth rather than any tea I had tasted before.  Lapsang souchong from the Fujian province of China, as I learned, is a black tea that is smoke-dried over pinewood.  So it's no surprise that many describe it, some in the best way and some in the worst way, as 'campfire' in a cup.  Preference on this tea seems pretty bipolar, but if you enjoy a whiff of warm reminders in the winter time - campfire, fireplace at home, burning wood, hot tea...- you will be pleasantly surprised to find another use of this tea.     

As you might have guessed, I tried using it to steam fish and it became my favorite way to cook and eat fish at home.  It's quick and easy, but you get a fish infused with lapsang souchong that is still delicate, flavorful, and smoky (without any eye-burning smoke filling up the kitchen, mind you).  I used red mullets this time because it was fresh and small enough to fit in my pot, but other whole fish or fish fillets with delicate white flesh would soak up the smoky aroma well in steaming.  The assertive smoky flavor of the tea is toned down in fish, complementing the delicate and subtle nature of the main ingredient.  It is also one of the easiest ways to cook fish at home, because you can wrap the fish in tea to steam, from which you get a waft of lapsang souchong as you open the wrap, then you can throw out the whole wrap after you're done eating. 

For the dipping sauce, I used soy sauce with fresh squeezed lemon juice so that it completments the savoriness of the fish and doesn't overpower the subtle, smoky flavor of the fish.  In this case, it's definitely 'less is more.'  

  
 

2 red mullets (or other fish fillet with white flesh)
5 C water
5 t lapsang souchong dried tea leaves
salt and pepper to season
1 T soy sauce
2 t fresh squeezed lemon juice (or vinegar)

Bring water up to a boil.  Remove from heat.  Add lapsang souchong in water and brew for 7-10 minutes.  Strain and lay out tea leaves on paper towel.  Put another layer of paper towel on top.  Pour the strained tea in a pot.

Rinse the fish carefully and pat dry.  Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of the fish.  Place the fish on the tea paper towel and fold the paper towel to wrap. 

Set up a steamer in a pot with brewed lapsang souchong tea.  I used a perforated tripod for steaming with fairly short legs.  In this case, make sure the tea doesn't come up too close to the steamer.  You can also use a steamer that sits on top of a pot.  Turn up the heat and bring tea to a boil.

Place the wrapped fish in the steamer.  Put the lid on and steam for 15 minutes over high heat.  

After 15 minutes, carefully open the lid away from you, otherwise, you might get a burst of hot steam on your face.  Check the flesh - if it's opaque white, it's done.  Remove from the steamer.

Enjoy the 'smoked' fish with tangy soy sauce splashed with lemon juice. 

RELATED POSTS
Stuffed Squid (오징어 순대; o jing eo sun dae)
Carrot Mushroom Rice 

KOREAN WORDS
Smoked (as in food)          훈제     (hoon je)
Fish (food)                        생선      (saeng seon)
Fish (swimming in water)   물고기     (mul go gi) 

Thank You

Last year was a tough one.  I guess that's the thing about life, things happen.  I can hear my friend J telling me, "stop being melodramatic," so I probably am.  I'm not good at saying these things in person, but at least let me write it down.  At the end of last year, what ultimately remained and what I've come to learn was empathy, trust and kindness from you - my family, friends and strangers. 

And you - you who are reading this right now, who've left me a comment or sent me an email about this blog - I thank you.  It's a strange feeling, this blog thing that's out there, people actually come to look at it once in a while and even tell me what they like about it and ask me questions about Korean food.  It's strange but it's indescribably encouraging. 

So I wanted to write my own thank-you note and wish you a happy new year.  I dug up my calligraphy brush and ink for the first time in over a year.  A bit rusty, which explains why only one word after spending all evening.

Although the word itself may be over-used and even over-abused, there is no other word that binds the gratitude, appreciation and all other feelings I've experienced in the past year better than this one - love (사랑 - sa rang).

Now I'm off to Korea for a month - to rest, eat, catch up, get inspired and move forward.  I have a couple of scheduled posts coming up and I also hope to share some exciting stuff I find while I'm in Korea, but allow me a few days to settle first. 

I wish you a new year filled with love.
사랑 가득한 새해를 기원합니다.

