I had purchased some spicy bellflower banchan in Atlanta a few days ago and loved it. Only problem was that I couldn't find an online recipe for it, nor was the list of ingredients on the packaging any help. It was made by the grocery store, and the ingredients were sparse and generic at best. So I set out to taste and adjust until I came out with a reasonable fascimile.

One of the things I noticed about the storebought version was that it came with thinly sliced cucumber. I didn't have any cucumber at the time, but what I did have was a nice, juicy watermelon. I knew that Koreans had used watermelon rinds for kimchi before, and a quick taste revealed the flavor and texture to be similar to cucumber, so I decided to give it a try. As with my previous bellflower sidedish, I soaked and prepared the roots. This time, I also included some thinly siced watermelon rind.

Aren't they beautiful. I love the two-toned color...looks like a bowl full of watermelon tourmaline.



I added these to the bellflower root, then experiemented with flavors. I added salt, hot pepper flakes, seasame seeds, and garlic, vinegar...all of which I tasted and saw in the store bought version. But what stumped me was the thick, almost paste-like consistency. This might have been accomplished by adding sweet rice flour (which I didn't have), so I tried by adding a bit of gochujang. A teaspoon to start with...adding more gradually until it reached the desired consitency.

Bingo! Other than being a bit more vinegary (a concious decision on my part as I like a little more zip than most), the taste was identical. I suggest allowing it to "age" in the fridge for at least one day to get the maximum flavor...though it was perfectly good minutes after being mixed together.

Chinese bellflower (also known as platycodon) is a tasty little root. Found here most commonly in its dried form, it's a classic ingredient in making banchan and bibimbap. The root is simplicity itself to prepare...though you have to follow the instructions so as to get rid of the bitter flavor that it possesses. The end result is something that's crunchy, slightly chewy, and with a very light almost potato-like taste that matches beautifully with seasame oil.

Here's the package I picked up in Atlanta. These have already been shreded into more manageable strips, so they're very convenient to work with.



To prepare, rinse bellflower roots in hot tap water, then cover with enough hot/warm water to cover them by two to three inches. Allow to soak overnight. In the morning, rinse roots, drain, and then sprinkle on some salt and toss to leech out any remaining bitter flavor. If you don't soak overnight, the playcodon will have a taste similar to the pitch of a grapefruit. NOT good eats.

After an hour or so, rinse salt off playcodon. Squeeze out any excess water.



Heat skillet or wok to medium high heat, Add a little bit of oil oil (or any other cooking oil), a few drops of sesame oil, sesame seeds, and bellflower roots. Stirfry for a few minutes, tossing constinuously. Add minched ginger, garlic, chopped scallion, and salt. Stifry two more minutes or until fragrant. Remove from heat and plate.




My apologies about the lack of measurements, but I never use them when cooking. I usually just taste and adjust.

I'm in a funk, and I need Korean food. For the past couple of months, I've eaten nothing but steamed green beans, hamburger helper, frozen entrees, and a variety of other "All-American" meals. Nothing against them, but I can't go solo on burgers, fries and such. After a while, I start hallucinating about dried anchovies dipped in chili sauce, cold buckwheat noodle soup, spicy tang jang jigae...hhhmmmm.

So it's off to Atlanta tomorrow to stock back up on Korean basics. During the move and the complications involved with it, I lost almost all of what little groceries I had left. I'd tried to pare down to eliminate a lot of packing, so it wasn't a huge amount, but now I'm stuck in a house with an empty fridge. Seriously. The only thing in there right now is a jar of miso, a jar of chili paste, a package of mushrooms, some ice in the freezer, and I think a bottle of mustard is lying in one of the bins. It's a sad sight.

So off I go to pick up squid jerky, Ramune, soybeans, tofu, brisket, chicken feet, and all the things I've missed during the last couple of months of school. Yum.

Hopefully I'll make something post-worthy, but there are no guarantees.

