Seasoned acorn jelly

Dotorimuk-muchim 도토리묵무침

Hi everybody!

Dotori … dotori … dotorimuk-muchim recipe is here! : )

Dotorimuk is made from acorns. Some people in Korea still make homemade dotorimuk from scratch, using acorns that they gathered or picked from the mountain. The traditional way to make acorn jelly is to shell, dry, and powder the acorns, then mix them with water to remove the bitter and astringent taste. The starch will sink to the bottom, so the next day you should discard the bitter water on top and pour new water in. This is repeated for many days until the starch is not bitter anymore. Then you make porridge with this starch mixture.

Can you make your own dotorimuk from scratch? I’d like to try it, but I’m afraid that when gathering the acorns in the mountain that squirrels will give me a dirty look. : )

It’s a lot of effort to make acorn jelly powder from scratch, but luckily the powder can be found easily at any Korean grocery store, and the quality is usually just the same.

My mungbean jelly recipe is very popular, so I think this dotorimuk-muchim recipe will also be popular. All the people who came to my recent Meetup event and tasted my dotorimuk-muchim will love it. They ate every last piece!

I use only ½ cup powder in this recipe but I used 5 cups of the powder to serve more than 50 people who came to the meetup. It was a huge amount of acorn porridge to make! If you have a big party and are looking for an appetizer recipe, I think dotorimuk-muchim is a great choice because you can make the jelly and the yangnyeomjang (sauce) in advance and demonstrate your mixing in front of people at the party just as I did in my video.

I have a funny story about dotorimuk. When I lived in Korea, my friend had a German guest who was a food scientist. She invited him to her house for dinner. She made a bunch of different Korean dishes to impress him. One of the dishes was dotorimuk-muchim. A few days after she had the guest, she called me and said: “The German guest said I should add some chocolate to the dotorimuk I made!” : )

We laughed together but it also made sense because this person had never tasted dotorimuk in his life, so he might have expected it to taste sweet because it looks like creamy chocolate. I may get the same question from some of my readers now. My answer is: “Go ahead and make your favorite dessert with dotorimuk powder!”

Some of my readers have surprised me by using apples, Nutella, and peanut butter as filling for hotteok. They said it turned out so delicious. If the food turns out delicious, then it means your experiment was a success, don’t you think so? : )

Ingredients

For dotorimuk

½ cup acorn jelly powder (dotori mukgaru)
3 cups water
½ ts kosher salt

For the seasoning sauce

⅓ cup soy sauce
2 ts honey or sugar
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 stalks of green onions, chopped
1 tbs hot pepper flakes
1 tbs and 2 ts toasted toasted sesame oil
1 tbs toasted toasted sesame seeds, add right before serving so they don’t lose their crispiness
garnish with shredded red pepper (silgochu)

For the vegetables, you can use

2 cups lettuce cut into bite size pieces
¼ cup onion, sliced thinly
1 cup’s worth edible chrysanthemum (ssukgat), cut into bite size
3-5 perilla leaves, chopped
2 tbs worth carrot, shredded
½ cup’s worth cucumber, thinly sliced
1 red chili pepper, chopped
1 green chili pepper, chopped

Directions

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for dotorimuk. Stir with a wooden spoon and strain to remove any lumps. Pour the mixture into a thick bottomed pot and stir over medium heat about 7-8 minutes until it bubbles.
Lower the heat and stir another 5 minutes.
Pour the mixture into a rectangular glass container and let it cool down.
Put it into the fridge for about 4-7 hours until it’s solid.
Create the seasoning sauce by combining soy sauce, sugar or honey, hot pepper flakes, garlic, and toasted sesame oil in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
Take the acorn jelly out of the fridge. Turn the glass container upside down over your cutting board so the solidified jelly slides out in one piece. Cut into bite sized pieces 2 inch x 1 inch and ¼ inch thick.
*tip: Use a crinkle cutter to make a nice wavy pattern on each piece of jelly
Put all the vegetables in a large bowl. Mix with the seasoning sauce by hand.
Add the dotorimuk and gently mix it all together.
Transfer to a serving plate. Sprinkle sesame seeds over top and serve.

Posted on Sunday, June 10th, 2012 at 3:07 pm. Last updated on August 7, 2017.
Tagged: acorn jelly, acorn jelly with seasoning sauce, acorn jelly with vegetables, delicious, diet food, dotorimook, dotorimukmuchim, 도토리묵, 도토리묵무침, how to make acorn jelly, korean appetizer, korean food, Korean food blog, Korean kitchen, Korean recipes, korean side dish, low calorie food, seasoned acorn jelly, side dish, vegetarian dish

20 Comments:

clemente21 Zipang joined 6/20 & has 1 comment
Posted June 25th, 2020 at 12:28 pm | Log in to reply.

My favorite Korean dish evaaaah! Thanks to whomever it was that figured out how to get the bitterness out of acorns a long time ago. :) Amazing food, flavor explosion in your mouth and very healthy. There’s a lot of fiber in mukumuchim.
HappaKorean Midwest joined 5/19 & has 1 comment
Posted May 7th, 2019 at 7:05 pm | Log in to reply.

