Cow Parts

MOOOOOOO.  That’s me being a cow.

Hello all!  I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving break – yes I realize I’m a bit late.  Anyhow, I thought I would do a short little blog on cow parts.  I made beef tang no less than four times already this winter so I thought I would share some of the different parts of cow you can buy at the butcher shop so you can see what it looks like.

 

Knee caps.  If you go to Jinju Gomtang, they have a great do-ga-ni tang - though I confess that I haven’t been there in a very long time since I’m not out and about in K-town like I was in my twenties.  =P  They give you kitchen shears and a big plate of knee caps with soft tendons falling off the bones.  I loved eating all the tendons and dipping into their soy sauce/wasabi mix.  Squeamish?  Don’t be.  Give it a try and you might become a fan!

 

This is where the marrow is.  Even if you don’t use other parts, I suggest adding some beef marrow to any gook or tang you make.

 

Ox tails are always a favorite in tangs.  I always separate my meat after boiling for a while and store it for easier access.

 

Beef brisket.  After boiling for a few hours, I will take this out of the soup and let it cool down.  Then you just take a sharp kitchen knife and slice the meat into thin strips.

 

Beef Feet.  This is definitely not for the weak of heart, but I guarantee your gook will be much more milky and flavorful if you add some feet.  Try it.  I promise you won’t regret it.

 

I normally use all the ox tails and then use about half of everything else.  Let it drain in water and then boil and throw out the water.

 

You can store the remaining cow parts for another time.

 

Remember, boil and throw it out once!

 

Then wash and clean all your bits and pieces and add water and boil, boil, boil.  You can see the more in-depth how-to over HERE and HERE.

Hope everyone has a great holiday!  We will be heading over to the Motherland again to spend Christmas and New Year’s in Seoul.  And yes, food pictures from the homeland will be coming up again so get ready to salivate. 

And can someone please tell North Korea to tone it down a little while we’re over there?  Thanks.

Spicy Oxtail Jjim - (매운 쇠꼬리 찜)

I know it's been such a long time since I did a food update. It partly has to do with the fact that I'm not cooking much these days and also when I do cook, I'm in such a hurry that I don't have time to pause and take pictures every step of the way.

The cold weather (can't deny that I'm a SoCal girl) has been quite annoying so I haven't been leaving the house much lately.

        

After lounging around and doing absolutely nothing all morning, I finally got my butt in gear and headed over to the K-market. I bought a package of ox tails and decided to step outside the box a little.  I have yet to taste the *spicy kalbi jjim* I hear everyone raving about, so I thought I would make my own version of it at home.

 

As always drain the blood for about 30 minutes, then boil the meat until all the gunk rises.

Meanwhile, get your sauce ready. Mix together the following:

• 1.5 cup water
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1 TB minced garlic
• 3 TB cooking wine
• 3 TB sugar
• 3 TB honey powder
• 1 TB red pepper powder
• 1/4 minced Asian Pear
• dash of pepper
• dash of ground ginger

After the meat boils, give it a rinse under cool water...



Add it back to the pot with the sauce and bring it to a strong boil. Once it's boiling, close the lid and let it simmer on medium/low heat for about 1.5 hours.



I then prepped baby white potatoes, baby carrots, and dried daechus (jujubes).



I also decided to add some mushrooms – just because I had them.

After an hour, it should start looking like this...



Add the potatoes, carrots and daechus and continue to let it boil for another 30 minutes.



Finally, add the mushrooms and let it simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes.



After about two hours of simmering, you're ready to serve!



If you've cooked it long enough, the meat should just fall right off and melt in your mouth!  Enjoy.  The little guy loved it today.  =P  Hopefully I will find time to be back sooner than later.

Steak Bibimbap - (스태이크 비빔밥)

One of my current obsessions right now is the Korean drama called Brilliant Inheritance (찬란한 유산). In one of the episodes the main character makes Steak Bibimbap and ever since I've been dying to try and replicate it. =P

The MR, Munchkin and I don't eat at the dinner table together. I often eat standing in the kitchen while the MR takes his food in front of the computer and Munchkin eats on the coffee table while watching Special Agent Oso. =P We're all on different schedules.

SOOOO - the MR and I got to talking and decided that we will eat together at least on the weekends......even if it kills us. So far, so good. The first time we did it, Munchkin said, "Why we eating at the table Mommy?" hahaha. Yah, I felt really bad after that.

Anyhow, for breakfast/lunch I made the steak bibimbap I mentioned yesterday.



Ever since the cancer diagnosis, I've been trying to cut down on meat consumption and if we do eat meat, I make sure it's organic. It's a little pricey, but since we only eat it maybe once a week our grocery bills haven't gone up much.



In a bowl mix together the following: 1TB soy sauce, 1TB sesame seeds, 1TB honey powder, 1TB rice wine, 1/2 TB minced garlic, and a dash of ginger powder.