Well, it's official...I'm moving back home. The budget cuts at school have eliminated my position, and the job at a surrounding county fell through at the last moment. Despite promising me the job, the board felt it was in their community's best interest to look for and hire a local for the position. I can't fully blame them. This recession IS taking a toll on a lot of families, and they want to look out for their own. However, it would have been nice to know this information before I was offered the job and informed two other schools I had accepted another position. :sigh:

Oh well, water under the bridge.

On a bento note, I've decided to sell all of my plastic boxes. Well, most of them. I still have the Zojirushi and Lock and Lock bento box, but the rest are going on ebay. I just don't use them anymore, having found and prefer my wooden bento boxes. I've never been good at kawaii or artsy bento, and the wooden ones suit my more formal and somber designs. This is going to be a HUGE auction as my collection spans several years and includes hundreds of dollars worth of boxes, bags, and accessories. I'll just be glad to have the extra space and know that they'll help someone else start their bento collection. If the auction gets too pricey, I'd even suggest going in with a friend or two and then splitting the boxes up between you. I'd really prefer the buyer to be a bento fan and not just a bulk reseller, however, I'll have to go with whoever wins the auction. If you're bidding...I wish you luck and hope you win.

Almost all of these boxes have been used once or twice by me and the pictures posted on this journal...feel free to browse the archives in order to get a better picture of each individual box.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110394168532

and I just want to tell the world how great he is and how much he will be missed. I can't stop crying. I knew something was wrong but thought he threw out his back again. I keep wondering if I had taken him to the vet earlier, could he have been saved? He was so old...in his late teens and possibly even his twenties...but the greatest dog in the whole world. He was my best friend and I miss him so much that the lonliness feel like a cold sort of numbness that won't go away. When I got home, I threw away everything except his favorite squeaky toy and his collar. I just couldn't stand looking at the empty dog bed. I can't bring myself to wash his blankie and I just can't stop feeling empty inside...like someone carved out my heart and I'm hollow. You might think this is a strange reaction for "just a dog." But he was my best friend. He was there for me when others weren't. He would seek me out when I was down and cheer me up again. Some people think dogs are just dumb animals and don't have souls, well I don't want a heaven that doesn't allow Poppet in it. I hate myself for every minute I didn't have time for him, ignored him, gave him a harsh word. I love him so much, and no one will ever take his place in my heart.

In light of the horrid economy (I myself have fallen victim as one of the million layoffs as soon as my contract is up), I thought I'd post a couple of pics detailing my favorite meal: portabello mushroom linguine. It's so simple and costs just a little over three dollars in raw ingredients...this is assuming you already have some essentials at home such as olive oil, salt, pepper, dried parsley (add another dollar if buying fresh). One package of baby bellas cost me around 2.00 here. Purchase and bring home. Clean under running water. Some purists refuse to have their mushrooms touch water, but I watched Dirty Jobs and know just what that substrate they grow in started out as: I'm NOT eating it. After thoroughly washing, slice mushrooms however thick you like. I prefer three to four slices per shroom, but you do whatever tickles your fancy. Pour one to two tablespoons olive oil in hot skillet, add mushrooms, saute, add salt, pepper, and dried parsley. If using fresh parsley, I'd wait until everything is almost cooked so as to retain the clean taste and color of the herb. Saute. Dump in linguine. Toss. Plate. Viola!



If I had some fresh parsley, I'd have included a garnish, but I rarely use parsley in my cooking so prefer not to buy a fresh bunch as I'd end up wasting more than half.

Love, love, love my wooden boxes. I'm using my two-tiered cedar box here and the furoshiki just folds beautifully around it. Here, the tab peaking through has two frisky little rabbits leaping along. Very joyful and cute!




What has these rabbits so ecstatic is obviously the contents: homemade shrimp stirfry, apples sharing their space with a sirracha pig, and piping hot rice. Yum! My only regret is that the glorious stirfry which I had put up earlier in the week has lost most of its beautiful color. Maybe it was the reheating, or maybe it was the refridgeration process, but as you can see, it's no where near as vibrant as the original pic below (taken shortly after making).

Not as pretty as I'd like. Just some rice with seasoned seaweed clumped in the middle. Very tasty btw. To the side are some sweet glazed potatoes. A rather drab meal but filling nonetheless.

