Hmmm, what to make for dinner?

OK, today was getting one of those "I ain't eating that s**t" things off my list.

Korean rice cakes.

I had always looked at them with a combination that was somewhere between distaste and disgust.. I don't know why. I'm Asian, and this was Asian food, and it's sold in practically every Korean grocery store that I shop at, so it couldn't be THAT bad, could it? Maybe it was an acquired taste. Well in my old age, I am becoming more tolerant and inquisitive. After all, you shouldn't condemn most things until you've at least had a chance to try them, right. So, when I say most things, I had always wanted to TRY "crack", but after hearing the horror stories about addiction and death, I decided that there are some things not worth trying.

But, I digress.
So, I tried two of Maangchi's recipes this week. The first was a street snack that was rice cakes sandwiched between mozzarella cheese sticks on a skewer. That turned out "OK", but I won't make it again.
Here they are:
Before grilling

And after. It really tasted just like melted mozzarella.

So, with 3/4 package of rice sticks left, what to do. I'm too thrifty to throw them away, so, what preparation could make them edible.

OK, let me sidetrack here. Plain old rice cakes don't taste like anything. I mean, they're pretty flavorless, so I will make the analogy to tripe in that it acquires the taste of what you cook it in.

I'd often seen them served "spicy style" in Korean restaurants, and figured that Maangchi must have a recipe for them. Sure enough. In Korean they're called TTeokbokki (spicy rice cakes), and Maangchi had a recipe.



I added lobster balls, vegetarian fish balls, and two hard boiled eggs to the mix

and here it is, cooking, and plated


How did it taste? It was "OK +",

It tastes just like the sauce, which was flavorful and spicy. If you haven't watched the video, the sauce only has three ingredients, hot pepper paste, hot pepper powder, and sugar. The broth is anchovy, which adds to the flavor, but not enough to make it "fishy".

This also means

1)I wouldn't mind ordering it in a restaurant (or from a street cart)if it was inexpensive
2)I would make it at home, but only if I had leftover rice cakes for whatever reason
3)Fresh rice cakes may taste better (these were 3 days old)

 

Sweet and sour pork over rice. Made Taiwanese style.

 

Pork butt (free; they gave it to me by mistake at H-E-B and cannot take it back) smoked and then turned into pulled pork.

Serving with a Eastern North Carolina style homemade vinegar-based sauce...

 

Light lunch at Perkins.
The chicken noodle soup really hit the spot!



RICHARD

 

Tonight's gonna be grilled Tandoori pork loin -- yes, I get that it's grilled and not done with a tandoor but work with me on this -- with bells and broccolini.

 

OK, that was a winner. It was a recipe from Eating Well that called for tofu, but we were out so I subbed the pork. It's going in the keep file.

Will make something around these things:

 

Interesting, ken. I had to look this up. Let us know what you make with it!

 

I would imagine most will just be eaten as is. Cup of beans with sofrito as a side to something grilled. Probably not the right weather for soup or cassoulet. Some might go into refritos. It's just nice to have good beans that are ready to eat.

 

Got a little pork loin for six bucks and roasted it. May have broiled a bit too long to crisp the top but it should still be juicy inside. Some brown rice to compliment.
Edit; yup, it's good.

 

Smoked wings

 

Last night I dismembered chicken thighs and soaked 'em in lemon, thyme, rosemary, olive oil, S&P and caribe. Skewered and grilled. Skewers of red onion, zuke and red bells. Farro with a bit of parm to take away some of the twigs-and-berries quality of that noble grain. lol

Chicken and spicy pecan tacos with guac tonight. Calabacitas.

Edit: Duh, forgot to mention the prosciutto between the chicken chunks on the skewers.

 

OK, last night's dinner and today's lunch was Korean Bibimbap over black rice.

Black rice *the way that I make it) is made by mixing a small portion of black rice, with short grain white rice. It turns the rice a nice purple color

Bibimbap is a Korean rice bowl topped with an array of vegetables and meat and served with a gochujang sauce.

Bibimbap) vegetables from the Korean supermarket. So, my Bibimbap was a little "lacking".

I also picked up some "end cut" short ribs to (indoor) BBQ. The end cut short ribs are $8.99/lb. vs. the prime cut sort ribs which are between 13.99 and 14.99/lb.

When I was totally ignorant about Korean food, I thought that the sauces used for Bibimbap was the same as pure Gochujang (hot pepper paste), but, after consulting with my Korean cooking coach (i.e. reading Maangchi's cookbook), I foun that this was not the case, and Bibimbap sauce was a combination of several things, including sugar, sesame oil, rice and gochujang. Much better flavor.

So, today, I made teriyaki chicken to go with leftover short ribs and made another Bibimbap, and this time I added an egg to the top.
before egg

after egg

 

Rack of ribs

 

Jerk pork. I've been drawing down the frozen scorpion peppers from last year and have fresh thyme that wintered over just fine. Hot, but not stupefying

As long as I was gloved up and prepping peppers I made a batch of peach scorpion jelly, too. I made the mistake of cleaning up without gloves and it's been 4 hours and my hands are still burning a little. My DW commented (between coughing fits from the pepper vapor) "Do you really want to eat something that you have to wear gloves to make?"

 

Love those pinquitos. I had a big piece of halibut that fed us for two nights, so to jazz up the second night I made a sauce consisting of chopped almonds toasted in butter in a skillet, to which I added a clove of garlic, a good shot of Worcestershire, sea salt and white pepper, and a squirt of lemon juice. Cooled it a bit and mixed in yogurt to make a thick paste.

Sorry no photo.

 

We had a simple pan-seared strip loin with a thyme-butter-wine sauce and sautéed red chard. Pinquitos on the side. Tonight it's Moroccan chicken, falafel and arugula salad. We hit up Simonian Farms yesterday for tomatoes so it will be gazpacho and grilled shrimp tomorrow.

 

My July 4th mission was to drop my neighbors off at MSP.

I took my time getting home, grabbing this brisket sandwich at Famous Dave's (Woodbury, MN).

I also stopped by Culver's to get a chocolate shake.
(It's important to cleanse the palate.)



RICHARD

 

Last night my Bil and Sil invited my wife and I over and we barbequed some chicken while my Sil made kalua pulled pork with store bought lomi salmon. I also bought some shrimp cocktail, apple pie, and vanilla ice cream.

I recently started gardening out of boredom and my Bil made Japanese nama-su with the cucumbers I managed to grow. Came out really delicious!

And as usual I don't have any pics to share. Seems my early dementia is catching up with me, lol! I promise to work on this.....

 

Last night we painted slices of a good seedy bread with olive oil, garlic and rosemary, and tossed them on the grill. Fresh toms from the farmstand, mozzarella from the cheese shop and basil from our small garden went on top with balsamico and S&P. Grilled Italian sausages on the side. Damn. Fine.

Tonight will be a summery spin on a "Cobb" salad with prosciutto and grilled asparagus.

 

This is pathetic. I had a molar extracted this afternoon.