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.

Grilled Steak with Rosenberg, Parmigiano Reggiano, and Macadamia Dressing

Ahhh... summer is almost gone and I cannot say that I am sad because frankly, I am just about tired of the heat. I welcome the cool weather with open arms this year although I shouldn't really get my hopes up, huh? I mean this is Southern California...we hardly get any cold weather here and if we do, they are far and few in between. The reason I am celebrating though is because it has been a long, hot, and humid summer...to me, at least. I wish that we get to see changing of the color of the leaves here in LA, even just once...

This summer has been rather eventful. I went home to the Philippines for our nth college reunion and had a blast. We had so much fun reminiscing our past, the way things were, exploring old digs as well as new ones, eating galore... it was all made special because my fireds were with me. Ha! to think that I was not even going to go homw for the reunion at all. I am so glad that I did though because I got to spend time with people whom I have not seen in a long time. The rest of the summer was spent blogging and cooking for the most part which I really enjoyed after a very long hiatus. Hopefully this will continue for a while...hehehe

This meal is my summer send off as we welcome the dawn of a new season, autumn. Although, to be honest, today feels more like autumn than summer. It has been gloomy since I woke up and went to the store this more...and it still is...hmmm...maybe we will get a cooler autumn and winter this year...nice. For the meal, I grilled a t-bone steak over my stove top griller, not the gas grill, then topped it with cheese and nuts sauce. I also fired some sweet potato fries to go with it.


Ingredients:

A. Steak

T-bone streak or any grilling steak
salt and pepper, to taste
1. Apply salt and pepper to both sides of the steak.
2. Grill steak. 2 minutes on 1 side and another two minutes on the other side for rare. Cook longer if you do not want to eat rare.
3. Remove from heat and onto a serving dish. Top with the dressing and serve with sweet potato fries.

B. Resenberg, Parmigiano Reggiano, and Macadamia Dressing

1 oz Risenberg cheese, crumbled
1 oz Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
2 Tbsp chopped macadamia nuts
small bunch of mint, roughly chopped
small bunch of parsley, roughly chopped
3-4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 cloves garlic, chopped

1. Place macadamia, mint, parsley,garlic, and olive oil in a food processor and process until chopped finely and incorporated
2. Add both cheeses and process again until incorporated.
3. Season with salt and pepper according to taste.



Adapted from 30-minute entertaining cookbook by L. Pickford.

Seasoned Sweet Potato Fries

Fries...greasy, fattening, calorie laden fries...but they are soooo darn good. To be honest, I am not really a big fries eater but these potato fries are something else. They taste way better than their potato counterpart. I used sweet potatoes that I bought from the Korean supermarket as opposed to the ones they sell at the regular American grocery stores. I these Korean ones are a little firmer thus able to stand being roasted, baked, and yes, fried. I find that the regular ones sold at the regular grocery stores are a lot softer so it is less able to stand baking and boiling as they turn into a mush rather quickly.



The key to making sweet potato fried is making sure that the oil is very hot as well as not overcrowding the pot as this will cause the temperature to go down so the fries would become soggy. You also have to remember to season them while they are still hot. Be careful though because your fingers might get burned.

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into thin,long strips
oil for frying

Seasoning:

1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp sea salt
a pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp dried parsley

1. Mix ingredients for seasoning and set aside
2. PLace sweet potatoes into a large bowl filled with water. Soak for 30 minutes.
3. When ready to cook, heat oil in a lage pan.
4. Meanwhile, drain water from the bowl filled with sweet potatoes and dry them well. NOTE: Make sure that they strips of sweet potatoes has been dried really well otherwise you will have one heck of a mess. Remember that hot oil and water do not play well together...hehehe
5. Add sweet potatoes to the hot oil and fry until golden brown in color. Do this in batches and fry a little at a time. NOTE: Be sure to use splatter guard to prevent oil from splattering all over you and the stove. Be careful not to burn yourself as well.
6. When fries has turned golden brown in color, remove them from the pa using slotted ladle or spoon then place them in a heat proof colander to drain excess oil.
7. Transfer them to a paper towel limed plate and season with prepared seasoning. Remove excess seasoning.
8. Transfer to a serving dish and serve with catsup or a combination of catsup and mayonnaise.