Culinary Misadventures With the Kiddo, Day 4

While the kiddo was front and center during yesterday's misadventure, he wasn't around much today, largely because he took an impromptu nap around 4 while I was in the thick of the kitchen craziness. Just because he wasn't physically present didn't mean he wasn't involved: Today is the five-year anniversary of the kiddo's arrival in the U.S. on a hot July 3 that his parents thought would never end as the newly formed threesome traipsed from Seoul to L.A. to Phoenix and finally home to Austin. In honor of the occasion, we had some of our favorite Korean foods along with a tribute to the husband's last meal in Seoul, a bulgolgi Whopper.

Starting Off Easy: Sweet Potatoes
I tracked down this recipe while killing time a few months back, and the fam and I believe it tastes just like the sweet potatoes we get when we hit Korea House. This is only the second time I've made it, and I swear my technique for half-assedly cubing the potatoes has improved tremendously since watching Bridget Lancaster prep russets for garlic and olive oil mashed potatoes on a sixth-season episode of America's Test Kitchen.


Look pretty tasty, non?

Here's the recipe, if you want to try these oh-so-simple-to-prepare-and-oh-so-flavorful yummies:

1-2 sweet potatoes
2 T low-sodium soy sauce
2 t sugar (or Clabbergirl Sugar Replacer)
1 t minced garlic
2 t sesame seeds
1 t sesame oil (I only have light, but I'd imagine dark would work too)
4 T chopped green onions

1. Combine soy sauce, sugar, garlic, sesame seeds and sesame oil in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. Peel and cube potatoes. Place in a sauce pan and cover with just enough water.
3. Bring water to a boil and cook until they're tender.
4. Drain water then add the soy sauce mix. Toss well.
5. Sprinkle with green onions and serve.

Here's a tip I picked up from the original contributor of this recipe (and don't ask me where I found it because I lost the link in one of my computer rebuilds): If you won't be boiling the potatoes for a while, place them in cold water after you peel (and cube, if doing so right away) them so they won't discolor. It works too since I had about two hours to kill before I started the water boiling.

Another Recipe Revisit: Japchae
The kiddo and I are both huge fans of japchae. When I'm at Korea House, I'll order just this while the boys each get bulgolgi. Before my culinary misadventures, I attempted to make this dish twice, and both times I found the end result severely lacking in flavor. Luckily I found a recipe and "improved" upon it so that we wind up with japchae that the kiddo will eat (that's quite a feat) and that tastes pretty close to the stuff from Korea House.


Pretty colorful, don't you think?

I've come across a lot of recipes for japchae online that call for rice noodles, but from what I understand, "true" japchae is made from sweet potato noodles. I've been able to find these at New Oriental Market on Airport, and I'm sure if you've got a Korean/Japanese or decent pan-Asian market near you (and yes, my Okiemolah family members, "near you" is a relative phrase) you can find some there. While I haven't tried a japchae dish with anything but sweet potato noodles, I urge you to go authentic (as I understand it) and track down sweet potato noodles.

Here's the recipe for making both bulgolgi and japchae in one wok, with my modifications:

Bulgolgi Beef

1 C diagonally sliced carrots (I used julienned ones tonight since I had some on hand and didn't want to pay Wally World prices for whole carrots I'd have to chop; Wally World produce ain't cheap)
1 C julienned onion (I've been using yellow, but I'd imagine a white one would work)
1 C sliced green onions
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips of no more than 2-inch strips
1 C diagonally sliced zucchini (optional, if you don't live with people who refuse to eat anything green)
1/2 t crushed red pepper flakes
5 garlic cloves, minced

Yangyumjang Sauce

3 T low-sodium soy sauce
3 T sugar (or your fav sugar replacer)
1 T honey or agave nectar (I go for the agave)
1 T cooking rice wine (if you've got sake or soju, go for it!)
1 t sesame oil (again, I only have light, but I'd imagine dark would work)
2 T chopped green onion
1 t minced ginger
1 t minced garlic

1. Marinate the bulgolgi beef in bulgolgi sauce for at least one hour. I use Koon Chun, which is just labeled "Barbeque Sauce," but it's damn tasty.
2. Make the yangyumjang sauce and set aside.
3. Prepare the japchae noodles.
4. Prep the wok by spraying it with nonstick cooking spray then heating it over medium-high heat.
5. Add bulgolgi beef and marinade, then stir fry until beef is cooked.
6. Remove bulgolgi, put in a separate dish, cover and keep warm.
7. Clean the work, respray it and reheat it.
8. Add crushed red pepper and five minced garlic cloves, then stir fry 30 seconds.
9. Add carrots and zucchini (if using), then stir fry for 3 to 4 minutes.
10. Add onions and red pepper strips, then stir fry until the carrots and zucchini are tender.
11. Add back the beef to the veggies, then add the noodles along with the yangyumjang sauce and 1-2 T of bulgolgi marinade (optional, to taste). Stir well.
12. Cook 3 to 5 minutes until the veggies, beef and noodles have absorbed the sauces.

While the yangyumjang sauce is pretty good, I found I needed extra marinade/bulgolgi sauce so that the noodles got to absorb some too. Feel free to exclude it, especially if you opt to make your own sauce (for which you can find beaucoup recipes online).

New for the Night: Bulgolgi Burgers
I came across a recipe for Korean barbecue burgers a few weeks back, sent it to the husband at work and together we decided we needed to try it sometime. Well, tonight was that sometime.

I'll admit that I didn't actually use the recipe. I just thawed some ground beef (I know, quite a shocker to have cow meat in my house), threw in some Koon Chun sauce so the beef could marinade for about two hours, then made up seven or eight patties for the husband to cook while I was getting a much-needed massage. Now I did throw in the half-cup of sliced green onion the Cooking Light recipe calls for, and I'm happy to report that they stayed in the patties and didn't fall out.


Our Circulon grill pan is getting quite a bit of use, I'm happy to report, because it performs so well. Cleanup is a snap--although I wish I weren't the only one doing that job.

Tomorrow the residents of Chez Boeckman-Walker will celebrate not by blowing anything up (at least I hope to hell not) but by baking some cookies together as a family. Y'know, with the three of us humans (and surely a feline resident or two) in the kitchen, the odds of some culinary explosions are quite high. Check your favorite "Odd News" section come Saturday for reports of mysterious in-house fireworks in northwest Austin.