Learning to cook Korean food

The other day, a very kind and patient friend came by and showed some of us how to make some Korean dishes at home.  These are the results.

Seafood pancake.  We cheated a bit and bought a bag of pancake mix for this.  At least now I know what to get at the store.  You mix water with the pancake mix (it's kind of like bisquik), add seafood.  Put it in the heated pan with oil, and then put baby leeks and some thinly sliced pepper on top.  Let one side cook until it gets slightly crispy, then flip it over and cook the other side.  The dipping sauce is a mixture of soy sauce with brown rice vinegar, with some finely chopped baby leeks and maybe a slice or two of pepper.


Mandu guk -- dumpling soup.  First, we started the soup, which was a piece of beef brisket, a leek, and a couple cloves of garlic covered in water and brought to a boil.  Then we lowered the heat and simmered it.  It's better to simmer as long as possible (all day) for the best flavor.  But we only cooked it while we prepped everything else.  Then, we made up the mixture for the dumplings, which contains kimchi (rinsed and finely chopped), some firm tofu smooshed until it's got a texture like ground beef, minced beef, minced pork, finely chopped baby leeks, some very finely minced garlic, and some mung bean sprouts that had been boiled very briefly until soft, then rinsed in cold water, drained and chopped very finely.

When the broth is done and ready to be used, a little bit of soy sauce was added for the color.  And salt was added to taste. The dumpling mixture was mixed up and then we filled dumplings using wrappers bought at the store.  The garnish on top of the soup is egg.  The egg white and yolk were cooked separately in a pan kind of like an omelet, then chopped into a diamond shape.


This is mung bean pancake, made from a mix found at the store.