Tangsuyuk is a Chinese dish which is very popular in Korea.
When I was young, this dish was always my number one choice at a Chinese restaurant. When I passed my middle school exam, my father took me and all my family members and some of his friends to celebrate it. He asked, “What would you like to eat, my smart girl? I would buy whatever you want!” I answered before he finished his sentence, “Tangsuyuk! And jjajangmyeon!” It’s very crispy fried meat in a jelly sauce and colorful vegetables, overflowing a huge plate.
I sometimes order Tangsuyuk at either a Korean restaurant or Chinese restaurant. It’s known as “sweet and sour pork” (or beef), but my satisfaction with the dish always is different.
There are 2 important factors to make this dish stand out: the crispiness of the meat and the taste of the sauce. I’m releasing a few priceless tips to all of you now!
4-6 servings Ingredients:
600 grams (1.3 Lb) of beef, starch powder (2 cups and 2 tbs), vegetable oil, egg, Turbinado sugar 1 cup (brown or white sugar is ok too), salt, ground black pepper, 3 tbs vinegar, apple, pineapple, 5-7 wood ear mushrooms, onion, cucumber, carrot, and water
Soak ¼ cup of dried wood ear mushrooms in warm water (about 5-7 mushrooms) for a few hours.
To make the coating batter, mix 2 cups of starch powder (either corn starch or potato starch) with water (about 3 cups) and let it sit for a few hours until the starch sinks in the bowl. Then remove the water by pouring it into the sink. *tip: after draining the water, the starch will be solid and stiff.
Cut beef into thin strips (5 cm long, 1 cm thick, 1 cm wide) and put it in a bowl.
Add ½ ts salt and ½ ts ground black pepper to the beef and mix it well with your hand. Set it aside.
Add the beef strips to the starch, and 1 egg white (or yolk) and mix it well with your hand.
Heat vegetable oil in your wok and fry the beef strips for about 5 minutes until they look golden brown and crispy. It’s very important to coat the beef strips with as much starch batter as you can. Try to use all of it. Then put the fried crispy beef strips into a strainer. *tip: the beef strips should feel crispy through your tongs as you handle them
Next, let’s make delicious sauce!
Slice ¼ medium size onion.
Slice 1 or 2 apples (you can replace apples with plums).
Slice carrot and cucumber thinly (several slices are needed).
Drain the soaked wood ear mushrooms and cut them into bite sized bits.
Cut some pineapple into chunks.
Put 1/2 tbs of vegetable oil on a heated pan. Add the sliced onion and stir it up.
Add wood ear mushrooms, sliced carrot to the pan. Stir it for 1 minute.
Pour 2 cups of water into the pan and boil it.
When the sauce boils, add 1 ts salt, 1 ts soy sauce, 1 cup brown sugar and stir it well.
Add 3-4 tbs vinegar and water starch (mixture of 2 tbs starch and 2 tbs water).
Add pineapple chunks and sliced cucumber to the pan.
Your sauce will look like light jelly but it will also be sizzling. Be sure to put a few drops of sesame oil in at the last minute!
Now you made your fried beef strips and sauce! If you’re waiting for your family or guests, just take a break and do the next steps just before serving.
Ok, it’s time for you to serve it now?
Reheat the oil and fry the beef strips again, until each strip becomes very crispy.
Put the fried beef on a large platter
Reheat the sauce for a minute and pour it on top of the beef strips.
Serve it hot with dipping sauce (mix 2 tbs soy sauce and 1 tbs vinegar)
Many people think the Korean word hobak (호박) means pumpkin, but it actually means squash. A pumpkin is really a kind of squash. So in Korea, we make this recipe with pumpkins. But here in the West I can’t easily find the kind of pumpkin Koreans use for hobakjuk. So I learned to make it out of butternut squash, which is available everywhere here.
The recipe for Hobakjuk needs only a few ingredients. But making the small rice cake balls takes some time. I recommend you make the rice cake balls with your family members or friends together. Whenever I make this porridge, I remember my grandmother and my family members. We all made the rice cake balls together. I miss them and all of us who had a great time while making the rice cake balls!
Wash the exterior of the butternut squashes in cold water.
Cut the squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds and stringy stuff with a spoon.
Place the butternut squash in a large pot. Pour 3 cups of water over them and bring to a boil over medium high heat for 30 minutes, until the contents become soft.
Turn off the heat and let it cool down.
When it’s cooled down, scrape the cooked insides out with a spoon.
Place 3 cups of the cooked squash insides into a large pot and add 4 or 5 cups of water and boil
Make rice cake balls:
Boil some water.