For a long time, I've wanted to be a vegetarian. Wanted it very badly, in fact. The problem was that everytime I began my journey on the road to meatlessness, I started craving a big, juicy t-bone. This isn't meant to be insensitive or amuse...just the truth. Whenever I told myself to abstain, I started to crave the very thing I was abstaining from, and as a result, I failed time and time again. So months later and I'm here again, trying to eat healthier. Several weeks go by and I start noticing that I haven't eaten red meat in a while...then I can't remember when the last time I ate pork was...and chicken hasn't touched my plate in days. I'd gone without mammal and bird flesh for two straight weeks and hadn't felt like running to a steak the entire time. Who would have thunk it? My one concession to meat was the consumption of fish and seafood. Not a lot, mind you...I've never eaten loads of meat anyways, but a can of tuna in some soups or stews, a few clams in an omlete or two, or a shrimp added to a vegetable stirfry now and then...these are the things I enjoy. I'm also lucky in that our town has a local fish monger who gets them straight from a small boat fisherman on the coast...very fresh! I don't eat them in excess: a pound of shrimp, two cans of tuna, a small bag of croakers or mackerel will tide me over the course of a month or so and many, many meals. Mostly my diet consists of vegetables, fruit, eggs, seaweed, rice, and soy products. And I've been doing this for a long, long time now. So imagine my surprise when I find that there's a name for it. Pescatarianism. Who knew? Now, I know I'm not a vegetarian; I never claimed to be. I don't have the will for it...yet, but one day I'd like to get there. I've even fallen off the pescatarian wagon a time or two (chicken broth and beef dashima being the culprits as I'm still looking for a comparative soup base that can replace these. The traditional vegetable broth that you can in stores is a bit too carrot and tomatoe tasting for my purposes.) But hopefully this will set me on the path.

Working for a short while at a Chinese restaurant, I was shocked to discover that some of the most complex looking dishes were actually extremely easy to make and didn't involve lots of foreign ingredients. Fried rice, beef with broccoli, and stirfried vegetables in white sauce all utilized ingredients I can find at my local Walmart these days. My favorite by far is the white sauce, which curiously enough is just chicken broth thickened by corn starch. All you do is stirfry your vegetables in a little oil on high heat...my favorite combo is chinese cabbage, carrot matchsticks, sugar snap peas, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, and baby corn...until the cabbage becomes barely limp (around 2-3 min.) Then add chicken broth until a small pool forms at the bottom of the vegetables, reserving some cold broth. Mix together cornstarch with the reserved broth; the amount varies on how big a batch you're making but if you've ever made gravy you now how to eyeball it. If you're a gravy newbie, I'd start with around a tablespoon to begin. You can alway add more later if it's not enough. Continue to stirfry until veggies are coated with a sumptuous, creamy glaze. I immediately freeze mine in smaller batches without any meat. Then when I defrost, I simply stirfry the meat first, then add the vegetable stirfry mix, and stirfry until hot. My favorite meat "garnish" is shrimp, but chicken is also a good choice. Or you can eat just plain as I did here...with just a squirt or two of sirracha to add a spicy kick.




If making to eat immediately, use the same formula as if frozen. Stirfy the meat first until done, remove from wok or pan, stirfy vegetables, then add meat back in. Do not cook them together as the meat requires more time and you will risk overcooking your veggies or eating undercooked meat. Gross! Also, searing and cooking the meat in the pan first creates beautiful flavor which it then imparts to the veggies afterwards.

Ever since reading about an elm wood bento box on Just Bento, I've been dying to get my hands on one. Well, now my wish has come true. I had placed this order before my current financial situation came to light, but in hindsight it's just what I needed to give myself a little cheering up. The wrapping paper doesn't hurt in that department either.




Here's the cute little thank you note they left. I love the origami swan. Nice little detail that shows you the quality of this company.




Last but not least, here are the pics of the box itself. Not pictured is a small wooden insert for separating the inner compartment. The wood has a nice heft to it, the woodgrain just pops at you, and everything is seamless as it's made from a single block of elm. Thanks so much to Maki for her review of this box! ^_^





I used a purchasing agent to actually complete the sale. Fantastic company with a low comission. The box itself shipped directly from the seller.

