Adventures with Mochi: the recipe

[Guest guest]

Today DH and I went to not one but THREE international markets.

First, a korean grocer in Sunnyvale, then, an Indian market in

Mountain View, and then finally the Mountain View Market (mostly

Chinese, but some japanese, korean and mexican foods as well).

While at the korean grocer I found some of those lovely small, thin

oval shaped mochi- they had a fairly large bag of white rice mochi

for only $1.50- what a deal!!! Of course I had to bring some home. I

should have bought kimchi there as well... but I restrained myself,

unfortunately. I did buy a fresh mochi stuffed with sweet bean paste

and rolled in sesame seeds, mmm. Anyway, here is the recipe I

adapted both to suit my tastes and to try the mochi in a real korean

recipe. (later i will try it in american/ fusion recipes)

I found this recipe online from the site:

http://www.geocities.com/ypmljulia/

and heavily adapted it both to suit my tastes and my cupboard.

I highly recommend the site if you are interested in Korean cooking-

it is written by a woman who lived in Korea until she was 20,

married a Japanese man and now lives in America. Very interesting

and helpful site with great looking recipes. But beware the

incredible spiciness of her original recipes- you may want to adapt

accordingly. (this one has been adapted by me)

Kimchi Stew with Tuna (Kimchi Chamchi Chigae)-

She notes that, of the two kinds of korean soups, Kook and Chigae,

Kook has more water and Chigae has less water; Kook tastes mild, and

Chigae tastes strong. Fascinating!

Ingredients:

Cooking Example

1 to 2 cups of well fermented kimchi (Read label carefully to find

one gluten free or make your own), 1 can of tuna, 2 green onions

(slim, or 1 if very large), 1Tbs of chopped garlic, 1 Tbs of sesame

oil (flavorful japanese or korean variety), 1 Tbs of fish sauce (Any

kind of fish sauce from an Asian market.), 10-20 small korean oval

mochi chips (the more the merrier, i loved this ingredient- not in

her original recipe so probably not traditional in any way)

Seasoning 1 Tbs of ground red pepper (original recipe called for 3

tbsp- I used 1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper and 1/2 tbsp paprika and it was

still hot, not too hot for me but probably too hot for my sensitive

DH), 1 tsp of chopped garlic, ½ tsp of chopped ginger (See if you

can find prepared bottles of this stuff at a korean market- it's

awesome for flavor and time saving!!!)

Directions:

Cut kimchi into desirable size.(about 2 inch length)

Cut green onion into 2-3 inch length pieces.

Open tuna can and drain oil (or water) well.

Mix ground red pepper, chopped garlic, chopped ginger to make

seasoning.

In a pot, stir kimchi, seasoning, chopped garlic, sesame seed oil,

and tuna over high heat for about five minutes.

Pour 1 1/2 cups of water over it and boil. When in starts to boil,

add fish sauce and boil over medium heat for 15 minutes. Add white

rice mochi chips and boil for 5 more minutes (or follow instructions

on package for length of heating)- they should become soft and

tender, like dumplings. Add green onion before turn off the heat.

I served this with white sushi rice sprinkled with furikake, a black

sesame seed/salt garnish, and a simple blanched spinach in a tamari,

sesame oil, garlic powder sauce- sprinkled with sesame seeds. You

can see it here, if you're wondering what the final product looked

like:

http://www.goodkittens.com/seamistress/uw/koreanyum.JPG

I enjoyed this meal SO much! DH made his own meal, which is probably

good because I do think it would be too spicy for him. But, I feel a

korean food kick coming on. Fun stuff.