Make rice cake dough by mixing 2 cups of sweet rice flour, ¼ ts salt, and ¾ cup of hot water. Mix it up with a wooden spoon at first, and then knead it for a few minutes with your hand after it cools down.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and set it aside for about 20-30 minutes.
Put about 3 tbs of sweet rice flour into a large bowl (this will prevent the rice cake balls from sticking together).
Take a bit of dough and roll a rice cake ball (the size should be a little larger than soy bean). Put it into the bowl with the sweet rice flour. *tip: to prevent the dough from getting dried out, always wrap the dough in plastic wrap while you are making the rice cake balls
Let’s make porridge!
When the mixture of squash and water starts boiling, add the rice cake balls to the pot. Stir it with a wooden spoon and cook it for a few more minutes. *tip: when it’s cooked, all the rice cake balls will be floating on the surface of the porridge.
Turn off the heat and add 1 ts salt and ¼ cup of sugar and stir it for a few seconds before serving.
Songpyeon is a Korean traditional rice cake to eat on Chuseok, which is celebration of the year’s good harvest. Traditionally it’s made with the rice of the first harvest of the year. Chuseok is August 15 by the lunar calendar, which is usually in the middle of September by the solar calendar. This year it’s September 14th.
Prepare a package of rice powder (2 lbs) usually sold frozen at a Korean grocery store. Just before using it, you must thaw it until the powder is at room temperature.
Put rice powder through a sifter to make the powder fine. Tip: If your rice powder is very fine, you can skip sifting. If your rice powder is coarse, you may have to grind it with a food processor or coffee grinder before sifting.
Prepare 3 stainless bowls and put 1 cup of finely sifted rice powder into the each bowl. (Bowl A, B, and C)
Boil 2 cups of water for your rice dough.
Bowl A (white songpyeon): add a pinch of salt and 3 tbs of boiling water and mix it with a wooden spoon. (it’ll be too hot if you use your hands at first) Knead the rice dough for about 5 minutes. Put the dough into a plastic bag and set it aside.
Bowl B (pink songpyeon): add a pinch of salt, a pinch of strawberry Jell-o powder, and 3 tbs of boiling water. Mix it with a wooden spoon and knead the rice dough for about 5 minutes. Put the dough into a plastic bag and set it aside.
Bowl C (green songpyeon): add a pinch of salt, 1 ts of ssookgaru (mugwort power) and 3.5 tbs boiling water. Mix it with a wooden spoon and knead the rice dough for about 5 minutes. Put the dough into a plastic bag and set it aside. Tip: You will need to add 3.5 tbs of water because of the 1 ts of ssookgaru.
Make the filling:
Roasted sesame seeds powder filling:
Grind ¼ cup of roasted sesame seeds using a coffee grinder for 15-20 seconds.
Transfer the ground sesame powder into a small bowl and mix it with ¼ cup of brown sugar and a pinch of salt. Tip: if you grind too long, the powder will become sticky from the oil in the seeds.
Mung bean powder filling:
Wash and drain ¼ cup of dried and skinned mung beans and put them in a pot with a thick bottom.
Add ¼ cup of water and a pinch of salt to the pot and simmer it for 30 minutes. Tip: Be sure not to burn it - simmer over the lowest heat.
Open the pot and use your wooden spoon to crush the beans into fine powder. Tip: if you make more than ¼ cup of mung bean powder, you may have to use your grinder or food processor to grind it finely.
Transfer the crushed mung bean powder into a small bowl or container and wait until it cools down.
Add ¼ cup of white sugar and mix it. That’s it!
Let’s make songpyeon now!
Break off a piece of rice dough about 1 inch in diameter and roll it between your palms to make a rice ball. Then press your thumb in the center of the ball to make it shaped like a cup.
Fill the cup with either sesame filling or mung bean filling using a small spoon, and seal it using your thumb and index fingers.
Place all the raw rice cakes (songpyeon) on a plate.
Wash your pine needles thoroughly with a little dish soap. Towel dry them.
Put some water (4 cups) into a steamer and boil it. When it starts boiling, place a damp cotton cloth on the bottom of the steamer tray.
Make a bed of pine needles on the wet cloth and put the raw songpyeon on top. Put more pine needles on top of the songpyeon, too. Tip: Pine needles stop the songpyeon from sticking together and give them a good flavor.
Steam it for 25 minutes over medium high heat.
Prepare some cold water in a large bowl, and drop in a little sesame oil.
Dump your steamed songpyeon into to the cold water and quickly remove pine needles. Take them out, put them on a plate to serve.
Place 1 cup of ground pork and 2 cups of ground beef into a big bowl.