What I've been eating

I was going through my pictures of things I made and ate in the past year (and boy, how did I eat so much...), trying to organize them in some order.  And here I am, getting a second new year's eve before the year of the dragon starts.  Let me take this opportunity as an excuse to share some food that haven't made to blog posts and likely won't for a while for one reason or another (such as, I will be away from my kitchen for a month), plus a couple of all time favorites I keep going back to.  

Persimmon rolls in the way of cinnamon rolls.  Nice bites of fuyu persimmon (단감 - dan gam) but I should have put a lot more persimmon pieces.  Also, a (more) generous amount of sugar and butter could have helped.

A failed loaf of bread that came out pretty flat.  With black sesame seeds, ground walnuts and buckwheat(?) flour, it was still good to eat, but the bread wasn't so happy to hold too many good things out of ratio.

Gegukji (게국지) - The idea of this dish - crabs pickled in soy sauce (간장게장 - ganjang gejang), pumpkin and fresh kimchi boiled together much like a stew - is what I achieved, although it's probably far from the actual dish from South Chungcheog province on the west coast.  It was an unfamiliar dish even to many native Koreans until recently, but it finally got the deserved spotlight on the popular Korean TV show 1 Night 2 Days.  I watched this particular episode when I happened to have ingredients - fresh made kimchi, kabocha and spicy crabs (양념게장 - yangnyeom gejang) - that were close enough to make something similar.  So of course, I had to try my own gegukji right away.  It was a deeply savory, briny, sweet dish, a comforting stew to be shared on a cold, wintry night indeed.  I'm still curious about the real thing though...

Crispy Tofu in Soy Garlic Sauce - One of those days I deep-fried tofu after dipping in batter.  Somehow I just haven't gone back to making it for the ...5th time yet.

Oxtail Stew (소꼬리찜 - so ggo ri jjim) with Oxtail Broth - Yum!  Love oxtail stew.  If you ever get tired of galbi jjim (갈비찜 - braised short ribs), I suggest you try this.  I'll probably get the recipe down by...next winter. 

Roasted chestnuts (군밤 - gun bam) is an easy way to enjoy fresh chestnuts in season.

 

Steamed pear (배찜 - bae jjim) is a popular home remedy for the common cold but I also like it as a dessert once in a while, especially when I can get a hold of that juicy, sweet, fragrant Korean Shingo pears.

More will be coming in the new year of the dragon.  Stay warm and stay tuned...

RELATED POSTS
What I've been eating 2011 

Sweet Soy Glazed Lotus Roots (연근조림 - yeongeun jorim)

yeongeun jorim - home style

Yeongeun (연근- lotus root) jorim (조림- reduced) is one of the basic, every day banchan (반찬 - side dish) found at home tables and restaurants.  It is a simple dish of sliced lotus roots boiled then reduced in soy sauce and corn syrup.  That's also how a Korean mother will describe it to you, if you asked about a recipe of this dish. 

It is true to some extent, that there isn't much to this side dish.  Aside from the basic ingredients of lotus root, water, soy sauce, and some kind of sweetener such as sugar or corn syrup (물엿 - mul yeot), the rest are bells and whistles that add a deeper dimension to the flavor and affect its texture, but you could certainly do without kelp, shitake mushroom or Korean rice malt syrup (조청 - jo cheong). 

What stumped me was that, although the name yeongeun jorim is shared by both home and restaurant versions, the home version tends to have crunchy bites with light seasoning of sweet-salty flavor, whereas a sticky, sweet, chewy yeongeun jorim seems to be more common in restaurants (oh and they look so shiny and sexy).  In fact, the restaurant version comes closer to candied snack (정과 - jeong gwa) with added soy sauce.  Just to be clear, I didn't get this from any restaurant informant, but the recipe below is what I had to do to get something similar.  You can also use a mix of regular corn syrup and Korean rice malt syrup (조청 - jo cheong), a.k.a. brown corn syrup, grain syrup, or rice syrup.  Although rice malt syrup tastes sweeter with a hint of malty-earthy back note on its own, the end result of yeongeun jorim is not too noticeably different in color, taste, or texture (ones cooked in jo cheong are slightly chewier) from using just regular corn syrup. This might have to do with how traditional jo cheong is produced these days, but I'll leave that for another day.

