How To Make A Crudite!

I made this for the Pyrate's 1st birthday party... there were more grownups than children, obviously.

 I love the idea of food as art.  It brings great pleasure to the eye to have food presented in such a way.  In most situations you will find that I opt for the more rustic, more primitive presentations.   Over-grooming, does nothing for me.  There is much to be said for a beautifully done crudite'.   (the link will give you some creative ideas for displays) It's an art form with many shifting variables that you can mix and match to suit the theme, mood, and occasion of your party.

This fabulous three dimensional display of edible goodies is easy, easy, easy and makes an accessible spread for pre-dinner snacking for your guests at a party or holiday function.   Just grab up what's in season at your local farmers market.  You can make vegetable, fruit, or a combination of both.  Some items should be trimmed or peeled.  Others should be cut into finger size pieces such as the bellpeppers and broccoli in the photo.  Other items, such as cherry tomatoes, bananas, strawberries, mushrooms, and most fruits should be left whole. You should 3 minute blanch items such as asparagus, broccoli, sugar snap peas, and green beans, in rapidly boiling water so they are more tender to the bite.  Then fill gourds, cabbage, squashes with dips, vinaigrettes, mustards, etc.   Display as a centerpiece on your dining table, or as I did here, use an entire surface of a sideboard or buffet.  I used all kinds of hidden items to create height, depth, and dimension to this display.  For a smaller crudite you can start out with a platter and have the items spill over onto the surface of whatever space you will display it on, or you can make it a bit more conservative by keeping it more neat and displayed on platters.   Use fancy garnish techniques on some items to make your crudite more interesting.   Radishes, carrots, celery, can be manipulated to fan, curl, and other kooky but cool looking effects, when creatively cut and shocked in an ice bath.  Also some items can be placed there whole just for decoration.  You can use them later after the party for some sort of recipe, but they will simply serve to make your display more plentiful and extravagant. 

A large crudite such as mine in the picture is enough for a casual afternoon party, with perhaps the addition of a cheese board and some wine and juices.

Oh, yeah.

Did I mention this is a healthy alternative to chips, candies, and other typical party junk food?  If your veggies are farm fresh, and high quality, and your dips and sauces are flavorful, and your wine is tasty, your guests will not even miss that traditional casual party fare and they'll be amazed at this display that will remind them of master paintings in a museum.  

Gnocchi with Fresh Tomato Basil Sauce

Dishes like this are very typical, very traditional Italian staples.  We eat it as a meal, however, in Italy this would be one of the first courses, before a main entree with meat and vegetables.   I wanted to make something quick, easy, and satisfying enough for my boys to not look at me like I'm trying to starve them.  Pasta sounded good, but kinda boring so I decided to get some gnocchi, which are little dumpling like balls of potato pasta dough that get boiled just like pasta, until they are the perfect consistency. 

I wanted to make a meatless meal tonight as well, so I figured a good tomato sauce would be nice, and since I was at Trader Joes, I could have gotten a pretty decent sauce in a jar from their shelves and everyone would have been happy, however, I decided to make my own sauce with two baskets of mini heirloom tomatoes I got on Sunday at the farmer's market.  Oh!  I also had a huge bunch of fresh basil that was gonna go bad in another day or so if I didn't use it, so homemade sauce it was!!!

 The gnocchi I used were found in my local Trader Joes in the pasta section of the store.  Most grocery stores will now carry gnocchi.  If you can't find it easily, ask, perhaps you're looking in the wrong place.  Sometimes they'll have it in a refrigerated section with fresh pastas. 


Believe it or not that's pretty much it, you'll need a large pot of boiling water, some garlic, and some cheese for the top, and that's it.  Gnocchi with Tomato Sauce in under an hour!

THE PLAYERS: (your grocery list)

Gnocchi (two packages of gnocchi will make enough to feed four to five people.  find it in your grocery's pasta section.) Tomatoes (I used mini heirloom tomatoes, cut in half, which provided a very nice variety of color in the sauce. You can also use regular size heirlooms, or organic tomatoes on the vine.  You'll need a total of 4 cups of cut up tomato.)  Fresh Basil (in your produce section.  You'll need about 1/2 cup cut in a chiffonade.) Garlic (you'll need 4 cloves of fresh garlic, crushed.)Red Wine (I used a bordeaux.  You can use any good quality  dark red wine.)











