Spotlight: Bon Bon

A classic Korean beverage: grape juice with big peeled grapes in them! 

Here it is poured out into a glass. 

It's an experience like no other when you're drinking a white grape juice and you get these juicy sweet pods of grapes every few sips.  I'm not normally a juice drinker, but this is pretty awesome stuff.  Try it out...you get can individual cans at Korean grocery stores.  I usually get one for free cuz i go to the store with my mom, and the grocer lady still thinks i'm a kid and offers me a beverage or a candy.  Love it.

Shepherd's Pie

I have been meaning to make shepherd's pie for ages now, and finally got the chance to make it for a baby shower potluck last weekend.  I was excited to try my hand at this easy casserole because it's what I always order when I go to the Irish pub here on campus.  It's also one of those comfort foods that is perfect for evenings when you're just kickin' back, relaxing, watching TV on its corner tv stand, and enjoying family time.

Really, what's not to love?  It's beef, vegetables, and mashed potatoes gone π. 

(I'm gonna be super upset if, after I publish this post, that pi symbol up there gets all distorted and weird.)

I'm sure there is a more traditional way of making this, but here is one that is great for a low budget individual.  I've also tried to make it healthier, though there was nothing I could do about the potatoes.  They will be their starchy selves :)  Okay, let's get on with it! 

Ingredients (1 casserole):
-1 lb lean ground beef
-1 onion, chopped
-1 tbsp vegetable oil
-3 cups frozen veggies (try the basic kind, with corn, carrots, and peas)
-4 russet potatoes
-1/2 stick margarine
-1/4 skim milk
-1/2 cup vegetable stock
-3 tsp Worchestershire sauce
-1-3 tsp salt and pepper (your call)
-1 packet turkey gravy mix
-1 tbsp flour

1.  Peel potatoes, chop into 2" cubes, and put them in a pot with lukewarm water.  Salt the water.  Bring to a boil.

2.  Heat a large skillet to medium.  Add oil and chopped onions, and let them get all caramelized and delicious.

3.  Add ground beef to the onions and crank up the heat.  Use a spatula to break the meat apart.

4.  Here are the vegetables!  It's so much easier to just use frozen vegetables when it comes to shepherd's pie.  After cooking with the meat and being baked, no one will know the difference. :)

And here's my secret ingredient: the turkey gravy mix!  This will help flavor the meat even more.  The key is to have really flavorful meat so that it complements the milder taste of mashed potatoes.

Okay, so add the thawed vegetables, vegetable stock, Worcestershire sauce, and gravy mix to the meat.

I also used a tablespoon of flour to help thicken the mix a bit.  Lower heat to medium-low. 

See how thick that is?

5.  Check on the potatoes.  They usually take about 15-20 minutes to get nice and soft and mashable.  Once it gets to that point, remove from heat and drain.

6.  Dump the potatoes right back into the pot you boiled them in.  To the potatoes, add margarine and milk.  Season it with salt and pepper.  I usually mash it with a whisk because it does the job just as well as any potato masher, but it's up to you :)

7.  Remove meat mixture from heat.  Place in 13 x 9 baking dish.  Mmm!  It's so tasty already!  This would make a nice filling for pasties. 

8.  Now, spoon big dollops of mashed potatoes right on top.

Make sure to spread it out evenly.

9.  Now you have two options.  You can either cover it in foil and store in fridge for up to 24 hours, OR you can bake it right away if you plan on serving it that day.  Bake it for 30 minutes on 375F, then crank up the broiler for 5 minutes before you take it out.

I don't have a finished product picture because this pie was devoured in very little time, but I got Theresa to hold up her spoonful of pie before she loaded it onto her plate :)

Yum!  A perfect mix of lean and flavorful meat and vegetables, and delicious mashed potatoes on top, all of it baked together such that it becomes one.

Try this out next time you're entertaining!  It's so easy to make, low cost, and if you use the low-fat options I suggested, it can be a healthy meal.  The folks at the shower all really loved it!

For a printable version of this recipe, please click here.
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In other news, keep a watch out for the FIRST EVER SUNNY-SIDE UP RECIPES GIVEAWAY, made possible by csn stores.  I think I am more excited than you are about this. 

Sunday Story: Mexican Pastries

That awesome weekend that i visited my friends in Chicago and ate at a Mexican taqueria, we also got a chance to visit one of the many local Mexican bakeries in the Roger's Park area. 

When you walk in, you get a tray and some tongs, and you fill your tray with whatever pastry you want, similarly to the way I've seen it done in Korean and Hong Kong bakeries.  Unfortunately for these, only some of them were labeled, half of which I could understand, and others were a big mystery.  But since they were each like $.50 or less, it isn't that much of a financial risk.

So here is our booty.  (har har)

A madeliene cookie sandwich filled with strawberry jam.

A bun that i thought was gonna be a pineapple bun like the ones i used to eat in Hong Kong.  It was not pineapple, but it was very good.

A pretty horrific pink cookie that was as sweet as Barbie and twice as nauseating.

A "cake pie"...flaky pie crust on the outside, cake on the inside.  This is not an official name, it was coined by my fellow pastry eaters.

A delightful, spicy pumpkin scone with chocolate on top.  Yum.  I think this was my favorite.  (Sorry about the blurry pic)

Another cake pie!

An angel wing pastry that had a lovely flaky texture.  I love these!

And of course, a lovely jelly roll sponge cake with a light coconut dusting on the outside.

