Kimchi

It would be very remiss of me to not begin on this top with the King of Korean fermented foods, kimchi.

What is in kimchi?  It primarily consists of cabbage and salt but you can also include Korean radish/mu, scallions, sesame seeds, onions, garlic, ginger, Korean pepper flakes, fish sauce, baby brine shrimp, raw seafood, Asian pears/apples, and so much more depending on the kind of kimchi you want to prepare as different regions also prepare it differently.

What does it taste like?  It is bright, briny, soured, and spicy.  Not exactly, but kind of like a spicy sauerkraut.  There are hundreds of different kinds and each one has its own special characteristics.

How do you serve it?  Kimchi is a side dish that is present for every single Korean meal.  Some people enjoy it like a salad while others enjoy it in a recipe.  You can use well fermented kimchi as a topping for hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza or tacos to more traditional applications like kimchi stew or even a curried kimchi pancake.

What are some of its health benefits?  It is high in fiber, probiotics, antioxidants, vitamins a, b, c, and calcium and iron while being low in calories and fat.  A well-fermented kimchi has anywhere from 100 million to 1 billion bacteria of genus Lactobacillus.

How long does it last?  My grandmother would have kimchi buried in the ground and some of it would be 2 years old or more.  Film yeast was never a deterrent for her.  My mother has a kimchi refrigerator that is specially climate controlled for preserving kimchi and hers tastes just right for up to 6 months or more.  There are tons of debate on the matter but use your own discretion.  It’s a good practice to regularly turn over the leaves of prepared kimchi and spoon over the juice to re-saturate leaves.  It is after all, a controlled pickling environment.  Over fermented kimchi is definitely an acquired taste and Koreans have a name for each stage the kimchi enters.  Please use your discretion, sight, and smell.

Misugaru

Misugari is a roasted multi-grain and seed superfood that’s been ground into a fine powder to be mixed into shakes, lattes, smoothies and more.  It can be thought of as the original, old school Korean protein powder.  It has a mildly sweet and malty taste and can vary in blends but when I was growing up, it included brown rice, barley, a variety of beans and whatever else was available or in season.  It would often be given to us as a quick, on-the-go breakfast when we were children or sprinkled on patbingsu if we were good.  It is a good source of protein, calcium and other vitamins and minerals and with it being naturally caffeine free, filling and nutritious, it’s a popular item to detox with by K-pop stars in Korea.  The classic way to enjoy this is by blending a scoop or two of it with a nut milk and honey.  Serve it over ice and enjoy.  My mother has also been known to spoon a bit of it into her face mask.

Barley Tea

There’s nothing quite like the golden, soothing nature of barley tea  or boricha.  We drank so much of it growing up, I developed a distaste for it.  As an adult, I grew to love it.  It is nutty and mellow in flavor with a wonderfully comforting aroma.  It is taken unsweetened, hot or cold.  It is a natural source of antioxidants and is often drunk with each meal for its digestive properties.

What is kimchi?  Spicy fermented napa cabbage.  It is a living food, preserving the nutrients of the vegetables going into it while self generating other health benefits.  

What is in kimchi?  It primarily consists of cabbage and salt but you can also include Korean radish/mu, scallions, sesame seeds, onions, garlic, ginger, Korean pepper flakes, fish sauce, baby brine shrimp, raw seafood, Asian pears/apples, and so much more depending on the kind of kimchi you want to prepare as different regions also prepare it differently.

What does it taste like?  It is bright, briny, soured, and spicy.  Not exactly, but kind of like a spicy sauerkraut.  There are hundreds of different kinds and each one has its own special characteristics.

How do you serve it?  Kimchi is a side dish that is present for every single Korean meal.  Some people enjoy it like a salad while others enjoy it in a recipe.  You can use well fermented kimchi as a topping for hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza or tacos to more traditional applications like kimchi stew or even a curried kimchi pancake.

