Day of Five grains and nine herbes, Deaboreum

Moon dictates agricultural cycle. Lunar calendar, therefore, was very important one in the past. Koreans still follow lunar calendar closely for celebration of the year. Ancestral ceremonies and birthdays in traditional family is celebrated according to Lunar calendar. New years day is not the new years day of western calendar. The real celebration begins with January of Korean lunar calendar, which usually falls around February in western calendar. In the past, the new year's day continued till the first full moon of the year.

This year, the first full moon of the New year, called Daeboreum (the word means great full moon) was yesterday. This is the official end of New Year’s celebration.
In the night, while you are greeting the new moon, fire is lit on the dried bank of rice field to prepare for the new rice season.
Food, like all other traditional Holiday, takes important place in this day.
‘Ogokbahp’ (Ogok: five types of grains and beans, bahp: steamed rice) and nine types of special ‘namool’ made from dried herbs and vegetables is made for the day. Depending on region, the rice and namools are rolled in kim, (dried seaweed, AKA nori) and offered as offering to the ancestors wishing for good harvest and good year.

I made it for the day, too. (It was one day after, to be exact, due to the dissertation committee meeting this morning.) Even though I only used three ingredients for rice and made only three ‘namool’s to go with, the effort and taste counts.
I showed off my skill to my Mother, Grandma, and aunties who all see me as a child even though I am adult. Their praise and sweet happy surprises gave me childlike pleasure: the kind of pleasure that a young child would feel when her parents clap and praise for the first drawing she did. I was proud and happy.

One warning! If you have Korean friend, don’t answer their call Daeboreum. They may sell you their Duwi (meaning heat of Summer, symbolizing misfortunes or illness for this year due to the heat of Summer), which you don’t clearly want. The line, “Nea Duwi Sala!” means you just bought my Duwi for the year. I got tricked several times, and resell my misfortune to the other. If you happen to be the last person to ‘buy’ all the heat of the summer, then your salvation is kite. My father told me to write down my name and let it float away with my misfortune.

Ogokbahp

my version is short, uses ingredients easy to get. :)

for two people,

small red beans (known as pat or azuki) 1/4 cup, 1/3 cup of short sushi rice, 1/3 cup of brown sweet rice, water

1. soak red beans over night in one cup of water. Drain and rinse, add a cup of water and boil till it gets half tender.

2. soak brown sweet rice for one hour.

3. mix red beans, sushi rice, and brown rice. Add 1 and 1/4 cup of water. Boil it over high heat with cover. Uncover when it is about boil over. boil till there is no visible water. (DOES NOT mean DRY, though) Put the lid back on, reduce the heat as low as possible, and let it steam for 25 min.

Namools

From the top, Kong namool (soy bean sprouts namool), Moo namool (white radish namool), and Kosari namool (bracken namool)

If you go Korean market, you can get namool. Namool means simple vegetable dish sometimes it is a bit time consuming. Many poeple are more than happy to buy it. But here is recipe, just in case.

Kong Namool or Moo Namool

1 lb of soybean sprout or white Daikan radish, one teaspoon of sesame oil, half clove of minced garlic, salt and pepper to taste

option: finely chopped green onions, toasted crushed sesame seeds, Korean chili flake

1. Rinse soybean sprout. If you are using moo(white Daikan radish) cut it into very thin strips as you can see above.

2. In the sauce pan with lid, heat one teaspoon of toasted sesame oil over high heat with garlic. when the garlic begins to bubble (which is usually right away), add main ingredient, stir well, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook for 10 min. When you use soybean sprout, you should NOT lift lid before soybean sprout is fully cooked.

3. Turn off the heat,

4. If you can get, season it with pepper and Korean fermented fish sauce. If you can't, just use salt and pepper. You can add green onion, sesame seed or Korean chili flake.

Kosari namool (dried Bracken namool)

This is a typical example of labor and time consuming Korean food. But it is not that complicated.

