what’s with the obsession with “hahn-yak”?

To all of you who have are fortunate to have never tasted hahn-yak, it’s a brown liquid traditional korean/chinese herbal medicine that can have a variety of secret and special ingredients. All i know that it’s made by boiling and distilling  ginseng, other dried plant matter and dried antler horns. yes. this stuff is not vegetarian friendly.You can make it at home or it comes in little capri-sun like packets that you stash in the crisper drawer of the fridge.

My family has always been obsessed with hahn-yak. my uncle would have a packet every day and then my aunt would take the empty packet, add a little water, swirl it around, and then water her house plants with it. Apparently it’s good for ferns too.

At the korean store there’s a variety of different machines to help you brew the perfect cup, and i know that if you visit an overpaid “oriental herbal doctor” he’ll brew up a special batch for just whatever ails you.

I’ve had to drink it to help my circulation, grow thicker hair, become smarter, get rid of my pimples, and to prepare my body for optimum baby making. Basically to become the best korean girl possible. Clearly that did not work out. So i haven’t had to drink any for the last 10 yrs because i lived with my dad (who thank goodness does not care to ask about my circulation) or bc i was in college. But now that i’m back with my mom, hahn yak is back in my life too.

But you’ll never guess how. So as some of you may know, my mom owns a beauty supply. A little known fact about koreans is that when they’re not running dry cleaners, they’re running “ethnic” (read: black) beauty supplies. All of the wholesalers are korean and most of the products are made by koreans. it’s weird.

Well anyways, as a christmas gift to their loyal customers, a wig company named “Shake ‘n Go” (as in, you can just take the wig out of the bag, shake, and stick it right on your head and go about your busy day) sent my mom a gigantic box of hahn yak.

Today while i was trying to nap in front of the heater after dinner my mom physically attacked me, armed with a packet of hahn yak. I squirmed and tried to explain that it was completely unnessesary and that i liked my poor circulation, but she was persistant and violent. So i finally sat up, stuck the straw in my mouth and was filled with horror. The smell is pungent. i can’t even begin to explain. really i can’t, i’ll try to think of adequate adjectives later. AND to make it worse, it was luke warm, the worst temperature ever. I closed my eyes and frantically sucked up the packet. when i was finished i gasped for air and felt defeated.

my mom congratulated me on my future health and i shoved a whole choco pie in my mouth. i think i might go get another.

Thanksgiving part 1!

So for my first post-thanksgiving recipe, i wanted to show what i made for the pre-dinner “please leave me alone… here, eat this” snack. Why would i have to make such  a snack? well because my mom is crazy. This is how i was woken up. Imagine me, peacefully sleeping in my comfortable bed, dreaming about how awesome sleep is. And then enters my mom at 9:30 am.

Mom: YYYYBBOOONNNEEE!! (she can’t pronounce “v’s” they don’t have those in korea) WAKE UP!!! It’s thanksgiving, your uncle and aunt are coming in 30 minutes! I’M HUNGRY!!!

Me: uugghhhhhhrrrhhhahhhhnmnn.

Mom: YAH! Wake UP! how come you’re not cooking yet? you didn’t even defrost anything! what are you gonna cook?! your uncle and aunt are coming now!

Me: Mommy i thought you loved me, why are you so mean to me?

So…yea. I woke up, rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and took some bananas out of the freezer and then went back to my room to remind myself to be thankful.

Ends up the merciless slave driver that is my mom wanted thanksgiving dinner ready at 1pm. that sounds more like thanksgiving lunch if you ask me. So in the meanwhile to get her off my back i made this banana nut bread. I hate baking because i’m bad at it and because more often than not my picky family doesn’t like it because it’s too sweet or something improbable. BUT this banana bread is one of the only things my extended family eats with joy, commenting that “oOoo whole wheat?” “oh this suits the taste of koreans just right”. It goes perfect with those little packets of korean instant coffee or green/ginseng/barley tea.

Since i made this while i was still asleep i didn’t take any pictures, but i just made another loaf this afternoon so i took pictures while i made this one. Also, i decided to try posting the pictures in a bigger size…let’s see how this works out.