Also, speaking of candied snack, I've seen from a few places on the world wide web out there that named this side dish as yeongeun jeonggwa.  Jeong gwa is a generic term referring to traditional candied snack in Korea and is not used for savory dishes.  Traditionally, many root vegetables as well as fruits were cooked in syrup to have the sweet flavor infused and alter the texture to sticky-soft, which were then enjoyed as snack or used as garnish with altered shapes.  Radish (무우 -mu wu), balloon flower root (도라지 - do ra ji), ginseng (인삼 - in sam), and lotus root (연근 - yeon geun) are some common ingredients made into jeong gwa (정과).   

Now, back to today's topic - yeongeun jorim.  A common recipe, home or restaurant version, calls for drops of vinegar in the beginning to prevent the lotus root from oxidizing, i.e., browning and for the initial boiling to remove the tannic/puckering bitterness, I generally skip vinegar.  I am ok with letting the vegetable turn a little brown which will be soon doused in brown sauce anyway.  As far as the bitterness goes, maybe it's the kind I get (the kind that's available near me), but I haven't found the lotus roots too bitter in any sense. 

One more thing about the lotus roots...Although lotus roots are available year-round in dried and packaged forms, it remains a seasonal ingredient to me.  I bought sliced lotus roots in package a long time ago, lacking other options.  They looked sickly pale (I wonder, bleached?) and tasted like crumbled recycled paper (...and somehow I know the taste of crumbled recycled paper).  I might have picked a wrong package, but, lotus roots as a seasonal ingredient are much more enjoyable to me.  

So here you go - hope you enjoy the variety (?) of yeongeun jorim.  And thank you Alice for requesting this recipe and for your infinite patience. 
 
 
 

Sweet Soy Glazed Lotus Roots (home style)

About 300g or 3 C fresh lotus root, peeled and sliced thinly
water to boil
water to rinse

Optional) A piece of dried kelp about the size of your palm (다시마 - dashima)
Optional) 1 dried shitake mushroom
2 C water
1/4 C soy sauce
1 T brown sugar
Optional) 2 T honey
2 t sesame oil
Optional) toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Optional) Add dried kelp and dried shitake in 2 C water.  Set aside.

Add peeled and sliced lotus roots in a pot and add enough water to submerge them.  Bring it up to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  Strain and rinse lotus roots in cold water.

In a clean pot, add lotus root slices.  Add soy sauce, brown sugar, and kelp & shitake water.  Bring it up to a boil then simmer until the outside of lotus root slices becomes slightly soft with a nice crunchy bite, about 40 minutes over moderate heat.  Stir occasionally in order to cook evenly.  Once lotus root slices reach your desired texture, increase the heat to reduce the liquid, stirring often to keep coating all the lotus root slices evenly.  Taste and adjust seasoning by adding more soy sauce and try honey for added sweetness.  When the liquid is coating the bottom of the pot, remove from heat.  Finish with sesame oil. Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds.

Cool to room temperature then keep in the refrigerator. 

Sweet, Sticky Lotus Roots (restaurant style)

Lotus roots cooked in corn syrup (left) vs. cooked in jo cheong, Korean rice malt syrup (right)

About 300g or 3 C fresh lotus root, peeled and sliced thinly
water to boil
water to rinse

Optional) A piece of dried kelp about the size of your palm (다시마; dashima)
Optional) 1 dried shitake mushroom
2 C+ water
1/4 C soy sauce
1 C corn syrup (물엿 - mul yeot) or rice malt syrup (조청 - jo cheong)
2 t sesame oil 
Optional) toasted sesame seeds

Optional) Add dried kelp and dried shitake in 2 C water.  Set aside.

Add peeled and sliced lotus roots in a pot and add enough water to submerge them.  Bring it up to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  Strain and rinse lotus roots in cold water.

In a clean pot, add lotus root slices.  Add soy sauce, corn syrup (or rice-malt syrup) and kelp & shitake water.  Bring it up to a boil then reduce heat to barely simmer lotus root slices for 2 hours or longer, until the slices become soft and glistening.  You may need to add 1/2C to 1 C water to keep the lotus roots submerged in liquid to allow them enough time to soften.  Once they become soft, meaning, no crunchy bite yet with slight resistence, increase heat to reduce the remaining liquid and thicken it to a syrupy consistency.  Remove from heat and finish with sesame oil.  Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds.

