WHOLE WHEAT COFFEE PANCAKES

(Source: tinyfitfabulous, via icookhealthy)

Healthy Snack: Guacamole

Ingredients:

• 2 avocados
• 2 plum tomatoes
• 1/4 or 1/2 spanish or red onion
• 3 chives
• 1 tablespoon of fresh lime or lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons cilantro leaves
• salt, pepper, garlic
• 1 mixing bowl

Preparation:

• mash together the avocado and lime juice
• chop the onion, chives, tomatoes, and garlic
• brown the onion and the chives (if it’s a red onion, simply chop it and toss it in the mixing bowl)
• mix in onion, cilantro, chives, tomatoes, and garlic
• cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the guacamole to prevent oxidation from the air reaching it; refrigerate until ready

12 servings,for 1 serving(59gr):calories 60,total fat 5.0g,saturated fat  0.7g,cholesterol 0mg,sodium 17mg,carbs 4.3g,fiber 2,5g, sugars 1.2g, protein 1g.

(via icookhealthy)

Korean Fried Chicken Wings with Ginger Soy Glaze

(adapted from Cooking Korean Food with Maangchi)

• 2-3 lbs chicken wings (tips discarded, and wings cut at the joints-washed and pat dry)
• 1 cup of Wondra flour
• 1 ts salt
• 1 ts pepper

Soy Ginger Glaze

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup thinly sliced ginger
• 3 tbs soy sauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 2 tbs honey or corn syrup
• 1-2 tbs Korean fermented chile or rooster brand garlic chile or red pepper flakes (adjust according to your tastes)
• optional: 1/4 cup toasted sesame

 

First prep the chicken wings, wash, and pat dry with paper towel. In a mixing bowl, combine about 1 cup of Wondra flour, salt, and pepper. Dredge the chicken wings in the flour mixture to get a fine light coat.

Heat some cooking oil in a deep fryer or a deep frying pan to about 350 degrees. Fry chicken wings, in batches if necessary, about 5 min. Remove, and shake any excess flour/grit off and allow to cool.

 

Now in a small saucepan, add the water, ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, chile, sugar and bring to boil. Then add the honey/corn syrup and reduce by half and it will be a thick maple syrup like consistency and set aside.

Re-fry the wings until crispy golden brown, about another 5-8 minutes. Drain on frying rack or paper towels. Dredge or brush on the soy ginger glaze. We also like to finish with some toasted sesame on top.

Combine chicken with rice wine, pureed ginger, salt and pepper. Let them chill for 30 minutes.
This will not only season the chicken but get rid of unpleasant poultry odor when frying.

Meanwhile, grate the radish. This is the key ingredient in the sauce, so do not skip.

Combine all the sauce ingredients in a pot

Bring the sauce to boil first and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes, uncovered.
It will get thicken eventually.

Strain the sauce through a mesh. Press gently to get all the flavors out.

A beautiful glaze left behind.  It will thicken more as it cools.

Your chicken wings are cold without their coats. So, cover them with some corn starch in a bag.

Shake them, babe!  Shake, shake, shake!

Heat oil to 170ºC. Drop your wings without any mercy.

I like to deep fry them twice for crunchier texture and color. After 1st frying…

And after 2nd frying.
I sent one wing straight to heaven by putting into my mouth right away.
As good as it gets…

But with the sauce… What can I say more?
Brush the sauce all over the wings.

Berry and Buttermilk Ice Pops

(Source: , via icookhealthy)

EASY KIMCHI

Main Ingredients

• 2 Napa Cabbage Heads (about 4 lb each)
• 1 Onion
• 4 Green Onions
• 1 Handful Garlic Chives

Cabbage Brine Ingredients

• 1⅓ Cup Coarse Sea Salt (Sprinkle)
• 20 Cups Water
• 1 Cup Coarse Sea Salt (For Salt Water)

Kimchi Paste Ingredients

• 20 Dried Red Hot Peppers
• ½ Cup Cooked Rice
• About ½ Cup Fish Sauce
• ¼ Cup Water
• ½ Onion
• 14 Garlic Cloves
• 1 Piece Ginger (Unshelled Brazil nut sized, cut into 3 pieces)
• ⅔ Cup Red Pepper Powder
• 2½ Tbsp Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds

Directions

Remove any bad parts from the napa cabbage.