We had a blast cutting each pastry into 4 slices and each person trying 8 different kinds of pastries.  This is why I love hanging out with these guys :) 

Really, if you live anywhere that has a Mexican bakery nearby, go try it out!  I know for a fact there are some right here in town where I live, so I'm gonna have to venture out there sometime.  I love trying new foods, it's what keeps me going sometimes :) 

Haemul Jun

I thought I should maybe do a seafood post today :)  This is kind of a variation on a previous post about Pa Jun (or Korean scallion cakes) that is usually an appetizer, snack, or banchan.  Pa Jun is basically a pan-fried savory cake that is made of tons of green onions and a flour batter.  It looks like this:

But what tastes even better is when you incorporate some delicious seafood into it.  You can use frozen shrimp, frozen clams, or a mix of whatever seafood you might have.  My mom actually just buys a huge bag of frozen seafood at the Korean grocery store, and it has delicious clams, calamari, mussels, scallops, and shrimp all cleaned and ready to use.

We thawed it out a bit with cold water, then ran she had me run a knife through them a few times so none of the pieces are too big. 

Then she added flour, water, salt, and of course 2" pieces of green onion :)  Just kinda eyeball it...I would say generally 1:1 flour to water ratio, but it depends on how thick you want the batter to be. 

We ladled a big helping of batter into an oiled pan heated to medium-high.  My mom kinda pushed down some of the overlapping pieces so that the thickness of the cake is consistent throughout. 

Oh yum.  I would eat this over a doughnut, cake, or cookie any day.  ANY day.  I am a good Korean girl.

After it's cooked for a bit on one side (you can lift the edge up a bit and see if the other side looks kinda golden), you're gonna wanna flip it.  This is no easy feat.  My mom likes to tease that young ladies who can flip a Jun are ready to get married.  Oh goodness.

Flip successful.  Still engaged.  Good.

Deeeelicious!  These are especially great dipped in a soy sauce + vinegar mix. 

Have a fantastic weekend!  Don't forget to become a fan of Sunny-side Up Recipes on Facebook!

Snickerdoodles

A simple cookie.  Simple ingredients.  Simple procedure.  So why are they so ridiculously addicting?  Is it the cinnamon sugar coating?  Or the fact that as soon as your teeth break through the crisp exterior, you get to enjoy an incredibly light, soft, and airy cookie on the inside. 

Let's not waste our time and get to the good part.  :)

Ingredients: (2 dozen cookies)
-1 stick butter
-3/4 cup sugar
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-1 egg
-1 1/2 cup flour
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp cream of tartar
-1/4 tsp salt

Coating
-2 tbsp sugar
-2 tsp cinnamon

1.  Cream the butter and sugar. 

Add vanilla and egg.

2.  Sift together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt, then add to the mix we made above.  Oh and cream of tartar is NOT the same thing is tartar sauce. 

That's embarrassing...you get to see my messy handwritten recipe. 

3.  Preheat oven to 400F.  Mix sugar and cinnamon for coating. 

Roll a 1" ball of dough, then coat the ball in the cinnamon sugar mix.  To make the dough a little easier to handle, you might refrigerate it for an hour.  I didn't, and they were fine, but it depends on your comfort with buttery dough.

Place on greased cookie sheet.

This is something that you could do with your kids to get them in the kitchen :) 

4.  Bake at 400F for 8 minutes.  You'll notice that in the oven, they go from the ball shape to a flatter cookie shape by itself.  And here they are!

Mmm they are amazing.

Make sure you cool these before eating...most cookies taste fabulous straight out of the oven, but these need to sit a little before you can actually even pick it up.  Let them sit and become the cookie you know they can be.  Trust.

Make these with your kids, lover, friend, or frenemy today!

For a printable version of this recipe, please click here.

Korean Banchan: Pan-fried Tofu

Here's another Korean banchan that I think you'll enjoy.  It's simple to make, and it's one of those dishes that adds so much flavor to the tofu that your brain forgets all the negative stereotypes that tofu gets from the haters.  Don't be a hater.

This simple dish basically consists of two things: pan-fried tofu and a seasoned soy sauce.  You put them together and that's the whole banchan.  Simple.

Ingredients:
-1 block of medium to firm tofu
-1/4 cup soy sauce
-1 tbsp sesame oil
-1 tsp hot pepper powder (flakes are okay, but if you can find powder, that's better)
-2 tbsp chopped green onions

1.  Mix the soy sauce, sesame oil, hot pepper powder, and green onions together in a small dish.  Set aside.

2.  Open and drain the package of tofu, then slice into 1/2" thick rectangles.

3.  Heat a frying pan on medium, and drizzle some vegetable oil.  Once oil is hot, add the tofu slices into the pan without allowing them to overlap.  You'll have to do this in shifts, as most frying pans aren't big enough to hold all the slices.

4.  After cooking on one side for about 5 minutes, flip it over carefully and cook the other side for another 5 minutes.

Yum!

5.  Remove from heat and make a layer of fried tofu in a dish, preferably one that has high-ish walls. 

Over that layer, spoon some of your soy sauce mix on top. 

Add another layer of tofu and spoon more soy sauce on it.  Repeat this process until all layers of tofu have sauce between them.

That's it!  It's basically just pan-fried tofu with a yummy soy sauce "marinade" in between each layer, but it's so good!  As it sits, the soy sauce kinda starts to absorb into the tofu and makes it taste better.

Try this sometime, it goes great with rice and other banchan.  And it's one of the few Korean banchans that aren't spicy :)  Enjoy!

For a printable version of this recipe, please click here.