Korean Radish Kimchi Fried Rice (깍두기볶음밥): Being away

I know that the blog posts have been erratic.  The main reason is that I've been away.  Brother #2 got married in Korea a couple of weeks ago, so Family and I traveled to Seoul to attend the wedding and see lots of family members.  It was Son's first time ever leaving the country and Daughters first time back since having moved back to the US.  The airplane ride was an experience I don't really want to think about again, but time in the country was wonderful, amazing, and difficult.

It was interesting coming back to Seoul, after 4 years of not having lived here.  There were so many changes, so many new buildings and in many ways the city itself had changed dramatically.  Getting off the airplane, it almost felt as if I had never left, but once we headed back into the city, it was clear that this was not the city I had left 4 years ago.  I found myself being excited by the familiar, the things that I knew from before and almost amazed at the new.  How could things change so quickly?  

But during our time in Seoul, the biggest change that I noticed wasn't in the place I was, but actually in children.  Since we were in Seoul for an extended period of time, Husband and I decided to put Son and Daughters in a local preschool here to see how they would do.  The greatest changes it seemed were yet to come.  Normally vibrant outgoing Daughter #1 suddenly began withdrawing, becoming very clingy and private .  Normally shyer, more reserved Daughter #2 suddenly burst into high gear, high spirits and high speed chattering.  Normally friendly, warm, and silly Son suddenly became much whinier, clingier and difficult here.  Children, it seemed, were changing.

But they also started speaking more.  In Korean.  Son began dropping multiple phrases in Korean. Daughters' vocabulary dramatically improved.  Although Daughter #1 hasn't said much in Korean, I can see her brain rapidly working as she begins learning vocabulary.  Daughter #2 watched Korean TV and began picking up phrases and repeated after the cartoons.

But in the end, the kids wanted to be back at home.  Back at their house in California.  And back we c\ame.  And it is strange, how much things change when being away and how much things actually just stay the same.

This Korean Radish Kimchi Fried Rice (깍두기볶음밥) is one of the dishes that I got to taste this trip to Seoul. It's something that I've never seen or even heard of before, but one restaurant made it, and I made them explain how they did it. I put my own spin on it with extra meat inside the rice and the fried egg on top, but the korean radish within the rice mixture just cannot be beat. Make it spicier by adding more of the kimchi juice and less spicy by rinsing the radish before cooking.

Korean Radish Kimchi Fried Rice (깍두기볶음밥)
Serves 4

Ingredients
½ lb of steak, bulgogi, or your choice of protein, also diced
2 teaspoons finely minced garlic
2 cups radish kimchi, diced, including a about 3 tablespoons of the juice (more if you like it spicier)
4 cups cooked rice
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon sesame seed
Scallions to garnish, if desired
Fried egg to top, if desired

Method
Heat a heavy fry pan over medium high heat. Add meat and garlic along with a pinch of salt. Cook until meat is browned on all sides. Add an additional tablespoon of oil. Add radish kimchi (깍두기) along with the kimchi juice. Reduce heat and cover, allowing radish to soften, about 6 minutes. Remove lid, and add 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, rice and begin incorporating rice with radish and beef mixture. Continue cooking, adding more oil if necessary. Finish with sesame seeds and a garnish of scallions of desired. A fried egg on top is also a great finish.

Printable recipe

Without egg

Bloody Cake: Quite accidentally

I decided to hop on the bandwagon of scary foods for Halloween, even thought it has historically not been my favorite holiday for which to prepare foods.  I don't generally love eating foods that look scary, gross, or unusual even though they might taste good.  It's just one of my things.

However, inadvertently, without any intention, I made this bundt cake which very much turned out to be a scary Halloween dish.  I didn't meant it to, but the raspberry glaze ended up transforming a very pretty bundt into a very scary blood soaked one, and so I thought - ah....my first accidental Halloween dish.