The Recipe:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup (half stick) unsalted softened butter

2 lg eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 3 bananas)

1/3 c sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 c walnuts

I like to freeze bananas and then completely defrost them for baking because freezing them causes the water in the cells to expand, rupturing the cell walls. (HAH i went college and sometimes it’s useful). This rupturing of cell walls causes all the banana-y goodness to flow. Also be sure to freeze ripe (browning) bananas, so this is a good way to save bananas that are too ripe to eat plain for later. While you’re defrosting those, be sure to put out the butter too.

While you’re waiting for that to happen, in a small bowl mix together the flours, baking soda and salt.

Thawed bananas have a really strange slimy texture. and banana juice runs everywhere. it’s hard to tell in the picture, but that’s the bananas sitting in their own juice. it’s like they peed themselves.

So then whip up the butter and then add the sugar untill well incorporated. Then add the eggs one at a time and then the bananas (i slide them in whole and let the mixer do the work) and the sour cream and vanilla.

Then slowly add the flour mixture until it’s almost fully mixed. You don’t want to over-mix otherwise the gluten in the batter will have too much of a good time and the crumb of your bread will not be tender. Take out the mixer and fold in the walnuts. Pour all of this goodness (it smells like banana happiness) into a greased up loaf pan and put into a 350 degree oven.

DON’T overbake! Since there’s whole wheat flour the bread is gonna be kinda dark. I usually bake for around 45-55 minutes or until it’s not jiggly when you touch it.

Let it cool on a rack and slice up to give to relatives.

So i’m gonna be honest. i don’t really like the bread. I think it’s because it’s too healthy and i don’t like whole wheat flour very much bc i’m a pansy. It’s okay but i wouldn’t make it for myself. Also, this conflicts with my boycott of bananas. Usually bananas come from socially unstable and oppressed nations which is where we get the term “banana republic” . So yes…try to eat locally grown fruit…it’s easy, we’re in california.

Well anyways, i hope you can use this recipe to appease your disgruntled and hungry family as well.

Okay. i’m going to stop slacking.

so, i haven’t updated in a few months and it’s not because i’m not cooking (that’s the only thing i do that’s productive) but it’s because i don’t have an easy way to get pictures from my camera. i’m lazy.

But! while snooping through my mom’s stuff, i found a new digital camera! apparently my mom bought it for my step dad but he’s only used it once. i think it’s because it’s fuchsia. or because my parents are boring and don’t do anything where they would take a picture.

well in any case, i basically have a new camera! and more importantly, a camera with a connector thingy so i can upload photos!

so my first returning post? Thanksgiving! my family wants me to cook Thanksgiving dinner (because i am their slave). Does it matter that Thanksgiving is my birthday? of course not. because i am their slave due to filial piety.

i promise to update soonsies.

Why is the plural of potato “potatoes” and not “potatos” why the e?

Let me introduce you to the most glorious appliance ever. I got him as a graduation gift but i’m having a hard time deciding on a name. i was thinking maybe Dean..or Prince. any ideas?

So the box the mixer came in boasted that this thing could make 7 lbs of mashed potatoes. and so that is what i decided to do. 7 lbs of glorious potato loveliness.

So first, get yoself some potatoes. I got around 6lbs or 6 big russet potatoes.

Peel and cut the potatoes into manageable cubes and throw them into a big pot with a generous sprinkling of salt. Boil the potatoes until they are fork tender.

I wanted to add some extra flavor so i peeled some garlic. how much? this much. Then i put the garlic in some foil and made a little foil purse filled with garlic.

Then stick your satchel of garlic into a 350F oven and let it soften up and become fragrant.

After a while (sorry, i don’t really remember how long) take out of the garlic and dump in onto a cutting board. don’t be a dummy like me and use gloves or something because that business will be hot.

So to smash up the garlic, use the flat end of the knife smoosh so that you have like uhh..flakes of soft garlic.

delicious.

Besides making mashed potatoes because a box challenged me, it was also Epic potluck night and the theme was “Bacon”. Genius right? Since some people don’t eat piggies i decided to go with turkey bacon which is something i’ve never cooked with before. and let me tell you…it’s different.