What are some of its health benefits?  It is high in fiber, probiotics, antioxidants, vitamins a, b, c, and calcium and iron while being low in calories and fat.  A well-fermented kimchi has anywhere from 100 million to 1 billion bacteria of genus Lactobacillus.

How long does it last?  My grandmother would have kimchi buried in the ground and some of it would be 2 years old or more.  Film yeast was never a deterrent for her.  My mother has a kimchi refrigerator that is specially climate controlled for preserving kimchi and hers tastes just right for up to 6 months or more.  There are tons of debate on the matter but use your own discretion.  It’s a good practice to regularly turn over the leaves of prepared kimchi and spoon over the juice to re-saturate leaves.  It is after all, a controlled pickling environment.  Over fermented kimchi is definitely an acquired taste and Koreans have a name for each stage the kimchi enters.  Please use your discretion, sight, and smell.

Here are a few other noteworthy tidbits.

• Health.com listed kimchi as one of the top five healthiest foods in the world.
• Studies have shown that kimchi has compounds to fight and prevent the growth of cancer.
• When getting your picture taken in Korea, it’s customary to say “kimchi” instead of “cheese.”
• Koreans consume around 40 lbs or more of kimchi each year.
• When the price of napa cabbage rose in 2010, it was considered a ‘national crisis.’
• Kimchi is so adored in Korea, that they have an entire museum dedicated to it.

5.0 from 3 reviews

Easy Traditional Kimchi + Q & A

 

Prep time

2 hours

Total time

2 hours

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Ingredients

• 5 lb napa cabbage
• ½ c coarse sea salt {no substitutions for this recipe}
• ¾ c cold filtered water
• 3 tb sweet/glutinous rice {not regular rice} flour
• ¾ c Korean red pepper flakes- not regular red pepper flakes {adjust for less/more spicy}
• 3 tb fish sauce*
• ¼ c fresh garlic
• 1 tb fresh ginger
• ½ c vidalia onion
• Half of an Asian pear/fuji apple
• Extra additions: ½ c each of green onions/carrots/daikon/leeks/Chinese water celery/raw oysters, squid or fish/etc

Instructions

1. In a large bowl/basin, chop the cabbage in desired pieces, discarding any wilted/brown outer leaves. Sprinkle evenly with salt and toss to coat.
2. Allow the cabbage to soak up the salt for an hour ½ to 2 hours, depending on how salty you like it. It’s important to toss and turn over the leaves every 30 minutes or so.
3. Meanwhile, heat the water and stir in the sweet rice flour. Cook until the mixture gets thick, smooth, and milky. Set aside.
4. In a food processor, add the fish sauce, garlic, ginger, onion, and pear. Pulse to puree.
5. To the cooled sweet rice flour mixture, stir in the Korean red pepper flakes and pureed mixture. This will be your kimchi paste.
6. After the cabbage has finished soaking, rinse several times and drain well.
7. In a large bowl, carefully begin coating the cabbage with your paste. Add in your veggies. Toss to coat, taking care not to squeeze the leaves. If using, this is the time to gently add in your raw seafood.
8. Mix until everything is nicely coated. Transfer the kimchi to glass containers/bpa free plastic containers and gently press down and seal.
9. Allow the containers to sit at room temperature for 1-2 days to jumpstart fermentation then refrigerate.

Notes

*I look for a “virgin” protein/nitrogen dense sauce that is all natural {without fillers/msg/etc} that’s slowly produced. Look for the one with the least amount of ingredients. Traditionally, fish sauce is made with just one type of fish and sea salt. That’s it. A quality fish sauce should have a depth of umami flavor with an almost subtle sweetness to it–never bitter. I highly recommend not omitting or substituting good quality fish sauce here. It’s one of the most important components.

3.4.3177

Recommended:

Fish Sauce: http://amzn.to/1DrltVM

Sweet Rice Flour: http://amzn.to/1wfcUYT

Love,

Your Squishy Monster

Pizza wars!  20 local vendors compete for the title of best pizza in town.  My belly was more than happy to be involved.