PREPARATION:

Chop your tomatoes into 1 inch chunks.  If you're using mini ones like we did, cut them in half, leaving the very small ones whole.
Add about 4 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil to a large Saute pan and heat on high until oil is sizzling. 
Add tomatoes.  

The tomatoes will go through a couple of stages while they cook.  First the juices will escape into the pan, then the water in the tomato juice will cook off, and the tomatoes will begin to fall apart.  Then the tomatoes will begin to reduce into a thick consistency.  

Add crushed garlic to the tomato mixture. 
Put on a large pot of water over high heat, cover with a lid. 

To chiffonnade your basil, stack the leaves, roll them like a cigar, and then cut thin slices to make a shred. 
Add 1/2 of the bottle of red wine to the tomatoes and stir in the basil.

The wine will re-liquefy your tomatoes, so now you'll put a lid on it and turn the fire down to simmer this for 20 minutes.  

 When your pot of water starts to boil, add 1 teaspoon of salt, and your gnocchi. 
The gnocchi will sink to the bottom.  
Bring back to a boil. 
When the gnocchi float to the surface of the boiling water, allow it to cook for 2 minutes more.  
Then drain immediately. 
Check your tomato basil sauce, it should be slightly thicker.  Turn the fire off.  
Add gnocchi to your saute pan and toss with the tomato basil sauce to coat the gnocchi. 
Serve with thin slivers of parmesano reggiano cheese, perhaps a bit of fresh ground pepper, and hot, crusty bread. 

Yum.

 

BeeBee's Beautiful Butta-bean Soup

California weather rarely dictates more than a light sweater, but where we live, at the foot of a mountain range in desert-like conditions... warm days, and cool nights.  When the winds do blow in the wintertime, and the nights drop down into the 40's and low 50's we think we're going to start sprouting icicles.

Of course, this is not a rational thinking, but we have to make due with the variations in weather that we've got.  So yesterday, in celebration of the beginning of our winter winds, I decided to make a soup.  The Pyrate and I stopped in our local grocery store and I was planning to buy some lentils and make some curried dahl, but then I changed my mind because we have a big chunk of smokey black forest ham left from Thanksgiving, (you can also make this meatless...) and so I thought, what about a nice green pea soup... But I wanted to take a short cut and use frozen peas instead of dried ones, and that made me a little unsure, so whilst browsing the frozen vegetable aisle, beautiful packages of organic Butter Beans caught my eye.   I love butter beans.  They're kinda similar to lima beans except they have a bit smoother, waxier, creamier taste than the grainy, green flavor of lima beans.

That was it!  "This is what we're making tonight!!  A soup!! With butter beans!!"  The Pyrate was not amused at all.  He is not necessarily an automatic lover of legumes, and peas, limas, and that sort of thing.  Come to think of it, if I'd told the Austrian in advance what I had planned he'd have protested immediately, claiming he did not at all like soup.  "It's a waste of time, and it's not very filling," would be his claim.  The Pyrate just stood there silently frowning skeptically, yet resigned to years of experience that he really didn't have any say in this situation... unless it was his birthday... then he'd get about a 30% vote.
Anyway, I built this soup around Sunday's farmer's market goodies already in my kitchen, and made the butterbeans the star of the show!

It's a hearty soup with large, chunky bites, a tomato broth, fresh herbs, and the unusual addition of a huge handful of chopped fresh kale I just happened to have leftover from the weekend.

