February’s menu was: Pae Jun. Kalbi. Soon dubu chigae.

Some things I’ve learned:

• If you use too much tempura batter for pae jun you can actually spend close to 40 minutes making one pancake. True story.
• Do not feed the puppy scraps from the table no matter how cute his face is. He and his ancestors have worked on that face for centuries. Still trying to reverse the fallout from this.
• If the smoke alarm goes off, don’t ‘manage’ the situation by ripping it out of the ceiling. Smoke alarms don’t respond to emotionality as they should.

*sigh*

On to March…

The menu:

Dad’s fave: steamed pork belly with anchovie dip.

Seaweed salad.

…my pae jun has come along…but I’m recycling it for March. Because let’s face it. It’s delish and I could eat it every day, not just on Fridays.

Thanks everyone for coming over and bringing love and wine! xoxo

Ingredients
Pae Jun
Tempura batter   1/4 bag (in mom language this is approx. 2 cups)
Chicken broth      1 cup
Water                  3/4 cup
Salt                     1/8 tsp
4 stalks of scallion
1/2 sweet onion
1 zucchini
1/2 bag frozen seafood mix
10 medium shrimp, peeled and halved
2 eggs

Dipping Sauce
Soy Sauce
Rice Vinegar

Prep

1. Thaw frozen seafood overnight and rinse.

2. Combine below ingredients in a bowl and whisk until the batter is similar to a pancake consistency. If it’s too thick, add water as needed.

Tempura batter
Chicken broth
Water
Salt

3. Slice scallion into 1 inch pieces and set aside. Thinly slice onions and zucchini into 1 inch pieces. Peel and halve the shrimp. Add scallion, zucchini, onion, and seafood to batter and combine.

4. Heat vegetable oil over low-medium heat in a large skillet. Ladle batter into pancake size scoops into the pan. Beat the eggs in a small bowl. Drizzle a small amount of the egg over the pancake so that a thin layer evenly covers the surface. After 7-10 minutes, flip the pancake, repeat. The pae jun is ready when it’s golden brown (about 10 minutes on each side).

Serve with a ramekin of soy sauce with a splash of rice vinegar for dipping.

But, peel away the outer layer and dad was quite a sensitive little onion. For instance, his favorite flower was the lilac. Asked my mom to plant some in the front yard. And, he would often sit around the kitchen while my mom made his meals his eyes glued to the TV, thoroughly invested in the latest episode of a soap opera. According to mom, sometimes she would look over her shoulder to find him crying.

Yeah. Not an easy guy to figure out. This recipe was one of his favorites, definitely not for the faint of heart (no really, depending on who you are this will send your clogged arteries over the edge so don’t say I didn’t warn you).

This dish is traditionally served with minced anchovies as a dip. If you’ve never tried anchovies, click here for food exposure therapy courtesy of NPR. Then take the plunge. Think of it as nature’s salt.

Pork Belly

Ingredients:

1/2 tsp deng jang

four slices fresh ginger

16 oz pork belly

anchovies

Bring a pot of hot water to a boil.  Add deng jang (1/2 tsp), ginger and pork, unsliced.  Boil covered for 30 minutes or until pork is cooked through (there should be no pink).

Remove and wrap pork in paper towel, press with heavy object for 10 minutes (we use a big rock from the back yard) to squeeze out excess oil.  Then slice into bite size pieces.

Dip

Chop anchovies until almost minced. Spoon into a ramekin.

You can also try dipping in sesame oil + salt as an alternative.

Serve with rice, kimchee and a cold beer. Check local listings for soap operas.

When my dad was a college student at the University of Connecticut in the late 60′s, he boarded with a Russian couple and often enjoyed home cooked meals with them. He fell in love with many of their recipes and my mom consequently learned to make them after they were married. These dishes have become some of our family’s favorites:

Cabbage Rolls

Borscht Soup

Sausage and Sauerkraut

My brother argued that Hebrew Nationals were the best hot dogs as did my mother.  But I argued, they weren’t the right size (yes, it matters).  They looked anemic, as did (to my surprise) the package of Ball Park franks.  When we were kids I remember the Ball Park franks that we roasted around campfires and found hidden under lumps of sauerkraut were fat like mafioso fingers.

The gigantic, fancier authentic brats we decided were too authentic and fancy. We also pushed around a frozen package of chicken breakfast franks that nobody would claim to have bought.

Someone finally noted that there just were no ‘quality’ hot dogs in this country anymore, which silenced us into solemn agreement.

SAUSAGE AND SAUERKRAUT

Serves 4

Time from prep:1 hr

Ingredients

2 medium sweet onions

1 package Johnsonville Beef Brats or

Hillshire Farms Beef Sausages

1 tbs minced garlic

1 tbs vegetable oil

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp salt

32 oz jar of sauerkraut( we used Claussen Sauerkraut)

Cooking directions:

Empty sauerkraut into a large bowl and rinse under water.  Squeeze excess water out of sauerkraut and set aside in a bowl.

Chop onions into thin slices.

Over low-medium heat, add vegetable oil in a large pan.  Add the minced garlic and cover for two minutes.