2oz of dried bracken, water, one teaspoon of toasted sesame oil (Perilla oil is preferred choice but it can be little hard to get), 1 tablespoon of say sauce, half clove of minced garlic, pinch of pepper

1. Soak bracken for thirty min. Rinse and put it into the pot with plenty of water.

2. boil it over medium low heat for 40 min.

3. Leave it till it is cooled.

4. squeeze all the excess water out. Chop it into desirable length.

5. heat oil and garlic, add chopped bracken, stir in say sauce and pepper.

6. Cook it for five min. Cover and let it sit for 10 min.

Add toasted broken sesame seed if you want.

Breakfast in my youth, Kong-juk

My mother used to make it fresh for breakfast for the rest of family, even though it usually was not the first thing in my mind. During the high school years, I studied to death to enter good university. I went bed late and school hours were very early. By the time I got up, I was not a happy child. I took it out -as often the teenagers do, if that could be an excuse- to my mother, who also stressed out about her work and many other things but never took it out on me.
My mother never skipped to make breakfast even though she also had to run to her work. I was never allowed to go school without eating breakfast. At least, I had to drink freshly boiled and ground soybean porridge. I didn't appreciate it back then, but now I admire my mother with full heart. Soybean is not something fast to cook. She soaked beans overnight, boiled it tender from early in the morning, and ground it smooth for her lazy daughter.

Same broth is used to make summer treat, Kong-Guksu. These days, you can take shortcut by ground tofu instead.

But I did it very old fashioned way. I was missing my Mom. I need the little texture that only the ground soybean. So I soaked, boiled, and ground it with little bit of rice. Seasoned the mixture with doenjang, pepper and dried anchovy powder.
Two different status of soybean (boiled soybean and fermented soybean paste) make very unique taste.

I ate it with spacey green chili pickle I made earlier in late October. The snow covered outside makes me appreciate what I ate and what I had eaten.

for soaking
1/4 cup of dried soybean, 1cup of water, 1/4cup of short grain rice, 1cup of water

for porridge
3 cup of water, one table spoon of Korean soybean paste, 1/2 teaspoon dried anchovy power (if you don't have it, you can use bonito flake, even though it will give totally different taste), 1/2 teaspoon of pepper

1. wash soybean and rice and soak separately, in one cup of cold water overnight in the refrigerator.
2. Boil soybeans till it is tender. Grind it with soaked rice.
3. return to the pan and add three cups of water
4. boil the mixture till rice is cooked. Stir in order to prevent the bottom from burning.
5. Mix soybean paste with one table spoon of water very well. add it to the pan and stir.
6. mix anchovy powder and round black pepper. adjust seasonings with salt if necessary.

Kimch & Korea, shame and fame

As I wrote in previous article, I choose the days I eat Pakimchi even though I adore it. It smells even after eating scallions. The compound in scallion family is absolved into blood and circulates around the body. The compound then comes out through lungs when we breathe out or leeks out when we sweat. So whatever you do -brushing teeth about million times and gargling with gallon of mouthwash after eating row lots of scallions or garlic- IT DOES NOT WORK!! The problem is in your blood!

This was one other reason why Kimchi, the national dish of Korea, was notorious. It has a ton of garlic. When it doesn’t have garlic, such as Pakimchi, it has Pa(scallion), vegetable which is equally strong and smelly.

Kimchi itself has quite a smell like many other good things just from its fermentation process; good cheese stings, if you ever notice it. Even many Koreans do not like the smell of fully ripen Kimchi.

Kimchi is one food that has been shamed and famed with Korea.
During the Japanese occupation, Japanese looked down upon Kimchi like all other Korean culture. Now Kimchi and many other Korean foods become very popular even in Japan. Japanese come up with many items using Kimchi and other food with fresh ideas which they are very good at. This adapting for desirable foreign goods and customs and creating new things out of it is called –iitokotori (良いとこ取り).

