All posts tagged ginger

By Jessica | August 6, 2009 | Guest Post, Main Courses, Other People's Recipes | 2 Comments

Hey yall, got another guest post for ya – I told you I have more friends than just B. I asked this dude for a write-up just to trick him into cooking his famous grilled shteck and bacony-vinegary potato salad for my fat ass. I had it once at his joint and it was slammin - had to try to get that shit in my mouth one more time. So don’t be skerd: read it, comment on it, share it, and take your hands outside your pants long enough to cook it. (Also, peep the mo photos but dont get used to that shit – I am way too lazy and hungry to snap and share that many.)

Grilled Flank Steak in Teriyaki Sauce

By Jessica | March 11, 2009 | Main Courses, Recipes, Snackin, Salads and Apps | 2 Comments

We are back with Course 2 of The Dinner Party Report. I knew you would come back. I so had you at spatula.

So, dudes. Want to make something cheap and tasty that makes your belly happy? Make this. Forserz, make. this. This beef recipe goes particularly well with the kimchi rice because the beef is kinda sweet and the rice is kinda spicy with a touch of bitter. Together, it is a symphony of tasteful beauty, all dripply with egg yolk and yum.

Course 2: Korean Braised Beef over Kimchi Rice with Fried Egg

2 lbs of beef, cut in chunks for stew
1 c flour
3 tbs veg or canola oil
3 tbs of rice vinegar

Braising Liquid:
4 scallions, sliced, separate the green from the white, reserve the green for garnish
1c soy sauce
1/4 rice vinegar
2 tbs sesame oil
2 tbs red pepper flakes
2 inches of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tbs black pepper
1 tbs sesame seeds
3 cups of water

In a heavy cast iron pot or dutch oven, add your oil and heat. While waiting, add your flour and beef to a plastic baggie. Shake the shit out of it chris brown style. With a tong, grab each chunk, shake the excess flour and place in the hot oil. Brown. Do not over crowd your pot. Also, don’t be afraid to add more oil if it gets all used up. Just remember that if you add it, you have to make sure it gets hot before you add more meat. Brown your biff until its all browned up.

To prepare your braising liquid, add all the ingredients except for the water into a bowl and mix well. At this point, your pot should be all caked with burnt up beafy goodness. With the heat on, take your 3 tbs of vinegar and poor over this gold. Using a wooden spoon, scrape the shit out of your pot and mind the gold. These delicious flavor crystals will add mo pushing to the gooshin.

Add your braising liquid and let it heat up. Add your biff. Add water until it covers the meat. Stir. Let bring to a boil uncovered. When boiling, cover and reduce heat to as low as a flame as you can possibly dare. Let this shit cook for 2, 3, 4 hours? Till the shits falling apart on your tongue. Eat over the kimchi rice below, garnished with the reserved sliced greens of the scallion. Taste the rainbow.

Kimchi Rice with Fried Egg

For this recipe, you gots to get you some traditional kimchi. And don’t try to make mines for this. Mines is dope and delicious and my mouth is watering as I type these very words, but you need yourself some real, fermented cabbage. Go. If you are in NYC, I found some in k-town on 29th-ish and 5th ave. You can also get it at great wall super market. And I bet some trendy shit store like whole foods has it as well.

2 c of kimchi (packed well)
veg or canola oil for frying
1 inch of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
6 c cooked rice
sirachi for taste

Take your store bought kimchi and dice. Make sure to squeeze the liquid before taking out of the container because you are going to want to pour that over the rice later and don’t want it all dripping up on the board. You are looking for a good chop here.

Using a wok or a big ass frying pan, heat your oil and throw in your ginger. After 2 minutes, throw in the kimchi. After 4 minutes, fold in your rice. Make it hot. Put some hot sauce on it if you want. Pour the extra kimchi juice over it to make it moist. For the best part: fry some eggs, keep the yolk. Put it on top. Eat with the braised beef. You can also do a poached egg if you like that better.

Check Course 1 here.

By Jessica | March 10, 2009 | Main Courses, Recipes | No comments

B and I had a gang over for din recently and thought we would bring a little korean into their lives. As per usual, I went overboard. Instead of sticking with a simple one-pot plan so that I could be chillin with the guests, I insisted on a 3-course, cook-then-serve meal. I mean, cookin is my thing, so it’s aite, but it’s not like I don’t get a bit frazzled when workin 4 burners, especially when I need 6. But you know what? I’m a lucky ho cause just as in real life, when I freak and sweat and nerve up in the kitchen, B is always there to step in and spank me with a spatula until I’ve calmed down. So this post is dedicated to my man with the wok. Always there to whip my cream just when it’s just about to curdle.

