Patjuk: Soup for the long winter night

Today is dongji, the winter solstice. During this time of the year, families used to gather around the table to form small balls with rice dough for patjuk (red bean soup). Laughter filled the homes after hotly debated contests of who made the best rice cakes and a round of amusing stories, making the longest night even seem shorter than usual.

There is a saying that one truly becomes older after having a bowl of patjuk. Traditionally the bowl of soup has a number of glutinous rice cakes symbolizing one’s age. The version below is simpler without the risk of revealing your private information.

I like to have it with only a pinch of salt. But many prefer it sweet. It’s delectable cold or warm.

Ingredients

Serves 1

50ml red beans

200ml warm water

600ml cold water plus more

pinch salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

Directions

1. Rinse and soak red beans in warm water for about 30 minutes.

2. Drain water and place the beans in a pot with 200ml of water over high heat. Bring to a boil. Discard water again (this process helps reduce tannins and saponins in red beans which causes unpleasant aftertaste and diarrhea).

3. Put the pot with red bean and the remainder 400ml of water on high heat.

4. Reduce the heat when it starts to boil and simmer for about 45 minutes or until the beans soften. Remove from heat.

5. Separate the liquid and the beans. Set the liquid aside.

6. Mash beans in a fine sieve by pressing through with a spoon. Dip the sieve in the liquid to facilitate the process.

7. Simmer the mixture in a pot for about 5 minutes or until it develops a creamy consistency. Stir occasionally the sides and bottom. Season with salt and sugar. Add about 50ml of additional water if the soup is too thick. Serve either warm or cold.

Childhood Memories: Gyeran Bab (Egg with Rice)

It took a while for my dear mother to feed me as a child - that’s all in the past, I’ve built an enormous affection towards food now. I loved fruits: the shapes, the smell and the taste. So I had a hard time learning the importance of consuming anything not as flavorful and pretty as fruits.

I did eventually surrender the long battle of nerves. My mom’s secret weapon was gyeranbab - rice mixed with sunny sideup. I couldn’t resist the nutty flavor of freshly pressed sesame oil and delicate taste of grain.

Every household has its own version. Some add margarine, soy sauce and raw egg while others stay loyal to the classic recipe below.

Ingredients

Serves 1

200ml cooked short-grain rice

1 fried egg (preferably sunny-sideup)

1 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 pinch crushed roasted sesame seeds, plus more for garnish

Directions

1. Mix rice, egg, soy sauce, sesame oil and crushed sesame seeds in a bowl.

2. Garnish with sesame seeds.

Belated Chuseok Special: Songpyeon (Steamed Rice Cake with Sweet Sesame Seed Filling)

Chuseok is about family and food - plentiful of it. The day of the “bright autumn night”- literal translation of chuseok - came a little early - September 19^th - in 2013. So it was a bit too warm and crops weren’t ripe yet.

However, the mood of the event was fully festive as the moon beaming bright. Many treats including han-gwa (Korean roasted or fried rice cookies) are served throughout the three day chuseok holidays.

But the food of the harvest celebration is definitely songpyeon. The half-moon shaped rice cake represents hope. Full moon wanes after waxing thus demilune is considered to be more wishful for the abundant season. The steamed cake is chewy with nutty flavored sweet filling - there’re variations from mashed beans to chestnuts and it’s not always sweet.

The following recipe makes a plain white colored songpyeon without the flower adornment, the dark green ssuuk (mugwort) or the yellow dan-hobak (squash) in the picture.

Ingredients

Serves 1

50ml rice powder

1 pinch salt

1 1/2 tablespoon (or more) hot water (boiling)

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/3 teaspoon roasted sesame seeds (crushed)

1/4 teaspoon rice syrup

1 drop sesame oil or extra virgin olive oil

Directions

1. In a bowl, mix rice powder, salt and hot water. Stir well with a spoon until the mixture is cool enough to touch. Knead about 3 minutes. Let it rest about 5 minutes.

