Lunch Box (Dosirak)

I found these old school stainless steel lunchboxes a couple years ago at a garage sale and couldn't resist. Brings back memories of Korea, picnics, Mom. All that good stuff.

Here we recreated a version that they have at Kanghodong Baekjeong in LA. (Their rib eye is to die for by the way). They have the shaken lunchbox on the menu and it seemed so easy and fun to make we decided to give it a try. The banchan can change depending on what you have in your fridge but I would always use kimchi, fried egg, and the seaweed.

Ingredients:

- 1 bowl cooked rice

- Banchan 1: 

- Banchan 2:

- Banchan 3:

- 1 fried egg, sunny side up

- Some crushed seasoned seaweed

Banchan 1: Lotus Root

Banchan 2: Stir Fried Anchovy

Banchan 3: Fried Kimchi. It's super easy. Just heat a spoon of oil in a pan. Add a 1/2 cup of chopped kimchi and 1/2 t sugar. Fry until the oil in pan is bright orange and kimchi is soft, around 5 min.

When you have all your banchan ready you can start assembling the lunchbox. First put the rice in the lunchbox.

Then arrange the different banch on top of the rice along with the crushed seaweed.

We used the second lunchbox for dessert. Fresh cherries!

I would love to have this in my bag for lunch everyday.

Shake it up like they make you do at Konghodong. Or just mix it around with your chopsticks and voila you have a lovely lunch. Oh and the bohjagi can double as a table cloth.

 

Bibimbap

If you are Korean you may have some fond memories of getting hungry in the middle of the night and mixing up a bowl of rice with whatever banchan(side dishes) you can find sitting in the fridge. This is what bibimbap is essentially. Just mix rice, side dishes, some red pepper paste, sesame oil, an egg and you're done. It's one of the most popular dishes in Korea and also why we love to fly Korean Air. (They serve bibimbap and it beats any other kind of airplane food hands down.)

Here we will be making a typical version from scratch. But again, there are no rules. You can change what goes in it.

Ingredients:
1 carrot sliced into match sticks
1/2 large zucchini sliced in to matchsticks
1 handful of shittake mushrooms sliced
1/2 bunch spinach
1/3 daikon sliced into matchsticks
2 oz of thinly sliced brisket (rib eye is also good. buy the meat that is sliced for shabu shabu. If you don't have an Asian market you can slice it thinly yourself by freezing the meat for 30 minutes)
Minced garlic
1 T soy sauce
1 t rice wine
Salt
Pepper
Sesame oil
Seasame seeds
Cooking oil
2 bowls cooked rice
2 eggs sunny side up

Sauce:
3 T red pepper paste
1 t plum extract
1 t sesame oil
1 t sesame seeds
1 T Korean cooking syrup (oligodang)
1 t vinegar (we used apple cider vinegar)

1. Slice the meet into small pieces.  In a bowl add the meat, 1 T soy sauce, 1 t minced garlic, 1/2 t sugar, 1t rice wine, 1/2 t sesame oil, 1/2 sesame seeds, salt and pepper. Mix and let marinate. 

2. Bring a pot of water to boil. Add the daikon and boil for 5 minutes until slightly tender. Take them out and drain under cold water. Set aside. In the same pot of water add the spinach and blanche for 1-2 minutes. Drain under cold water and set aside.

3. In a bowl, add the spinach, 1/2 t minced garlic, 1/4 t salt, 1/2 t sesame oil and mix well. 

4. Heat up a frying pan and add the daikon matchsticks along with 1/2 t minced garlic, salt and pepper. Fry until tender and transluscent. Set aside.

5. In the same pan add some oil, mushrooms, sesame seeds, salt and pepper. Fry for a few minutes until soft. Set aside.

6. In the same pan add the zucchini with salt and pepper. Fry for a few minutes until soft. Set aside.

7. In the same pan add some more oil (if necessary), the carrots, salt and pepper. Fry until soft. Set aside.

8. Finally, add the marinated meat and fry until cooked through.

Here is a picture of all the toppings we just made. Kind of reminds us of japchae toppings.

9. In a small bowl, add all the sauce ingredients and mix well.

To serve, put rice in a large bowl and arrange the toppings. Add the egg and sauce. You can also add crushed seasoned seaweed for garnish.  This took us over an hour to make but if you have Korean leftovers in the fridge it might only take you 10 minutes.
Enjoy!

Stir Fried Glass Noodles (Japchae)

Japchae is one of the more well known Korean dishes and we've had quite a few requests for this dish, so here it is.

Japchae is not really an everyday dish because it takes a while to make and requires a bit of work. It's usually made in big batches and that's why our moms used to make this dish on holidays or birthdays. Relatives would come early to help with the preparations and the women would all be in the kitchen cooking and gossiping for hours.  It took us over an hour but was actually really fun to make because we were cooking together and we knew there would be loads of leftovers to take home and share.

Ingredients for 6-8 servings
1/2 large white onion sliced thinly
1/2 large carrot sliced into matchsticks
1 red bell pepper sliced thinly
1 green bell pepper* sliced thinly
1 1/2 cup of oyster or shitake mushrooms sliced thinly
6 oz thinly sliced beef, we used sirloin
2 eggs beaten
Vegetable oil for stirfrying
200g glass noodles
8 T soy sauce
3 T sugar
2 T sesame oil
2 T sesame seeds
Salt and pepper
* Usually spinach is used. (We just couldn't get any that day.) Just trim and blanche one bunch of spinach and season with 1t sesame oil and some salt. Doesn't need to be stir fried.

Ingredients for beef marinade
1T soy sauce 
1/2 T minced garlic
2T chopped green onion
1T rice wine
1t sesame oil
Pepper

 1. In a small bowl mix the marinade ingredients with the beef and set aside. Put a pot of water on high heat to boil the noodles.

2. In a large frying pan heat up some oil and pour in the eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Flip after a minute to make a thin sheet of fried egg. Cool on a plate, then cut into matchsticks. Set aside.

3. In the same pan stir fry the onions, mushrooms, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, carrot, then meat in that order with the vegetable oil and season with salt. The ingredients must be stir fried separately to keep the flavors in tact. And the order of frying should be from the lightest color to the darkest.

4. Set aside with the egg.

5. In a pot of boiling water add the glass noodles. Let cook for 8 minutes. Put in a colander and run under cold water to prevent overcooking. Drain thoroughly.

6. In the same frying pan heat up the sesame oil and add the drained noodles. The oil helps prevent the noodles from getting soggy. Mix around then add the soy sauce and sugar. If the noodles seem wet and slippery just let it sit in the pan for a little bit until all the moisture is gone and the noodles are more sticky than slippery. It should taste more salty than usual because the stir fried ingredients will balance out the taste. If it's still bland add a little more soy sauce.

7. Turn the heat off. Add the stir fried ingredients and mix it all up with your hands. Taste one more time and season with salt and pepper if needed.

8. Put in a serving bowl and sprinkle with sesame seeds. And you're done! It's perfect for a pot luck or dinner party. You will be surprised at how fast this huge bowl disappears.