(Why am I so carrie fucking bradshaw right now?! Please, someone, make me leave my cheating husband, matthew broderick.)

Anywho, since there is so much food to talk about, this post is coming in 3 parts. (Lucky post.)

Course 1: Sesame Encrusted Salmon over Ginger Udon Noodles

2 salmon fillets
1/4 c. sesame seeds, white, black or a mix
olive oil for fryin
udon noodles for 2
an inch of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1/4 soy sauce (adjusted for taste)
2 tbs of sesame oil (adjusted for taste)
2 stalks of scallion, sliced

Add udon to boiling water. When cooked al dente, drain and put back in the pot. Immediately add the ginger, soy and sesame oil and toss.

While the udon is cooking, slap sesame seeds onto the skin side and opposite side of the salmon. Add olive oil to a frying pan. When hot, add the fillets, skin side down first. Sear for 4 minutes. Flip over and cook until desired doneness.

Put the noodles in a bowl. Put the salmon on the noodles. Put the scallion on the salmon. Put the lime in the coconut. Drink it all up.

Course 2 and Course 3 coming soon, bitches. Love ya!

By Jessica | December 12, 2008 | Main Courses, Recipes | 2 Comments

What makes your mouth water? For some it’s pickles, for others it’s burgers. For me it’s both those things AND spicy noodle soup. Either of these three items would cause me to do a diddy if I could eat them all day long without getting to be a total fat ass.

When I found out how easy it is to enhance the 10 cent ramen from your college days, I made it at least once a week. I have now ventured into making it from a soup base with fresh(ish) noodles. Next will be homemade stock. Watch out David Chang, I’m either going to eventually out-ramen your ass, or maybe just come to your restaurant. But you’ll have to roll me out. There!

Anyway, here is a recipe for deliciousness. If you have never cooked anything before, you should start with this.

Ramen with Roast Pork, Mushroom and Poached Egg

1.5 c of ramen soup base (find this in the Spanish/Chinese section of your grocery)
5 c of water
2 inches of fresh ginger, very thinly sliced
one jalapeno, very thinly sliced
8 fresh shitake mushrooms
1 tbs of butter
1 cup of cooked roast pork
3 scallions, sliced
1 egg
your favorite asian noodle: udon, ramen, rice, up to you
kimchi for garnish
sirachi for extra fire mouth
This serves two.

Bring a big pot of water to boil for your noodles. You will also be using this boiling water for poaching the egg but more on that later.

I would really recommend you pause in your sheffin and go buy a mandolin right now. The mandolin has become the love of my kitchen life. But, if you are really not going to do that, grab your jalapeno and ginger and slice the shit out of them – you want them really thin. If you slice really thinly, you can get away without peeling the ginger. Combine the soup base and water in a medium sauce pan and add the ginger and jalapeno. Put on a slow to medium heat.

When the water for your noodles starts to boil, add the noodles.

Remove the stems from your mushrooms and slice. In a small sauce pan, add a tablespoon of butter and a bit of olive oil. Saute the mushrooms until soft. Set aside.

As your soup stock is simmering and your noodles are cooking, cut your scallions, heat your pork if it isn’t already, and get out your eggs and kimchi. I make my kimchi myself. It isn’t entirely traditionally but easy as shit. Check it here.

When your scallion is cut, and your pork is warm and your kimchi is no longer cold from from sitting in the fridge, maybe your noodles are ready, depending on the noodle you are working with. You are going to have to judge that for yourself. When they are done, it’s about moving quickly to assemble your bowl.

When the noodles are done, don’t drain – grab them with a tong and put them in the serving bowl. Add the broth to the noodles. Keep the water from the noodles boiling and very gently crack two eggs into the water. While those cook for 2.5 minutes, add the scallion, pork, mushroom, and kimchi to the soup bowl in pretty little clumps. Leave room for the egg. After 2.5 minutes, with a slotted spoon, carefully take each egg out of the water and add to the bowls. You are looking for a solid egg white but a soft yoke. It will be hard to tell but you’ll get better with practice. Swear.

Serve your ramen with sirachi sauce for the freaks and pop a beer cause this one is hot and spicy.

When you are ready to eat, crack your eggs with chop sticks and with each bite, swirl your noodles through the yoke. This will be the best bit of food you ever done had.

