Day 3: Korean BBQ with kimchi and green onion salad

Today was a looong day of full-on korean cooking! Special guest sous chef, Andrea Soto, helped with everything because today's meal was a pretty hectic process. We did Korean BBQ with chicken and a sauce I bought from La Hacienda: Meat Center called Korean BBQ Sauce(creative, huh?). *Later, I will do a homemade marinade for the meat* Korean BBQ is very fun to eat(and kind of messy). You wrap the meat with lettuce and add the sauce or whatever banchan(side dishes) you have. What better banchan than kimchi and green onion salad to go with our lettuce wraps?

Before today, I was definitely not a fan of kimchi. Kimchi is fermented spicy crunchy cabbage made out of veggies and different spices. This is the most common banchan since it's like bread is to us. It's supposed to cure whatever sickness you have and leave you with beautiful skin.

Traditionally, you have to dig a hole in the ground and store the kimchi 'til it's fermented but we boricuas don't have the patience to wait for food to be eaten so we skipped that whole process. After doing my version of emergency kimchi, I'm kinda loving it right now. It gives the perfect contrast between the meat and sesame green onion salad..

Lastly, we did one of my favorite side dishes, green onion salad. It has a very powerful sesame flavor. It's easy to do and you can basically eat it with anything else, not korean related.

Now, Chulbal(Let's start)! RECIPE TIME!

GREEN ONION SALAD

Ingredients:
8 green onions
1/4 cup of water
1 tsp sesame seed
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp salt

 
Directions:

1. Chop green onions in 1" pieces and rinse. After rinsing, add water and salt. Set aside for 10 mins.

2. In the meantime, toast sesame seeds if not toasted. 

NOT Toasted

 

TOASTED

 

3. After toasting, rinse water from onions. In a separate bowl, mix onions with sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top for a finished look!

KIMCHI Time!

Ingredients:
1 napa cabbage
1/4 cup of kosher salt
1 cup of water
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup minced garlic
1 tbsp sugar
1/3 cup of red pepper paste (substitution = red pepper flakes with paprika)
5 green green onion
1/2 cup shredded carrots

Directions:
1. Thinly chop cabbage. Add 1 cup of water and salt. Shake. Mix. Scramble. Do the Wobble Wobble. Every piece of cabbage must be covered with water and salt. Set aside for 10 mins.

2. While the cabbage soaks up all the water, mix in a separate bowl red pepper paste, fish sauce, sugar and sugar. After mixing, add carrots and onions to paste.

3. After 10 mins passed, clean the cabbage 3 times with water. Drain all excess water!

4. After cleaning the cabbage, mix both paste/veggies with cabbage. Mix with your hands(gloves on) for about 5 mins.

5. Assah! Emergency(not fermented) Kimchi is done!

grill kimchi for a milder taste

KOREAN BBQ: Marinated Chicken

Ingredients:
2 lbs of chicken(any other meat is fine)
1/4 cup of korean bbq sauce

Directions:
1. Cut meat in about 1" pieces. In a large plastic bag, mix korean bbq sauce and chicken. Shake. Mix. Scramble. Do the Wobble Wobble.  Leave marinating for 4 to 8 hrs. The longer the better.

2. After 4 hrs, grill meat in about 400 degrees.

 add veggies if you want

3.  After meat is cooked, it's LETTUCE WRAP TIME!

GO TIME! Jalmukesumnida!

This meal is delicious, light, and healthy. You have the spicy from the kimchi, sweet and spicy from the chicken marinade, and sesame flavor with the onions. All wrapped in lettuce! I'd say it was a very successful korean cooking day!