Monday, August 27, 2012

Cooking Korean at Home

Last week before grocery shopping, I made a tentative plan of dinners I would make during the work week. Usually I'm not that organized, but it did help me make more concise shopping lists. The husband and I enlist a divide and conquer approach to shopping at Super H Mart. By splitting the list, we can navigate the produce area much faster. When we go on Friday nights, we can also avoid the crazy super crowded weekends.
 Vegetables and spice mix for yukejang.
Bean sprouts, green leaf tips, daikon, carrots, mushroom, onion, scallions.
 Boiled beef brisket with vegetables in a spicy beef broth.
 Yukejang
 Seasoned vegetable toppings for bibimbap.
Spinach, bean sprouts, yellow squash, carrots, mushrooms and kimchi.
 Rice is topped with the vegetables with kochujang.
 Boiled homemade pork, chive and cabbage gyoza.
Boiled homemade shrimp, chive and scallion dumplings.
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While the husband was busy working over the weekend, I made the dumplings by hand. While it's a whole lot faster and easier to just buy a package of frozen dumplings at Super H Mart, I prefer making my own when I have the time. I can control what goes into the dumplings, making sure to put in flavorful ingredients, and leaving out the weird preservatives you may find in premade versions. I haven't ventured to make my own dumpling skins yet, but one day soon I'll experiment.
This time I made the shrimp dumplings by grinding up the raw shrimp in a food processor with ginger, lemongrass, garlic, chives, scallions and cilantro. Using the food processor helped create a much more uniform texture that cooked nice when the dumplings were boiled in water. The pork version included scallions, chives, napa cabbage, ginger, garlic, soy and ground pork. After folding the dumplings, I freeze them on a cutting board in a single layer for awhile before placing them in freezer bags.  

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