By Jessica | November 21, 2008 | Recipes, Snackin, Salads and Apps | 4 Comments

It was a friend’s birthday recently so we decided to give a peck of pickled perfection. The tasty treat was a trifecta of Bob McClures Spicy Dill, Rick’s Pick’s Mean Beans, and JJ’s Homemade Tried and True Super Tested Fire Butt Kimchi (that’s the new name). Check my recipe for the least traditional kimchi you ever done heard of. But, for any of those losers that think they don’t like kimchi, give em my version and they’ll be thanking you for turning their ignance around in a big way.

Kimchi is a typical korean condiment eaten with many a meal. Generally it’s fermented cabbage, pickled with rice vinegar, sirachi, ginger, scallion, and/or garlic. I’ve also had this with daikon or radish instead of the cabbage, maybe it’s called something else, don’t know. All are great. But for mines, I’m not trying to use garlic, and I don’t ferment the cabbage, and I added extra cayenne pepper just to make sure my mouth burns when I eat it.

Oh, AND? I make huge amounts at a time. It’s really cheap to make and lasts forever. Kimchi can be eaten as a snack, condiment, garnish, and depending on spice level, a dare.

1 small white cabbage
rice wine vinegar
fresh ginger, finely diced
1 bunch of scallion, sliced to the top
Sirachi to taste
cayenne pepper to taste, I use about 3 tbs.
the largest size mason jar

Quarter the cabbage with a slice through the stem. Each quarter should have a piece of the center stem which you need to cut out and toss. Proceed to dice the cabbage into big bites. Cut your ginger and scallion. After everything is cut, begin to layer the cabbage with the scallion and the ginger in your large mason jar. Ideally you are looking for an even distribution of the three ingredients cause you won’t be able to stir the shiv once it’s in. Pack your cabbage tight. (pervert) There is more room in there than you think.

Now please forgive me for really inaccurate measurements. It’s hard to give precise measurements for this recipe because everyone is going to have slightly different amounts of liquid depending on how much cabbage you shoved in there, how much of the other ingredients you want, how pickled you want it to be, how spicy you want your ass, etc. You get me? But no worries, you can’t eff this up. Generally mix about 3 cups of vinegar with 1 cup of water and a quarter cup of sirachi. Mix well and pour into the jar. If you need more brine, create another batch with the same ratio. If you want extra spicy kimchi like this sweet baadasssss here, play with the amount of sirachi and/or add cayenne pepper. That’s what I do every time.

This is going to be ready to eat in about a day.

By Jessica | October 10, 2008 | Main Courses, Recipes | No comments

I am foreal sweatin this wok. You should def get one. And now that I’m getting the hang of it, I am woking up something major. Here is my weekly wok tip of the day (huh?): Cook fast and cook hot. Make sure your ingredients are ready to throw in cause when the wok calls, you answer gotdamnit.

Chinese Shrimp Stirfry with Ginger and Brown Rice

1/4 cup of fresh ginger (thin strips)
4 small hot, red peppers, sliced (add more or less depending on your fire mouth)
2 scallions, sliced, keep the bottom half separate from the top half, but you will be using both
1 carrot julienned
1 bunch of baby bok choy (can’t find baby bok choy? 1/2 of a mama), chop the stems, slice the greens and keep each pile separate
1/2 lb of medium-sized shrimp, peeled and de-shitted
1/8 cup of tamari (have I mentioned that tamari is the same as soy?)
2 cups of cooked brown rice
veg or peanut oil for frying
sesame oil for garnish

marinade for the shrimp:
1 tsp of chinese 5 spice
1 tbs of tamari
1 tbs of tomato paste

This serves 2 with 20 minutes of prep (if you’re peeling your own shrimp), and 10 minutes of cooking. (That’s 30 minutes total. der.)

First, prepare your shreemps. Peel and do what you gotta do. Mix the chinese spice, 1 tbs of tamari and tomato paste. Coat the shrimp and let it site while you chop the veg. When you’re all prepped, you’re ready to heat the wok.

Heat your wok, add the veg or peanut oil and heat till it smokes. Add the ginger and stir furiously. 30 seconds later, add the hot peppers (this may make you cough). 30 seconds later, add the whites of the bok choy. Your wok’s heat may have reduced a bit, so make sure it is as hot as it was when you started. When it is, add the carrots. 1 minute later, add the whites of the scallions. Now, add your cooked rice. Make sure your wok is hot, the rice should be crisping in some areas, but because you are stirring like mad, it won’t stick. Add the green of the bok choy and when wilted, create a whole in the middle of the grub and add the shrimp.

Stir the shrimp in the middle while it cooks. As soon as the shrimp is done (about 3 minutes), stir everything together, add the remaining tamari and dish up. Garnish with greens of the scallions and sesame oil. Eat with cold cold beer.