Add 1 ts of salt, 1 tbs of sesame oil, ½ ts of ground pepper and mix it by hand and push the mixture of meat on the side of the bowl.
Wash asian chives (bu chu), dry well with paper towel or cotton cloth and then chop them to make 2 cups. Add 1 tbs of oil and mix it up. Place it in the big bowl next to the ground meat. tip: oil will coat vegetables so that liquid would not come out from it
Chop 4-5 soaked shiitake mushrooms and half an onion and put it into a small bowl.
Add 1 ts of soy sauce, 1 ts of sugar, and 2 ts of sesame oil the small bowl in the last step. Mix it by hand and then transfer it to the big bowl.
Squeeze half a package of tofu using cotton cloth or paper towel and put it into a small bowl. Then add a pinch of salt, 1 ts of sesame oil and mix it and put it next to chopped chives.
In the big bowl, add 3 cloves of minced garlic and mix all ingredients by hand.
Make Mandu:
For fried mandu:
Place one mandu skin on your left hand and put some filling mixture on the center of the skin.
On the half of the edge of the skin, put a little cold water with your fingertips.
Fold skin in half over filling and press edges together to make ripple shape.
Place some vegetable oil on heated pan and add mandu.
Lower the heat over low medium and cover the lid of the pan to cook.
A few minutes later, open the lid and turn over each mandu. Place 2-3 tbs of water and cover the lid. Cook a few minutes more over low heat.
When the mandu is golden brown, transfer it to a plate.
Serve hot with dipping sauce (equal parts vinegar and soy sauce).
For mandu soup:
In a pot, place 6 cups of water, 8 dried anchovies, the leftover shiitake mushroom stems, left over onion and boil it all over medium heat for 20-30 minutes. If water evaporates, you can add more water.
When the stock is well made, remove the anchovies and onion.
Add 1 ts of fish sauce, 2 cloves of minced garlic and your mandu and cover the lid. (you can add more salt if you want)
When mandu cooks properly, it floats to the surface.
Add 1 beaten egg, 2 sliced green onions: Done!
Serve hot with a bowl of kimchi. (ground pepper is optional)
Peel the ginger skin, wash it, and slice it to make half cup.
Place the ½ cup of sliced ginger into a pot or kettle.
Rinse 5-6 cinnamon sticks and put them into the pot.
Add 7 to 7½ cups of water and boil for 20 minutes over high heat.
Lower the heat to medium and boil it for another 25 minutes. If it boils over, take off the lid.
Add 1 cup of sugar. Stir it and cool it down.
Remove the stem of each persimmon and wash them.
Remove the cinnamon sticks and sliced ginger from the tea using a colander.
Pour it into a glass jar or glass bowl and add the cleaned dried persimmons.
Cover the lid and keep it in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours. It will keep for a couple of days.
Serve cold with ice cubes. Use a ladle to give each person a small bowl of punch. Each serving should have one persimmon in it with a few pine nuts sprinkled on top.
Dak kang jung is another popular Korean traditional dish and is usually made with chunks of chicken from a whole chicken. I am using chicken wings for the same recipe.
Each piece of chicken wing is coated with sweet and crispy sauce. Of the ingredients, thinly sliced ginger will turn into something like candy which has not only its own special chewy taste but also influences the whole flavor of chicken. Peanuts turn it into an amazingly crispy snack!
Ingredients:
40 pieces of chicken wings, salt, flour, starch powder, eggs, ground pepper, vegetable oil, ginger, soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, peanuts, sesame seeds, dried and crushed red hot chili pepper. Bread and Deep fry:
Prepare 40 chicken wings or chunks of chicken, rinse them off in cold water and drain them.
Transfer the chicken into a big bowl.
Add 2 ts of salt, 1 ts of ground pepper, 2 eggs, and the mixture of ½ cup of flour and ½ cup of starch powder. Mix it by hand.
Deep fry the chicken wings in vegetable oil 2 times at about 350-380 degrees (F).
Sauce for coating:
Prepare a big wok or pan.
Place 1 cup of water in the wok and heat it up.
Slice 1 cup of ginger thinly after peeling the skin off and washing, and add it into the boiling water.
Add 2 tbs of soy sauce, 1 cup of brown sugar, ¼ cup of vinegar and boil it over medium heat.
5 minutes after, add 1 cup of corn syrup and keep boiling over low medium heat about 30 minutes.
Raise a spoon of the sizzling sauce above the wok in the air and drop it until the sauce begins stopping halfway. Then turn off the stove.
Mix it up:
Reheat the sauce.
