Korean Day & Everyday Foodie is Six!

I've been on the scene for six years!

Everyday Foodie turned six years old yesterday, and like any good foodies we celebrated with Spam:

Okay, stay with me.  There's more to it!  I haven't gone off the deep end.

Since Korean is our favourite type of ethnic cuisine we decided to have a couple Korean meals yesterday.  For lunch we had tteokbokki.



Then for dinner we decided to whip up budae jjigae.  Budae jjigae (army or soldier stew) became popular after the Korean war when food was scarce in Seoul.  Many people made use of canned surplus foods from army bases (Spam, ham, beans, etc.) and mixed them with Korean flavours such as gochujang and kimchi.  This dish is still popular in Korea, and it is a mixture of modern American ingredients such as instant noodles, American cheese, macaroni, and hotdogs, with tofu, a Korean broth and spices, rice cakes, and vegetables.

It starts with making and then straining a simple, quick broth.  In the broth are dried shitakes, dried shrimp, dried anchovies, onion, and kelp.

Then you saute some onion, carrot and garlic.  Once softened you top the vegetables with sliced Spam, sliced hotdogs, sliced tofu, rice cakes, and kimchi.  You can add different things too - Google a few recipes if you're interested.

You pour the broth over everything, and bring it to a boil ...

Then you add a spice mixture of gochujang powder, gochujang paste, soy sauce, and rice wine.

After cooking that for about five minutes, you add some instant ramen noodles, and cook until those are done.

Then, in case this hasn't been strange enough for you so far ...

You add a couple processed slices of cheese.

Stir that in and then dig in!

The verdict = It was too Western for us to be honest.  It tasted fine, but almost a little bland compared to what we're used to with Korean food.  We like to tell people that we're part Korean, and although this is a popular Korean dish, the addition of all the Western ingredients made it taste not Korean enough.  It could have used way more spice too.  We had fun making it though!

It's hard to believe that I created this blog six years ago.  I remember it perfectly, sitting in the spare room, on a desktop computer at a corner desk.  I had started blogs before, but never stuck with them.  This one I wanted to commit to.  I bought the domain name that day, and got started, never imagining where it would end up.  Within the past year alone I've partnered with some big names, such as Canadian Living Magazine, Sobeys, Circulon and Menchie's!  What a blast!  I'm so excited to see what the future holds for Everyday Foodie.

I'd love to learn more about my readers!  

If you have a minute, leave a comment (you don't need an account or anything like that - anyone can leave a comment) and tell me:

1) Your name
2) Where you're from
3) What keeps you coming back to read
4) What you're up to this weekend!

Tteokbokki (dukboki; ddeokbokki)

Tteokbokki (dukboki) is a popular Korean snack food, but we enjoyed it for dinner on Sunday evening.  It is very easy to make, and only takes a couple of minutes. 

Tteokbokki (dukboki)

(Serves 2)

1 T sesame oil
1 cup water
1.5 cups rice cakes (buy frozen in a Korean market)
2 T Gochujang paste (the best condiment in the world)
1-1.5 T sugar
2 Korean fish cakes (pressed fish - you buy in a package at a Korean market)
2 green onions, chopped
Sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Heat the oil in a wok.  Add the water and rice cakes.  Add the gochujang paste.  Chop the fish cakes into bite sized strips about the same size as the rice cakes you're using.  Toss those in.  Add sugar.  Stir and cook until rice cakes are softened, and some of the water has evaporated/absorbed creating a nice saucy dish.

Garnish with green onions and sesame seeds & enjoy.

We had kimchi on the side, because it's awesome.

Have you tried gochujang paste yet?  

If not, get on it!  You can thank me later.

Yubuchobap

I am loving yubuchobap these days.  If you haven't heard of these little Korean pockets of deliciousness, you need to remedy that situation stat.  They are seasoned tofu pockets stuffed with rice.  The seasoned tofu pockets, as well as the mix-ins for the rice come in this package:

The only other thing you need to do is make some sticky rice (I used a mixture of sticky rice and black rice).  After making the rice you dump in some vinegar stuff and a packet of seeds, and then fill the pockets.

One package has enough stuff for 3 batches (the picture above is one batch).

Deeeeelish!

That has been the extent of my cooking in May, and I wouldn't call it cooking!  Other than that I have stopped at Robin's a few times:

 

I ate a sandwich at a local restaurant, Rock Creek.

 

And a scrumptious plate of food at Afghan Kabob & Donair in Saskatoon this weekend.  This place I will return to.  Very soon.

I ate it allllll up.  Afghani food makes Jolene a very happy girl.

A bubble tea next door made for a great finish to the best meal I have had in a month. 

I had a great weekend.  When is the next one? 

How was your weekend?  Have you ever had yubuchobap?  If not, get your butt to the local Korean market and doooo it up!  Do you like bubble tea?  What kind do you order?