s h i n s h i n e

Spicy Turkey Steamed Buns

Turkey is once-a-year meat for me, although the leftover certainly lasts me through the winter.  After I stuff myself with more than enough Thanksgiving fixin's, more than the stuffed turkey for Thanksgiving itself, I tend to crave sharp, spicy food.  After years of going through the same routine, I also know that if I don't get to work soon after Thanksgiving, I'll most likely find a frozen ziplog bag full of a rock-hard lump of something barely recognizable at the bottom of the freezer next summer.  Luckily, the thought of kimchi-spicy turkey wrapped in hot steaming buns got me excited enough to open my first packet of the leftover turkey.

Spicy Turkey Steamed Buns

Yields: 6~8 steamed buns

INGREDIENTS:

Bun Dough

1 packet (7g)   Active dry yeast
2/3 C              lukewarm water 
1 1/2 C           all-purpose flour (plus 1~2 tablespoons as necessary)
2 T                 sugar
1/2 t               baking powder
1/2 t               salt
1 T                 neutral-tasting oil, such as canola oil or sunflower seed oil
                      (plus a few drops for kneading)

Spicy Turkey Filling

1 C                Cooked turkey (or chicken), mix of white and dark meat, chopped
1/2 C             Kimchi, preferably aged and tart, chopped
2 t                 Gochujang (고추장 - Korean red pepper paste)
2 t                 Toasted sesame oil (참기름)
1 t                 Gochu garu (고추가루 - Korean red pepper flakes)
1 t                 Fresh ginger, grated

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Stir in dry yeast in lukewarm water to break down lumps.  Set aside.

2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt for dough in a separate bowl.  

3. Add the yeast liquid into dry ingredients and knead with hands until a ball is formed, about 5 minutes.  If the dough is too wet (i.e., sticks to your hands after you bring together the flour and knead for a couple of minutes), knead in 1~2 tablespoons of flour, 1 tablespoon at a time.

4. Add oil and knead until a smooth ball is formed, about 5 minutes.  Cover with plastic and let it sit in a warm place until the dough doubles in size, about an hour.  You can speed up this step by placing the bowl on top of a pot with hot water.  Make sure the bowl is not touching hot water.

5. In the meantime, mix all ingredients for the spicy turkey filling.  Taste and adjust seasoning.  I almost wanted to eat the filling by itself.  Seasoning for the filling should be stronger than if you'd eat it by itself.  Set aside.

6. Set up a steamer.  You need a steamer that sits on top of a pot (as supposed to a steamer tripod that sits inside a pot).  A bamboo steamer that sells for $10~$20 does the job.  Add water to about 1/2 of the pot and bring up to a boil.

7. Also prepare 6-8 paper cupcake liners or about the same size of parchment paper pieces.  

8. Once the dough doubled in size, knead it down to remove gas.  Put a few drops of oil on your palm so that the dough won't stick to your hands.  Divide the dough into 6 pieces (shown in pictures here) - one of which can almost be a meal, or 8 pieces for a snack size. 

9. Shape the dough into a ball, flatten it then press the edges to make it thinner than the middle part.  Place about 2 tablespoons of the filling in the middle.  Carefully bring the edges together and seal.  Place the sealed part down touching the paper liner.  Repeat with the rest of the dough balls.

10.  Bring the water in the pot to a boil again.  Place the steamer on top of the pot.  Steam for 15 minutes with the lid on while the water is consistently boiling over high heat.  After 15 minutes, buns should be almost double the size with a smooth surface.  Remove from heat and let them sit for 5 minutes with no lid.  Be careful touching the steamer, it's very hot. 

Enjoy it while it's warm!

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KOREAN WORDS
생강        (saeng gang)           ginger
칠면조     (chil myeon jo)        turkey

Soy Paste Dip (쌈장 - Ssam Jang)

Good for anytime, but something handy for the upcoming holiday season starting...tomorrow?!

It's only some thick, unassuming sauce you get with all the glorious meats and a dizzy array of side dishes at any Korean barbeque restaurant.  But a tiny dollop of ssamjang (literally meaning, wrap sauce) in bulgogi-lettuce wrap... You just have to experience it yourself to know how I feel about ssamjang.