Looking how the perception of this food changed around the world gives me bitter sweet feeling. I am happy that finally my favorite food gets the acknowledgement it deserves. I am a bit sad that it may loose its origin 'Korea' since Koreans are not necessarily quick to think to commercialize and to develop products out of things what we own.

Kimchi is pungent and strong. It is expressive and explosive like Koreans. Even though it is often considered not polite, in Korean culture, it is totally fine to express your overwhelming joy and sorrow in public. The big loud laugh, the tears running like river, screams of joy from your inner little child and moaning coming out of the tattered soul, all in public, are acceptable. It just says you are human, after all.

Back to the issue of smell, the best way avoid it is not to use garlic or scallions. If you want to avoid using garlic and/or scallions, feel free to go ahead and do so. Kimchi can be fermented without any of them. It just add flavor. How do I know? I make Kimchi without garlic using Korean Buddhist recipe. Buddhist monk does not consume any vegetable that has strong taste since it stir up passion. They want to remain calm and focused. I will translate (hopefully soon enough) few of my favorite Korean Buddhist recipe into English.

Pakimchi - I am pakimchi! :)

'Pa' means scallion in Korean. Like all other vegetable, Koreans make Kimchi out of it. I guess this is the most difficult Kimchi to appreciate for non-Koreans. Scallion can be used as alternative for its milder cousin, chives. Koreans treat chives as vegetable. Chives are cheap, little bit more tedious to clean, and milder. Whenever you see chives in Korean recipe, it can be almost always substituted with scallion.

Few days ago, I bumped into bunch of fresh tender delicate scallions which is rare finding. This is the perfect size of one of my favorite Kimchi. Kimchi is usually named after its main ingredient. Pakimchi mean Kimchi made with scallions.
It is so simple to make. I don’t need even cure the vegetable or make starch to make base for the seasoning. I simply mix Korean red chilli flake with little bit of sugar and Korean fish sauce.
The taste is as you imagined: scallion is very pungent. Imagine adding ton of spicy red chilli flake. Even though the pungent taste of scallion will reduce little with time, but it remains as scallion. This burn-your-mouth-spicy Kimchi over well-made hot boiled rice is my soul food.
Koreans often say “I become Pakimchi” meaning “I am so worn out, so I can not even sit strait.” You can easily understand the status by imagining the cooked whole scallion: it become very soft and has no strength to hold its shape. I was that shape when I found perfect scallions for Pakimchi. Just thinking about it gave strength!
I happily made Pakimchi and waited few days for it to be soak up and mingle with the simple seasonings. I consumed it, felt its full powered punch to my nose and tongue, and came out of ‘being Pakimchi’.

25~30 Scallions, three table spoon of Korean chilli flake, one table spoon of salt, two table spoon of Korean fish sauce (if you don’t have it, use one table spoon of salt + one table spoon of water), one teaspoon of sugar
1. Get scallions as thin as possible. Soak it in cold water for
2. Meanwhile Mix chilli flake, fish sauce and sugar and let it sit.
3. Remove scallions from the water and drain very well. Trim off the root.
4. Mix scallions with seasoning well in a big bowl (please use protection such as gloves!) and put it in a air tight container.
5. You can eat it right away with grilled meat or let it sit for three days.

Food for soul - Yoenghun Jorim, Lotus root in soy sauce

Lotus grows in mud but blooms the flower of heaven. That is what the Buddhist teaching taught me. We are always in the world of deceptions, the world that as murky as mud. Yet, our soul can bloom a beautiful flower of heaven, our deed can be as white as a locus blossom.
Besides of its beauty and its valuable teaching, every part of lotus has many usage. The lotus nut makes delicious snack and has calming effects on nervousness. The blossom has used to perfume the rice wine. Leaves make fragrant tamale-like steamed sweet rice. The stem and roots, rich in fiber, are eaten through out the Asia.

I slowly simmered it in soy sauce along with ginger. I didn't like lotus root that much when I was young child. It is one of the food that , I thought, did not have much taste.

I discover now, it actually have subtle but very distinctive taste like the way potato does. I can not put my finger on it, but something is there to taste.

