Chuseok and Songpyeon

As much as I love all sorts of bread, pastries and cakes, I love my rice cakes, called tteok (떡) in Korean. Korean rice cakes are often made with glutenous rice and thus quite chewy for many western people, but for us Koreans that's one of the good things about them. Another thing is most of time they are not too sweet and can be eaten as good healthy snack. Quite sadly it doesn't seem that many of the younger generations in Korea appreciate the traditional rice cakes as much as we used to do.


I would say the most important festive season in Korea is autumn when the weather is at its loveliest and there is an abundance of fresh produce from the new harvest. Some might argue that the New Year is more festive but personally I think Chuseok in autumn beats it. Okay. What is Chuseok? Chuseok (15th of August on the lunar calendar) is something similar to Thanksgiving and as turkey is to Thanksgiving; Songpyeon (a kind of tteok in the shape of half moon) is to Chuseok. I have fond memories of making Songpyeon with my grandma, mum and aunties on the eve of Chuseok chatting away or just listening to the grown-ups chatting. Grandma used to say that if we make nice looking Songpyeons, we will get a good looking husband. And I always thought I should deserve a handsome husband if I ever going to get one.


This year, for the first time in my life, I have made Songpyeon without any help from my mum. Of course, they weren't perfect I couldn't get some of the things that you would get easily in Korea, such as pine needles. They put pine needles between layers of Songpyeon in the steamer to give them the unique aroma as well as to prevent them from sticking to each other. Anyway, it was not a complete disaster at least and we all enjoyed them including my brother's family who were visiting us at the time.


PS) This year Chusoek was on the 3rd of October and this post is very long overdue.

Moving home

Sorry for being so quiet recently, if there is anyone waiting for my posts? (I know, for a fact, I've got at least one follower.) Some time last July we moved into a new flat and it wasn't very easy for many reasons. Basically I had no time or rather no energy to focus on anything.

To tell you a little bit about it, we nearly moved to Manchester from London because Rob had (and still does) have his office up there. We had found this flat in Salford quay. It was on the 18th floor. Yes, that's right. It's not a typo. It's on the 18th floor. It had a small balcony and the view was quite something, not because of particularly beautiful scenery but because of the sheer height. It certainly gives an undeniable impact on your sensory system. Anyway, I did not really fancy sitting out there. In fact, the first thing came into my mind was that it would be dead easy to kill yourself in this flat if you wanted. All you needed to do is just to step outside onto the balcony and jump off. Well, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing to give it a miss after all.

To make a long story short, things didn't go as we planned and we decided to stay in our familiar surroundings. Since the decision was made at the last minute, we had very little time to find a new flat to move in and the whole thing became so stressful. Anyway, we are now settled in our new home.

One big change is that we don't have a gas supply in our new flat. Everything is electricity powered including the cooker in the kitchen. Like everybody I know, I don't like the electric cookers. It takes so long for the electric cooker to heat up and once it's heated up, it also takes ages to cool down. It is simply too hard to control the heat or to judge the cooking time. It makes me feel like I'm wasting the (very) expensive energy all the time.




Another joy of our new kitchen is the sink. We had this small round aluminium kitchen sink in our old flat. Apparently it was from IKEA and from our flat hunting experience, it seemed quite popular in rented flats for some reason. We both hated it with passion as it is just not practical at all. And guess what! We have got a smaller round sink now. I thought our old one was small enough. Who would have guessed that there can be even smaller one.




One consolation though is that we don't have a wooden work top like we did in previous place. I'm now trying to use the dishwasher as much as I can. Otherwise, there is no way that I can do the dishes without spilling the water all over the floor.

PS) I guess I’m not a natural writer unfortunately as it is proving quite difficult to keep my blog updated but I’ll try my best.

Oh! Yes, please!

Normally, I am one of the most terrible decision makers. Simple things like ordering food at restaurants or choosing products at the supermarket could be very difficult and time-consuming for me. However, there is one thing I'm defintely sure of. That is I would never say no to Champagne. I can say, without a moment of hesitation, it is my favourite drink. It turns out that I have Champagne tastes and beer income as Rob often says. Sad reality but I can't help but love this bubbly drink so much! Ok, here is a picture of me enjoyoing my lovely Champagne in style. No, not really. Sorry it's just a scanned copy of last Valentine's Day card from Rob. (And yes, I had to twist his arm to get me one.)