Divide the cabbage into 4 pieces.

Remove the heart from the cabbage. (Now the cabbage has a broken heart. ㅋㅋㅋ)

Cut the remaining cabbage into 2 inch pieces. Cutting the cabbage will reduce the soak time of the cabbage. Plus, it’s easier to mix the cabbage with the kimchi paste.

Put some cabbage into the big bowl and sprinkle 1 handful of coarse sea salt onto the cabbage. In the same way, add another layer of cabbage on it and sprinkle more salt. I used 1⅓ cup of coarse sea salt in this step. Keep adding more layers in this prescribed manner until the supply of cabbage has been exhausted.

In another bowl, pour 20 cups of water and 1 cup of coarse sea salt. Stir it until the salt dissolves.

Evenly pour the salt water into the cabbage bowl. Soak the cabbage in the salt water for 3 hours. Every hour, mix the cabbage (up and down), so all the cabbage can get well salted.

After 3 hours, rinse the cabbage in cold water 3 times.

Drain the water for about 2 hours.

Wash the dried hot peppers once. Remove the stems from the peppers if they are present. Cut them in half with scissors.

To make the kimchi paste: in a mixer, grind 20 dried red hot peppers, ½ cup of cooked rice, about ½ cup of fish sauce, ¼ cup of water, ½ of an onion, 14 garlic cloves, and 3 pieces of ginger. Leave out some of the fish sauce. You can add the remainder later to adjust the saltiness to your tastes. I used a little less than ½ cup of fish sauce for my kimchi.

Cut 1 onion, 4 green onions, and 1 handful of garlic chives as in the picture.

Pour the mixture into the big bowl, and add the rest of the ingredients for the kimchi paste: ⅔ cup of red pepper powder, 2½ Tbsp of sugar, and 1 Tbsp of sesame seeds. In this step, depending on your tastes, you can add some of the left over fish sauce you saved from the grinding mixture. Add the onion, green onion, and the garlic chives into the paste. Mix well.

Add the napa cabbage.

Mix the cabbage with the kimchi paste. Put the kimchi in a glass jar or container. Leave it outside (room temperature) over night, and then put it in the refrigerator. It will take several days to a week until it is properly fermented.

SWEET AND SPICY FRIED CHICKEN/ TONGDAK

Main Ingredients

• 2 lb Chicken (About ½ Chicken)
• ⅛ Cup Milk
• ¼ tsp Salt
• ⅛ tsp Black Pepper
• 1 Pinch Ginger Powder (Optional)

Batter Ingredients

• ¼ Cup Potato Starch or Cornstarch
• ¼ Cup Frying Mix or Flour
• ½ Tbsp Korean Curry Powder
• 2 Pinches Salt
• 2 Pinches Black Pepper

Sauce Ingredients

• ¼ Cup Ketchup
• 3 Tbsp Red Pepper Paste
• 2 Tbsp Corn Syrup
• 1 Tbsp Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Minced Onion
• ½ Tbsp Soy Sauce
• ½ Tbsp Minced Garlic
• ½ Tbsp Cooking Oil
• 1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds

Directions

Combine 2 pounds of chicken, ⅛ cup of milk, ¼ tsp of salt, ⅛ tsp of black pepper, and 1 pinch of ginger powder (optional) in a bowl. Marinate it for about 10 minutes. This step (especially the milk) helps to reduce some of the bad chicken flavor.

If you don’t want to use milk to get rid of bad chicken flavor, here is another way to marinate the chicken; mix the chicken with 1 tsp of minced garlic, ¼ tsp of salt, ⅛ tsp of black pepper, and 1 pinch of ginger powder (optional). Add 2 Tbsp of water or cooking wine for some moisture.