A juicy gouda, bacon, avocado, onion string burger at the new joint down the street.

Sushi with J,

and a show afterwards…

and another,

and another…

polishing off the
night with Miss Mena Mae and her champagne burlesque.

Baking up red velvet, funfetti, lemon curd, vegan chocolate, chai, and violet flower cupcakes for my friends huge birthday party.

At the birthday bash.

An exquisitely sad and bittersweet romance that sweeps you off your feet to a place that is both hopeful and detached, lovely and scary, all at once. I most enjoyed how the author spun magic and myth with reality together.

Me and mama’s haul.

My haul from the super coupon event.  Grand total?  $5 + giveaways for Pack Away Hunger!

And speaking of great causes, Mary from love, the secret ingredient has created a fun box filled with foodie goodies with 10% of its proceeds going to help the organization, Feed The Children.  Each box is a bundle of culinary surprise and I can’t wait to see what’s in mine.

Rounding off the weekend by making kimchi with mama.

Love,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

I could unravel a glittering scene of  heavy platters of amuse-bouche and Hugh Jackman to sweep me off my feet with a midnight kiss but no such things happened.  Rather, I received an unsolicited love confession, a spilled gin and tonic on my shoe, and another “keen observer of the human spirit” trying to read my palm.  I think that just being surrounded by noise and liquid courage does not a splendid night make.  Despite the earnest coaxing of my fellow comrades to laugh-jump-play, I couldn’t help but notice the suffocating loneliness tucked here and there ever so conspicuously (or at least to me).  As we counted down, which in itself took me by surprise, (hey, where did my fried pickles go?)  I watched from my peripheral, a silent man, seated at a table alone, cradling his glass, sucking away any support it might lend him.  Not even a brow arched as the ball dropped and sticky bodies clumped with rainbow glitter shot out and clung to each other.  As I was pulled in for a round of hugs, he must have quietly padded off and poof!  he was gone like 2012.

This is how I spent my first days of 2013.  Cookies.  Cookies take priority.

Pfeffernüsse, one of my favorite Holiday cookies, left over from Christmas, and classic chocolate chip (I told baby brother I’d bake him anything he wanted, and that’s what he wanted).

Re-reading one of my favorites + fire.  Could there be anything nicer?

Well, maybe spending time with Mama.

She and I made an Olympic pool sized vat of Kimchi (ok, so I exaggerate) but if you’ve ever had the privilege of witnessing this process, you know that it’s a rather long time that you’re bonding with the almost comically large tubs of  Napa cabbage, cajoling it into what will become the soul of Korean food.  Mama asking me to roll up her sleeves that no matter what, slip back down, ruby stained hands, the thick pungent smell of brine shrimp and fish sauce hanging in the air, dots and slashes of water sprinkled everywhere (and the beautiful over all mess that Kimchi produces)…and finally, the part where Mama reaches in to gather a pocket of leaves folded over to allow me to taste our creation…these are all such fond memories that lay firm in my head.  Food always has the magical ability to snap you back to a warm and delicious memory whether it be a decade ago or, yesterday

Step 4 is important in order to maintain your strength, haha.

…and no worries, here is the classic Kimchi recipe as well as recipes for quick Kimchi (the classic Kimchi tastes better but the quick one does in a pinch), and recipes to make things with your homemade Kimchi: Kimchi braised Chicken, Kimchi Fried Rice, Kimchi Pancakes, Kimchi/Sausage Potstickers, and Kimchi Soba Noodles.  If you’re interested in another kind of Kimchi, try my Radish Kimchi, too!

Mama always says a Korean person can’t live without their Kimchi (maybe that’s what lonely guy is missing in his life)!

….Maybe Kimchi is love.

I digress.

Happy New Year!