A few weeks ago, we had a perfectly legitimate reason to celebrate something with my favourite drink. My friend J had finished her short course successfully. Hooray! Well done, you! So, here is a picture of Rob pouring the Champagne for all of us. I can tell you it was very, very nice.

Sadly, she has gone back to Korea now and I would like to say something to my dearest friend. "Hey, J. Once again, congratulations on your achievement and good luck with your future career! It was so good to have you here with us. We both look forward to seeing you again in Korea hopefully soon."

Spaghetti Bolognese

It is extremely difficult for me to pick one particular dish or type of cuisine that I like the most. Simply there are so many of them. It was never easy except perhaps when I was very young. Like many Korean children, my favourite dish used to be Jajangmyeon (click the link if you are not sure what I'm talking about). But if you asked me the same question about 10 years ago, my answer was likely to have been pasta. There was something about pasta, especially creamy ones like Carbonara, and I never got tired of having them. Still Spaghetti Bolognese has never been one of my favourites. I don't know why but it seemed a bit boring and too predictable if you know what I mean. Unlike here in the UK, cooking pasta at home was not very common in my country and naturally I didn't know how to make them properly from scratch. Even after I came to the UK, my pasta dishes normally involved the ready-made sauce in the jars and my first choice would have been the pesto sauce.

Spaghetti Bolognese, or Spag Bol as many people affectionately call it, has become one of my staple diet only after I met Rob. Apparently it was one of his favourite dishes. By then I have already realised that many other British people loved this 'more British than Italian' pasta. Since he seemed to like it so much, I wanted to know how to make it properly. One day I was searching for an easy recipe and found this wonderfully simple recipe on the Internet. It was called Antonio Carluccio's ragù Bolognese (click for the recipe). One of the things I liked about his recipe is that it does not require any herbs. I'm not a big fan of dried herbs and you know my motto: the simpler the better. Since we both love garlic and onion, I tend to add a couple of cloves of garlic as well as an extra onion. And for Rob who needs a kick, I sometimes use some dried chillie as well. Personally I would prefer tagliatelle, as the recipe says, but most of the times we have this ragu with spaghetti pasta just as many do here. But apart from these few changes, I try to stick to the original recipe, which does work beautifully all the time. Having tried it out several times, I can now quite comfortably say that I can cook Spag Bol. So, here goes my big thank-you to Mr. Carluccio. THANK YOU!

Complete novice's fruit loaf

Last week I managed to bake a fruit bread following a recipe from a newspaper supplement. I was rather nervous as this was only my second attempt ever to bake something in my whole existence. In addition to that, the very first time I ever tried to bake a cake, a dark chocolate cake to be precise, it all went horribly wrong. I was making the cake mixture according to the recipe and what happened was that I did not realise 4 tablespoon of espresso coffee should be in the liquid form. Yes, I simply used the ground espresso coffee beans instead and the result was a disaster. To be honest with you, I don't think it is very economical to bake breads or cakes at home when there are only two of us, albeit we are rather greedy people. Of course, it would be a different story if you have a big family or friends nearby to share the fruit (sic) of your efforts.

Anyway, a few weeks back I came across a fruit bread recipe by Peter Sidwell, the chef from Yorkshire, England. According to the paper, his recipe was based on a traditional Yorkshire fruit bread recipe from his wife's grandmother. It sounded quite nice and most importantly very easy to make. That's right. I wouldn't have been tempted if it had looked slightly complicated or required many ingredients nor any special tools. Good thing was that it turned out to be really easy actually. And to my great relief, both Rob and my friend seemed to like it.

Once again I would like to make it clear that my recipe is almost entirely based on Peter Sidwell's recipe. To reflect that and to emphasise my lack of baking skills, I have changed the name of the recipe accordingly. Since I did not want the loaves too sweet, I have reduced the amount of sugar and dried fruits slightly. I have also added raisins to dried dates. Maybe I should try with mixed dried fruits or cherries next time.