So let me encourage you to make the scariest dish this Halloween by making this blood drenched cake.  You could call it a bloody heart or even a bloody brain.  Take your pick.  At any rate, it looks super scary but tastes way delicious.  Don't let the bloody look of it scare you off the actual eating of the cake itself.   Enjoy this bloody cake on Halloween and on other days, as long as you can forget the bloody look of it.

Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Soaked in Raspberry Syrup
Makes 10-inch bundt cake, serving 12 to 14

Ingredients
Cake
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
6 oz fresh raspberries, picked over
½ cup dark chocolate pieces (I got mine at Whole Foods which was 73% cacao, and Ghiradelli’s makes
a chip that is 60% cacao) A bar of dark chocolate can also be cut into small pieces and used.

Raspberry Syrup
⅔ cup of sugar
6 oz of raspberries, washed and picked over, pureed and strained (makes about ½ cup)
2 tablespoons orange juice

Method
Place rack in center of oven, and preheat oven to 350. Grease and lightly flour inside of 10 inch bundt pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
Using either a stand mixer (paddle attachment) or a hand mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually add sugar and beat at medium-high speed until the mixture is light in texture and color, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating for 30 to 40 seconds after each addition. Scrape down sides of bowl as necessary. Beat in vanilla extract. At low speed, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with sour cream. (Add a bit of flour, a bit of sour cream, a bit of flour, a bit of sour cream, a bit of flour.) Remove bowl from mixer. Using a spatula, carefully fold in both raspberries and chocolate pieces. It is okay if the raspberries get a bit crushed and crumbled. Scoop batter into pan and spread evenly with spatula.

Bake cake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then invert it onto another rack which is placed on top of a cookie sheet. (You’ll be able to soak the cake in syrup without the syrup being stuck all over your kitchen counter.)

While cake is baking, make syrup. Combine sugar, strained raspberry puree and orange juice in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Using a pastry brush, dab syrup generously all over surface of the warm cake, allowing it to soak into the cake before reapplying. Let the cake cool completely.

Printable recipe

Paella Kit Giveaway Winner!!

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:12Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Okay Susan who wants the "hot" Palacios Chorizo....you're the winner of this Paella Kit!

Thanks for entering everyone!!

Paella Kit Giveaway: Fun Fun Fun!

In recent weeks I've been dreaming about a vacation, to some exotic locale, where I can really just leave all my worries behind.  I've got a bunch of things on my mind, brewing, sitting, percolating back in my brain, and sometimes I just want to shut it off and get away.  I'm pretty sure that Spain, with all of its fantastic eats, beautiful weather and gorgeous landscape would be just the place to forget EVERYTHING, but alas - I can only get away on my magic paella pan and paella myself away!!

I'm so excited that the folks at La Tienda are giving this really neat paella kit to one of my fantastic readers.  The company has been around for 15 years, and they specialize in authentic ingredients from Spain, so that your dishes have an authentic flavor.  In the paella kit you'll find saffron, olive oil, rice, pimenton and piquillo peppers.  It is set it up to whisk you away on a magic paella pan ride to a fantastic new place!


Paella Kit Blog Giveaway

To enter to win a Paella Kit, you MUST do the following. Leave a comment below telling me what you found particularly delicious and appetizing on the La Tienda website.  Make sure you leave some way for me to contact you, in case you are the winner.

For an extra entry - Facebook!
You can have an extra entry if you like La Tienda's Facebook Page.  Leave a SECOND comment below telling me that you have liked their page.

A winner will be chosen at random on FRIDAY, October 7, at midnight PST. 
(I am a former high school English Teacher, so I am bit of a stickler for rules. Entries which do not follow the instructions will be disqualified.)

I'm off to imagine myself somewhere in Spain!

Mixed Paella: La Tienda Kit Review

The super nice people at the online store La Tienda  made me an offer I couldn't turn down.  They wanted to sponsor a giveaway of a paella kit, which includes the pan, olive oil, piquillo peppers, saffron and rice.  I saw the kit (link) and I suddenly had this insane desire to have a kit of my own.  I had never made paella and suddenly it felt like I HAD to be the one to make such a thing.  I contacted the generous people there, and they graciously offered to give me a kit as well, so that I would be able to review it.