Add the deep fried chicken, 1 cup of peanuts (or any kind of nuts), 1/2 tbs dried red hot chili pepper, and ½ cup of toasted sesame seeds into the sizzling sauce and mix it with a spatula. The amount of sticky sauce will decrease while you are stirring. Then turn off the heat and you are done!
Tip: Before the chicken cools down, you may have to separate each piece of chicken wings to prevent them from sticking to each other.
For spicy food lover:
You can sprinkle 2 tbs of dried and crushed red chili pepper instead of 1/2 tbs.
For vegetarians:
Just make the sauce following the recipe above, and then add whatever dried ingredients you like and make candy! You can use sliced ginger, nuts (almond, walnuts, pine nuts, and peanuts), or sesame seeds.
Place plastic wrap on your cuttingboard
After mixing all the dried ingredients with the sticky sauce, spread it on the plastic wrapper on your cuttingboard. Wait a few minutes for it to harden.
Here is the recipe for how to make red bean paste.
In a pot, place 1 cup of washed red beans and 4 cups of water and heat it over high heat for 10 minutes.
Lower the heat to low medium and simmer for 50 minutes.
Check if the beans are cooked fully. Remove extra water from the beans and crush them with a wooden spoon or use your food processor to grind it.
Add 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 ts of salt, 1 ts of cinnamon powder into the red bean paste and set it aside.
Put the red bean paste in a pot.
Pour some water (about 4- 5 cups) and 1 cup of sugar (depends on your taste) and boil it.
Mix one cup of sweet rice powder, a pinch of salt and 1 tbs of sugar in a bowl.
Add 1/2 cup-1 cup of hot water in “3″ and mix it with a spoon first and fold it by hand to make dough. (The amount of hot water varies depending on the dryness of sweet rice powder you use, so first use 1/2 cup of hot water to make your dough and put more hot water while kneading the dough)
Make small rice balls with the dough about 0.5 cm diameter.
When the red bean soup boils, add the rice balls and cook it.
Keep stirring the soup and it will get thicker.
Ladle the soup into a bowl and add a few pine nuts on top and sprinkle some cinnamon powder and serve it.
Rice cake is very familiar food for Koreans. Whenever special occasions come, the first thing my mother and grand mother planned was to make rice cake. However these days people are more likely buying rice cake rather than making their own. I am going to make gyung dan, rice cake balls and show you it can be a good gift.
In a pot, place 1 cup of washed red beans and 4 cups of water and heat it over high heat for 10 minutes.
Lower the heat to low medium and simmer for 50 minutes.
Check if the beans are cooked fully. Remove extra water from the beans and crush them with a wooden spoon.
Add 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 ts of salt, 1 ts of cinnamon powder into the red bean paste and set it aside.
Step 2:
Prepare 3 bowls where 3 different kinds of powder will be placed for the rice cake balls
Black sesame seeds:
Rinse and drain ½ cup of black sesame seeds in running water using a strainer.
Heat a pan over medium heat and pour in the sesame seeds.
Cook the sesame seeds by stirring with a wooden spoon.
The sesame seeds will pop, then lower the heat and keep stirring until they are crispy. (5- 10 minutes)
When the sesame seeds cool down, grind them with a coffee grinder.
Transfer the sesame seeds powder to a bowl and add 2 tbs sugar and a pinch of salt and mix it.
Put ½ cup of toasted soybean powder (kong gaa ru in Korean) in a bowl and add 2
tbs of sugar and a pinch of salt and mix it.
Put ½ cup of mugwort powder (ssook gaa ru in Korean) in a bowl and add 2
tbs of sugar and a pinch of salt and mix it
Step 3:
Make rice cake dough.
In a bowl, place 2 cups of sweet rice powder, 2 tbs of sugar, 1 ts of salt.
Pour 2/3 cup of hot water little by little while you are mixing it with a spoon
Mix the dough by hand. *tips: if you feel the dough is too wet, add some plain flour
Put the rice cake dough into a plastic bag and set it aside
Step 4: In a big pot, place a lot of water and boil it
Let’s make rice cake!
Take the rice cake dough out from the plastic bag and place it on the cutting board. Tip: To protect the dough from being stuck to the board, sprinkle some plain flour before placing the rich cake dough.
Divide the dough into 2 and roll each one to make cylinder shape and cut it into 18-20 pieces.
Roll each piece of rice dough with your hands and make a hole in the middle of the ball with your thumb. Then turn the ball into a cup.
Put the bean paste into the middle.
Close it tightly and place it on a plate. Tip: While you are making rice balls, the rest of dough may get dried, so cover them with wet cloth or paper towel.