Maybe 2013 be as rich and spicy as your Kimchi!!

Love,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

Many immigrants, along with my parents, arrived breathlessly in the States with little more than a dream in their left pocket and a photo of all their loved ones they’d left behind in the other.  Thrust in a strange land with no established ground, it wasn’t exactly like they were dining on steak and potatoes upon arrival.  Often times, meats lined in tin cans served as the main protein in our household.  Spam, vienna sausages, tuna?  We had it all and my folks had a knack for making things stretch and taste delicious.  I attribute my resourcefulness to them.  We never threw anything away, most certainly not food.  This jjigae (stew), is a vibrant marriage of old kimchi, scraps of veggies, and whatever potted meat that had been left lonely in your pantry.  It’s the quintessential casserole of sorts, if you will.  For me, it’s comfort food.  It’s food that reminds me of growing up with my siblings, having simple meals with the family, and enjoying moments that were homegrown, uncomplicated and richly rooted in tradition and culture.

This kimchi stew is precisely all of those things.  Also, it’s fast and easy…and delicious!  If you haven’t explored Korean cuisine beyond Korean bbq, it’s time to give kimchi a try.  It’s as essential to Koreans as the rice we enjoy it with.  Kimchi jjigae would be a solid place to begin as it softens that sharp bite that raw kimchi can have and when rich flavors like seafood or meat lend itself to the soup, it certainly becomes more palatable if you’re unfamiliar with kimchi.  Whether you decide you have a love or hate relationship with kimchi, kimchi is so all important that it’s definitely worth investigating.  For those kimchi lovers out there, may I present to you one of the most classic, delicious, and easy kimchi recipes that exist, kimchi stew.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAON_mUbp4c&hd=1

5.0 from 4 reviews

Kimchi Jjigae (with Tuna)

 

Save Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

25 mins

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Recipe type: Soup/Stew

Cuisine: Korean

Serves: 3-4 Servings

Ingredients

• 4 strips of thick cut bacon
• 2 ts minced garlic
• ½ tb Korean pepper flakes
• ½ sliced onion
• 1 c roughly chopped well fermented kimchi
• 1 can tuna (packed in olive oil)
• 1½ c water (or chicken broth) + 1 c kimchi broth
• ¼ block of cubed tofu
• Green onions (to scatter)
• Optional: Glass noodles

Instructions

1. Fry your bacon.
2. Stir in your onion, garlic, and pepper flakes.
3. Add your kimchi and allow it to soften a bit.
4. Tumble in your tuna.
5. Tip in your liquids. Allow it to bubble.
6. Top with tofu and sprinkle with lots of green onions.

Notes

Additionally, you could boil this together with pork neck bones, brisket, seafood (really anything you’d like).

3.2.2807

Love & lots of Kimchi!

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

It’s irrefutable that Koreans and kimchi go hand and hand.  Where would we be without it?  Lost, I’d say.  So what exactly is kimchi and what’s so great about it?  I’m glad you asked!  I have a Kimchi FAQ and traditional recipe right here for you guys as well as an entire playlist dedicated to all things kimchi.

After receiving a crash course in kimchi, you’ll want to know more about what you can do with it besides eat it straight up or serve it as a banchan aka side dish.  The answer for us and many Koreans is simple.

Many immigrants, along with my parents, arrived breathlessly in the States with little more than a dream in their left pocket and a photo of all their loved ones they’d left behind in the other.  Thrust in a strange land with no established ground, it wasn’t exactly like they were dining on steak and potatoes upon arrival.  Often times, meats lined in tin cans served as the main protein in our household.  Spam, vienna sausages, tuna?  We had it all and my folks had a knack for making things stretch and taste delicious.  I attribute my resourcefulness to them.  We never threw anything away, most certainly not food.  This jjigae (stew), is a vibrant marriage of old kimchi, scraps of veggies, and whatever potted meat that had been left lonely in your pantry.  It’s the quintessential casserole of sorts, if you will.  For me, it’s comfort food.  It’s food that reminds me of growing up with my siblings, having simple meals with the family, and enjoying moments that were homegrown, uncomplicated and richly rooted in tradition and culture.