For the longest time, I had been struggling with the plastic taste of modern bento boxes. Every plastic container I could get my hands on (Glad, Lock and Lock, bento boxes, etc...) imparted the taste of plastic to my food, especially unflavored rice. I've tried microwaving them with vinegared water, soaking them in soap, cooling the foods down before putting them in...nothing worked. Actually, Tupperware was the one exception to this but all their containers were waaaay too large for me. So I Here's the latest addition to my collection: a cedar, urushi coated, wooden bento box. It's a little large being double tiered and all, but just beautiful to look at. I received a tons of compliments on it at work, and it just had the most wonderful nostalgic feel to it. So much so that I couldn't bring myself to use the included elastic band and just wrapped it "old school" in a furoshiki.

On the menu today: Korean style tamago (my favorite and a bento staple), steamed sugar snaps, stirfried zuchinni, and two Korean dumplings. Delicious! My only regret was that there was no room for dessert.




Here it is all wrapped and ready to go. Just threaded through a pair of teak chopsticks that have that old-fashioned look about them, and I was ready to go.

I had made some really great kimchee jigae (stew) the other day and decided to use some to fashion onigiri. Simple enough to do as I just pressed and strained a handful of stewed kimchee (I made this particular pot with tuna instead of my usual pork bellies), used some kitchen shears to cut into small, bitesized pieces, and then gently stuffed into my onigiri indentations.




A few kumquats, tomatoes, and grapes thrown into the bottom container for a sweet finish, and off we go to work. Verdict: quick and tasty!

It's been so long since I last posted a bento lunch, but things have just been CRAZY at work lately. ::sigh:: I need a vacation. A long, long vacation far away from anyone under the age of 18. LOL

To begin my crawl back to bento-ing, I decided to start with one of my simplier boxes which comes complete with separated compartments that make packing banchan a snap. Here we have a nice little lunch of barley/rice, steamed broccoli with oyster sauce, soy braised brisket and quail eggs, Korean rolled omlette, and homemade quick kimchee. For dessert, apple slices dipped in lemonade; you can just see a peek of the container at the corner of this pic.

I love, love, love my new lunchbox. For a while now, I've been looking at the Zojirushi line of thermal lunchboxes even though I've previously purchased a Mr. Bento. While I liked the Mr. Bento for its practically, it was just too big. It came with four lunch containers and was very hard to fill. On top of that, its carrying bag, while attractive, was awkward for me as it was cylindrical, meant to be carried over the shoulder (a spot already taken by my briefcase), and didn't have any room for a beverage or bulky snack. This Ms. Bento of previous incarnations was nice because it had fewer containers and came with a roomy tote but was also missing that essential soupbowl that made carrying liquids a snap. Same for the Mini Bento. Well, I suppose someone must have been whispering in the designer's ear because the new Ms. Bento takes all of these, and more, into consideration. The new design has a cute tote with plenty of room for an apple and a boxed drink or a small thermos. The containers are now a darker color to mask those pesky tomato sauce stains and come with both a soup bowl AND a clever divider cup that makes it so convenient when packing an Asian meal consisting of small amounts of a variety of side dishes. In a word: perfect. The only small, teeny downside is that it comes with a spork instead of the typical chopsticks. And that's not a huge detractor in my mind since I'd previously melted the Mr. Bento chopsticks when I left them sticking in some hot rice a little too long. Now I primarily use my Korean stainless steel chopstick/spoon set. I just jam the little carrying case inside my Ms. Bento tote and off we go.

Here's one of the lunches I prepared with my new Ms. Bento. Clam soup, soy/sugar glazed potatoes, Korean omlette, and organic yogurt with frozen berries to keep it cool...all wrapped up nice and tight with a little piece of Glad Press and Seal.