Over medium heat, add onions and stir fry until lightly browned.  Then add sauerkraut, salt and pepper.

When adding sauerkraut, be sure there is enough oil or water in the pan so as to not burn the sauerkraut.

After 3 minutes, push the onion and sauerkraut to the edges of the pan.  Add sausages into the center of the pan so that they are laying flat.  Cover sausages with the sauerkraut and onions.  Lower heat and cover for ten minutes.

Uncover and stir sauerkraut so that the top layer is at the bottom and cover for another 10.  Repeat for 30 minutes or until sauerkraut is soft.

Serve with buns or for a healthy alternative serve over rice.

Reactions from around the table:

Caleb, 5: “It was good.  I love sausage.”

If you’ve never had momil naeng myun before and you’re in L.A. stop in at Yu Chun Chic in Koreatown. 63 reviews (and counting!) can’t all be wrong. Then try it at home with mom’s recipe below.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 cups beef broth

2 cups radish kimchee juice (doeng chee mee)

1 1/2 cups pickled radish kimchee (or 7 pieces)

26 oz naeng myun noodles (We recommend Choung Soo Naeng Myun)

naeng myun powder (usually included in noodle packaging)

1 tbs vinegar

1 Asian pear

2 Asian cucumbers

1 1/2 lb beef chuck

2 eggs

1/4 tsp Korean mustard (gyeo ja)

Cooking Instructions:

Chef’s Note: Prep this soup, but don’t start cooking until you’re ready to serve. The key to this recipe is getting the noodles just right.

If using homemade beef broth, be sure to skim away debris and fat deposits from the broth. Combine vinegar, beef broth, and kimchee juice in a large bowl. Add mustard.

Boil beef chuck until cooked, then set aside.

Begin hard boiling the eggs.

Slice cucumbers and pickled radish into thin slivers.

Peel skin from pear. Slice into thin slivers, discard the core.

Set aside. (Try not to snack on too many of these like I do.)

Cut beef chuck into bite size pieces.

Fill half a large pot of water and bring to a boil, add noodles.  Boil for approximately five minutes or until noodles soften and begin to stick to each other.

Add noodles to the broth and arrange chopped vegetables, egg and beef on top of the noodles. Enjoy!

*addendum:

• If you using frozen noodles, defrost the noodles for two minutes. Use only 1/2 of 1 seasoning packet.

• If using frozen beef broth, defrost until the broth is mostly liquid but partly frozen to chill the dish w/o having to add too many ice cubes (which will ultimately dilute the broth).

It’s embarrassing to think of all the home videos there are of us kids running around in shorts and tank tops in funky 70′s colors stuffing our faces with kalbi at family bbq’s, camping trips, dinner parties…let my future husband never set eyes on those.

serves 8

Ingredients:

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup soy sauce

a little over 1/2 cup sugar

3.5 lbs of kalbi beef (these short rib cuts are easiest to find at the butcher counter at Asian grocery stores)

2 tbs minced garlic

3 tbs sesame oil

1/4 cup Kikkoman sweet rice wine

pepper – to taste

1 Asian pear

1/2 white onion

Cooking Directions:

Prep:

Soak beef in  cold water for 1 hr to wash away debris.

Marinade:

Mix water, soy sauce and sugar into an extra large bowl.  Stir.  Add garlic, sesame oil, rice wine, and pepper.

Peel skin off of the pear.  Cut into bite size bits, discard the core. Liquefy in a blender with a tbs of water.

Cut 1/2 onion into small pieces, liquefy in a blender with a tbs of water.  Add pear and onion to the large bowl and mix with a wire whisk.

Place rinsed or soaked beef in marinade bowl. Toss beef in marinade, make sure each piece is thoroughly coated. Cover and set in refrigerator for 5 – 10 hours.

If your refrigerator is overflowing like ours is, separate the batch of beef marinade into smaller bowls/ziplock bags and disperse.

After 5-10 hours, remove from refrigerator. Grill on the barbie or broil in the oven with garlic, sliced onions, mushrooms and other vegetables of your liking.

Notes from the chef: When broiling in the oven, be sure to leave the oven door slightly ajar!

Freeze leftover portions or give away to friends (yeah, right).

The first time I introduced these homemade potstickers to my friends, they went wild. Whenever I go home to my mom’s house or she comes out to visit me in Los Angeles, we’ll always spend at least one day making potstickers. They’re SO good. And fun to share.

Ingredients For Filling:

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 tbs sesame oil

1 tsp fish stock powder

1 1/2 tbs minced garlic

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp minced ginger

3 bunches of scallion

1/2 lb. bean sprouts

1 small napa cabbage

1/2 lb ground beef

1 lb ground pork

2 onions

2 zucchinis

2 eggs

4 packages potsticker/gyoza wrappers

Cooking directions:

Steam bean sprouts in steamer or large pot for 5 minutes. Set aside and let cool.

Grate zucchinis and soak in salt.

Finely dice the onions.

Pull leaves from the cabbage. Cut away the outer part of each leaf. Chop the inner white triangle into slices.  Soak the slivers in salt. Salt liberally throughout and set aside. Soak for cabbage and zucchini until soft – 1o minutes.