The texture reminded me of wavy bologne and the turkbacon kept the indentations from the package…even after frying it up. Oh and those lines are identical on each piece. Well anyways i cut it up and fried it for a little in some olive oil and pepper.

Once your potatoes are receptive to fork pokings, drain the water and add salt, the garlic, some black pepper, a little milk and most importantly the butter. At the potluck someone asked me how much butter was in the potatoes cause they were soooo good. I changed the subject because this person likes to be health conscious and i didn’t want to traumatize him. But anyways, butter…add 1 stick. So one stick of butter sounds like a lot, what with it being 1/4 of a pound of milk fat… BUT it is 6 lbs of potatoes and it’s not like someones gonna sit down and eat all of this at one time. unless they really wanted to…which is something i would not judge. Anyways, yes 1 stick of butter. don’t be stingy

You’re gonna wanna use the paddle attachment and blend them up right away while they’re still hot because if you wait the potatoes will become gummy and not fluffy.

Super. Fantastic. You could spinkle some parsley or something on top. I don’t think gravy is necessary because the potato garlic flavor is rich enough and the butter keeps them moist. But yes…they make the perfect side dish with minimal effort. especially if you have someone named Dean or Prince to help out. yes, the mixer just got upgraded to a someone

I fail at updating

That is a persimmon that stacy painted! it used to hang above the kitchen sink in our apartment. So everyone in the apartment has dispersed and i am in vallejo, living with the moms and step dad. my life is slowly becoming more average and boring.

i’ve searched far and wide and i still cannot find the cord that connects my camera to my lappy so that i can transfer pictures…so i’ll have to figure that out soon. luckily i still have lots of older pictures.

How about  more korean food, huh? Here’s how i make “Ddukbokhee”. Why the two ‘d’s? i dunno. but what it is, is little rice cakes in a spicy broth. I got the basic recipe from the same lady i did the last post, here at her Korean Cooking xanga.

You can use fresh dduk or rice cakes or you can buy the frozed shrink wrapped kind. These ones are shaped  like little dumbells…i think so they’re easier to pick up with chopsticks?

So the ingredients include…

- Dduk

- Red pepper flakes or kot chu garu (not the kind you put on pizza but the korean kind that are like red confetti, except spicier)

- chile paste or kot chu jang (it’s in the red tub…it’s kinda sweet and mostly spicy)

- 1 carrot, sliced up pretty

- a few sheets of fish cake (odeng). i like the flat ones that you get at korean stores. you can be fancy with this and slice them into diamond shapes.

- green onions

- minced garlic

- one small piece of dried seaweed

mkay, you’re probably looking at this picture and wondering why there’s blackberry jam in this. well it’s not blackberry jam, stop judging stuff by it’s cover. hahaha jk, it’s the pepper flakes in a jam jar cause the flakes come in a huge bag and this keeps the flakes fresher? i dunno

Hokay, so first you make the broth. Add some water and the pepper things along with the seaweed pieces and garlic. Heat it all up so the paste dissolves. so maybe you’re wondering why there’s  random pieces of seaweed…well it’s there to add flavor i think. like some umami thing. i don’t know if it really makes a  difference but i have a lot of it from my grammy so i stick it in there anyways.

So once all that is good and hot, add the fish cakes, carrot, and green onion and stir it up till the carrots get softer. then add the dduk. I made the mistake of not thawing the brick of rice cake sooo…it kinda got weird. but yeah try to thaw that business out a little first.

some people like to add sugar or honey. oh, and a tip would be to not stew the rice cakes around too much because they can get mushy and all the starch from the rice cakes kinda makes the broth congeal…and that’s not fun.

sprinkle with toasted seasame seeds and eat!

ghost children are unfailingly creepy

i’m watching Coraline right now…and it’s a really good movie. It’s super original and the moral of the story is unique. BUT it is SO creepy, if i saw this when i was little, i would need extra therapy than i do already. in the movie there are three ghost children and o.m.g. they are so unnecessarily creepy. but  i would still def recommend the movie

anyyyways onto food, more specifically… Jangjorim! I got the recipe here. It’s by a korean lady who has a super helpful korean food blog. jangjorim is beef in a soy sauce broth and is sooooooo good, espcially when you have a craving for some big chunks of salty goodness. Here are the ingredients….

