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Post by jewel on Dec 10, 2014 22:18:58 GMT -5
You misunderstood me, Birdy. Or more likely I didn't make myself clear.
My mom is not one of those people who won't share their recipes. My mom is like the most generous person I know, but most especially when it comes to anything food-related. What I meant was that because she doesn't follow any exact recipe she has none to share. She literally can't figure it out herself to write it down.
Also Korean cooking is a little different from American cooking. In American cooking you have to have the exact measurements to all the ingredients because most of the time you put everything together and pop the prepared dish in the oven and the result is what you get and there's really nothing much you can do about it when it's done.
In Korean cooking it's a working process (work in progress?). Meaning, you put in all the main ingredients in a pot/pan and then add the needed spices as you go, in accordance to your taste. You're constantly tweaking as you cook. My mom can list all the ingredients and write down how things need to be washed and cut and prepared and in what order things need to be cooked. But she can't do exact measurements of all the spices. And usually that part is what everyone gets all hung up about.
I'm sure she would love to hold cooking classes for people who want to learn. She actually does with me. That is one of my favorite pastimes. I would lounge all lazily in her kitchen, leafing through a fashion magazine, gossiping with her, while she would cook. And she doesn't just cook. She explains everything to me as she cooks. It's like watching a cooking show with me as audience of one. It's so much fun! (Once in a great while I help.)
This is one of her many quotes: "Remember, you eat with your eyes as well as with your mouth." Her foods are always as beautiful as they are delicious.
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Post by bird11 on Dec 10, 2014 23:12:45 GMT -5
Oh Jewel, I understood you-- I just decided to add a comment about what happens when I try to get a recipe from someone! I think one of the reason I love to watch dramas, shows like Running Man, and want to visit Korea one day is because of the way food is served! I think I do such a good job serving fresh, not frozen waffles for breakfast and then I watch something like "Return of Superman" and see these dads serve their kids soup AND side dishes-- I can't even imagine trying that! AND the dishes can look soooo beautiful,too My grandma makes these cookies which are squares of butter cookies, baked with squares of Hershey bars in between each layer-- they are called "Pillow Cookies" because they look like pillows, my kids call them "The cookies mom always makes and gives away", I made them for a bake sale at work recently and two of the people I work for decided they would call them "ravioli" cookies--because they thought they looked like ravioli-- and the saddest part to me is that my mother has no idea where my granmother got the recipe from......Cooking to me is the one of the best ways to make memories!! I love your mother's quote-- it is so true!
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Post by jewel on Dec 13, 2014 0:37:19 GMT -5
Well, lots of Korean soups ARE a side dish. Like my mom's beef radish soup, bean sprout soup, seaweed soup, etc. are soups that you don't really eat alone. You have to at least have a bowl of rice with it. But usually lots more side dishes too.
I don't understand. You have the recipe. What does it matter if you don't know where it came from?
Oh my mom has a million of 'em. We used to ask her where she kept her book of quotes hidden. We'd joke that when we went off to school she's sneak off to work at a Chinese fortune cookie factory. Then the thought of her working at any factory would start us off on one of our laughing fits. (Mom is quite the glam girl - to look at her you'd think she doesn't even know how to turn on a stove.) Gosh, we used to have so much fun teasing her when we were growing up... My dad too, but don't get me started on him!!
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Post by bird11 on Dec 14, 2014 20:39:48 GMT -5
The point I was trying to make about my grandmother's cookies--- was that to me they are like family history, part of the family tree -- Did she create the cookies herself? Did she get it from her mother? Knowing where you come from is important to me and since the cookies are now a part of my kids "history" it would have been nice to know where the recipe actually came from. I checked out the korean web site where I found the ppopgi and she has a soy bean sprout soup that looks really good-- so that just may be my next attempt at Korean cooking!
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Post by jewel on Dec 18, 2014 0:14:24 GMT -5
My cookie recipes come from the back of Betty Crocker box...
My mom did give me the bean sprout soup recipe, if you still want it, Birdy. I actually wanted to make it myself first so that way I can give you the exact measurements of all the ingredients. It's up to you. My mom said this soup is one of the easiest to make. I don't think I'm gonna have time until after the holidays tho. Let me know and I'll send it privately. (If anyone else wants it, let me know. I'm not gonna post it here because I didn't ask my mom's permission.)
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Post by bird11 on Dec 18, 2014 19:35:30 GMT -5
I would love to have the recipe whenever you get the chance, we are big soup eaters here.......we had a thai soup tonight with pot stickers, mmmmmm so good
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Post by jewel on Dec 28, 2014 22:38:04 GMT -5
Ohmgosh Birdy, will get that recipe to you soon. I'm gonna go to H-Mart one of these days to get all the ingredients and do an actual trial. Exciting. Sadly, it'll be my first try at a real Korean dish (all by myself!)