There are prepackaged ssamjang sold in Korean markets, but if you have basic Korean items at home, this one is easy to put together.  A general rule of thumb is to start with 2:1 ratio of doenjang (된장 - fermented soy bean paste) and gochujang (고추장 - red pepper paste).  Many also use chopped or grated onion in ssamjang.  While chopped nuts are not a common ingredient for ssamjang (or at least not traditional), I like it for its nutty bites. 

 

Yields: 1 C (generous 4 Servings)

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 C        Doenjang (된장 - fermented soy bean paste)
1/4 C        Gochujang (고추장 - fermented red pepper paste)
2 t            Garlic, peeled and grated (about 3 cloves)
2 T           Scallion, trimmed and finely chopped (2 stocks)
2 T           Toasted sesame oil (참기름 - cham gi reum)
2 T           Honey
2 t            Toasted sesame seeds

Optional) 1/4 C    Walnuts, toasted and finely chopped 

DIRECTIONS:
Mix all ingredients.  Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

TIPS!
Here are a few ideas of how ssamjang can make an appearance on your dinner table or a party table...

• Dairy-free dip for crudités of raw vegetable sticks such as carrot, celery, cucumber and bell pepper
• Sauce for the traditional spread with grilled meat (such as bulgogi and pork belly) and leafy greens (lettuce and perilla leaves)
• Sauce for a spread of vegetable wrap with rice and leafy greens
• Bibimbap sauce

Happy Thanksgiving!

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KOREAN WORDS
추수감사절    (chu su gam sa jeol)     Thanksgiving Day
감사              (gam sa)                     gratitude, appreciation
감사합니다    (gam sa hap ni da)       Thank you

Roasted Rice Cakes in Spicy-Tangy Sauce (떡 강정)

Once upon a time, I was a kid in Seoul looking forward to eating my almost-daily afternoon snack of rice cakes (떡볶이 - ddeok bok gi), that long strands of rice cakes in soupy, spicy sauce after school.  My mom tried to make her healthier version of ddeokbokgi / tteokbokgi with lots of vegetables and milder sauce.  But I just wished she would stop the trouble and give me more money so that I could run to a neighborhood stall and get more of that 'real' ddeokbokgi.  Now I imagine that 'real' one had a substantial amount of sugar, corn syrup, and I wonder MSG, in the sauce.  At the time, I thought I could live on ddeokbokgi alone (and I still go through this phase once in a while).

Then one day, there were food trucks popping up all over my neighborhood and school area with a different kind of rice cakes.  The same long strands of rice cakes were skewered, deep-fried and brushed with spicy-tangy sauce.   The rice cakes were crackly outside, pillowy inside with that sticky-spicy-tangy sauce.  I found my new addiction.  This was the best thing ever happened since sliced bread and long before I learned this expression. 

My go-to comfort food at this point is back to my first love, the traditional preparation of ddeokbokgi with soupy, spicy sauce.  But a Korean woman doesn't live on one rice cake dish alone.  I've also found my own simple version of ddeok gang jeong (떡강정), a popular home snack in Korea and a reminder of that shocking new world I found when I first tasted the skewered, deep-fried rice cakes.  It's my comfort food, a warm and plumpy afternoon snack, sometimes a simple dinner itself and an accompaniment for any drinking occasion.

Roasted Rice Cakes with Spicy-Tangy Sauce (떡 강정 - ddeok gang jeong)

Yields: 2 Side Servings

INGREDIENTS:
1 C        Brown rice cake sticks*, cut to short sticks or bite-size pieces
1 T        Neutral tasting oil such as canola or sunflower seed oil
1 T        Walnuts, rougly chopped

1 Stalk  Scallion, trimmed and thinly sliced
Sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Optional) 1 t    Toasted sesame oil 

Spicy-Tangy Sauce
1 T        Korean red pepper paste (고추장 - go chu jang)
1 T        Ketchup
1 t         Honey 
Feel free to adjust the ratio of gochujang and ketchup depending on your spicy preference. 

DIRECTIONS:

1. If you're using frozen rice cakes, keep them immersed in cold water until you need them.  Before using, drain and pat dry rice cakes with paper towel.