Complete novice's fruit loaf

Serves 4 - 6 (depending how greedy they are)

Ingredients
600g chopped dried dates & raisins
200ml espresso or strong coffee
400g self-raising flour
250g unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
4 large eggs
100g whole hazelnuts
4 tbsp milk

Method
1. Soak the dried fruits in the espresso coffee for about 10 minutes until they have softened.
2. Rub together the flour and butter, then add the sugar and the whisked eggs.
3. Pour in the soaked dried fruits and coffee and add the hazelnuts. Finally add the milk and mix well.
4. Divide the mixture between two greased 2lb loaf tins lined with greaseproof paper. Bake for an hour at 130C/ gas mark 1, then for another hour at 100C/ gas mark 1/4.


PS: I was going to include the link to the original recipe here but I could not find it on the paper's website for some reason.

Swedish meatballs

It may sound sad but I love IKEA no matter what other people say about this Swedish furniture company. Probably I am not the only one considering the fact it has 231 stores in 24 countries now. (Yes, I had to check it on their website. I'm this sad!) For me, the attraction of IKEA is not only their furniture or the way they display them cleverly although I tend to spend hours and hours just wandering about in the store like many others. I also like the IKEA FOOD. I would never leave the IKEA store without buying loads of goodies from Swedish Food Market, especially the IKEA meatballs (Kottbullar) and all the trimmings - cream sauce (Graddas) & lingonberry jam (Lingonsylt). Yummy! I think they are the best meatballs I have ever had. (I know it's ready made ones but I'm not ready for making my own meatballs yet. Not just yet!) Since they are frozen, you can keep them in the freezer for quite a while, which is handy.

We normally have meatballs with mashed potato and sauerkraut as well as cream sauce and lingonberry jam. Being a Scot, Rob prefers mashed potato to boiled potatoes. As for sauerkraut, I know perfectly well that it is German not Swedish. One time we had to substitute the pickled red cabbage from IKEA with this German version since it was out of stock. Luckily its sharper taste worked very well with the rest. So there we go. Even without microwave oven, it only takes 15 minutes to cook the meatballs in the oven. You can make the mash and the cream sauce while they are being cooked. So quick and simple!

Sadly we finished the last bag of meatballs tucked in our freezer last Sunday. As we don't have any plans to visit IKEA any time soon, I think I am going to miss the tasty meatballs for a while. Still I have to say I was quite pleased to share the last meatballs with J, my friend.

Ready to cook...

... and ready to eat!!! (On this occasion we also had to

substitute lingonberry jam with the red current jelly.)

Korean egg toast

My husband never says no to an egg (or to eggs more likely) and neither do I. The beauty of eggs is that you don't need to know much about cooking to enjoy them. Even if you just boil or fry them, they are simply tasty. As an inexperienced cook I like its simplicity and readiness, but of course I do understand that there are far too many ways to use them in cooking & baking. I guess Rob's favourite egg dish will be egg sandwiches whereas mine should be Korean omelette (계란말이). We both love eggs so much that they tend to appear on our shopping list almost without fail. Now that we are joined by another egg lover, my friend J, the egg consumption index in this household seems to have reached its peak.

A recent addition to our egg dishes is the 'Korean egg toast'. This is a kind of street food popular among the busy Koreans as breakfast on-the-go or just as snacks. Basically it is an omelette sandwiched between two slices of toasted white bread (I don't think we had brown/wholemeal bread in Korea). It is important to toast the bread in the frying pan/griddle with a little bit of oil. To make an omelette mixture, use one egg and some finely chopped vegetables such as onion, carrot and spring onion per serving. No need to add milk or water. When the toast is ready to be assembled in the frying pan, it is optional to add a slice of processed cheddar cheese. Believe me - it is better than the real thing! And finally some dash of tomato ketchup to go with it. Now enjoy!

PS: This picture shows the toasts made with wholemeal bread because we do not normally have white bread. Still I think the soft white bread will go better with this recipe.

Friend's visit

J - one of my Korean friends is currently staying with us for a few weeks. We had met each other when we were doing our course at the University here. One of the reasons we became close was that we shared the love of food and the willingness to try new food stuff. For example, she was the only other Korean who liked Marmite apart from me. The main difference between her and me is the size, I guess. Whereas I'm very tall, J is tiny (& cute I may add) and naturally eats only a small amount of food. Unfortunately for me, she now lives in Korea and is only visiting the UK for a couple of months.