3 pounds beef brisket or beef flank
6 boiled eggs (optional); often made with quail eggs
3 jalapeno
2 bulbs peeled garlic
3 tsp pepper
3 tb sugar (adjust to taste)
1 1/2 cup soy sauce (adjust to taste)
6 cups water..or enough to cover the meat in the pot

sooooo…this is what 3 lbs of beef looks like. i unfortunately bought chuck instead of brisket so it didn’t have those nice long lean strands of meat, but it still came out okay. First, wash the meat! it looks kinda of ridiculous sitting in the sink, but it’s really important to wash it cause…what if it’s dirty? and this also gets rid of extra blood. Place your huge hunk of meat (tee-hee) into whatever large pot you’re gonna boil it in along with a little olive oil. oh wait! before, make sure the pot is hot and then throw in the meat and turn all over so you get a good tasty sear on it. okie doke. then once it’s seared and golden brown and delicious on the outside fill ‘er up with water until it covers the meat and let it simmer for…a long time. i never really know how long i let it..maybe like..an hour? i usually boil the meat the night before and then let it sit in the fridge so that it’s easier to skim the then solidified fat off the top.

simmer simmer simmer

Onto the acoutrements….

Peel the garlic! my strategy with peeling tons of garlic is to frantically pull apart the cloves and slice off the bottom end. then take a chef’s knife and smash each clove on the cutting board. this loosens up the skin so it’s easier to peel off. Then slice your jalapenos…no tips for you there

Take your beef out of the fridge and skim off the fat. take out the meat and cut it into bite size pieces (this is also easier to do when it’s cold cause…well. it’s cold instead of boiling hot). Throw everthing back into the pot along with the soy sauce and bring to a boil. After 10 minutes fish out the eggs and peel them and throw them back in so they can soak up the salty goodness. Let this simmer until the garlic is tender

I like to eat this with the broth poured over the rice. or wrapped in toasted seaweed. and always with some good cabbage or cucumber kimchi.

Enjoy!

sometimes i startle myself with how much i can like something

yeah….now that i read the title again i feel a little embarrassed…but it’s ok, there’s nothing wrong with being enthusiastic right? My most recent startling was while i was watching conan (omg he’s so clever) and John Hamm was the guest. He’s the prince charmingly cute guy that appeared a few times on 30 rock as liz’s love interest. So i f you don’t watch 30 rock, shame on you. and you probably don’t know who i’m talking about. John Hamm is also a main character on Mad Men…but i haven’t seen it before. But…yes, john hamm, 30 rock, kenneth the page…all thoroughly embarrassingly enjoyable. OH and John Hamm says ‘TV’ with the emphasis on on the ‘T’ like me! : D

So anyways, here’s a recipe for chocolate chip pound cake! I’m not sure why i made it and i don’t think it tasted super good…but i’ll post the pictures just cause i still have them

I used a recipe from Paula Deen and added a bag of semi sweet chocolate chips. Here are the ingredients…

- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

- 3 cups sugar

- 6 large eggs

- 3 cups all-purpose flour

- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1 cup heavy cream

- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

I used an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar until it was fluffy. Then add the eggs slowly, one at a time.

Then sift together the dry ingredients and add them slowly to the butter-egg mixture, alternating with the heavy cream, ending with flour. haha that sounds complicated. uhmmm sift together the dry stuff, we’ll call that the flour mixture. Then alternately add the flour mixture and heavy cream to the egg mixture in small portions, ending with the last of the flour. right-o

you should end up with a batter that’s thick yet fluffy and kinda pretty

Then stir in chocolate chips! I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but guittard is almost always my chocolate chip of choice. they’re made in california and they’re delicious. and the bag is attractive.

Then pour everything into a greased up bundt pan and bake or 75 minutes in a 315F oven.