This kimchi stew is precisely all of those things.  Also, it’s fast and easy…and delicious!  If you haven’t explored Korean cuisine beyond Korean bbq, it’s time to give kimchi a try.  It’s as essential to Koreans as the rice we enjoy it with.  Kimchi jjigae would be a solid place to begin as it softens that sharp bite that raw kimchi can have and when rich flavors like seafood or meat lend itself to the soup, it certainly becomes more palatable if you’re unfamiliar with kimchi.  Whether you decide you have a love or hate relationship with kimchi, kimchi is so all important that it’s definitely worth investigating.  For those kimchi lovers out there, may I present to you one of the most classic, delicious, and easy kimchi recipes that exist, kimchi stew.

5.0 from 4 reviews

Kimchi Jjigae (with Tuna)

 

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

25 mins

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Recipe type: Soup/Stew

Cuisine: Korean

Serves: 3-4 Servings

Ingredients

• 4 strips of thick cut bacon
• 2 ts minced garlic
• ½ tb Korean pepper flakes
• ½ sliced onion
• 1 c roughly chopped well fermented kimchi
• 1 can tuna (packed in olive oil)
• 1½ c water (or chicken broth) + 1 c kimchi broth
• ¼ block of cubed tofu
• Green onions (to scatter)
• Optional: Glass noodles

Instructions

1. Fry your bacon.
2. Stir in your onion, garlic, and pepper flakes.
3. Add your kimchi and allow it to soften a bit.
4. Tumble in your tuna.
5. Tip in your liquids. Allow it to bubble.
6. Top with tofu and sprinkle with lots of green onions.

Notes

Additionally, you could boil this together with pork neck bones, brisket, seafood (really anything you’d like).

3.2.2807

Love & lots of Kimchi!

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

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When I was young, daddy used to submerge an entire 10 lb roasting chicken in bubbling hot water, proceed to shred it and squeeze a huge mountain of ketchup for us on the side with rice and Kimchi to eat as supper.

There are things that stay with you from childhood that you carry with you well into your adult years that you tenderly reflect back on (no matter how weird it was).  This is one of them for me.  Mama used to do it with beef and to this day, I have a strange fondness for boiled meat + ketchup but that’s how we grew up back then.  In our household, spam was once legitimately viewed as a “protein” source.  Of course, we all laugh about it now but it’s that age of innocence and simplicity that we remember that encourages the laughter to continue.

This is a dish that I came up with on the fly (much like how many of my personal dishes are born) on one of those days that me and my brothers were gabbing back and forth about the good ole’ days.  It can still be hailed as a simple dish with humble roots but with a slight makeover.  I hope you give it a try.

http://youtu.be/fR3WGo21Bzs

Kimchi Braised Chicken

 

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

55 mins

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Ingredients

• 8 pieces bone-in chicken
• 1 ts finely minced ginger
• 2 ts finely minced garlic
• 1 tb sesame oil
• 2 tb brown sugar
• 1 tb sesame seed
• 2 c chopped kimchi + its liquid
• 4 chopped potatoes
• 2 chopped onions
• S & P

Instructions

1. Rinse your chicken and set it down in a deep casserole dish.
2. Sprinkle in the rest of your ingredients minus your potatoes and onions.
3. Massage this mixture well into your chicken.
4. Topple in the rest of your veggies, cover, and allow to marinade to penetrate for at least an hour or two in the fridge.
5. Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes {cover with more kimchi liquid or chicken broth if needed}
6. Garnish with extra sesame seeds or green onions.

3.2.2124

Cheers to great memories!

Love,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

Last night was the last night we all had together for at least another month.  However, I’m so happy to report that both brothers will be with me on my birthday next month.