Thanks to her, we have been having lots of Korean food recently. Nothing grand or special but just simple dishes. Luckily, this suits fine all three of us. My husband loves Korean food, especially Kimchi or anything spicy. Like most Koreans, my friend seems to prefer Korean diet to western. A lot healthier arguably. Sensible girl! And me? As I said, I am quite happy with any sorts of food and I don't mind cooking either. The only trouble is that I am very very slow and tend to panic if the task looks slightly daunting. As a result, I tend to stick to a handful of recipes I feel comfortable with. Very bad! I know. Good news is that J is a lot quicker and more confident in cooking and with her help, I have been practising some other Korean dishes. I am sure that there will be another handful of Korean recipes in my collection by the end of her stay.

Picture of Kimchi

After my very first post, my husband pointed out that I should have some photographs of Kimchi on this site. I was, of course, fully aware of that myself. The trouble was that I had no pictures of Kimchi nor any Kimchi at home to take a photo of. Luckily I had a chance to have a meal at one of my Korean friends' house the other night. I took my camera with me and took some shots. As I had not told her my ulterior motive, they seemed to look rather too natural without any cosmetic dressing and with poor lighting. But probably the main reason why it did not look great is down to my basic phtographic skills. Anyway, this is KIMCHI (김치), to be precise the CABBAGE KIMCHI (배추김치) and this will do until I could get some decent ones.

Why Kimchi?

Like my fellow Koreans, I love Kimchi so much. There is a variety of Kimch dishes to begin with and it is also so versatile that you could use it in many Korean dishes. Unfortunately outside Korea, not many people seem to know about Kimchi at all. For those who has never tried it, Kimchi is a kind of raw vegetable dish made of mainly Chinese cabbage or radish with the seasoning of salt, chilli pepper powder, garlic, ginger, onion, spring onion and so forth. It is normally eaten after a couple of days when it starts developing unique flavour by fermentation. It is scientifically proven that it has a great deal of health benefits. It makes me feel very proud of my ancestors who came up with the recipe. How clever!

I came to the UK to study in the spring of 2002. Sadly I had to say goodbye to my beloved Kimchi because firstly, I didn't know how to make it myself. Secondly, I was just lazy and poor as I am now, so I wouldn't go and buy the relatively pricey ready-made stuff at the Korean grocery shops (not easy to find them unless you live in the central London or New Malden, Surrey). It was OK since although I loved my Kimchi very much, I was known for having a versatile palate to cope with any kinds of food (maybe greedy in other words?). No one I knew really worried about me in that matter actually. They knew I would survive as long as there was any type of form of food available. Yes, that's ME!

Apart from the occasional encounters, my life was continued without Kimchi and I was more or less happy. Then I met Rob my husband back in 2006 and fell in love and all that sort. He is originally from Edinburgh and had never met any Koreans before me. Naturally he was very curious about anything Korean including food and I dutifully tried to let him sample as much Korean food as I could (not necessarily of my cooking though). To my surprise, he instantly liked Kimchi and became a huge fan. I was lucky because he was very open about different types of food and also liked spicy foods in general.

Anyway, when I was considering the name of this blog, I was thinking about food which will also reflect my identity. I was quite tempted to call myself - the lazy cook but I am hardly a cook and besides there was somebody else using this name. Hmm... How about Kimchi? Kimchi = Korean? OK, that will do.

The thing is that I love food but I am not really a good cook nor experienced in food industry as other people might have. Therefore, I know perfectly well that I am not qualified, in any sense, to run a proper food blog if you know what I mean. I am just very envious about people who can express themselves in their blogs. There are things I like to learn more about but I always have a list of endless excuses and I never seem to achieve anything. This is my humble beginning just to motivate myself to learn a thing or two about food and some other stuff as well. Yes, I would give it a go. I cannot pretend that I am an expert or a connoisseur in anything. So, this is from someone simply interested in food. Nothing more or nothing less. I hope this would take me somewhere, ideally somewhere nice. One can dream, can't one? But hope I'm not fooling myself here.