Happy Lunar New Year!

Happy Lunar New Year!

This is not the most traditional New Year's Day Korean meal... but close enough, I think. I cannot share my foods with you, but hope you can enjoy the pictures and some recipes.


1. Korean Rice Cake & Dumpling Soup (떡만두국, Tteok-mandoo-kuk)
The most important dish on New Year's Day in Korea! I cooked rice cake (dried and sliced) and Korean dumpling (called "mandoo") in beef broth which I made separately. It is a bit different dumpling soup, but you can still refer to my previous Korean Dumpling Soup recipe.



2. Braised Short Ribs with Soy Sauce (갈비찜, Galbi-jim)
I replaced some of traditional garnishes such as chestnuts and gingko nuts with potato and onion, more commonly found ingredients in the U.S.. Also, I cut the garnishes into "cocotte", a shape of 5cm football with angles. Please see the following video I filmed to see how to make cocotte. I posted a westernized version of Galbi-jim a few months ago. Braised Short Ribs with Soy Sauce recipe.



[ How to make cocotte ]
3. Korean Vermicelli (잡채, Japchae) In more traditional way... this time, I didn't wrap Japchae with rice paper. Korean Vermicelli (Japchae) recipe 4. Assorted Korean Pan-fried Meats and Vegetables (모듬전, Modum-jeon) Jeon refers to most of pan-fried foods in Korean. I made pyogo mushrooms (shitake) jeon, potato jeon, zucchini jeon and ground meat jeon. I posted a meatball recipe long time ago, which you can transform into ground meat jeon. Just shape the meat mixture more flat than round. Coat it lightly with flour and then beaten egg, and pan-fry it. Vera's Meatballs recipe. 5. Korean Pan-fried Ground Mung Bean (녹두전, Nokdu-jeon) Hydrate one cup of dried/peeled mung beans in enough water for 5-6 hours. Drain the water and ground them coarsely in a mixer with one table spoon of water. Mix the ground mung bean with thinly sliced kimchi (which is washed in water and squeezed to remove excess water), thinly sliced pork belly, and one table spoon of sweet rice (glutinous rice) flour. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon the mixture and pan-fry with little bit of oil. 6. Korean Seasoned Vegetable (나물, Namul) Traditionally, Koreans prepare namul in three colors on New Year's Day - brown, green and white. Usually, bracken fern shoots (called "kosari", 고사리) and balloon flower roots (called "do-ra-ji", 도라지) are used to represent brown and white colors, respectively. But since they are hard to find in the U.S., I used oyster mushroom and mung bean sprouts for brown and white colors. Blanch the vegetables, and gently squeeze out excess water from the vegetables by pressing with both your palms. Season with sesame oil, minced garlic & scallions, and salt & pepper. 7. Lightly Preserved Korean Side Dishes (밑반찬, Mit-banchan) Koreans eat many lightly preserved foods for side dishes (called "mit-banchan") including the best known "kimchi". They are relatively easy to make and easy to store for longer period of time (at least a few weeks). And, if you have some of them in your fridge already, you need to cook only rice and one main dish (or maybe a soup) to have a decent Korean meal. The followings are soy sauce marinated sesame leaves and radish kimchi (called "kkak-do-gi").