Goguma Twigim

I love Korean food...truth be told, I think I like it better than Filipino food which is something that I grew up with....Ha! how's that for being nationalistic huh?  But, then again, I do believe that in my previous lifetime I might have been Korean.  Crazy, huh?  For some reason I have always been drawn to everything Korean - food, culture, entertainment.  Heck, even my Korean friend tells me that I am, in some ways, more Korean than she is... fine by me.

As I have mentioned I do love Korean food and am fascinated by their different dishes.  They have so many banchan (side disshes) that are being served at meal times that I often wonder how a regular Korean mom is able to prepared all of them while doing the rest of the household chores. Personally, I do like buying my banchan from the local market as it beats having to prepare each and every single one of them especially for those that requires extensive prep work as well and a mountain of dirty dishes.  Kimchi, for example, is not one of those side dishes that you prepare if you have a small family.  I think buying them from the market is a more practical alternative.  Every once in a while though I would get curious as to how some things are prepared that I would make them myself such as cabbage and radish kimchi but I do not think I will be making them again anytime soon.  Jjigae and main dishes though are a different matter since they taste better when they are freshly prepared as opposed to buying them from the market.  Goguma Twigim (fried sweet potato) is one of those that I can prepare at home and eat often.  They are really good as afternoon snack  and can be eaten as is or dipped in a soy sauce-rice wine vinegar-sesame oil dipping sauce.  

The preparation is actually quite simple which requires slicing the sweet potato into thin disks around 1/4 inch thick  then coating it with batter before it is deep fried in oil.  The good thing about this dish is that it requires just a few ingredients which can easily substituted from those that are found in the cupboard.  Don't forget to use ice-cold water as it is the secret to making the batter crispy when fried. Over the years, this has become one of my favorite as well as a comfort food as it conjure visions of home cooking.

Ingredients:

2-3 large sweet potatoes (Korean variety if you can get your hands on them)

3/4 cup of Korean frying batter mix ( can be substituted with all-purpose flour) + 1/2 cup for dusting/coating

1/2 cup ice cold water

1/2 tsp sugar

a pinch of salt

oil for frying

1. Wash sweet potato thoroughly making sure to remove any dirt on the surface of the skin then dry using paper towel.

2. Slice sweet potatoes into 1/4 inch thick round dish.  If you are using small sweet potatoes, slice it diagonally to get a bigger surface area.

3. Lay the potato slices in a single layer  and sprinkle with salt. Set aside while you prepare the batter.

4. In a bowl, mix water and 3/4 cup Korean batter mix.  Mix well until there are no lumps then set aside.

5. Transfer the sliced potatoes in a small ziplock back and add 1/2 cup of Korean batter mix.  Shake until every slice of potato is coated.  Shake excess and then coat each slice with the wet batter.

6. Fry in  heated oil until cooked and the outside turns golden in color.  Make sure that the fire is not too high that the batter burns before the potato slices are fully cooked.  Be careful not to burn yourself while frying.

7. Once cooked, remove from heat and then transfer to a paper towel lined plate to absorb excess oil.

8. Serve as is or with soy dipping sauce.

Soy sauce, Rice wine vinegar, and Sesame oil dipping sauce:

2 1/2 Tbsp Korean soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp rice wine vinegar

1/2 tsp toasted sesame seeds

finely sliced scallion

1. Mix soy sauce, sesameoil, and rice wine vinegaer in a bowl.  Stir to mix well.

2 Top with sesame seeds and scallion.