O-moo Rice

O-moo rice is a happy Korean lunch food. it's easy to make, kids love it, and it's the ultimate comfort food. essentially, it's fried rice wrapped in a thin layer of fried egg. So it's like rice in an omelette, which is where "o-moo" comes from...it's borrowed from English (which is borrowed from French. huh. interesting how that works. i love language.)

When it comes to cooking Korean food, i don't really have exact measurements. you just kinda do it by feel. but for the sake of posting on this blog, i'll try to approximate the measurements.

1/2 cup frozen mixed vegetables (peas, carrots, green beans, etc.)
2 cups cooked rice
3/4 cup ground beef or chicken chopped in little pieces
2 tbsp sesame oil
4 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
garlic powder, onion powder, sesame seeds
ketchup

1. thaw frozen vegetables.
2. spray large frying pan with cooking spray, then cook the beef or chicken...like you're stir frying it
3. add the now-thawed vegetables, stir fry
4. add rice, sesame oil, garlic powder, onion powder, sesame seeds. stir stir stir. make sure everything is well distributed.
5. add like, maybe 2-3 tsps of salt? shake some pepper in there.
6. add ketchup...maybe like a 8-12"-long strip
7. remove pan from heat.

8. crack the eggs into a bowl, add a dash of salt, beat em
9. on a CLEAN frying pan on medium heat, pour half of the egg into center of pan. now grab the handle and swirl it around so that the egg gets all around the bottom of the pan. it should make a thin layer of egg, but thick enough that you can flip it and cook the other side. this should all take no more than 2 minutes. do it again to make your second egg wrap.
10. put egg wrap on large dinner plate. place half of the fried rice onto one half of the egg wrap. close egg wrap around the rice and tuck other end under.
11. Serve with ketchup in zigzag formation (WWW-like) on top of the o-moo rice. eat with spoon (koreans eat rice with large spoons. many non-asians feel as though they should eat rice with chopsticks. this is a wrong and funny assumption.)

Cereal Coffee Cake

At work, we have a party once a month to celebrate the birthdays of that month. Every June, we hold a potluck with a special theme: this year's was Breakfast Cereals. All kinds of yummy treats, muffins, pies, and even froot loop necklaces were brought in. This cereal coffee cake was my contribution.

BATTER:
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flake cereal (i used Total)

TOPPING:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter (cold)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease square pan, 9 x 9 x 2 inches.
3. Beat all ingredients except cereal and topping on low speed 2 minutes.
4. Fold in cereal; spread batter in pan.
5. Sprinkle with crunchy topping.
6. Bake for 30 minutes or until chopstick inserted in center comes out clean.

yield 9-12 servings. about 300 cal per slice.

The cake turned out really tasty, and not as sweet as i had feared. the topping was a little awkward cuz my butter was actually Olivio spread, but it tasted just fine. the cereal kinda created pretty patterns in the cake, resembling cinnamon swirls.

from cooks.com

Personal Pizza

This is a a variation on the pizza recipe i posted a year ago. Basically, this is 1/4 of the recipe, so that it's more convenient to make pizza just for yourself.

I also switched to 100% whole grain flour instead of the enriched white i've been using. I think there's maybe a small sacrifice in taste, but there are so many more health benefits to whole wheat, it's not all that big of a loss. Similarly, to cut down on calories and fat, i used part-skim low moisture mozzarella, which is only 80 kcals per serving, as opposed to 120.

2 tbsp milk
3 tbsp hot water
a sprinkle of yeast
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup flour

1. in small bowl combine milk & hot water
2. add yeast, sugar, and salt and stir
3. wait until mixture begins to froth, about 3-5 mins
4. add most of the flour to the mixture
5. stir until soft dough forms
6. sprinkle remaining flour onto counter
7. turn and knead dough on the counter w/ flour for about 10 minutes, working inmore flour or as much is needed to make the dough smooth and elastic.
8. place in greased storage bag and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight.

AFTER dough rises

1. preheat oven to about 375F degrees
2. lightly grease a small cookie sheet. sprinkle with cornmeal, if desired.
3. punch down dough and divide into 2 equal parts.
4. roll each part of rough evenly onto cookie sheets.
5. add sauce and cheese with toppings (pizza sauce preferred, but any pasta sauce will do. use shredded mozzarella -- you can also mix in parmesean)
6. for garlic crust, sprinkle garlic powder on the edges of the crust.
7. bake 12-14 minutes or until crust is lightly browned and cheese is bubbly.

i estimate a cheese pizza of this size to be 300 kcal. additional toppings can change things around. good, healthy toppings like lean meats, mushrooms, peppers, onions, or olives are recommended. enjoy!