The root is quite hard and take some time to be fully cooked. But I think the wait is all worth it whenever I bite into it.

Recipe

Lotus root 1 lb, 2 Table spoon of vinegar + 2 cup of water

Say sauce 1/2 C, water 1 + 1/2 C, honey 1 T, dark brown sugar 1 T, whole black pepper 1/2 t, sliced fresh ginger 1 T

1. Peel and slice lotus root into 5-7 mm thickness and soak slices in vinegar water.

2. Mix soy sauce, water, honey, dark brown sugar, black pepper & ginger in sauce pan and bring it to boil.

3. Rinse & Drain lotus root slices and add them into the sauce pan. Put lid on top and reduce the heat to low. Simmer it till tender (about 30-40 min).

Moon, more than a thousand year old song, and Bindeadduck (Mung bean pancake)

Back in high school, I learned about more than thousand years old song . It was song of a wife, waiting for her husband under the moon. She was asking moon to rise high enough, so her husband would see well on his way home. I loved the words for how it sounded. I loved even more to find out a lady who had same habit with me more than a thousand years ago. I often made a wish upon the moon waiting for my father to come back home in the evening.

Making wish upon the full moon is something older than this song. August 15th on Korean lunar calender, the day with the brightest full moon in the year is celebrated as Thanksgiving. There are many stories about how it began. This is the day when all of family members get together.

This year, I didn't go back. I called up my mother and relatives. Made wish for my brother. Remembered my late father and grandfathers. This was a bit of bitter sweet day for me. But certainly I made food to celebrate the day and made many wishes upon the moon. This cake brought a big smile to my housemate, who also misses her husband who is far away now. A thousand years later, we still look up the moon and look down to the moon-look-a-like. This warm pancake filled our heart as the full moon did the sky that day.


2/3 cup of dried mung bean, 2 cup cold water, 2 T vegetable oil, 1 t sesame oil, 1/8 cup mung bean sprout, 3 dried shiitake mushroom, finely chopped Kimchi 1/8 cup, 1/2 t minced fresh garlic, salt and pepper up to taste.

1. Soak mung bean in 2 cups of cold water overnight. In separate container, soak dried shiitake mushroom


2. Place bean in big and deep enough bowl and rob them between the palm, removing skin. After removing 2/3 of skin, add a cup of water and stir very gently (careful not to disterve beans at the bottom) with fine sieve, removing skin from the bowl.


3. In separate bowl, soak mung bean sprout and pour boiling water on top, let it sit for five min. Drain & finely chop it.

4. Gently squeeze shiitake and finely chop it.

5. Mix mung bean sprout, shiitake, and kimch with sesame oil, salt & pepper.

6. Blend soaked and drained mung bean in the blender. Add two table spoon or so of water if necessary. Mix blended mung bean with 5.

7. Pan fired the batter as you do with pancake using vegetable oil.

8. Serve warm with soy sauce.

Summer slips through with noodles - Kong Cold noodle in Soybean milk

Korean Summer is intense; the air is thick with heat and humidity, I felt as if walking in the water.
One thing my mother often makes during the summer is Kong Guksu, noodle in soy milk.
Each family has different way of doing it. Some family mix sesame, peanut or pine nut for flavor. I am use to just plane soybean milk with cucumber on top.
You can do it with plane soybean milk. It may be a bit of stretch for non-Korean that eating noodle in soy milk, but remember pasta in cream sauce? It is same concept. :)

I did it in traditional way; sock and boil soy beans, ground it as silky as possible and add salt & pepper. The process takes a bit long, but it is wonderful meditation for me.

The short cut for making broth is blend a table spoon of peanut butter, salt & pepper to your taste with plane cold soy milk in blender. Add cooked and chilled wheat noodle of your choice.

I didn't like this rather bland noodle. My taste was too young to appreciate it. Suddenly, after 30 and some more years, I discover it as if it is new food! Some times, good things take time to be appreciated.