How did it go over with my men?  Well, the Pyrate was standing watch over this soup long before it was done, reveling in the fragrance, and as soon as he was permitted a bowlful of its goodness he gobbled it up in a jiffy, complaining that his bowl was too small!  The Austrian never mentioned not being a fan of soup.  He simply sat next to me, frantically slurping it up, burning his mouth repeatedly because it was so good, he couldn't wait for it to cool!  When I was half way through my portion, I looked over to see that the Austrian was leaning back in his seat, rubbing his belly with one hand and loosening his belt with the other.
I am changing his attitudes about certain foods, one recipe at a time!  I freeze this soup in individual, microwaveable containers so that it can be taken to work for lunch whenever we like.  So making a big pot never goes to waste.  This recipe will serve 8 generously with leftovers.
Make this soup any time you want to warm up, or even in the summer as its fresh vegetables are perfect anytime of year with nothing more than a hunk fresh baked cornbread and a glass of lemonade!

P.S.  Just after I posted this recipe, I got a text from the Austrian... who is at work:

"Best soup ever!!!" 

THE PLAYERS: (your grocery list)
Butter Beans (Three 16 oz. packages of butter beans from your grocer's freezer section.  If you decide to be adventurous and search for the dried version, go ahead.  You'll need to soak them for at least 8 hours then cook them with an extra 2 cups of water added to the recipe, for 3 to 4 hours until the beans are tender.) Onions, Garlic, Celery, Carrots, Kale (You'll need one full bunch.) Potatoes (Use a waxy variety of potato, such as Yukon Gold, fingerlings, baby red, etc...They will hold up better in the soup's slow cooking) Smoked Ham (optional)  (I used about 24 oz of Black Forest ham cut into 1 inch cubes.  You can also substitute cooked turkey or chicken or make this completely vegetarian as well.) Canned Crushed Tomatoes (I look for canned tomatoes that are canned fresh at their source, organic, and I like the Italian companies for the quality of the tomatoes.  You'll need one 24 oz can.) Broth (I used 32 oz of organic, free range, low sodium chicken broth.  Vegetable broth can be substituted) Tarragon (fresh tarragon is a nice compliment to this soup!) Bay Leaves (You'll need 2 bay leaves) Sage (Your grocer's produce section should have fresh sage.  If you can't find it, substitute 2 tablespoons of dried rubbed sage.) Sea Salt, Black Pepper, Cayenne Pepper

PREPARATION:

Make a mirepoix  by cutting up 1 large onion, 3 stalks of celery, 5 medium sized carrots into a large, chunky dice around the same size or a bit larger than the butter beans.

 

Saute in 1/2 stick of melted butter, in the bottom of a large stock/soup pot just until onions are slightly transparent.



 


Add 4 cloves of crushed garlic to the pot.
Dice your potatoes about the same size as the other vegetables, and add to the pot.
Tear the Kale into pieces just about twice the size of everything else and add to the pot. 
Add 4 tablespoons of fresh chopped Tarragon, 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped sage, and 2 bay leaves.
Add diced ham (turkey or chicken)

Add 1 tablespoon of sea salt, 1 tablespoon fresh ground pepper, and 1 tablespoon of cayenne. 
Add 1 16 oz can of crushed tomatoes. 
Add 32 oz of broth
Add 1 cup of water
Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and cook for 1 hour on low heat, or until beans are tender.

Enjoy!!!

Roasted Winter Vegetables

It wasn't until I had my child that I began to turn a corner in terms of how I felt about vegetables.  You could get me to eat almost anything raw.  But the only cooked vegetables I ever actually liked was green beans.  Perhaps it's because where my mother comes from, they cooked everything until there was no possibility of getting any sort of poisoning.  At the same time, unfortunately, all natural texture, color, fragrance, taste, and nutrients got  altered as well.  My mom loves to tell the story of how she'd find wads of soggy napkins full of spinach that I'd stuff in my pockets and smuggle out of the kitchen because I didn't want to eat it and I'd forget it was in the pocket and put the clothing in the dirty clothes hamper like that.

Anything other than legumes, I was never interested in eating if it was cooked.  Even the green beans, cooked in the same fashion as my grandmother cooked them, for hours, with a big piece of salt pork, long past when the heat sucked the green out of them, and they were more of a greyish green and if I remember correctly, slightly transparent!