2. Make the sauce by mixing gochujang, ketchup and honey.  Set aside.

3. Heat up a pan with oil over medium heat.  When the oil starts shimmering, place the rice cakes in one layer.  When the bottom turns crispy and golden brown, turn them around to get color all around. (You can stop here, just dip the crispy-warm rice cakes in honey for a traditional winter snack in Korea.)

4. When all sides turn crispy and golden brown, add walnuts.  Cook for another minute or two, until you get the nutty smell.  It doesn't take much time, so watch out.

5. Turn off the heat.  Pour the sauce over the rice cakes and walnuts and mix quickly.

6. Sprinkle scallions and sesame seeds.  If using, drizzle sesame oil.  Serve hot.

* Handling Rice Cake Sticks

You will find a few different shapes and sizes of rice cakes in Korean grocery stores.  The thinner sticks for making ddeokbokgi (also spelled as tteokbokgi, ddukbokki, topoki... but you get the idea) may be the most popular, well-known ones.  You'll also find thin oval slices for ddeok guk (떡국), known as the new year soup but also enjoyed all year round.  These packages are usually in the refrigerated section.  

Sometimes you'll find fresh rice cake sticks along with other 'Daily-Made' section such as rice rolls (김밥 - kimbap) and lunch selections.  If there is a separate Korean rice cake store, it's easier to find fresh ones there.  The ones I used here are fresh brown rice sticks for the rice cake soup.  Whenever I find fresh ones, I prefer those over the refrigerated ones.  

I leave the fresh rice cakes out of the package for a few hours so that they dry out and harden a bit, which make it easier to cut, but you don't have to.  After cutting, I put them in plastic bags and store in the freezer.  I put the rice cakes in cold water as I start getting ready to cook them, about 20 minutes, then drain.

For this dish, I bought fresh brown rice sticks, the thicker ones called ga rae tteok (가래떡) usually used for the rice cake soup.  Instead of the usual thin oval slices, I cut them to about the size of marshmallows.  Feel free to use the thinner ones for ddeokbokgi (떡볶이) cut in half.

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KOREAN WORDS
꿀       (ggul)            honey
현미    (hyeon mi)    brown rice

Brooklyn Grange & DUMBO

It was only a couple of weeks ago that I enjoyed a full afternoon in Brooklyn, first visiting the new Brooklyn Grange in the Brooklyn Navy Yard then walking around and soaking in the warm sunlight in DUMBO.

Brooklyn Grange, its flagship location in Queens and now in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, is a massive rooftop farm that includes chickens and bees.  Both locations are closed now for the winter season, but they sell their own produce, eggs and honey during the open hour to the public once a week.  

About 20-minute leisurely walk from the Brooklyn Navy Yard is DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, which I didn't know until I started writing this post) which cannot be described in just a few words - an art district, an indoor marry-go-round, water-taxis to Manhattan, and the usual waterfront ammenities - parks, bars, ice cream, pizza... along with amazing views and a different, relaxed yet energetic vibe in the air.  I even felt a bit embarrased that I finally made it to DUMBO for a proper visit after living in NYC for so many years.

Now in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, after hearing sad news about so many places all around New York City, but especially the places I've just been, it's... surreal to say the least.  I hope all these places come back to life soon.

   
 

I didn't think Brooklyn Grange would be affected, but apparently 1 million bees in the Brooklyn Grange bee farm have been wiped out (Link to Sandy wipes out biggest beekeeping operation in New York City).

 
   

I also found pictures of the completely destroyed River Cafe, where I thought I'd go back soon for a lazy evening drink.  

I even caught a glimpse of shooting a Samsung commercial... of some Note (Obviously I'm not up to date on technological devices, my friend told me what it was but I forgot).  The model was in that pose for 15 minutes or so that I was watching.  My guess is that she was in that pose long before I started watching and after I left.  I wonder how she woke up the next morning.

I am very lucky that Sandy didn't affect me much at all.  It's a very weird feeling of having taken pictures in these places only earlier this month and seeing the disastrous pictures of the same area in the past couple of days.  

It's like the whole city and its people are in a bad movie.  But it's not a movie.

The city is picking up its life.