2. Mix sugar, sesame seeds and rice syrup in a sauce bowl. Set it aside.

3. Form dough into two balls. Make a well with your thumb and enlarge by pressing the dough outwards.

4. Put sesame filling in the concave and seal the opening.

5. Gently squeeze the dough with your hand to release air in the filling. Press into a ball then a semicircular shape.

6. Using your thumb and index finger, sharpen the round edges of the half-moons.

7. Pour water in the steamer and line the tray with wax paper or damp cheese cloth. Bring to a boil over high heat.

8. Place the rice mixture in the steamer and cook over medium high heat for about 15 minutes.

9. Coat rice cakes with sesame seed oil with a cooking brush when still hot to prevent from sticking. Cool before serving.

A Tribute to the Women of the Sea: Watermelon with Soy Bean Sauce

Samdado, the island of “three abundances”- wind, rocks and women- is another name for Jejudo, the largest island and honeymoon destination in South Korea. The women in the southern province are known to be beautiful and strong as haenyeo, female divers who collect sea products for a living. Although the number of the traditional “sea women (literal translation of haenyeo)” decreased drastically over the last several decades, they still represent the women of the island.

The ladies clad in black wetsuits are underwater for a long time without the help of oxygen tanks. They have larger lung capacity than average Koreans so it comes to no surprise that the mother of the nation’s Olympic gold medalist (Hwang Young Cho, Barcelona 1992 Summer Olympics) for marathon was a haenyeo.

Since the group of women spent most of their time working at sea, they didn’t have time to cook. So during summer especially, they consumed raw ingredients including fruits with soy bean paste. The following recipe is homage to the rustic simplicity of female diver’s table. This dish is sweet with a slight saltiness. Consume as an appetizer or as banchan (side-dish) like a traditional Jeju meal.

Ingredients

Serves 1

1 watermelon cube (flesh; 4cm)

1/10 teaspoon soy bean paste (literally a pinch)

1/4 teaspoon grated onion

Directions

1. Combine soy bean paste with grated onion.

2. Place watermelon cube on a plate. Put bean sauce on top of watermelon.

* Tip: Garnish with a slice of spring onion.

Round-Shaped Spring: Hwajeon (Pan-Roasted Rice Cakes)

It SNOWED this week and it’s still pretty chilly around the peninsula. But the traditional day which signals the beginning of spring arrived today. ‘Tis the day swallows return. Back in the old days, folks went flower-viewing to appreciate the beauty of the season, during the third day of the third lunar month. If you spot sulfur or swallowtail butterflies on this day, you’ll have good luck for the rest of the year. So keep looking!

Hwajeon is the dessert of the day. It’s a pan-roasted coin-shaped rice cake with edible flowers. You can substitute flowers with dried fruits or nuts like the following recipe. 

Ingredients

Serves 1

50ml rice powder

1 pinch salt

1 1/2 tablespoon (or more) hot water

15 petal-shaped dried dates

1 drop wild sesame oil or vegetable oil

1 teaspoon honey

Directions

1. In a bowl, mix rice powder, a pinch of salt and hot water. Stir well with a spoon until the mixture is cool enough to touch. Knead about a minute.

2. Form into three balls and gently flatten with the palm of your hand.

3. Decorate with petal shaped dried dates.

4. In a preheated non-stick pan, drop oil and rub over the pan with a paper towel. Roast rice cakes in low heat for about 2 minutes each side or until slightly golden brown.

5. Place them on a plate and pour honey over the rice cakes.

Daeboreum Special: Nutty-Fruity Rice

It’s Daeboreum, the first full moon day of the lunar year. However, the natural satellite of the earth is forecast to look fuller tomorrow. Moon-gazing is a popular pass time during this day of the year as well as consuming festive food like ogokbap (five-grain rice) and yaksik (sweet rice dessert with nuts and Korean dates).

I disliked yaksik as a child and suggested a change of recipe to my mom every time I had it. I thought it would taste much better if it wasn't sweet, so I turned the festive dessert into a rice dish for main course. I wish you all health and happiness!