There was a time in our historical past that there was the challenge of keeping foods fresh and safe to eat.   I believe that is where that long cooking technique comes from.  If you cook something long enough salmonella, ecoli, botulism, and other food-borne cooties would just surrender and die.  It also made it possible to perserve foods so they would last longer in the refrigerator.  Food was cooked in large batches on the weekend, and the same pot of beans, greens, or peas would be pulled out as a side dish every night for a week.  Crops were cooked then frozen and sometimes kept for months... or even longer... *horror music here* 

The nutrients were so thoroughly extracted from the vegetables by this long cooking that the leftover broth was often saved and drank.  They called this pot liquor.

Then I grew up, and at some point discovered that it wasn't that all those vegetables were on their own just generally disgusting.  It was their preparation that was so unappealing to me.  I've eaten foods from alll over the world, and learned that with most vegetables, fresh and not overcooking is the key to delicious flavor.

I'm telling you all of this to say that you too might find that you will like vegetables more if you learn how to cook them in ways that the flavor is still intact and in some instances, such as this recipe, enhanced by cooking techniques and the addition of some simple staple ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry.

Winter vegetables include squashes and root vegetables, basically.   I've seen recipes for roasted squash, and separately for roasted root vegetables, but I haven't seen one that combines them all.

This recipe is SO easy that you will be able to do this blindfolded by the time you make it a second time.  Even the kids loved these vegetables, because some elements like the carrots, butternut squash, and the beets are sweet.  I will leave the amounts open to your discretion depending on how many people you want this to feed.  Of course if you can, get your veggies fresh at the farmer's market!!!  There will be a world of difference in the flavor!!  If you're wondering why there's sweet potatoes, and yams on the ingredients, they are not the same thing.  Scroll over the link to see the difference.   Note also, that I've listed Olive Oil, not Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  It's different.  The extra virgin will have too much moisture in it, and your veggies will not caramelize and will instead be oily and soggy. 

THE PLAYERS: (your grocery list)

Turnips, Leeks, Beets, Rutabaga, Carrots, Parsnips, Butternut Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Pearl Onions, Yams, Thyme, Oregano, Rosemary, Olive Oil

PREPARATION:

Drop your pearl onions into a pot of boiling water for 3 minutes.  Not longer.  Drain.

To peel them, cut off a small bit of the root end, then squeeze the other end so the white pearl onion comes out of its skin. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Cut the rest of your vegetables in 1 inch chunks.  Leave skin on everything except the Butternut squash.  

Add a generous amount of herbs and enough olive oil to be able to thoroughly coat all of your veggies.  

Mix everything together by tossing with large wooden spoons. 

Spread your veggie mixture onto cookie sheets or jelly roll pans... (anything flat with low sides) in a single layer.  You may have to use more than one depending on how much you're cooking.   Don't try to crowd your veggies onto one pan.  It's important for them to caramelize and that won't happen if they are piled on top of each other.  
Sprinkle a little salt and fresh ground pepper over everything and put it in the oven!

Allow to cook for 20 minutes (or until golden brown edges appear on the top).

Toss to turn over. 

Allow to cook for 20 minutes longer or until veggies are golden brown at the edges and tender to the fork. 

Remove and arrange on a platter.  If you like you can sprinkle pepitas over the top for a little extra salty crunch!

Eat while still sizzling hot!  

BBQ Korean Style!!!

This meal was so good, we had it two nights in a row!!!  Fresh fixin's cooked right at the table, just like in your favorite Korean BBQ restaurant!!!  You can do this with or without meat, and almost all of the other players in this symphony of flavor are readily available in any grocery store. 

So, this week has not gone as planned.  First of all, let me apologize for the badly lit photos, not only did we have a short in the light fixture over the kitchen table, but my camera was trippin' as well....
I may have bit off more than I could chew thinking I'd cover more than one asian culture's cuisine.  I was ambitiously planning a Chinese, a Japanese, and an Indian dish as well this week, but, that was a ridiculous notion!  So far, we covered the Korean Hot Pot (go here to see that recipe).  That was fun, and tasty.  I bought the smallest tub of Gochujang I could find.  That tub of Gochujang, however, would last me a year, if I don't use it, and for sure I knew I wanted  to do some Korean BBQ because it's one of my faves... I love to eat at places where you the food is cooked right on your table.   Korean BBQ steps it up a notch, with it's sweet, spicy, smokey flavors.  Everything tastes fresher than fresh.  Quick cooked to seal in the nutrients.  Fresh food just tastes different.  The molecules have not been completely destroyed.  The textures are more vivid.   So I recommend this sincerely!