We decided to bring Mom flowers and take her out to a movie last night.  We got the the most gigantic tub of popcorn possible, and tucked into a seat with the lights dimming, greasy with butter, I found myself smiling at the simple joys of life that I get to partake in with my family and honestly, that’s what I took away from this movie at the end:

It revolves around the world of 6 year old Hushpuppy who sees the world differently.  To her, everything is connected and she sees and feels more than some 12 or 24 year old’s I know.  This is what she’s learned through the people that guide her through her life in “Bathtub,” a place considered unworthy of inhabiting (she was literally born on the wrong side of the levy in the southern part of Louisiana where flooding is imminent and everyone lives in heaps of trash).  She doesn’t know her mother and only has her father who’s health is rapidly declining.  Eventually, they are all seized by government agencies and placed in a shelter/refuge to which Hushpuppy remarks in defiance to being “rescued,” “is like a fish tank without water.”

Despite her father’s ailing health, it is he who teaches her all about resilience and strength through the utter collapse of everything she’s ever known.  “[Without him] I wouldn’t even be Hushpuppy.  I’d just be breakfast.”  It would be the easier road to take a quick glance at Hushpuppy’s world and cringe.  After all, it is just so “uncivilized,” but it goes back to grade school when we were taught all about societal norms and what is proper and what is not.  Hushpuppy don’t care–at the tender age of 6, she feels the delicate balance of life and understands survival and the acceptance of natures will to bend or break.  Sure, they’re social outcasts and live an irregular life but they have an abundance of love, understanding, (and food)!…  (haha, that’s all I need too, Hushuppy)!!

“The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece… the whole universe will get busted…Everybody loses the thing that made them. The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don’t run…When it all goes quiet behind my eyes, I see everything that made me flying around in invisible pieces.”

After our bellies were full of

Tortas for lunch

Korean Pancakes with Shrimp & Chives (center) …and left to right: Kimchi, Korean Radish, sautéed Eggplant, Royal Fern, Zucchini and Pancake Dipping Sauce

Kimchi Fried Rice

and Tiramisu for dessert (with Mama’s new Orchid).

After dinner, my bestie took us all out for “bon voyage” drinks.

“Here’s to another amazing adventure!”

CHEERS!

XOXO

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

After the classic mandu/mandoo video I posted awhile back, I’ve gotten several requests for variations on it.  You and wonton skins can have a bff set up, if you wish.  They will provide you with hours of endless entertainment if you only you allow your imagination to run wild.  Sometimes, when I’m feeling extra kooky, I fill them with nutella and strawberries, deep fry them and dust them off with powdered sugar.  Does your next question pertain to “how does that taste?”  Um, it kicks ass.  I recently bid baby brother goodbye for his solo adventure in Canada (hopefully, I will get to visit him next week) and sitting very lonely I might add, was the sausage I’d picked up with dreams of some sort of breakfast casserole involving hash browns, cheese, and sausage.  The running joke with my friends is that I can eat just about anyone under the table at a buffet.  For the record, I’d be quite ok if I never ever had to go to another one.  Even so, an entire casserole dish is a bit much for me to polish off by myself.  It only doesn’t have calories if my brothers are here with me to share.  Oh, I miss them

So, I bring to you Kimchi & Sausage Potstickers (between this and the dump dish, I award her as the beauty contest winner, anyways).