Ingredients

Serves 1

200ml cooked short-grain rice

2 teaspoons coarsely chopped walnuts

2 teaspoons pinenuts

2 teaspoons diced Korean dates

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil (or olive oil)

Directions

1. In a bowl mix rice, walnuts, pinenuts and Korean dates with soy sauce, cinnamon powder and sesame oil.

2. Serve with main dish like bulgogi and side-dish like kimchi.

Goguma Mattang (Candied Sweet Potato)

Goguma (sweet potato) is a typical winter snack, it’s often roasted or steamed. The root vegetable is also fried and coated with syrup. Unlike gamja (potatoes), sweet potatoes don’t require rinsing off the starch before frying, making the preparation process much easier. Just slice the tuberous crop formerly known as potato (both in Korea and in Anglophone areas) and fry. The sweeter vegetable was introduced prior to what we now call potato but it lost its initial name in Korea and it was granted a longer name in English-speaking countries, due to the popularity of the latter.

Ingredients

Serves 1

200ml bite-size sweet potatoes

100ml vegetable oil

1 tablespoon rice syrup

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoon water

Directions

1. Fry sweet potato in medium high heat for about 5 minutes until brown around the edges or fully cooked.

2. Pour rice syrup, sugar and water in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and drop in fried sweet potatoes.

3. Serve warm or cold.

Yullan (Shaped Mashed Chestnuts)

Yullan is a dessert originating from Hwanghaedo Province in North Korea. It makes it easier to consume chestnuts which are protected with a double armor of inner skin and hard outer shell.

Ingredients

Serves 1

100ml cooked shelled chestnuts

1/3 teaspoon honey

1/3 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Mash chestnuts with a potato masher or the back of a spoon. Add honey to the mixture.

2. Shape the mixture into bite-size chestnuts.

3. Coat the bottom part of the mashed chestnuts with cinnamon.

Lunar New Year Special: Tteokguk (Rice Pasta Soup)

Traditionally Seollal (New Year’s Day) celebrations begin weeks ahead with preparations. Cleaning the house thoroughly to get rid of “old dust of last year” is an important ritual along with a long bath involving serious exfoliation. 

Festive food varies in each household but tteokguk (rice pasta soup) is the common denominator. It’s the dish that signals the beginning of the year. The number of the oval tteok (rice pasta or rice cake) slices in the soup represents the age of the consumer. So, if you’re 5 years old, you only get 5 tteokguktteok (rice pasta of rice pasta soup) in your soup. As a child, I thought that it was unfair so I always demanded for more of the chewy egg-shaped rice pasta. There’s a joke that if you eat more tteokguktteok than your age, you’ll get older than you actually are. Hmm, maybe that’s the reason why time seems to fly quickly. Traditional humor is often words of wisdom in disguise. It’s a witty warning designed to prevent people from consuming beyond their limit.

Tteokguk is a combination of broth and sliced rice pasta. Be creative and make your own special dish. You could also put tteokguktteok (200ml of sliced rice pasta) in samgyetang (http://simplybona.blogspot.com/2013/01/samgyetang-korean-chicken-soup-with.html) or gulguk (http://simplybona.blogspot.com/2013/01/gulguk-clear-oyster-soup.html). Find below a recipe for a basic garlic-free gultteokguk (oyster rice pasta soup). Tteokguk signifies the warm family moments and a fresh new start. I wish you all a blissful Lunar New Year!

Ingredients

Serves 1

200ml tteokguktteok (rice pasta slices)

80ml fresh oysters

1 tablespoon oyster mushroom shreds

1 teaspoon sliced (diagonally) spring onion

1 teaspoon rice wine

150ml water

1/5 teaspoon sand lance sauce (canari aekjeot)

1 pinch ground pepper

Directions

1. Place water and tteokguktteok (rice pasta slices) in a pot. Bring to a boil in high heat.

2. Wash oysters in salt water and rinse about a three times. Add oysters, rice wine, fish sauce, mushroom shreds and ground pepper. Turn off the heat when the mixture starts to boil.

3. Serve in a bowl and sprinkle slices of spring onion over the soup.

Gamjajeon (Potato Pancake) with Soy Dipping Sauce

It's a rainy day. Gamjajeon (potato pancake) is a great snack on a day like this. This is a basic recipe with soy dipping sauce. Watch my YouTube video recipe.