Meanwhile, if you want my mom's "diamond-in-the-rough" recipe, I'll send it to you via PM.
*I sent you my mom's recipe, I think. I can't see it anywhere after I sent it! Hope you got it. If I sent it twice I'm sorry!
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Post by jewel on Dec 29, 2014 10:49:16 GMT -5
Glad you got the recipe! Doen-Jong is a soy bean paste. I've never used this. My mom left this here for when she cooks for us. Da-Si-Da I use in my ramen soups. I don't use the packets that come with it. This is beef-flavored. Mom said you can use this but if you can find clam-flavored one, it's much better for bean sprout soup. Speaking of ramen, if you've never tried this, you should. This is just a hardier version of it and much, much better. This is like my fave of these packaged noodles. I wouldn't use all the spice in the packet tho - very spicy! And you can add anything you want in it. Egg, of course. But also like dumplings, fish cakes, cut up veggies... yummy!! You can buy these singly or in a box (which is what I do).
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Post by ajk on Dec 29, 2014 12:03:43 GMT -5
Hey jewel, have you ever found any of those ramen brands that has less sodium than others? I just love the stuff but every brand I look at tends to have a lot of sodium. I'm not on a limited diet or anything, just would love to find one with lower numbers.
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Post by jewel on Dec 30, 2014 23:59:25 GMT -5
You know after reading your post I got all curious, so I went and checked on the stuff I have at home. I was shocked at how high the sodium is in all these soup spices.
Ramen = 910mg Neoguri = 1010mg (I don't use all the packet tho) DaSiDa = 870mg (1 tsp)
Wow! I actually never read the back of any of these products before. When next I'm at H-Mart or HangYang (my fave Korean supermarket in Flushing) - whichever one I go to first - I'll check to see if there's any low-sodium Ramen, Ajk, and report back to you.
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Post by ajk on Jan 1, 2015 17:12:19 GMT -5
Thanks, jewel, that's nice of you. Yeah I didn't notice at first either, but they do have a lot. I mean, it's not so much that you shouldn't eat the stuff, but enough that I only have it occasionally, and then try not to have anything else salty that day.
I would think most of it is in there just as a preservative...but maybe not. Will be interesting to hear what you come up with. I actually wrote to Nong Shim USA about it once, but they never answered.
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Post by jewel on Jan 3, 2015 0:00:43 GMT -5
I actually wrote to Nong Shim USA about it once, but they never answered. lol - you're funny!
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Post by ajk on Jan 3, 2015 3:21:10 GMT -5
Oh I really did! They make my favorite ramen, with that real hot packet of spices. I wrote a very nice letter to them telling them how much I enjoyed their product and asked them if they had any lower-sodium versions available. Maybe I offended them in spite of myself, who knows.
But now that you bring it up...Nong Shim has an office in the Golf Mill tower. Maybe I'll knock on their door next time I'm over there and ask somebody.
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Post by jewel on Jan 6, 2015 18:17:15 GMT -5
I can't imagine why they would be offended. I think every company should have a "write back" policy. When they get a fan letter, they should be obligated to write back. I mean it was so nice of you to take the time to write to them. How hard could it be for someone over there to send you a word of response (and a box of your favorite noodles along with it, preferably!). Here's a little story... Our family is very anti-Bush (sorry to the Bush-followers out there) but a cousin of mine wrote him a letter long ago (when Bush was the prez). A very childish (meaning child-like, innocent) little note about the Iraq war or something. Well about a month later he got this very official-looking envelope in the mail and the return address read: "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue"! They sent him a big, autographed picture of Bush and his wife along with a full-page letter which explained why we were in the war. (Addressed to my cousin by name!) Yes, it was typed and I'm sure it was a generic thing that they just printed out but my cousin was just so proud of it. He has the letter framed and hanging in his room to this day. After that, of course none of us could really hate Bush like we did before. My point is - a little note in response could make a fan for life or eliminate an enemy. Birdy, this is what dry anchovies look like - that you throw in the bean sprout soup. They have it at H-Mart.
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Post by ajk on Jan 7, 2015 23:02:24 GMT -5
Yeah I was surprised to not hear back from them, not even a form letter. Oh well. Reminds me that I also wrote to the Korean Consulate here in Chicago a few years ago and never heard back from them either. Not that it's a Korean thing, I doubt that, but it just came to mind because it was about us losing KBS here.
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