comfort food

I was feeling run down the other day and my stomach was bothering me so I wanted to make something soothing. When I was young, my mother used to make rice with soy sauce and butter. You just take hot cooked rice, melt butter and add a bit of soy sauce. Or, sometimes she would just melt good ol' kraft cheese on rice(In Korea, that's the only kind of cheese you had). YUM! So simple yet so comforting. I turned on the stove, put some rice and lots of water and let it boil. After about an hour or two, it becomes this mushy semi-white consistency(it's called jook). I scooped some on my bowl, added butter and soy sauce and..................

Spicy noodles with kimchi and fish cake

This past summer, my grandmother and cousin Ji-Su came to visit our family from Korea. It was wonderful, yet difficult. Since they stayed at my home, I had to figure out what they liked to eat. My mother was helpful but she could not always be there. One of the days, I decided that I'll try to make spicy noodles with stuff. Whatever we had in the fridge, you throw in. We call this Bee-bim kooksoo. So, this is what I used. If you are Korean, you know what these ingredients are. If you are american, you can find these in the Korean grocery.

Organic wheat noodles
Tbs Korean chili paste
Tsp sugar
Tsesame oil
sesame seed
flat fish cake
kimchi
seaweed

First, you cook the noodles as it says in the package. I cooked enough for two people. Drain the noodles and add approximately a tablespoon of chili paste, a tsp sugar, 1-2 Tbs sesame oil and mix it in well. Then, fry the flat fish cake and out it aside. Drain the kimchi and cut it into small pieces. Lightly toast seaweed on the burner turning it constantly until crisp(DON'T burn it). Add fish cake, kimchi and seaweed into the noodle bowl and toss. Sprinkle sesame seed before serving. That's it!
It turned out to be pretty good. I think the noodles stuck together a bit because I didn't rinse it after cooking as the package told me to do. Next time, I'll be sure to rinse the noodles under cold water before adding the ingredients.

Welcome!

So, I've never posted a blog nor have I ever been all that interested in doing so. I'm not a great writer as you'll see.... But, as I was watching the Great Martha Stewart and her blog episode the other day, I felt this urge to start my own blog. I thought about what I was passionate. It was simple. COOKING! But, I didn't want it to be another cooking blog, so I decided it was going to be about my new found love of Korean cooking. Before I get into the cooking part, let me introduce myself. I'm just a simple Korean-American girl who moved to the states in 1990. I was 10. I've been playing violin almost my whole life. My dream was to become a famous violinist and travel the world. After I graduated from The Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, I got married. Right away I wanted to take on my new role as a wife seriously. I cooked, cleaned and did everything else a good wife does. In the midst of it all, I discovered that I actually enjoyed cooking. It started with watching the food network here and there. I would try cooking different things every night, trying out new recipes on my husband. Within a year of cooking non-stop, my poor husband(always been lean) gained 10 pounds and I gained a new confidence! Did I mention, my husband was a very picky eater? When we got married, he was, simply put, a meat and potatoes guy.
My mother was and still is a fantastic cook. She made food for my family(our small family consists of my dad, mom, my sister Sarah and me) with such love and grace everyday. She never complained about cooking even in the hottest days of summer, even the days she felt run-down, she cooked for us. I have always been afraid to cook Korean. I had several attempts at it, but always failed. It never tasted good even when I was following the recipes. It DID NOT taste like my mother's cooking. I asked her one day, after the last failed attempt, how she does it so well. Well, her answer was "it's love, darling!" (darn!) Now what?!?
It took me many more years to start trying again. Fast forward to now, I've been happily married 6 years to my wonderful husband Ian and I have a beautiful baby named Logan who is almost 6 months. I have always admired my mother's cooking and admired her as a mom. She took such great care of us! Importantly, I want to cook Korean food for my child who is after all, half Korean. So, as I go through this new journey of learning to cook Korean, I hope you'll all come with me, laugh with me, make mistakes but ultimately in the end, become a great Korean-American cook!