Cool to room temperature then keep in the refrigerator. 

RELATED POSTS
Mini Potatoes in Soy-Honey Glaze
Kimchi Stew Made Simple (김치 찌개) 
Chive-Mushroom Pancakes (부추 버섯전)

KOREAN WORDS
sugar             설탕        (seol tang)
brown sugar   흑설탕    (heuk seol tang)
honey            꿀            (ggul)

S'more Gyeongdan (경단)

 

S'mores!  The combination of graham crackers, gooey marshmallow and chocolate is an American classic that has found so many sweet applications, like cupcakes, bars, shakes, etc.  So it's only natural that I try my own take on s'more for an easy sweet-tooth fix... 

...and you are probably not surprised I made rice cakes with these ingredients.  Gyeongdan (경단) is a quick and easy kind of rice cakes made by boiling small balls of sweet rice flour dough, a.k.a. glutinous rice flour (despite no gluten in the flour...so confusing).  They are often rolled in sponge cake crumbs or toasted bean powder (콩고물 - kong go mul) which only enhance their already cute looks and flavors. 

Now you can enjoy a soft Korean rendition of s'mores from this sweet gyeongdan, with the rice flour wrapper as a snug pocket for holding melted chocolate chips and marshmallow bits together.   

 

 

To make 20 s'more gyeongdan balls -

1 C sweet rice flour, a.k.a. mochiko (찹쌀가루 - chap ssal ga ru)
1 T sugar
1/4 t salt
1/2 C boiling water for dough
plus more water to boil rice cakes
ice water to stop rice cakes from over-cooking

1/2 C mini marshmallows
1/4 C mini chocolate chips
3 sheets graham crackers

Boil water in a pot for making dough and cooking rice cakes.

In the meantime, Set up marshmallows and chocolate chips in one bowl.  Put graham crackers in a plastic bag and crush with your hands.  Put the crumbs in a separate bowl.  Set aside.

Combine sweet rice flour, sugar and salt.  Take 1/2 C of boiling hot water from the pot.  Add 1/4C of the boiling water first and mix in with a fork.  Gradually add the other 1/4 C of boiling water.  As the mixture becomes manageable to handle with your hand, start kneading with your hand.

Knead to form a smooth ball, then divide it into equal sized pieces (about the size of 1 teaspoon), then roll in between your palms to a round ball shape.  Keep them covered in wet paper towel.

Flatten the rice ball, place marshmallow and chocolate chips in the middle.  Don't make the wrapper too thin or put too much filling of marshmallow and chocolate chips, it will tear.  Carefully seal the ends as you squeeze the wrapper to get rid of air pockets.  Shape it into a ball again, then keep it under the wet paper towel.  Repeat with the rest. 

Prepare ice water in a bowl.  Carefully put the rice balls in boiling water a few at a time.  Once the rice balls start floating, boil for another minute.  Transfer the rice balls to ice water using a perforated spoon only for a few seconds.  From there, transfer the rice balls in graham cracker crumbs and roll around. 

These gyeongdan are best, soft and slightly chewy, when they're warm.  If necessary, you can re-heat them, covered, in the microwave for 30 seconds (more or less, depending on the number of gyeongdan) before serving.  I have to warn you though there is a chance that the chocolate and marshmallow filling might burst out in the microwave (how do I know this...?).  This doesn't affect taste much, just not the most well put-together pieces of gyeongdan at this point.  

If you want to make ahead, make gyeongdan but don't boil them.  Place gyeongdan on a plate, not touching each other, and freeze for a couple of hours until they are firm.  Keep them in a plastic bag in the freezer.  When you are ready to serve, go directly from the freezer to boiling water, then roll in graham cracker crumbs.       

RELATED POSTS
Orange Seolgi (설기)
Patbingsu Cupcakes (팥빙수 컵케이크)

KOREAN WORDS
ice    얼음    (eol eum, which becomes 'eo reum' in actual pronounciation)
adult  어른   (eo reun)