Making Doenjjang Jiggae (Korean Soybean Paste Soup) Workshop

So I attended yet another Korean cooking class this week, and this time, we made yummy Doenjjang Jiggae. This is my first time making it, or even eating it, and I almost mistook it for Kimchi Jiggae at first glance.

For the soup base, you would need a huge handful of anchovies and some dried kelp.


A large tablespoon of Korean chilli paste and Korean soybean paste, and a tablespoon of chopped garlic, or to taste. Some prefer a more spicy and salty soup.


When the soup starts to boil, add in your potato squares (you can quarter them if you like, but you need to let them cook for a longer time till they're soft), chopped onions, and clams. When they're halfway done, add in the chopped zucchini pieces.


When the potatoes are almost done, add in the tofu (the harder variety so they won't fall apart that easily when cooking), prawns, mushrooms, red and green chillies, and finally the spring onions. Cook for a further 3-4 minutes.



And you're done!


Here's the receipe from Nicky Kim. She conducts private classes too, or you could gather some of your friends for a group lesson. Happy cooking!

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Making Korean Bibimbap Workshop

I attended the Bibimbap-making workshop the previous week. I have not tasted bibimbap before this, since I've always seen it served with a raw egg and I do not eat raw food. The instructor, Nicky Kim, has her own private cooking school and if you do have an interest in Korean cooking, I'd say she is a rather good teacher.

These are the ingredients needed to make Bibimbap for one:

* 1 cup cooked rice
* 50g bean sprouts
* handful of pea sprouts (dou miao)
* 4 shitake mushrooms, sliced
* 1/3 carrot (30g), finely sliced
* 1 egg
* a bit of salt
* cooking oil

for the chilli sauce:

* 1 tbsp Korean chilli paste
* 1/2 clove minced garlic
* a pinch of sugar
* 1/4 tsp water
* 1/4 tsp cooking wine (optional)
* a few drops of sesame oil
* a pinch of sesame seeds

Method:

1. Mix ingredients for chilli sauce and set aside.

2. Heat some cooking oil and saute the bean sprouts with salt till softened.

3. Repeat step 2 for the shitake mushrooms and pea sprouts.

4. Cook the egg sunny side up.


Serving:

Dish the cooked rice into a bowl. Arrange the carrots, bean sprouts, mushrooms and pea sprouts in a circle on top of the rice. Place the egg in the middle, on top of the vegetables. Serve with chilli sauce which is to be mixed well with the rice before eating.

As we were rushed for time, I did not bother to arrange the vegetables in a neat circle.

Mixed and ready to eat. The chilli sauce wasn't as spicy as I would have liked, but the bibimbap was nicely sweet and savoury!

Korean Food - Tteokbokki (떡볶이) Making Workshop (辣炒年糕作坊)

Making sweet and spicy Tekobokki is a no-brainer. Anyone can do it, really.

Ingredients:
Korean Rice Cakes
Korean Fishcake
Cabbage
Onion
Garlic
Koran Chilli Paste
Chilli Flakes
Soya Sauce
Sugar

Korean Rice Cakes can be gotten from the frozen section of any Seoul Mart. The one I used came in the packaging as shown below. These are already pre-cooked.

Whilst at Seoul Mart, you could also get some Korean fishcake. These look like flattened pieces of tau pok. The rest of the ingredients can easily be found at any regular supermarket.

1) Pour the rice cakes into a bowl of water to defrost them.

2) Fill a saucepan with 500ml of water. Turn on the heat. Add in a tablespoon each of the paste, chilli flakes, soya sauce and sugar. Mix well. If you'd like it to be extra spicy, you can add more chilli flakes.

3) Add the defrosted rice cakes, fishcake, chopped cabbage, sliced onions and chopped garlic.

4) Keep stirring until the sauce thickens to a sticky paste, the cabbage is cooked, and the rice cakes are springy, not hard.

And you're done!

You can keep it in a container in the fridge to be eaten on it's own or fry with meat or seafood.

Chinese Ink Painting Class Lesson 9: Lotus

After missing two lessons, I was happy about this lotus painting class. Very minimal brushwork as the lotus leaves were created using crushed paper dipped in water and black ink and the edges smoothened with a brush.

Chinese Ink Painting Class Lesson 5: Roses, Orchids and Butterflies

Painting roses and orchids this week.

Chinese Ink Painting Class Lesson 4: Roses & Butterflies

We're still painting flowers.
This time it's roses, which is supposed to be easier than chrysanthemums, and I agree.

Roses: Carmine
Leaves: Black ink, a little Phtalocynine blue/ Indigo.

The trick to getting the roses right is to make sure each layer wraps round the previous one in a more or less traiangular pattern.

Chinese Ink Painting Class Lesson 3: Chrysanthemums & Butterflies

Since some of you might want to know more about the place, here's how the building looks like.


A standard classroom.


There are about 10 students per class.

Paper is provided FOC, and although it is a poorer quality paper meant for calligraphy, it works just fine for practice. Watercolors are standard Marie's brand for students.

Today we learnt how to paint a different type of chrysanthemum.
And butterflies too.

Teacher explaining how the composition of the leaves should be like.

Colors used
* Chrysanthemum flowers
Phtalocyanine Blue (tai qing lan) + Carmine Lake (zhu hong)
* Stem and leaves
Black ink
* Big butterfly
Green label three (san lu), Gamboge (teng huang), a little Carmine
* Small butterfly
Gamboge

Chinese Ink Painting Class Lesson 2: Chrysanthemums

Today had us painting chrysanthemums.
I took a few videos but until I figure out how to select frames in order to avoid showing anybody's face, I will just put this up.


Flowers and stem drawn with black ink.
Leaves drawn with a mixture of black ink and Hua Qing.
Flower heads colored with yellow and a hint of Zhu Hong.

Chinese Ink Painting Class Lesson 1: Hen and Rooster

I was searching high and low for a place that conducts chinese ink painting classes, especially the community centres, but none fell on a wednesday evening when the boy has golf and I'd be alone. However, last Friday I found a class that is on Sundays, when the boy has golf too. I chose the latter session which was at 1.45pm so that the boy could have lunch with his friends, go home for a shower, then come fetch me for a day out.

It was held in a very old building. I had a hard time finding it and was 10 mins late for class. Fortunately, the teacher arrived even later, which meant that I did not miss anything. His teaching method is to pin a photocopy of a painting on the whiteboard, and demonstrate on a blank piece of paper pinned beside the photocopy.

Today we drew my most hated subject, the hen and rooster :(
I wanna draw flowers!!!

My weakness:
Proportion (Can never get the legs right. They're always too big, or it doesn't look like the hen is standing).