Thoroughly coat the beef (this is a little more than 1/2LB of NY steak) and let sit while you prep the other food.




Grab some bell pepper and onions and stir fry with some olive oil and a dash of lemon pepper.



Meanwhile, wash some baby greens...



And mix the following for the bibimbap sauce: 2TB red pepper paste, 2TB rice wine, 1.5TB honey powder, 1TB sesame seeds, 1/2TB sesame oil, and 1/2TB vinegar. (If you have some sprite/7-up, add a splash of that as well).



Fry two eggs and slice them up thinly...



Then grill your steak until it's well done.



Slice the steak into thin pieces and set it aside as well.



You're now ready to assemble. First plate your rice at the bottom of a large bowl.



Layer the greens on top. At this point you can use some scissors to cut up the greens into smaller pieces.



Plate the onions and bell pepper with a little bit of the hot sauce on top.



Add your steak pieces on top...



And then I threw on the eggs.



And I added gim as well. =P Before mixing, drizzle a heap of sesame oil on top and start mixing it around.



Add more hot sauce according to your own taste and you're ready to eat!

PS. My tolerance to spicy foods is slowly coming back. I still can't eat the rooster sauce, but kimchi and everything else in moderation no longer sets my mouth on fire. My biggest fear was not being able to eat spicy foods again so I'm happy. Each day my face is lightening up more and more and now I can go around without makeup. You can still tell, but it's no longer as red as it was in the beginning.

I'm healing.

Persian Meatballs...

Sorry for the lack of updates again. We've been eating out almost every day this week. I haven't stepped into the kitchen except to make Munchkin some grilled cheese sandwiches. We're going grocery shopping tomorrow, so hopefully I will think of a new post for next week.

Until then....

I will cheat by recycling another post on my other blog~



Get 1 LB. of ground beef and add generous amounts of parsley, mint (lots), cilantro (just a little), garlic and onions. Season it with a dash of salt and pepper. Sorry there are no exact measurements. Just add enough of everything to give the meatballs color like shown above.



Form into little meatballs about an inch in diameter.



Heat a skillet with minimal oil since there will be oil coming from the fat of the meat...



And just cook until done.



Plate it with basmati rice, lavash (flat bread), and some yummy cucumber yogurt!

Cucumber yogurt: Just get plain yogurt and chop some Persian cucumbers and squeeze out all the excess juice. Add it to the yogurt and season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. I actually added some chopped parsley into the yogurt too and it came out yummy. Next time I'm going to make yogurt with shallots and garlic.

Basmati rice: I like to sautee the rice in LOADS of butter and I add small bits of onion and brown everything. Then I add water (2:1 ratio. 2 parts water to 1 part rice. I use about 1.5 cups rice to 3 cups water) and let boil...when the water is almost all gone, reduce the heat to LOW and cover and let simmer for about 20 minutes until the rice is done. You can even season it with saffron water...which I didn't have the time to do tonight.

Beef Curry....from the box - (카래 라이스)

I'm sure 99% of you know how to make curry, especially since the directions are right on the box, but I thought I would post a step by step anyhow since I made this and had my camera handy. Plus, one of my girlfriends (you know who you are) called me the other day and asked me how to make curry. =P At first I thought she was joking, but it turns out she wasn't. So this is for you, babe! ;)



There are lots of different instant curries out there, but I personally like this one the BEST. My 2nd choice would be Vermont Curry.



You can pretty much add whatever vegetables you prefer. I chose to use 1 whole large onion, 3 mushrooms, 4 celery sticks, 1 large potato, 2 small carrots, and about 1 cup of frozen corn.



The local K-market actually sells beef for curry. It's really convenient because it's precut into perfect bite size pieces. You need more or less 1 LB. of beef. You can use ground beef, beef stew meat, beef flank, etc. You can also substitute with chicken.



Start off with about 2 TB of oil and 1 TB of minced garlic. I'm sure you've noticed by now that I garlic and add it to just about everything.



First saute your beef with a dash of salt and pepper.



Then add your cut up carrots and potatoes and keep stirring.



Next add your onions and celery and continue to stir it around. At this point I like to add about 1 TB of red pepper powder.



You're now ready to throw in your mushrooms and corn. Stir, stir, stir and mix everything around evenly.



Add 6 cups of water and bring it to a boil for about 5-10 minutes. I also added 1 TB of Chicken Knorr at this point.



Break up all your curry pieces. Although I only took a picture of half the curry, make sure to use the WHOLE box. You will be using two of these.



Keep stirring it around and make sure to scrape the bottom off so the vegetables don't stick.



In about 5-10 minutes after adding the curry blocks, you should reach a thick consistency. You're now ready to serve over hot rice! Enjoy~ I was going to take a picture of it over white rice, but when I came home today the MR had already finished all the curry! I took half of it to work to share with my coworkers, so he didn't eat ALL of it by himself...but still.