Finely chop scallion.

Finely chop outer leaves.

Squeeze excess water out of sprouts and finely chop.

Squeeze excess water out of zucchini and finely chop.

Squeeze excess water from cabbage and finely chop.

Combine all vegetables and ground pork and ground beef in a large pot.

Add salt, sesame oil, fish stock powder, minced garlic, pepper, minced ginger.

Put on plastic gloves, tossing and massaging until all ingredients are homogeneously combined.

Assembling:

This is when mom’s kitchen turns into a factory.  The whole family gathers around the kitchen island and assembles the potstickers while mom drops them into a pot of boiling water. I recently helped my nephew make his first potsticker. He was so proud of it he ran through the house to show his daddy.  A chef in the making?

Hold one gyoza wrapper in the palm of one hand.  Drop half a heaping teaspoon size dollop of filling into the center of the wrapper.  Brush the very edge of the gyoza wrapper with water.  Fold wrapper over and press the edges together with your fingertips.  The dampened edge should help seal the edges.

After sealing, create four little pleats across the crest. Set aside on a large dish or tray.

Behold, mom’s perfect pleats:

Yes, sadly, the following is my handiwork. I call it the ‘I’m hungry and need to eat really soon’ pleat:

…or maybe ‘a hurricane ripped through the kitchen while we were assembling these’ pleat? You pick.

It’s fun to look at a full tray of potstickers made by your family members and see how different they all turn out. I wish I took a picture of Caleb’s. So cute!

Cooking:

Add a few drops of vegetable oil to a pot of boiling water.

Drop each raw potsticker into boil water until they naturally float up to the service. Boil for one more minute, then scoop them out with a meshed spatula.

Serving Suggestions:

You can enjoy these straight out of the pot or fry them with vegetable oil until crispy and golden brown or drop them into a soup.

Try them steamed or fried with this soy sauce dip:

Pour 2 tbs of Kikkoman soy sauce into a ramekin and add just a drop of vinegar. Dip potstickers into the ramekin and enjoy!

BORSCHT SOUP

Serves 12

Time: 2 1/2 hrs.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pound of chuck beef (shoulder)

4 cloves of garlic

2 new potatoes

2 large carrots

1/2 head cabbage or 1 small head of cabbage

1 green bell pepper

2 tomatoes

1 can cut tomatoes

1 white onion

3 medium beets or 1 can

2 tsp sea salt (or to taste)

Prep:

Start the rice.

Cooking Directions:

Bring half a large pot of water to a simmer.

Add chuck beef to simmering water.

Chop vegetables into ‘bite size’ pieces.

Add garlic, lettuce, onions, tomatoes to simmering water.  Add sea salt.

Keep at medium-low simmer uncovered for 30 hr.

Add potatoes, carrots, bell pepper.

Continue simmering for 1 hr.

Remove steak, cut into bite size pieces and return to soup. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve and enjoy.

Store away a portion in the freezer and enjoy for months to come!

Reactions from around the table:

Caleb, 5-years-old: “Yeah, I liked it.”

Reactions from around the table:

Don, 35, Amazon.com employee: “Fabulous, fantastic. I felt like I was in the Ukraine.”

CABBAGE ROLLS AND STUFFED PEPPERS

Serves 6

Ingredients:

4 cups steamed sticky rice

1/2 tsp pepper

1 large sweet onion

1/2 lb ground pork

1/2 lb ground beef

1 head cabbage

vegetable oil

1/2 package of bacon

1/2 tsp salt

Place whole head of cabbage in steamer for 15-20 minutes.

Put on your rubber gloves and carefully remove cabbage from steamer.  Slice off a sliver of the top of the cabbage to help peel layers away.  Peel away loosened outer layers and set aside.  Return cabbage to steamer and repeat every 5-10 minutes until you’ve reached the core. (Be sure to not over-steam, remember the leaves will further soften in the oven.  If over-softened, the lettuce leaves will fall apart!)

While cabbage is steaming, prepare the onion and bacon filling:

Finely chop the onion.

Brown the onion in a skillet with vegetable oil.

Cut bacon into 1/2 inch slices.

When onion is browned, add bacon.  Fry the bacon and onion together in skillet until just before bacon is crispy.  Turn off heat.

In large bowl combine steamed sticky rice with ground pork and ground beef.  Add bacon and onion mixture.  Add salt and pepper.  Combine until homogeneous.

Preheat oven to 400.

While oven is preheating:

Roll cabbages with filling:

Place 4 heaping spoonfuls of filling into steamed cabbage leaf.  Roll cabbage leaf lengthwise halfway, fold in the ends and finish rolling.  Place cabbage rolls fold-side-down in large casserole dish.

Baked Stuffed Bell Pepper:

Hollow a bell pepper by cutting away the stem and scraping out the inside with a small knife. Rinse to remove seeds and debris.

Stuff bell pepper to the brim with rice filling.

Place casserole dishes on middle rack and bake for 30 minutes or until lettuce is slightly browned.

Serve with ketchup!