There are two things you will need.  One is a table-top gas burner.  I bought ours at the asian grocer for about $19.

You can use it for doing a more traditional Hot Pot at the table, Shabu Shabu , Fajitas, and many other table prepared foods you'll find in many different cultures.  They use gas canisters the size of a spray paint can, and these are easy to load and replace.  I bought a pack of 3 canisters for about $8.  Between the Hot Pot, and two nights of Korean BBQ, we finished off one can of gas.

You'll also need a grill for this dish.  A traditional Korean grill will be round and has a stone center, and will fit neatly over your burner.  We purchased a rectangular grill top.

It has a larger surface area so we could cook more.  But in retrospect it probably would have been better to use the traditional one because the marinades and sauces used in Korean BBQ are sweet and will easily burn if they have nowhere to go.  The traditional Korean BBQ grill has a resevoir underneath to catch juices where they can't burn instead of them collecting on the hot grill and charring. 

If you've already got a George Forman grill or something similar to that, it will work.  But you still wanna be able to use it at the table and there needs to be enough surface area to cook meats and vegetables simultaneously.  These Korean grill tops run about $10-15 depending on where you look for them.  Asian grocery is the best place to look. 

I also had to adjust on the second night what grain we used.  The first night we used brown rice.  It wasn't sticky enough to take the sauce and be picked up with bbq via chopstick.  So the second night, I used a Japanese Sweet Rice which is highly glutinous (meaning sticky like glue...not high in gluten).  YUMMY.

Most of your prep time will be spent cutting up veggies, which shouldn't take more than half an hour, and then the food is actually cooked at the table where everyone sort of participates in adding, turning, removing, dipping, and gobbling it all up.

You'll want to set your table up prior to anything else so it's out of the way.  Each place setting will need a plate, with two smallish bowls.

One bowl will be for each person's portion of rice, the other will be for their sauce.  You'll also want to have some Gochujang at the table so that folks can mix in extra spice into their sauce.

So here we go.  That's all I have to say.  Let's get to it!!



 THE PLAYERS:  (your grocery list)

 Japanese Sweet Rice  (get this in any asian grocery store, and in some normal supermarkets in the asian foods section where the rice is shelved.)  Mirin Style Sweet Cooking Rice Wine (This is not Korean.  But I added it to the marinade anyway because it tastes good.  It's basically a cooking sake... basically... Just look in your asian grocer for this in the same aisle where the soy sauces and marinades are... Just get the one attached in the link above.  Make it easy on yerself!)  Soy Sauce  (Child, if you can't find a bottle of soy sauce.... you got issues... any store, probably even your neighborhood quicky mart has soy sauce...)  Garlic  (fresh by the head....)  Fresh Ginger (Get a decent sized root section from the produce section in the grocery store.  It should be firm and not easily bent in your hands.  If it's floppy, it's old and its flavor will be flat. Save the leftovers to make tea!  Fresh Whole Black Peppercorns (you'll be crushing these yourself, preferably with a mortar and pestle, however, if you don't have one, a grinder works well, and as a last resort you and smash them with the backside of a spoon.) Light Brown Sugar (Find organic brown sugar, instead of the typical brown sugar you find everywhere, because it's just white sugar with molasses added... organic sugar is brown because of its natural molasses content.  why buy sugar that's been processed to remove that, then artificially replace it.  that's silly to me, and even though I don't have the science to back me up, sounds like there has to be something wrong with that picture...) Veggies (Bok Choy, Broccoli, Soy Bean Sprouts, Zucchini, Green Onions, Red Bell Peppers)  Proteins (In asian grocers they will have thinly sliced meats and fresh tofu: Take your pick:  Firm Tofu, Thinly Sliced Chicken Breasts,  Shrimp, Thinly Sliced Beef,, Korean BBQ Style Sliced Beef Ribs).  Sesame Oil