The paella kit arrived super quickly and began burning the proverbial hole in my pocket.  All I wanted to do was make paella, but I didn't want it to be for just my family, as we wouldn't be able to consume it all.  I went through various permutations trying to figure out when I could cook it, and finally the opportunity for Family and JEL's family to eat together presented itself.  The Paella Party Production was ready.

The more entertaining part of this experience for me was my complete lack of knowledge as to how to get around cooking the paella.  I had eaten it one time, over 15 years ago, but I was nowhere near the kitchen when it was made, and so for the first time in a very long time, a recipe had to be read very very closely in order that I not make a mistake.  Thankfully JEL was also in the kitchen with me and together we managed to efficiently work the paella pan and the ingredients to create a yummy dinner.  The intensity and richness of flavors was really unexpected and the texture of the rice was so creamy and delicious.  Daughter #1 and Daughter #2 gulped down as many bowls as they could and I personally found the rice dish so comforting.

The kit itself made it REALLY simple to put together the dish.  As all of the "exotic" ingredients were already gathered, all I had to do was figure out the fresh ingredients and throw it together.

I think that this would make a FANTASTIC present for anyone who loves paella and it would make great hostess gift.  (It's also pretty awesome for yourself if you love paella.)

The recipe I used was from the La Tienda website, only I made some adjustments for my own personal flavor preference.  (more garlic, less chorizo, more chicken.)  Try this out, with or without the kit but definitely enjoy!  It's a stunner.

Paella Mixta
adapted from La Tienda website
Serves 6

Ingredients
1 tsp thread saffron
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 medium onions, chopped
2 red bell peppers, chopped
2 ½ pounds tomatoes, chopped
8 piquillo peppers, sliced
8 garlic cloves, chopped
6 chicken thighs, skinned and cut into 2 inch pieces, seasoned with salt and pepper
12 large shrimp, peeled
12 clams
¾ lb Spanish cooking chorizo, cut into ¾ inch pieces
8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and pepper
2 cups Bomba or Calasparra rice
6 cups chicken broth
Lemon wedges

Method
Add stock, paprika and saffron to a pot and heat, covered.

In a separate 15" paella pan, add 2 tbsp olive oil and brown the chicken pieces and chorizo, about 5 minutes. Remove. Add the remaining olive oil and cook the onions over medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the bell peppers and cook for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes and garlic and simmer for another 5 minutes, until they have a sauce-like appearance. Salt and pepper to taste.

Pour in the rice and stir until the rice is covered with the tomato mixture (known as “sofrito”). Add chicken and chorizo pieces. Slowly add all of the broth to the paella. Stir the rice mixture around until it is evenly distributed throughout the pan. Important - do not stir after this point.

Simmer for about 10 minutes, then place the shrimp and shellfish into the mixture one-by-one, evenly distributing throughout. Simmer for another 15 minutes, or until all of the broth has been absorbed, adding extra liquid if necessary. Remove from heat, gently cover with foil and let sit for another 10 minutes. Garnish with piquillo pepper slices and lemon wedges.

Printable recipe

To order a kit for yourself or someone else, link here.  

$50 Albertson's Blog Giveaway WINNER!!!

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:5Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Random.org picked #5 as its winner!!  Helen!!  Your staple meal in college was Sapporo Ichiban and spaghetti.  No vegetables.  Come and get your prize!!!

Thanks everyone for playing!  The next competition is literally RIGHT around the corner.

Caramel Apple Bundt Cake: What's my title?

For YK, DS, JEL, CJR, SH, MOM - thanks for inspiring me.