Kimchi & Sausage Potstickers

 

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

35 mins

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Ingredients

• 1 lb uncased, natural sausage
• 2 c finely chopped kimchi
• ½ tb soy sauce
• 1 tb sesame oil
• 2-3 cloves minced garlic
• 1 ts fresh, minced ginger
• 2 stalks green onions
• 1-2 tb red pepper flakes
• 1 egg
• 1 package wonton skins

For the Dipping Sauce

• ¼ c soy sauce
• Juice of half an orange
• 1-2 ts rice vinegar
• 1-2 ts agave or honey
• ½ tb sesame oil
• 2 ts sesame seed

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, pile all of your ingredients in, save the wonton skins.
2. Cover and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes for it to gain a chance to come together
3. Brush an egg wash on all four sides of your wonton skins and take about 1-2 ts of your filling mixture and place it in the center. How you want them to look is up to you, just make sure all of your edges are sealed tightly.
4. In a shallow, but broad pot, sit your steam rack above the simmering water (not touching) and in single layers, steam your potstickers for about 15 minutes, keeping in mind that you want the sausage to cook through.
5. For the dipping sauce, whisk everything together in a bowl.

Notes

The best Kimchi to use is one that is deeply fermented. Your nose will know! The color will be a deep, dark red and the leaves will be super soft. It’s basically “old” Kimchi.

3.2.2124

Nutrition Facts

*Based on a 2000 Calorie diet

Here’s that first dumpling video I posted:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li3igaaAnes&hd=1

For the Garlicky Scallion Sauce:

• 1/4 c Soy Sauce
• 1 1/2 ts Sesame Oil
• 2 ts Sesame Seed
• 1 clove of finely crushed/minced Garlic
• 1/4 ts Ginger
• 2 ts Red Pepper Flakes
• 1/2 thinly sliced Scallion

You can serve these steamed (as shown), pan fried or made into a soup.

Quick Dumpling Soup:

Bring 5 c Water and 2 ts of Dried Anchovies to a rolling boil.  Add your desired chopped veggies (but make sure you include 2 ts of Garlic in it) I personally like Zucchini & Onions but you can use whatever you like and want to eat.  Salt & Pepper.  Add in your Potstickers and bring all of it to a fierce boil for at least 10-15 minutes.   Before serving, crack a beaten egg into it and gently scramble within the broth with a fork. Add in sliced Rice Cakes if you’d like.  Garnish with Scallions.

These babies freeze beautifully.  Tip: lay them on a single layer on your Silpat, pop into the freezer for 20-30 minutes and when they’re hardened, tumble them into a tupperware.  I’ve kept mine up to 4 months before.

Happy Steaming!

Love,

Your Squishy Monster

So, I bring to you Kimchi & Sausage Potstickers (between this and the dump dish, I award her as the beauty contest winner, anyways).

Watch this video on YouTube Embedded with WP YouTube Lyte.

Here’s that first dumpling video I posted:

Watch this video on YouTube Embedded with WP YouTube Lyte.

For the Garlicky Scallion Sauce:

• 1/4 c Soy Sauce
• 1 1/2 ts Sesame Oil
• 2 ts Sesame Seed
• 1 clove of finely crushed/minced Garlic
• 1/4 ts Ginger
• 2 ts Red Pepper Flakes
• 1/2 thinly sliced Scallion

You can serve these steamed (as shown), pan fried or made into a soup.

Quick Dumpling Soup:

Bring 5 c Water and 2 ts of Dried Anchovies to a rolling boil.  Add your desired chopped veggies (but make sure you include 2 ts of Garlic in it) I personally like Zucchini & Onions but you can use whatever you like and want to eat.  Salt & Pepper.  Add in your Potstickers and bring all of it to a fierce boil for at least 10-15 minutes.   Before serving, crack a beaten egg into it and gently scramble within the broth with a fork. Add in sliced Rice Cakes if you’d like.  Garnish with Scallions.

These babies freeze beautifully.  Tip: lay them on a single layer on your Silpat, pop into the freezer for 20-30 minutes and when they’re hardened, tumble them into a tupperware.  I’ve kept mine up to 4 months before.

I’ve received several messages in regards to where you can obtain Kimchi.  You can make your own Kimchi or purchase it any Korean Market (sometimes Asian Markets) and I found it at my local Health Food Store as well.

Happy Steaming!

Love,

Your Squishy Monster