PREPARATON:
Make your Sweet Soy Base Sauce (Jomi Ganjang) the day before.  
In a medium saucepan combine:
1/2 Cup water, 4 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced, 6 slices peeled fresh ginger
 Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. 
Add:
1 cup of soy sauce... low sodium please, 1/2 cup light brown sugar, and 1/4 cup of Mirin Style Sweet Cooking Rice Wine (can be substituted with a cold sake, or a sweet white wine like zinfandel)
Turn the heat to high and boil for 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.  
Strain the sauce through a sieve, into a container that has an airtight lid.  
Store in the fridge for up to 3 months.

Two hours before dinner time, marinade your meat in 1/2 cup of your soy base sauce. 
(we did both beef and chicken)

Cook your rice in a rice cooker according to the instructions on the package, allowing plenty of rice, because it will go very fast... 

Set your table.  Place the stove and grill in the middle of the table.

Divide remaining sauce between the sauce bowls at each place setting.

Cut up your veggies into 3 inch long julienne sticks, arrange them on a platter.  

Slice your broccoli on the thin side, so that it has flat surfaces to cook on the the grill. 

Turn the table top stove fire on, and place the grill over it.  If you're using the round Korean grill make sure to add water in the reservoir so that drippings won't stick and burn.  
While the grill heats up, call everyone to dinner.  
Invite them to add a bit of Gochujang to their sauce for extra spice.

Add a couple of tablespoons of sesame oil to the grill surface, then add some of your items that take longer to cook... a few broccoli slices, peppers, some chicken breast

Stagger adding ingredients so something is always cooking and something is always ready to eat.  
Chicken takes longer than beef.
The first round will seem like it's taking forever... 
Talk among yourselves, and just be patient. That's part of the charm... it forces you to commune with your people in a way you might not in your everyday dining.

Be sure not to eat everything that's ready and forget to put more on.  As soon as there's an empty area, add more veggies, meats, tofu, etc... 

One person can be in charge of that if you like.

Add more sesame oil if needed.

People can use their chopsticks to take food from the grill, dip it in their sauce bowl, then place it on their rice bowl.  
Delish-Delish!!!
 



 Afternote: If you have leftovers, put them away and stirfry everything that was left together in a wok the next day, drizzle with a bit of your soy base sauce,  and serve over ramen noodles. 

Delicious Korean Hot Pot

(asian grocery sources at the end of this post)
Child, don't look so skeptical now... This is gonna be a winner!  Nothing beats a nice hot bowl of broth, veggies, and noodles on a cold day.  We have noodles similar to this at least twice a month or more often.  I buy the broth in those resealable cartons and keep it in the fridge so the Pyrate can make himself a bowl of this instead of those disgusting instant ramen soups he loves so much.  He'll sometimes just have the broth with the staple items, sometimes just the noodles, onions, and a bit of chinese or thai chili paste.  He actually doesn't mind making this either because it's so much more satisfying and easy to make.  This version is like the royal version, with lots of delicious goodies to enjoy... 

A bowl of goodies from our Korean Hot Pot

This is sooooo easy you can do it in a flash.  There's almost nothing to cook.  The hardest work will be finding yourself a local asian grocery to adopt as your official source for ingredients we'll be using for this week's recipes.  But that's a good thing!  Venture out a bit!  Explore!  Broaden your horizons!
I'm being silly, but seriously, I picked up the pyrate from school today, stopped by our local asian grocer and grabbed up some ingredients for this Korean version of comfort food.   Why Korean?
Well, first of all, I was watching a show on the cooking network where they were using an ingredient called Gochujang in a competition.  3 chefs had to use it in their appetizer, main course, and dessert.  I missed the beginning so I was left frustratedly asking the tv screen over and over again, "What the heck is this ko-joo-ching???"  (there was no visible text so all I could do was assume based on the phonetics I could hear...) Would you believe I went online and, thanks to Google's intelligent search engine's spell correct feature which promptly replied to my search, "did you mean gochujang?" and within a matter of less than 2 minutes I was schooled.

