Kimchi-jjigae? Challenge yourself!

Kimchi is the most important side dish on a Korean table. This cured and fermented vegetable (most commonly napa cabbage and white radish) is used in the preparation of other dishes. Kimchi-jjigae is a hot-pot dish made of Kimchi, pork meat and Tofu. Experience this hearty spicy meal.

 

Three kinds of Jeon(전)

Jeon, Jeonya, Buchimgae, Jijimi, all these names represent the same Korean dish. The ingredients are cut in thin slices, coated with flour and then egg or mixed with a batter to be fried on a griddle. Unlike deep-fried food, pan-fried jeon is light and healthy. The name of jeon is almost always associated with the main ingredient from which it is made, such as Hobak-jeon(courgette), Saengseon-Jeon (fish) and Phogo-jeon(black mushroom).

This dish is often served in a memorial service(제사), a big parties or more often accompanied with alcoholic beverages.

 

Why is Bibimbap my first posting?

Bibimbap is probably the most well-known Korean dish after Bulgogi.  

Bibimbap is literally mixed rice. You have a bowl of rice and you mix it with something else. Voilà, you’ve got yourself a bibimbap. It can be that simple. On the other hand you can have a bibimbap with 30 ingredients or even more.

 

This is only one version of Bibimbap. I always try to prepare five different ingredients of five colours: white, black, red, blue, and yellow. These five colour composition is called Obangsaek (오방색). These colours represent five elements of universe, five organs of a body, five tastes, five…… etc. One could write a doctoral dissertation on this philosophy.

The recipe here is what I prepare today to give you an idea. The colours I mean here is not exact colours but hues, so radish sautéed and egg white for white, mushroom and meat for black, carrot for red or yellow, egg yolk for yellow, courgette (zucchini) for blue(green), red pepper coloured radish pickle for red. You can choose your own ingredients bearing in mind the five colour composition. It is fun and you are eating a whole universe in a bowl.