Maangchi's letter to you
Hi everybody!
I went to Rockaway Beach in Queens for beach day via the NYC subway! There is a famous place for tacos there, so I stopped by for lunch. I liked their fish taco, it was great!
I hope you also had a chance to enjoy the summer last month!
New recipe: Wollamssam
Korean-style Vietnamese rice paper rolls (wollamssam: 월남쌈) are something we Koreans enjoy in the summer because it’s fresh and light, pretty easy to prepare, and are a casual thing we can make and eat together with friends and family.
“Wollamssam” combines the Korean word for Vietnam (Wollam) with ssam, which means wrap. We adapted this dish from the Vietnamese, to suit our own taste and style for wraps.
In the Korean way of eating wollamssam everyone has their own plate, and then they take a thin sheet of rice paper, dip it in warm water to soften it, add fillings, roll a pouch, and then eat. Each person makes and eats their own roll one by one, until they are full. I show you 3 kinds of sauces in this recipe, check it out!
New recipe: Jangjorim
Check out this jangjorim, braised beef in soy sauce! A piece of this salty, flaky, and savory beef on a spoonful of rice tastes delightful! The beef cooked in a salty, garlicky, peppery, savory broth is very flavorful, so you don’t need a lot of it to enjoy it, or to get the taste. It’s meant to be served together with rice, which makes it a great item for lunchboxes. Check out the recipe here.
Want to follow me to Koreatown?
Through this 1 minute video, I'm sharing what I usually do when I go to Koreatown in Flushing. I spend time browsing in small shops looking for cute stuff for my videos, eating at a restaurant, and shopping for Korean cooking ingredients, then coming back home. I couldn't enjoy this kind of trip for a couple of years during the pandemic, so it was very exciting day for me!
Edna's spicy grilled chicken
Edna Tapiro's spicy chicken looks fantastic! The grilled chicken coated with sweet, sour, and a little sticky sauce is very tasty. It's very easy and quick to make this! The recipe is here.
Jina77's fluffy bread!
My long time reader jina77's bread looks exactly like mine!
She said, "For years, I’ve been using Maangchi’s recipes with much success but I’ve never posted any comments on her website (plenty on YouTube). Today is the first time because I really am amazed by the bread I made and needed to show it off. Who knew it was so easy?"
That's right! My bread recipe is here if you want to make some, too!
Stella's diced radish kimchi
When I first saw Stella's kkakdugi photo, I felt like using my chopsticks to pick up a piece right from the photo and taste it. I could tell exactly what it tastes and smells like! Stella said: "The store had imported Korean radish on sale. It tastes sweeter than the US ones I’ve been getting lately. Sooooooo goooooooood!" Check out my kkakdugi recipe here!
Kkaennip contest!
I didn't harvest my kkaennip (perilla leaves) for a couple of days and found these huge leaves in my balcony garden! I measured the leaves and showed my readers to FB. I was curious to know if any of my readers' kkaennip was larger than this because I know that these days many of them are growing perilla leaves themselves.
Many people posted their kkaennip photos with rulers to measure the size. Then Michelle posted the biggest guy photo of all, so she basically won the contest (if a contest took place!) : )
Nic's spicy mixed noodles
Nic's kimchi bibimguksu (spicy mixed noodles with kimchi)! It looks a little mild for me but still delicious! I make bibimguksu very often. Since I always have fermented kimchi in my fridge, making this dish takes only 10 to 12 minutes. Check out the recipe here!
Ye Eun's gorgeous sesame seed candy!
Impressed by Ye Eun's art work! Edible art!
These sesame candy with inlaid dried strawberries looks very crispy and beautiful! She said, "My son asks for it all the time and I finally have the ingredients to make it today."
This candy is not only delicious but it never goes soft or soggy, even if you leave it on the counter uncovered for a few days. Check out the recipe here!
Please be well, my baby jar of kimchi!
Messages from my readers & viewers
My readers and viewers always make me smile, inspire me, amaze me, and make me think. Here are some of their messages that I chose to share with you!
Jenni shared an interesting story on my wollamssam video.
This brings back a memory from when I was in middle school. My favorite teacher's wife was from Vietnam and one day she made some Vietnamese style spring rolls that had the same kind of noodles in them that he brought to share with the class. They were so delicious that I remember it very vividly even though that was over 30 years ago...
Lucas asked me what to do with his kimchi with white mold. I think you may have experienced this situation, too.
The last time I made Kimchi, I divided the Kimchi I made into four plastic containers. After a few days of fermenting, I saw on two of them, a little white mold started growing. What is it? Is it edible? My mistake was not covering well enough the kimchi, and possibly leaving it outside for too long.
My answer:
Don't eat the white fungi. If you kept the kimchi at a cold temperature (in the fridge), pressed down the surface of the kimchi occasionally, it would've never happened. But you still can eat it as long as the kimchi underneath is red. Just remove the white fungi.
Press down on the top of the kimchi with a large wooden spoon whenever you take some so that the kimchi is submerged in the brine.
If the taste is not good after removing white stuff, rinse the kimchi in cold water and chop it up and add to your stir-fried rice or make kimchi stew. You will have to add more seasonings.
Chasette's comment on my jangjorim (salty beef in soy sauce) video made me feel emotional. Certain food brings us back our old memories and connects us to our past! Yes, the price of beef in Korea was very expensive in the old days, so jangjorim was a special side dish.
My grandmother used to make jangjorim for me every time I visited, I didn't realize until your video how meaningful this was to her, to make me the most precious banchan. Thank you, Maangchi
Yaho! My reader won 2 prizes in a cooking contest, one for her Korean fried chicken and the other for her chive kimchi! The message came through my dakgangjeong video and it made my day!
Maangchi, thank you so much!! I made this for a family cooking competition and this and your chive kimchi won me two categories!! The only complaint is that I should've made more!
One of my readers shared her tip for making mandu (dumplings). Simply saying: make them together with other people to help! Here you go:
Dumplings require so much effort to make if you're alone and you make the skin yourself, but if you can get two three people together to make a big batch the weekend, it goes so much faster. Being alone I'd buy frozen ones, they're quite nice too, love the kimchi pork filling.
Can you hear the sound of the waves?
I took this photo at Rockaway Beach. This spot had many components that made me so happy: the sound of waves, no obstructed view, fine sand, big and smooth rocks, and the green seaweeds on the rocks! I felt full of life and very alive!
I'll see you next month on October 1st! Take care of you and your family with your delicious Korean cooking!