Tag: East Asian
Cheese Buldak (Korean Fire Chicken)
Cheese Buldak (Korean Fire Chicken)
If you were to try this without anybody telling you what it was, you wouldn’t guess that this was Korean. You’d think that it was some type of Italian chicken pizza hotdish. I must say that I was surprised how “normal” tasting this dish is. You don’t think of cheese working with any type of Asian cuisine, except for Korean. Somehow adding the mozzarella balances out all of the flavors happening in the skillet. This dish is so good that you won’t want to share it. Then you end up eating a pound of chicken and a cup of cheese all at once. Maybe smoke a bowl after instead of before? The sauce is really just the typical mix of gochugaru and gochujang, hence the “fire” in the name. The sauce is mixed with the chicken. You can use either breast or thigh for the chicken. Using a cast iron pan is the best option for making the cheese buldak, since you need to broil the top. First, sauté the rice cakes for a couple of minutes. Remove them from the pan. Add the chicken and water to the pan. Cover and cook for 6 minutes, giving it a few stirs. Add the rice cakes, cover, and cook for another 5 minutes. Top with mozzarella cheese and broil for no more than 2 minutes. You can serve this as is with either bread or steamed rice to soak up the sauce.
Servings: 2
Equipment
- cast iron pan
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into 1” pieces
- 1 cup mochi rice cakes
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
Sauce
- 1/4 cup gochugaru pepper flakes
- 2 tbsp gochujang
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp ginger minced
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Mix together the sauce ingredients.
- Add the sauce to the chicken; making sure that all of the pieces are evenly coated.
- Heat up 1 tbsp of cooking oil in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add in the rice cakes and sauté for 4 minutes. Remove from the pan.
- Add the chicken to the pan along with salt and water. Cover and cook for 6 minutes, giving the chicken an occasional stir.
- Add in the rice cakes. Cover. Reduce the heat to medium low and cook for 5 minutes.
- Turn on your oven’s broiler. Place the rack to the middle of the oven. Top the chicken with mozzarella cheese. Place under the broiler.
- Broil for just 2 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly.
Tempura Soba
Tempura Soba
Tempura soba is a hot soba noodle soup with fried tempura shrimp over the top. Making this soup is extremely easy. The dashi stock just needs heating up. Prepare the soba noodles according to the package. Ladle the stock over the noodles. Top with lots of spring onions. The only real effort is making the tempura shrimp, and that is fairly simple. If you don’t like shrimp, you can substitute tempura chicken, mushrooms, green beans, tofu, etc. Sprinkle some togarashi pepper powder over the top. It kind of gives a numbing feeling, similar to Sichuan peppercorns.
Servings: 2
Ingredients
- 4 cups dashi stock
- 3 tbsp mirin
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sake
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 portions soba noodles prepared according to package
- 3 spring onions chopped
- 12 tempura shrimp
- togarashi pepper powder to taste
Instructions
- Bring the dashi, mirin, soy sauce, sake, and salt to a boil.
- Place 1 portion of cooked soba noodles in a soup bowl.
- Ladle in 2 cups of stock. Top with spring onions. Place 6 tempura shrimp over the stop. Shake on togarashi pepper powder.
Shrimp Tempura
Tempura is one of the most famous Japanese food items outside of Japan. The batter is light and crispy without absorbing excess oil. Shrimp is one of the most popular ingredients to fry in tempura batter. Like all tempura frying ingredients, the shrimp need to be pat dry before dipping in the batter. They will only take a total of 6 minutes. Drain oil on a rack instead of paper towels to maintain the crispiness.
Servings: 2
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb 26/30 count shrimp tail on; peeled and deveined
- 1/2 cup cake flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup ice water
- vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
- Mix together all of the dry ingredients.
- Mix in the water.
- Heat up 3” of cooking oil in a pot over medium high heat(350 degrees). Pat dry the shrimp. Dip in the tempura batter. Drop in the oil. Make sure to not over crowd.
- Fry for 3 minutes a side. Drain grease on a rack.
Okonomiyaki Omurice
Okonomiyaki Omurice
Here is a fusion of two of my favorite Japanese foods, okonomiyaki and omurice. Okonomiyaki ingredients are used to make the fried rice: pork belly, cabbage, onions, and okonomiyaki sauce. The rice is then formed into a dome on a plate. A simple omelette is made and put on top of the rice. Oh, it’s not over yet. Across the top of the omelette is drizzled okonomiyaki sauce and kewpie mayo with sprinkles of sesame seeds, bonito and nori flakes. This is why you always make extra steamed rice so the leftovers can be turned into something so magical like this.
Ingredients
Rice
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/4 medium white onion diced
- 1/4 lb pork belly skinned; diced into small cubes
- 1/2 cup cabbage shredded
- 2 cups day old steamed rice
- 1/3 cup okonomiyaki sauce
- 2 green onions chopped
Omelette
- 1/2 tbsp butter
- 3 large eggs beaten
- salt and pepper to taste
Toppings
- okonomiyaki sauce
- kewpie mayo
- bonito flakes
- nori flakes
- sesame seeds
Instructions
- Heat up 2 tbsp of cooking oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Sauté the onions and pork belly for 5 minutes.
- Add in the cabbage. Sauté for 2 minutes.
- Add in 2 more tbsp of cooking oil. Add in the day old rice. Break up all of the clumps. Fry for 3 minutes.
- Squirt in the okonomiyaki sauce. Fry for 2 more minutes, making sure that they rice is evenly coated. Turn off the heat and stir in the green onions.
- Pack some of the rice in a small bowl to mold into a dome shape. Flip upside down on a plate.
- Melt the butter in an egg pan over medium high heat. Pour in the eggs. Season with salt and pepper.
- Cook for 1 1/2-2 minutes a side.
- Put the omelette on top of the rice.
