May 2024 Letter
2 new recipes made with fresh caught fish, filmed in Oaxaca Mexico! Plus your stories about Korean cooking, photos, and messages!
This month I have 2 exciting pieces of news!
First, I'm updating you on my fermented soybean paste project! Remember those meju blocks I talked about in February? Now they're soaking in salty water in my large earthenware jar. In a couple of months, I'll be ready to strain them. At that point, the blocks will have transformed into delicious doenjang, while the brine will turn into rich Korean soup soy sauce. The soy sauce will get darker as time goes by. I’ll keep updating you on the progress!
Second, I found an awesome online grocery store called Weee! that I want to share with you. I recently tried it out for the first time and was really impressed with the quality of the ingredients and careful delivery. They even ship fresh, heavy napa cabbage for making kimchi! Plus, after comparing prices with other online stores, I found that Weee! always has the best deals.
I talked to them about making a kimchi-making page that brings together all the ingredients you need to make all kinds of kimchi, like cabbage, green onions, glutinous rice flour, gochu-garu (Korean hot pepper flakes), and even my favorite 3 crab fish sauce. : ) They made this Kimchi 101 page and I hope you find it convenient to browse.
A lot of people seem to know about Weee! already but I’m just learning about it lol. They are a US-based company so unfortunately it's not accessible to everyone around the world who follows my recipes. But someday if I come across a great online shopping option that's available internationally, I'll be sure to share that with you, too.
New recipe: Glazed Spanish mackerel dosirak
I love trying out local ingredients wherever I travel. Mexican eggs, cabbage, spinach, lettuce – they're all so unique and fun to try. I enjoy each bite and that is a big part of traveling for me. How about you? During my recent visit to the Oaxaca coast in Mexico, I had the chance to purchase freshly caught Spanish mackerel directly from the fishermen's boats as they came in. I pan fried the fish with seasonings and made Korean samchi-yangnyeom-gui. It was wonderful! One of my readers already made it and said that her toddler loved it. You can make your own Korean dosirak (lunch box) too, with this recipe!
New recipe: Spicy raw fish
Oh, I made hoe-muchim with fresh snapper from the fishermen in Oaxaca. It's a dish I grew up on in Yeosu, Korea, and it's always a hit. I mixed it with vegetables and a sweet, sour, and spicy sauce. You can use any sashimi-grade fish for this recipe, and it's perfect as a side dish for drinks or mixed with warm rice and sesame oil to make bibimbap. Yum! Check out the recipe here!
For my vegetarian or vegan friends, here's something special. Simply skip the fish, and you'll have a delightful fresh vegetable bibimbap! I enjoy this variation from time to time.
King-size kimchi dumplings!
Millions of my readers have been loving my foolproof king size kimchi wangmandu video, and now I've re-edited it into a 1-minute version! If you're seeing this for the first time and want to give it a try, or if you forgot all about the recipe, you can find the full recipe on my website. There, you'll see the written instructions along with the longer video.
Speakfreely’s makgeolli
How do you like this picture? I'm loving it! There are beautiful purple flowers, my cookbook open to my makgeolli recipe, a cute bird-patterned tablecloth, and the star of the photo, a big jar of homemade makgeolli from my reader Speakfreely! It's clear they're passionate about cooking and enjoying life. You can find the makgeolli recipe here!
Lacefronte’s tteokbokki
This soft but slightly chewy rice cake and flavorful fishcake, cooked in savory gochujang sauce, looks absolutely delicious! Lace in the front tried out the spicy rice cake (tteokbokki) recipe and thanked me for it. I also want to thank them for trusting and enjoying my recipes! And to all of you who try it out, alone or shared with loved ones, thank you! My tteokbokki recipe is here!
Esther’s Pan-fried fish
Esther, the confident and fearless cook, had no trouble handling these fierce-looking fish with their sharp teeth (maybe dentures?) : ) Esther said this is her all time favorite! Yes, even at first glance, I can feel how delicious this dish is. Among fish dishes, it's rare to find something this simple and tasty as this recipe. You can use any type of fish, just lightly salt it and pan-fry or deep-fry. Then drizzle it with a savory seasoning sauce made from soy sauce, garlic, and lots of fresh green onions. If you haven't tried making it yet, you should give it a try.
Joseph’s happy doenjang project!
Joseph said:
I've made this from your recipe! The doenjang is currently aging now, and the gukganjang (soup soy sauce) that came from that is SO much different than what I have purchased from the store! Thank you for teaching a Ukrainian-American how to create all of these Korean treasures!
I agree! Homemade soup soy sauce is incomparable to store-bought!
First time making kimchi stew
Frasierandchill tried making kimchi stew for the first time, and it looks so yummy, yeah? They were amazed by how tasty it turned out. Just follow the recipe step by step, and you can make kimchi stew just like them! Check out the recipe here.
Messages from readers & viewers
You guys always make my day brighter and give me so much to think about! Here are a few of your messages that I've selected to share with you this month.
I want to tell you about how much I love chatting with my readers. Diona and me exchanged messages on YouTube about homemade rice syrup. It felt like she was sitting right beside me. I ended up learning she’s from Bandung, Indonesia! Times like these remind me why I love posting my recipes—it brings me so much happiness!
Diona:
I just made my rice syrup last night, I have a question, how we store it? In room temperature or in refrigerator? Because I have two big jars here.
Me:
You made this, awesome! Refrigerate it up to 1 month.
Diona:
I really like the taste of this syrup, because it's not too sweet.
Me:
Yes, homemade rice syrup is more flavorful than store-bought rice syrup and less sweet. Happy cooking!
Diona:
Thank you from Bandung, Indonesia!
An Argentinian man cooked Korean-style stir-fried rice for his wife! It seems like he's really diving into Korean cuisine. Welcome to Korean cooking!
My wife loves fried rice, and we thought it was time to try to cook Korean style fried rice. Wow It was so tasty! This week I will try to prepare your oxtail soup!
Someone made kimchi for the first time and then made a kimchi pancake with the kimchi. I know it’s a satisfying feeling! Her excitement is really spreading to me, too.
Yesterday I made your kimchi recipe it turned out amazing!! now I came back to your channel to make kimchi pancakes I love how you explain everything I feel like you're my Korean auntie 🥹 Love from Saudi Arabia
Filipina Korean chef let me know she is learning Korean recipes from my website! Of course I followed up her request with a hello. : )
I am a Filipina Korean chef employed at a Korean restaurant. I’ve been learning my Korean cooking skills with the help of your YouTube channel. One day I hope you acknowledge my message. It will be a great pleasure for me when you say hi or hello️️️.
I hope you enjoyed reading my letter! I will see you next month on June 1st!
And remember that if you type any Korean dish into the search box on my site, you can find it (if I have a recipe for it). I use the search box all the time because that’s the fastest way to find a recipe among my hundreds of recipes.
Keep being happy with your delicious Korean cooking!
Everyone ' s food looks so delicious
Thanks!! me encanta como cocinas. Un abrazo