In recent weeks, I've been having a bit of an identity crisis.  I suddenly found myself questioning what I was doing at home.  I found myself wondering if perhaps, I shouldn't be doing something else - out of the home - something that had more style and panache than the life I was leading in my workout gear and food stained t-shirts.  I found myself in conversations with friends and loved ones, breaking down in tears asking the question, if what I was doing enough.

The main source of my conflict came from close friends, who are full-time working moms, who are incredibly smart and hold these high positions in super-prestigious companies.  I found myself wondering, what is my title?  Why aren't I a VP, Chief Counsel, Director, President, Esq, Ob/GYN, SOMETHING.  Mostly, my title is MOMMY said in a wailing voice and suddenly I began thinking that MAYBE, I wanted a title.  I wanted something to say that I was something more than a Stay-At-Home-Mom.  

But it was a conversation with one of my friends that helped me regain some of my loss of equilibrium.  I asked her, "Exactly what is your TITLE?" to which she responded VP.  I congratulated her and then started asking some crazy questions of her, such as "Do VP's get to shop more," or do "VP's get to choose fancier clothes", "Or do VP's only eat at nice restaurants."  Truthfully part of it was jealousy of the title and the other part was curiosity about how her life was different from mine.  She laughed at my questions, but gave me perspective in this regard.  She said, "This VP has a son draped around her, because he can't sleep.  It's 10:15 PM, and this VP can't find a way to get her son in his bed sleeping."

I realize that I'm pretty proud of my title Mommy, even when it is said in the most annoying, whiny, needy way.  Husband works hard and we have decided together that I am the happiest while being home with the kids and that I am most driven where motherhood is concerned.  It doesn't mean that I can't have other titles later (cookbook author, PhD, book expert) but for now, the title of Mommy is plenty hectic enough for me.

Signing off,

Joanne Choi, Mommy (oooh...I can add, Bundt Cake Maker.  Not a bad title at all.)

This bundt cake is really lovely in how subtle it is.  There is a bit of heat from the cinnamon, a bit of tart from the apple, a bit of sticky sweetness from the caramel all held together by a super moist cake.  All the flavors seem to fill all the spots that may be missing in your mouth.

Caramel Apple Bundt Cake
Makes 10-inch bundt cake, serving 12 to 14

Cake
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1¾ cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, and chopped into ½ inch pieces

Caramel
Ingredients
1 cup sugar
¾ cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons (½ stick of butter)

Method
Place rack in center of oven, and preheat oven to 350. Grease and lightly flour inside of 10 inch bundt pan.

Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

Using either a stand mixer (paddle attachment) or a hand mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually add sugar and beat at medium-high speed until the mixture is light in texture and color, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating for 30 to 40 seconds after each addition. Scrape down sides of bowl as necessary. Add vanilla extract. At low speed, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with sour cream. (Add a bit of flour, a bit of sour cream, a bit of flour, a bit of sour cream, a bit of flour.) Fold in chopped apples.

Scoop batter into pan.

Bake cake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then invert it onto another rack. Place the cake, on the rack, over a baking sheet.   

While cake is baking, make caramel. Have both butter and cream, measured and ready to go. In a heavy bottom sauce pan (bigger is better - go for a 2 or 3 quart saucepan) add sugar and heat over medium high heat. The sugar will begin to melt and caramelize. As this happens, slowly drag sugar to the center of the pan and swirl the pan around so as to not burn the sugar. Allow all the sugar crystals to melt, using patience and diligence to watch and check the caramel. As soon as the sugar is all melted and is dark amber in color (Dave Leibovitz says like the color of a dirty copper penny) add butter all at once and whisk vigorously incorporating it into the sugar syrup. After butter is all melted remove from heat. Add cream and whisk until the caramel is a delicious mixture, all uniform in texture. Transfer caramel to a jar. Once cake has cooled for an hour, pour caramel over the entire surface of the cake. Using a spoon, spoon caramel over hard to “pour” areas, covering as much of the surface of the cake as possible. (I used up about ½ of my caramel sauce.)

Printable recipe