When it comes out of the oven the top will be puffy and uneven, which means when you put it on the plate it’ll be wobbly. to remedy this, saw off the top, leaving a flat base. you can also eat the scraps to see how the cake turned out

Then turn the cake over and eat! i would suggest sifting some powdered sugar over this or maybe making a glaze so it’s prettier.

ta-da!

And for anyone who’s wondering, here’s a picture of a scene from 30 rock. he’s  handsome

Assorted!

Here’s some random pictures of deliciousness.

This is what i usually see in the kitchen while i’m pretending to cook. stef hanging out and stacy falling asleep : ) i’m really sad that i won’t be able to force them to eat with me….<sigh>..

Yay for beard papa’s in hawaii! he’s wearing a lei and it makes me happy

A cream puff loco moco?! hawaii is a land of magic

This is jojo. He made a cake for some reason. It was made with cake mix without the use of measuring cups…pretty impressive i guess

BUBBIES!

Scandalously good icecream cake. It’s a good thing my camera sucks and the pics are blurry because those are some dirty names : )

C is for cookie

There are few things i enjoy more than a really, really good chocolate chip cookie. But i’ve been having a hard time finding a recipe that is reliably delicious. I got this recipe from here. I like this recipe because it uses melted butter instead of having to whip cold butter which means no thawing the butter out or having to use a mixer to whip the butter.

The ingredients are…

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

- Preheat the oven to 325 F

- Sift together the dry ingredients

- Cream the sugars and butter together

- Mix the two together and add the chocolate chips (the best part)

I like to roll the cookies in my hands and then place onto parchment paper.

Bake for around 10 minutes or longer…(be sure to watch closely, overcooked cookies are tragic)

Place onto a cooling rack!

And eat! They’re pretty cookies but they could taste better. They seem kinda thick and plain…and lack the proper crispy to chewy ration. but still…they’re super easy to make with basic ingredients.

French for cheap

The following picture is for the rainbow cake. Here’s what it looks like when you have a full rainbow (all six colors of batter in one pan). I wish i had a picture of the cake as a whole…but i assure you it looks fun. and like a rainbow.

Alright, so on to new foods. I made this a whole heck of a long time ago, which means I could not find the original recipe. I scrolled and searched through my google reader yet to no avail. So i’ll try to remember what was going on here. I think what it was, was basically a bechamel sauce with turkey hot dogs, spinach and peas. I was trying to make something healthier, but kind of failed considering the sauce…which we’ll talk about in a second.

Here are some of the ingredients; Spinach, Parmesan, frozen petite peas, and turkey franks (cause they’re healthier?)

So to make a bechamel sauce you melt a bunch of butter (YAY butter!), i think half a stick here, over medium heat until it’s bubbly and light brown. Then add a little flour and whisk until it becomes browner and thicker. Then add milk slowly, so it doesn’t curdle and get gross and add a bit of nutmeg. I added a tiny bit of nutmeg cause nutmeg makes me unhappy.

Then i threw in the hotdogs which are sliced at a bias so they look cooler, and not so much  like hotdogs. As you can tell, the sauce isn’t looking so thick. I think this is because i didn’t wait very long for the sauce to reduce, or maybe not enough flour.

Intermission! This is a picture of stacy’s pjs. They say “Totally Nuts”. hehehehehe…hehe

Anddd, after adding the spinach and peas (add these at the last minute cause spinach cooks fast and the peas lose their color fast) this is the final product! oh and salt and pepper. liberal amounts of pepper, but the franks are salty to begin with so not so much salt.

Oh yeah! the pasta. right. I bought this pasta cause it was on sale and because they’re so pretty. They look like little skirts and they’re called Campanelle.

Horray! The runny sauce was okay for this because otherwise it would have been kinda heavy. or maybe it would have tasted better, i dunno.

So you might be asking, is this really french food? isn’t pasta italian and the turkey franks are, uh, weird? Well, the sauce is super french cause it’s hard to pronounce and it has an accent mark (Béchamel) and french people can eat pasta. and the turkey franks are a little weird, but they taste alright.

fin!