Maangchi's letter to you!
I was in the mountains!
I stayed at a cabin in the mountains for a week last month. I had a wonderful time cooking, eating, breathing the fresh oxygen, and of course filming some videos! Ever since I started YouTube, you are always in my mind wherever I go. "I gotta share this easy, fast, and delicious recipe with my readers!" Stay tuned for some new videos filmed in the mountains!
New recipe: Sweet, sour, & crispy mushrooms
Beoseot-tangsu (sweet, sour, and crunchy mushrooms) is a popular dish at Korean vegetarian buffet and temple cuisine restaurants in Korea. You can use any mushrooms in this recipe but we usually use dried shiitake mushrooms because after soaking them the texture is chewy and meaty. They feel and taste like real meat!
Be sure to check out the video. I show you how I usually cook, making multiple dishes and then setting the table with them. All of the dishes go well with beoseot-tangsu.
New recipe: Dasik (pressed cookies)
These traditional Korean pressed cookies (dasik) are made with all-natural ingredients. The ingredients are finely ground, mixed with honey, and then pressed in a wooden mold into small cookies. The inside of the mold is engraved with images of flowers, birds, fish, or geometric patterns or even words, which emboss the cookie. They all symbolize wishes for good luck, long life, beauty, happiness, or health. Each cookie has its own flavor.
Whenever I make these, I freeze some of them and then eat just one or two at a time when I feel like a bit of their light, natural sweetness.
Spicy Pork & Vegetables over rice
It's made by my reader (jameiseating)! He says, "I’m always searching for really flavorful, simple dishes that are doable after a long day or between tasks. Here’s one of them. Sliced pork, carrot, jalapeño, cabbage..."
It looks absolutely delicious and I can almost smell the smoky spicy aroma. Check out the recipe here!
When broccoli and tofu met each other!
My reader Melbmatt chose this broccoli with tofu dish to go with a Korean beef dish he was serving. It's a great choice because its beautiful green color contrasts with meat, and it's also very tasty, plus healthy!
Paula's dakgalbi
Paula used to live in Korea and she wanted dakgalbi (spicy stir-fried chicken with vegetables) so badly, so she made it! Probably you guys can relate to missing a dish so much that you absolutely have to make it at home. It looks perfectly delicious!
David's delightful steamed shishito peppers!
David found shishito peppers from a farmer's market and made Korean kkwarigochu-jjim (steamed peppers)!
It looks spicy, but it's not that spicy because shishito peppers are very mild. Umm! It really goes well with warm rice.
First-time making homemade kimchi!
Candice made this kimchi for the first time in her life. How exciting it is! Homemade kimchi is the best because you can make the best of best kimchi that totally fits your taste. Plus it's cheaper than store bought.
Let's congratulate her on her successful first kimchi! 👏
Uh oh, Hotteok time!
Adelene in Malaysia made these delicious-looking hotteok (sweet pancakes with brown sugar syrup filling). I haven't made them in a long time, I should make them soon. I'm often inspired by my readers' food photos. What I like about this hotteok is that it looks fluffy and not greasy at all. The sugar syrup is well melted and I can see it through the dough, slightly!
The recipe for hotteok is here!
Messages and comments from my readers
I have the best readers and viewers in the world. I am always learning, laughing, crying, and cooking with them everyday! Here are some great messages I want to share with you.
My readers are everywhere and report to me any information that they saw or heard about me. Kenneth living in Florida let me know a Korean grocery store in his area always plays my videos which is nice, isn't it? Ok, Kenneth, I will make some new recipes with fermented black bean paste, it's a good idea!
Dearest Maangchi,
...I found a Korean grocery store in Miami, Florida USA called "Kimchi" and in the store they always play your videos!! I have found many Korean ingredients there. I'm soooo happy! I also found Korean fermented black bean paste. I wish more recipes with black bean paste....
One of my Korean readers gave a good tip for making dasik without a dasik mold. She wrote this tip in English and in Korean. What a resourceful and passionate cook she is!
I tried this with the almond flour I left in the fridge after making cookies. Since I don't have a mold, I lined a plastic water bottle cap with clingfilm and pressed the mixture inside. The roasted almond flour is quite nutty in flavor & almost gives a slightly chewy texture mixed with the honey. It's incredibly delish - I'm sad that it only yielded nine pieces because I have to share this with my mom and my brother LOL. Will try the glutinous rice flour version as well, maybe with some green tea powder or cinnamon.
쿠키 만드려고 한번 쓰고 냉장고에 방치해둔 아몬드가루가 눈에 띄어서 만들어봤어요. 페트병 뚜껑에 랩 깔아서 꾹꾹 눌러 성형했고요, 볶은 아몬드가루가 고소하고 꿀이랑 섞이며 살짝 쫀득한 질감도 나서 계속 손이 가요! 엄마랑 동생도 맛보라고 남겨두려고 했는데 9개밖에 안 만들어지는 게 아쉽네요 ㅋㅋ 찹쌀가루로도 한 번 더 만들어 보려고요. 녹차가루나 계피가루 섞어서?
How many of you started cooking due to pandemic? Yes, we can make our lives better even in a bad situation. Check out what Sophie says!:
Hello from New Zealand. We are in lockdown at the moment so I cooked jeyuk-deopbap tonight because I can't go out and buy Korean food. So delicious! Next I will make tteokbokki to finish my tub of gochujang paste! Yum yum!
A mushroom connoisseur Alina living in Sweden made Korean mushroom soup (beoseot-deulkkaetang). If I lived in her area, I'd like to follow her next mushroom hunt so that I could learn all about edible mushrooms!
This delicious soup is going to be my dinner tonight! I went out in the forest nearby today and found 5 kinds of edible mushrooms (Sheep Polypore, Hedgehog Mushroom, Yellow Foot, Funnel Chanterelle, and Golden Chanterelle). Together it all made more than 1 pound.
We have amazing forests here in Sweden and we do love our m ushrooms. Swedish autumns are always synonymous with mushrooms. I can't thank you enough for your beautiful recipe! ❤
Kimchi soup (kimchiguk) made by echacha!
Some people are confused about the difference between kimchi soup and kimchi stew. Soup is more soupy and we usually serve it in individual bowls with enough room in them that you can add a scoop of rice, too. You eat everything altogether in one bowl. Kimchi stew is shared in a large shallow pan or pot that we all eat out of, and it's a little saltier than soup.
This kimchi soup was made by echacha in Toronto. When I saw this photo it really made me remember Korea in wintertime. I used to make a huge batch of winter kimchi. When it was well fermented I took some out, chopped up a generous amount, and then added it to pork pieces and water. I seasoned and boiled them together and then added tofu. You don't even need to serve it with any side dishes because it has everything you need. Just add the rice before you eat.
Once you start eating your body gets warmer and you feel really good. I used to make this in the wintertime all the time.
I hope you are well and I will see you next month, on November first!