Sunday Night Supper Korean Style

Had Wil and Janet over for Sunday night dinner last night. As I haven't made Korean food in a while, decided to do that. Plus, the fog was rolling in and it seemed like perfect mela for a cool night. I used to make Korean food at least three times a week. I still like making a soondubu jigae for myself for dinner fairly often. Korean food is a weird combination of being hearty and light at the same time. There is very little oil used and most things are not even stir-fried like Chinese food.

It's really easy to put together an impressive feast. I got some pre-sliced bulgogi meat from Kukje. Dumped in a bottle of bulgogi marinade and let that sit in the fridge in a bowl. Meanwhile, I cleaned some and prepped some vegetables. The fishmonger at Kukje cut up some seabass pieces for me. The beef I cooked til medium on a grill pan on the stove. I put the pieces of fish in a pot with some water, a few left-over clams, onions, chilis, shiso leaves, bell peppers, sliced daikon, sliced carrots, and green onion and let that come to boil. I added in a heaping spoonful of gochujang. And voila... seafood jeongol. I had some extra vegetalbes and prawns that I didn't want to add in until we were ready to eat, so I set those aside as well as some noodles for the end. I put the pot on top of my camping butane burner and let that slowly bubble table top.

I had store bought kimchee and spinach salad as my panchan (sides). I thought about making seafood pajeon (pancakes) but decided it would be too much food. The bulgogi was served to be wrapped with red romaine lettuce with a bit of rice and ssamjang (red chili paste and fermented bean paste).
Everything came out really well. The beef was still very tender. The seafood jeongol was just spicy enough for us. It still had the brininess of seafood without any fishiness. I especially liked the pieces of diakon in there. We flash cooked the prawns in the broth and relished their supple sweetnes. No rotten shrimp here. The noodels had a lot of bite and and were perfect foil for the spicy broth.

All in all, an enjoyable meal with great company. Jane had brought a bottle of barberra. The smokiness of the wine went really well with the spicy fare. Who knew? I think the idea that one must have a sweet white wine with spicy food is definitely losing its hold. We topped off the evening with chocolate almond milk chai lattes. Ah... life is good....