BBQ - Korean Galbi in a Nami-do Pension

 

Do your own Korean "Galbi"

Essentially BBQ Korean Family Style

So the director of LCI Kids Club, took all of the foreign and Korean staff out for the weekend to Nami Island. Shin took us to a pension where we had our own buffet of Galbi and sides, Kimchi Jigae, and of course... plenty to drink.

 

she had her own wine bottled and sent with us for the occasion.

 

there were plenty of veggie sides:

lettuce for wrapping, peppers, garlic, kimchi, lotus root, 

potato salad, regular lettuce salad, fruits and cookies

 

that's Director Shin on the left, she made the kimchi jigae all by herself for us, 

saying our hangovers needed to be taken care of

 

what the spread kinda looked like, after a bit of destruction

 A couple really handy things to remember when making Korean Galbi.

-choose prime cuts of meat and instead of seasoning them, grill them nice and even then pair them with veggies (grilled or fresh) in lettuce pockets

-mix salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes together and drizzle a little sesame seed oil on top for casual meat dipping

-get some mild galbi red pepper paste, or even dukbokki sauce to dip the meat and lettuce wrappage in

Enjoy!

Egg Drop Rice-noodle Soup

Korean Rice-cake (with Egg) Soup 

(Duk Guk with Egg/ 떡국)

Duk mandu guk is a variation of duk guk (rice cake soup), that soup includes dumplings or mandu). This soup however, just emits the mandu and uses the egg-drop instead!

ingredients:

• 2 cups of sliced rice cakes (they can be found in the international isle or maybe your local Asian Grocery store, sometimes they look like little peanuts too, that's okay they're just the shape of the rice cake)
• 1 tsp anchovy powder (myulchi garu 멸치 가루) [optional]
• 1 tsp minced garlic (when i don't have minced on hand I double or triple the amount, depending on my garlic mood, and just use powder)
• 3 cups of soup stock, your choice for taste (chicken broth/ beef broth)
• 1 bunch green onion chopped small
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs (or 3, depending on the level of eggy-ness you'd like)

the how to:

• Soak sliced rice cakes for 5-10 minutes, while they are soaking continue.
• Beat egg and add pinch of salt and pepper. Set this mixture aside and begin work on the soup.
• Boil the soup stock with anchovy powder (optional) and garlic.
• Add rice cakes when boiling for 2 min. Reduce heat to medium heat for about 15 minutes - add chopped green onion, continue the simmer for 2-3 minutes. 
• Quickly, re-whisk the eggs, salt and pepper. Then, while stirring the soup base in a circular motion drizzle your egg mixture into the broth. Turn off heat and prepare servings.
• For each serving*, get a large bowl. Scoop up some soup with enough rice cakes, garnish some more chopped green onions.

*Serve with roasted seaweed at the table for people to individually add into their bowl throughout the meal.

enjoying the egg-drop soup lunch with 

bananas, gim, kimchi and other assortments of korean side dishes

Very Berry Muffins

Everyone's Favorite Muffin... 

            Berrified!

 

Here, look now. I'm not going to say that these aren't anything special... They just get eaten up literally as I'm taking them out of the oven. Every time, never fails.

So here's the recipe for you:

berries... whatever kinda you'd like. my personal preference is a combination. i also like to use fresh non-frozen, pesticide free berries (like the ones from my backyard... the best kind)

*my combo: 

blueberry

black berry

raspberry

*the trick is not over or under-doing the amount. a lot of recipes will give you cup amounts and what not. this is probably because they aren't just going out back and picking what they need or something like that. My suggestion is to just make the batter separate then add your berry-mix in after. that way you can control how many and what go into your cakes. (as "a rule of thumb" i usually use about a 1/2 cup minimum of each type of berry, but when want a berry muffin, i want a very-berry-muffin)

the cake part:

2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar (or If you're using liquid Stevia remember that 1 tsp. is enough to replace 1 cup of sugar)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt

the how to:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. (If you're going to make tiny batches in a mini oven/ toaster oven just make sure you have tinfoil ready, the tray in the middle, and it set to baking temperature.)

Mix the (dry stuff) flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt... but mix the butter and sugar (stevia) separately until well blended.

Add the eggs to the butter/sugar mixture, just giv'em a good beatin', then gradually sift the flour mixture into the butter/sugar mixture. After this is well mixed fold the greek yogurt into your batter using a large spatula or wooden spoon... fold it well, <3.

Lastly, fill your muffin molds 2/3 full and then drop in your desired amount of berries*. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until it passes the clean toothpick test.

*here i like to sprinkle some cane sugar or large granules of sugar (demerara) on the top, just make sure they don't melt or burn by using the tin foil.




 


Somethings to think about when you're making a healthier (cup)cake!

Make a lighter cake batter by replacing some of the oil and butter with applesauce, apple butter, marmalade or yogurt (like in these vanilla and chocolate ones.

Adding fruit or veggies and using less sugar in your batter will add texture, keep the cake moist and up the nutrients.

If you want to pack in a protein punch try using some of your favorite vanilla protein powder in place of half the amount of recommended sugar. It works really well to add a richness when you mix it in with the yogurt first!

Go easy (or forget it all together) on your icing. If you like a cream cheese icing try and use it sparingly. Personally these deliciously sweet berry muffins don't need anything extra!