A Cooking Meme

I found this on elise.com. I wasn't tagged (haha) but i thought it'd be fun to add to my cooking blog. Here goes:

What is your first memory of baking/cooking?
Flouring fish fillets for my mom. Apparently i used to do this since I was about 3—stand on a chair at the kitchen counter with my mom, flour little pieces of fish for her to dip in egg and fry. She says I was so fast, she had a hard time keeping up. hehe. i still do this when i cook at home with mom.

Who had the most influence on your cooking?
No surprise here; my mom is the best Korean cook i know…she can turn any dish into a masterpiece. I learned how to do most of my cooking from her. She knows so much—especially the little tiny details that make all the difference in cooking. That’s what’s different about learning to cook from a real person, as opposed to a cookbook.

What would be your most valued or used kitchen gadgets?
The George. No contest. Never has cooking meat been easier than with my George Foreman.

Name some funny or weird food combinations/dishes you really like - and probably no one else!
I like spaghetti with popcorn, oh-jing-uh (dried squid) with orange juice, and eating garlic powder straight from the container.

What are eatables or dishes you simply don’t want to live without?
AH! so many. I could never live without pork...i just love pork. Sam gyup sal is my favorite food in the world, plus there’s dong-gas-e, and bacon, and porkchops, and ham. oh man. i love pig.

Weirdest thing you've ever eaten?
well, this isn’t weird to me, but i love roasted silk worm cocoons. bbun-dae-gi?

Have you ever suffered in the name of food?
ehhh i don’t know what this means. i’ve definitely eaten so much that i puked, if that’s the kind of suffering you’re talking about.

What do you consider your signature dish?
1) Jam thumbprint cookies, 2) Tortilla Española, and 3) Homemade Pizza

Best meal in a restaurant?
The restaurant i went to in Korea by my aunt’s house where they have nice thick slabs of sam gyup sal…we went there twice in a one-week period because i was so in love with the food there. omg drooooool this is making me so hungry.

Who's Next?
i tag everyone in the world

Meatballs

A fantastic meatball recipe from a true Italian chef (Drew's mom). She wrote out this recipe for us when we decided to take on making lasagna from scratch. And because she's a true chef, she didn't really have it written down anywhere...just kinda approximated it from memory. Anyway, it's a great recipe that yields tasty meatballs that are good in baked pasta or just with spaghetti. Enjoy!

-approx 1.25 lbs ground beef, lean
-1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
-1 egg
-1 clove very finely minced garlic
-approx. 1 tbsp very finely minced onion
-1/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
-a couple shakes of oregano and basil
-1/2 tsp salt and a few shakes of pepper (i recommend more than a few shakes, but that's just me)
-fresh or dried parsley

1. Combine all ingredients, mix thoroughly.
2. Form into meatballs approximately 1 1/4" - 1 1/2" in diameter.
3. Start with 3-4 tbsp of olive oil in hot pan, put in the meatballs. Brown them evenly on all sides.
4. Lower the heat. Add about 1/2 cup of water and simmer them the rest of the way, usually for 15-20 minutes.
   
5. Put them in with sauce and simmer them that way for another hour or so (optional)

Yields about 25 meatballs.

from Jennifer Johnson

Garlic Potatoes

Emily requested that i put this one up; it's a recipe that Tree and I tried out when we made dinner together.

-3-4 medium potatoes
-1/2 stick of butter
-1 medium onion, chopped
-1 tbsp garlic salt
-4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped
-salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Scrub and slice potatoes with the skins on.
3. Dump them into a greased loaf pan, add salt and pepper to coat the potatoes.
4. In a small saucepan over medium heat, cook butter, onions, garlic, and garlic salt until onions are soft.
5. Pour over the potatoes
6. Cover pan with foil and bake for 35 minutes.

from idahopotato.com

Stove Popcorn

Popcorn can be a really healthy snack, but movie theaters have shmeared the image of popcorn with heart-attack butter and live-shorter-life artifical flavoring. Here's the simplest way to make popcorn without an air popper.

-1/3 cup of popcorn kernels
-2-3 tablespoons of vegetable/canola oil
-a dash of salt

1. Turn stove to high. In a saucepan or pot, put in oil.
2. Add kernels. Turn the pot this way and that so that the oil covers all the kernels.
3. Place lid on pot. When you hear the first pop, toss the pot a little bit so it doesn't burn. Keep one hand on the handle, one hand on the lid to secure it in place.
4. Popping will continue...keep tossing. It'll peak for awhile where the popping goes crazy. Keep tossing!
5. Popping will start to slow down. When there is more than 10 seconds between pops, that's when it's about done.
6. IMMEDIATELY remove from heat and pour popcorn into a large bowl.
7. Sprinkle lightly with salt.
8. Optional: if you can't live without that buttery taste, take a spoon, scoop up some butter, and stir it around in the hot popcorn. Little by little it will melt off the spoon and end up on the popcorn.

recipe from Sunny's childhood, enhanced by Sunny