Gochujang

Gochujang is a smokey, sweet, spicy red pepper paste used quite commonly in Korean cooking.   It is a must have in your arsenal if you do any kind of Korean cooking.
So we'll be doing a couple of recipes this week that call for this yummy chili paste and I can't wait to share!
The Austrian's been fighting off a sore throat the last two days.  He could really use some fresh, nutrient packed vegetables to fortify his system for the fight. 
What I like about asian foods, is they are usually super-fresh cooked, super-fast, therefore they retain much of their nutrients.    This hot pot, for example could not be any simpler or quicker.  Broth is basically heated up to a boil then ingredients are added in order of length of time it takes to cook them and the ingredients are cut in a way that they cook in a few seconds so once everything is in the broth the fire is turned off and voila!  Dinner is served.  Hot pots are crazy versatile as well.   You can add or subtract ingredients to your heart's desire. 
If you really like this recipe, you might want to consider investing in a Korean cookbook.  I recommend these books that can be found at most booksellers:

The first book, has a photo of a version of this hot pot dish we're making right there on the cover!  They both have excellent ingredient glossaries.  Ingredient glossaries are the thing you really will rely on when learning to cook foods from cultures other than your own.  Ingredient glossaries in cookbooks will save you time, money, and in some cases, your life!  lol.    I may have said it before, but I'll say it again, knowing your ingredients will help you to put them together in ways that actually work!

Here are ingredients that can be used in this dish.  I have divided them into to categories.  Staples (what should always go in) and Options (what you can add to it)

Korean Rice Cakes

THE PLAYERS: (Your Grocery List)

STAPLES:  Broth  (You can use Vegetable, Chicken, or Beef Broth.  Get organic, low-sodium if you can find it.  Or you can also make a dashi type broth by taking a sheet of Laver Seaweed and dropping it into your boiling water a few minutes before adding your soup ingredients.) Gochujang  (Korean red chili pepper paste.  Gotta get this at the asian grocer.  You won't find it anywhere else, and nothing else will do.  If you live in a big city, and can't find an asian grocer you're not looking hard enough.  If you're not in a big city, or you live somewhere where there isn't much of an asian community, then try online for the asian ingredients.  I'll add some links after the recipe for shopping for asian ingredients online. If you're looking online, sometimes gochujang will simply be called hot pepper paste.  It comes in rectangular plastic tubs....pretty much always, and a popular brand is Sempio. Don't buy the stuff in the jars.  Get the stuff in the tubs...) Korean Noodles (these can be substituted with udon or ramen noodles as a last resort...but try to get the real deal, dried noodles from the asian grocer. they'll have two kinds: Korean vermicelli and Korean Noodles.  I like the noodles better than the vermicelli.)Carrots  (Those long orange things that grow underground.) Green Onions (also self explanatory... can be substituted with leaks)  Leafy Greens (I used Bok Choy, but spinach, savoy cabbage, napa cabbage, or regular cabbage are also very good.) Bean Sprouts (These can be found in most grocery store produce sections.  They are the sprouts from soy beans...full of nutrients!)