To coat the chicken, mix the following in a big plastic bag: ¼ cup of potato starch or cornstarch, ¼ cup frying mix, ½ Tbsp of Korean curry powder, 2 pinches of salt, and 2 pinches of black pepper. Shake the bag to mix everything together.

Add all of the marinated chicken to the flour mix and shake the bag: so the chicken will be evenly covered with the powder.

Take out the chicken from the bag and set the pieces aside while the oil is heating. You will have some leftover flour mixture in the bag; save it for later. In this step, pour the cooking oil in a deep frying pan and heat it on high.

By the time, the oil becomes hot, the flour coating of the chicken will become soggy.

Coat each piece of chicken again with the remaining flour mixture right before frying them.

Drop a little piece of the flour mixture to the heated oil, if it floats immediately, the oil is hot enough to fry the chicken. Carefully put the chicken into the oil.

Fry the chicken on high for several minutes (8 to 10 minutes) until the pieces become light brown. We will fry them twice, so you don’t have to fry them too long in this step. Take out the chicken, drain the oil, and set the pieces on a kitchen towel.

For the second frying, fry the chicken in hot oil again for several minutes (5 minutes) until they become golden brown. This time, make sure that the chicken is completely cooked. You can take out one piece and cut it in half with a knife to check if it is cooked.

Meanwhile, add all of the sauce ingredients together in a pan, except for the sesame seeds: ¼ cup ketchup, 3 Tbsp red pepper paste, 2 Tbsp corn syrup, 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 Tbsp minced onion, ½ Tbsp soy sauce, ½ Tbsp minced garlic, and ½ Tbsp cooking oil. Cook it on medium. You can use sugar instead of the corn syrup, and you can reduce the amount of red pepper paste if you do not like spicy food.

Once the sauce starts to bubble, cook it for one more minute. The sauce amount is enough for only half of the chicken, so mix in half of the fried chicken into the sauce. Turn off the heat and cover the chicken with the sauce. If you want to season all of the chicken, double the sauce recipe.

Lastly, sprinkle 1 Tbsp of sesame seeds on top and mix.

HOMEMADE STICKY RICE CAKES FOR TTEOKBOKKI/DDEOKBOKKI

Main Ingredients

• 3 Cups Rice Flour
• 1½ Cups Water
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1½ Cups Water + 1 tsp Sesame Oil

Directions

For the steaming process, filled almost half of a pan with water and boil it on high.

Meanwhile, combine 3 cups of rice flour and 1 tsp of salt.

Slowly add 1½ cups of water, stirring it gently.

The rice flour will be crumbly.

Prepare a wet cheesecloth. Place the cheesecloth in a steamer.

Add the rice flour on top of the cheesecloth.

Once the water starts to boil, steam the rice flour for about 20 minutes on high.

In a bowl, add 1½ cups of cold water and 1 tsp of sesame oil. If you don’t like sesame oil, you can use normal cooking oil instead.

After 20 minutes, the rice flour will be cooked.

Wear cotton gloves before placing the plastic gloves over your hands. This will help prevent your hands from becoming burnt. The dough will be hot!

Use a bread machine to knead the dough. I used the pizza dough setting for 25 minutes. It is very important to knead the dough thoroughly for the gluten to fully develop and become sticky, so I do not recommend taking any shortcuts with this step. =P

If you don’t have a bread machine, you can make the sticky rice cakes with 1½ cups of rice flour and 1½ cups of sweet rice flour instead of 3 cups of rice flour. Hand knead the dough for at about 10 minutes. Rice cakes made this way will be inferior to using a machine; hand kneading does not make a good texture for the rice cakes.

When you handle the dough, cover your hands and the board with a little oil and water so that the dough will not stick to things. Take some of the dough and round it. Roll it on a board with your hands until it becomes about half an inch in diameter.

For tteokbokki or tteokggochi, cut it into 2 inch pieces.

For tteokguk tteok, roll the dough into a 1-inch diameter, and leave it at room temperature for one day before you cut it.

If you put some water on your knife, it makes it easier to cut. After waiting one day, slice it diagonally into ¼-inch pieces.