Carefully put all the rice cake balls into boiling water. When the rice cake balls are cooked, they float. It will take about 3 -5 minutes until they float.
Prepare lots of cold water in a big bowl.
Put the cooked rice balls into cold water and drain them.
Roll the cooked rice balls in the 3 different colors of powder and transfer them to a plate.
As I mentioned, I made fried squid dish. The poor squid got caught by a Korean fisherman somewhere in the ocean in Korea and got handled mercilessly by someone and dried and came to Canada with my friend. And it had taken photo by me and posted, then got cooked!
What else can I do? It’s delicious. My friend, a Buddhist will give me a dirty look if she sees this.
“ooh, you are cruel!” One day she said, “how can people eat someone else’s flesh!”
Fried squid recipe:
Cut a dried squid into bite size with scissors and soak it in cold water for 1 hour
Beat 1 egg white until it foams and add ½ cup of starch powder, ½ cup of flour, 1 ts of salt, and ½ cup of cold water and mix it to make batter
Drain the squid and dry it with paper towel and add 2 tbs of starch powder and mix it
Pour vegetable oil in a pan and dip each piece of squid into the batter and fry it twice
* Serve with sauce (Mix 1 tbs of soy sauce and 1 tbs of vinegar)
Fried sweet potato
Slice sweet potato diagonally about ½ inch thick
Dip the piece of sweet potato into the batter and fry it
They were having trouble because the middle of the pancake was too soft. I decided to try it again myself and have jeon for dinner.
Before starting making cooking videos, I never measured anything when I cooked. Also, I never failed! Koreans never measure anything with cups and tablespoons when they cook. But for my videos of course I need to explain how to make these dishes.
So I watched my own video and followed my steps. I found out that it was exactly right! I had a wonderful pancake for dinner. It was nice and crispy.
Even this time I didn’t use any seafood. I put an egg in the middle and it turned out really nice.
So my advice is that if you are having trouble with these recipes, please just follow the recipe as close as you can. Sooner or later it will turn out fine.
Here is the exact recipe, which I wrote down while cooking:
Ingredients:
½ cup of flour, 2/3 cup of water, 1ts salt, 1 egg, vegetables: green onions, chives, zucchini, chili pepper), 2/3 cup of chopped scallop and shrimp, vegetable oil
In a big bowl, place ½ cup of flour, 1 ts salt, 2/3 cup of water and mix it.
Chop ½ cup green onions and 3 cup of Asian chives, and shred zucchini to make 1/ 2 cup. Total cups of vegetables will be 4 cups
Put chopped vegetables into the mixture of flour and mix it up.
Chop 2/3 cup of shrimp, scallop, or squid (optional)
In a big heated pan, put some oil and spread the vegetable pancake batter thinly and lower the heat down to medium.
Place the chopped seafood over the top and press it with a spoon or spatula.
When the pancake is cooked about 80 %, beat one egg and spread it in the center of the pancake and turn it over using spatula or flip it
Add more oil if needed, and serve it hot with dipping sauce by mixing 1 tbs of soy sauce and ½ tbs of vinegar.
*Tip: To make it crispier, add oil more generously and spread the pancake mixture thinly. If your pan is not big enough, I suggest making 2 pancakes.
"Debbie, You can skip oysters, but if you don’t add rice flour porridge to your kimchi paste, the paste will be too thick. Then it will be difficult for you to..."
- Maangchi in Kimchi and Kaktugi December 27, 2008
"Nishu, oh, thank you very much. I am going to post the information on the forum then. Thanks a lot."
- Maangchi in Black bean paste December 27, 2008
"lilian Ph, oh, I’m sorry to hear that! Next time, use more water and cook longer. Don’t give up! : )"
- Maangchi in Rice cake (gyungdan) December 27, 2008
"pimky, mostly it’s used in side dishes such as seaplant salads, radish salads…"
- Maangchi in Apple vinegar December 27, 2008
"Hello! Maangchi, I am from Singapore, thank you so much for sharing your Korean recipes… I love love Korean food. I just have a question, I make my kimchi..."
- Debbie in Kimchi and Kaktugi December 27, 2008
"hey maangchi i am not able to send information there so i m sending here adress of korean store in New Delhi ,India {A-Mart korean grocery store} A-1 Mahipalpur..."
- Nishu in Black bean paste December 27, 2008
"i tried making it before but at the end the dough is un-cook in the middle. and it turn out hard"
- lilian Ph. in Rice cake (gyungdan) December 26, 2008
"i want to know what is the use of vinegar in korean food? for example in salad, rice???"
- pimky in Apple vinegar December 26, 2008