Summers in South Georgia are hot, hot, hot...but surprisingly winters aren't much better. Warm enough for a short sleeve shirt during the daylight hours and then a brisk chill at night. To warm me up, but in a light manner, I've found that my mom's recipe for clam and spinach soup hits the spot. To liven it up, I made two versions: one with miso and one without. My mother makes hers without miso, but I find that a tablespoon or so adds a hearty flavor that's still light enough not to weight me down during the warmer hours of the day.


Just look at those juicy little bits of clam!


Without the miso, the spinach tinges the broth a nice, subtle green and the spinach just livens everything up with its cheerful greenery.

Here I tried a recipe posted by bento-guru Cooking Cute. It's her recipe for spicy catfish fillets. I followed her recipe pretty much to the letter, adding just a bit more chinese hot pepper condiment b/c I love spicy foods.



Here's the finished plated results. Peanuts and scallions added for decoration and flavor. I love the way the dark sauce contrasts against the white plate. Verdict: very good, but a little rich for my tastes. The sauce is made with hoisin sauce, a luxury on my current diet.

Since the summer began and I've been getting up later and later, I've found the typical Korean breakfast of kimchee jigae to be more satisfying that my usual fare of bagel/cream cheese or cereal. This dish was made via Maangchi's website recipe, and it turned out wonderfully. If you stumble onto her site, please note that tuna or spam can be used to substitute out for the raw and uncured/unseasoned pork bellies.

As the weather becomes more and more unbearably hot (it's already reached the 100's down here), my thoughts linger on that most refreshing of Korean meals: naeng-myun. For those who aren't familiar with it, naeng-myun consists of chewy buckwheat or arrowroot noodles with a variety of optional veggies...usually involving pear and cucmber slices, radish kimchee, and some protein in the form of beef, egg, or both. The best part about it is its cool broth, which is often frozen first into a highly seasoned slushy. While the homemade version of naeng-myun is a rather time consuming affair, most fans of this dish agree that the next best thing to ordering it in a restaurant is to get the refridgerated version from your local Asian grocer. They sell the dried variety too, but the flavor isn't as authentic. The refridgerated variety is also more convenient. I store mine in the freezer when I bring it home...thereby increasing its shelf life...and when it's ready to make the broth needs only to be partially defrosted while you briefly boil the noodles for about ten seconds, literally.



Here you have mul naeng-myun and my personal favorite. Notice the ice slush floating around. I added julienned cucumbers (make sure you use low-water cukes such as hothouse, Asian, or pickling for the extra crunch), thin slices of boiled beef brisket, boiled egg, a little touch of vinegar, and seasame seeds. I'm not fond of pear in my naeng-myun though others love the contrast of flavors it brings.



This one is called bibim naeng-myun...also from Pulmuone. I actually prefer another brand's bibin myun to this one, but the grocer was out of my usual choice. This one contains some of the frozen broth as well as the hot-spicy sauce which differentiates bibim naeng-myun from the previous incarnation. My usual brand has more red sauce and no liquid. While not my favorite, it's still delicious. Both meals are served in the traditional Korean stainless steel bowl used for noodles.

It's been so long since I've posted here, but I can only blame work. Getting all the grades finalized and the classroom cleaned up for the summer school bunch is hard work. So much so that I had been subsiding on Lean Pockets and takeout for the last couple of weeks. Then the summer started, and who wants to be stuck in the house cooking over a hot stove in 100 degree weather? But at last we hit a humidity low point, I had eaten through all the food in the house, and Atlanta beckoned. The Farmer's Market off Buford is going through a remodel, but I managed to get some staples. Also, because of the wonderous Mangaachi and her delicious recipes, I decided to try my hand at making some homeade banchan instead of just buying it as usual. Tonight I threw together some pickled raw crab and cucumber kimchee. The kimchee recipe I got off Mangaachi's cooking website, but the crab I made from a recipe in a cookbook called Eating Korean.


It turned out beautifully, but I did make some changes to the original ingredients which called for waaaay too much sesame seeds and sesame oil IMO. If I use this recipe again, I'm planning on cutting back on the sugar content as well...it was a bit too sweet for my taste.


The cucumber kimchee was on-the-spot delicious and tasted as good as any I've ever bought.