OPTIONS: Mushrooms (I used ordinary brown mushrooms, but you can get as exotic as you like.  But if you use dried ones keep in mind that you'll need to reconstitute them in hot water before you can use them.) Dumplings (Oh boy! For me, this would be in the "staples" set of ingredients, but that's just me... lol... In the version I made tonight they were included.  You can find these in stores like Trader Joes in the frozen section, but the best ones you'll find in the freezer of the asian grocer.   Get Korean ones, but in a pinch, japanese or chinese will also work quite nicely.  They come filled with chicken, pork and beef, or veggies.  Take your pick!) Korean Sliced Rice Cakes (These chewy, doughy bits of yumminess also went into the hot pot we made tonight.  They are slices of Korean rice cake sticks... which can only be explained as doughy pasta type things that maybe akin to gnocchi... I don't know.  But all I can tell you is that the texture and the flavor is delicious.  And yes, we had these in our soup tonight as well.  They can be found in the freezer section of the asian grocery store near the dumplings.)  Meats(You MUST use thinly cut quality meats should you decide to include them in your hotpot.  If they are not cut thin enough they won't cook fast enough.  In asian groceries, the butcher section will usually sell meats already cut like this... They flash freeze the meats, then slice them on a mechanical slicer, wafer thin so they literally cook in seconds when in contact with heat.  If you have trouble finding pre-sliced meats, you can slice your own, but guess what?  any supermarket butcher department will do it for you as well.  They just don't advertise it.  You'll want to use chicken breasts, rib eye, filet mignon, or pork loin, sliced across the grain.  This is very important... You can also do this with fish, but I don't recommend it because it's tricky to get the right consistancy.  However shrimp works very well. ) Snow Peas (known in some places as chinese peas.  They sort of look like sweet peas, but they are very flat)  Bell Peppers (red are best for their sweetness) Sweet Asian Yam (These are also found in asian grocers. they are not sweet potatoes.  they are more purple than sweet potatoes, and they are not orange inside.  they are cream colored inside.) Broccoli

 

 

 PREPARATION:

Here's the fun part!   This is an eyeball kinda meal so use your discretion with amounts.  Things are quick cooked so you won't be deceived by quantity and size, what you see is what you'll get when it's done.  A handful of this and a handful of that will do just fine, and if you're adding meat, use just enough to flavor your pot.  One chicken breast half worth of slices, one steak's worth of slices is more than enough for a hot pot to feed 4.   If you buy a lot, just plan to have hot pots a few times during the week, and switch up the participating players to make variety.  Tonight, we put everything in our hot pot except for the broccoli.  

Put a large pot of broth (or water with a sheet of dried smoked laver/seaweed)on the stove to boil.  (Depending on how many you will feed.)

While your broth's heating up,  you want to prep all of your ingredients.

As you cut these items, place them in separate prep bowls. 

Cut carrot in this manner, on the diagonal, cut one 1/2 inch slice off the end of the carrot.  Turn it 1/4 turn and repeat with a diagonal 1/2 inch cut.  Turn again 1/4 turn and so on...

Cut 2 green onions Remove the root end and the soft parts of the green end, and then cut green onions into thirds.  Then lengthwise cut these thirds into thin slivers.

Roll Bok Choy or other greens and cut into inch wide course shreds.

Slice mushrooms then cut in the opposite direction to make little strips.

Cut Snow Peas into thin slivers similar to the green onions.

Cut the Bell Pepper into thin strips.

Peel the yam then with the peeler, slice the yam into thin sliver strips. 

Cut broccoli into thin slices (about 1/4 inch thick)

If you're using meat, stack the thinly sliced meat and cut into strips 1/2 inch wide.

Now your pot of water should be boiling.

Add carrots to your boiling pot.

Wait 2 minutes.

Add broccoli if you're using it.

Add mushrooms.

Add yams.

Add shrimp if you're using it.

Add bell pepper.

Add bok choy.

Add noodles.

Add meat if you're using it.

Add dumplings, soy bean sprouts, rice cake slices, and snow peas.

Boil 1 minute ONLY and remove from heat and put a lid on for at least 2 minutes before serving.

To serve,

Put some noodles from your pot in the bottom of a soup bowl.

Ladle broth, and veggies over the noodles.

Pile a couple of dumplings, rice cake slices and meat on top of that.

Take a pinch of raw green onion slivers and pile on top of that.

Add a small dollop (size of a dime for the faint of heart, a bit more for heat lovers) of Gochujang like a cherry on top.

And dinner is served!!!!  Your grateful eaters will need both chopsticks and a tablespoon if they are to get every last drop.  Right before they eat this they swish it around to mix in the fresh green onions, and the gochujang so that it colors the broth. 

You'll need nothing more than a tall glass of iced green tea and a napkin for slurping noodles!!!


a list of korean grocers in the US



ONLINE ASIAN GROCERS:
www.koamart.com
www.hmart.com
www.asianfoodgrocer.com

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