I was also wondering if perhaps it should be more than 1/2 cup of acorn powder? I followed the recipe exactly and used the pictures to really see how it should look when it bubbles and cooked it on a timer for the last five minutes stirring constantly but it’s been 8 hours and it still hasn’t set. I want to eat it so bad but it’s like a super thick gravy still.
janebai Maryland joined 3/18 & has 1 comment
Posted March 26th, 2018 at 11:31 pm | Log in to reply.

Hello Maangchi!
I am trying to figure out the nutrition for this dish, but the acorn powder nutrition label is measured in weight (grams) whereas your recipe uses volume (cups).
How many grams did you use in your recipe?
Thank you in advance and I hope to hear back soon. :)

Sincerely,
Jane
BrianOTheWorld Santa Fe, NM joined 6/17 & has 1 comment
Posted June 24th, 2017 at 12:27 pm | Log in to reply.

Once the jelly is made, can it be frozen? Only 2 of us and I made too much. Yummy recipe. Many thanks. Brian
- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,003 comments
  Posted July 1st, 2017 at 11:00 am | Log in to reply.
  
  No, it has to be kept in the fridge. As time goes by it might get hard, and water might come out. Then you can blanch it in hot water and it will get soft and shiny again. You can keep it in the fridge up to one week.
liquidfir singapore joined 1/12 & has 3 comments
Posted April 19th, 2013 at 3:02 am | Log in to reply.

Hi. I made this today but my jelly is not chewy and too soft. Any idea what went wrong?
- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,003 comments
  Posted April 19th, 2013 at 6:57 am | Log in to reply.
  
  Add more jelly powder. You have to follow exact ratio in the recipe. Good luck!
seo young taiwan joined 2/13 & has 2 comments
Posted February 21st, 2013 at 9:27 am | Log in to reply.

Hi Maangchi!

Thank you so much for this recipe! I used to enjoy this dish in Korea and had no idea how to make it. I tasted an other version, acorn jelly in cold soup, very refreshing! Could you explain how to make the soup?
By the way, you say in your recipe to add 1/2 cup of acorn jelly powder but you seem to add 1 cup in the video.. Did I miss something?

Thank you again for this wonderful recipe! :)
kfishing United States joined 9/12 & has 4 comments
Posted January 9th, 2013 at 4:39 pm | Log in to reply.

I am going to make this tonight to go with my Bibimbap. I Bought the jelly already made fresh at my local store. I was wondering how long it will stay good for? If I keep it in the Fridge how many days is it good?
- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,003 comments
  Posted January 10th, 2013 at 3:24 am | Log in to reply.
  
  You can keep it in the refrigerator up to 4-6 days.
arenchan philippines joined 6/12 & has 1 comment
Posted June 21st, 2012 at 2:01 am | Log in to reply.

hi maangchi, good day! is it possible to cook again the dotori mixture? , at my first attemp i kept it in fridge overnight and the dotori mixture didnt formed well, it is still mushy, i was so excited making this dish. thank u , i love to try all your recipe
- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,003 comments
  Posted January 10th, 2013 at 3:29 am | Log in to reply.
  
  No I don’t think so. It sounds like you should have used more jelly powder. Be sure to use the ratios described in the directions please. https://www.maangchi.com/ingredients/acorn-jelly-powder
  ½ cup acorn jelly powder (dotori mukgaru)
  3 cups water
  ½ ts salt
Souavarat Houston, Texas joined 9/10 & has 45 comments
Posted June 18th, 2012 at 5:24 pm | Log in to reply.

Looks so very delicious and interesting. I have never seen this type of food before. I would love to try it.
- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,003 comments
  Posted June 20th, 2012 at 9:56 am | Log in to reply.
  
  I’m impress by your open mind about trying to new food.
BxlSprouts Brussels, Belgium joined 5/10 & has 3 comments
Posted June 18th, 2012 at 4:54 am | Log in to reply.

I didn’t know it was a diet food–it’s great when summer food is low in calories. My local Korean-Japanese store looks like it closed :( but I’ll keep looking for acorn flour at the local Chinese-Asian shop. Thanks!
- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,003 comments
  Posted June 20th, 2012 at 9:59 am | Log in to reply.
  
  Let me know how yours turns out if you make this. I hope your store sells the ingredient.
  This is the list of Korean grocery store in Belgium submitted by my readers including you! : ) https://www.maangchi.com/shopping/belgium
mina denmark joined 7/09 & has 3 comments
Posted June 17th, 2012 at 6:54 am | Log in to reply.

ohhh! dotorimuk is my absolute favourite! just as my mom; i can eat it anytime and whenever we go out to a korean restaurant, we have to beg for 2 more dishes of muk. (:
- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,003 comments
  Posted June 20th, 2012 at 10:01 am | Log in to reply.
  
  When I met you, I knew right away that we had simliar taste in food! : )
hadleyt Gaithersburg Maryland joined 6/12 & has 1 comment
Posted June 12th, 2012 at 10:08 am | Log in to reply.

Hi Maangchi how are you, I am trying to make your fried chicken, I can’t find rice syrup in either giant or Safeway do you think Hmart has them is a Korean grocery store in Gaithersburg Maryland. Thanks the video of the chicken looks so good. Do you do any glutton free food or business with anyone? My sister is eating glutton free and selling a lot of product for glutton free. Maybe you can give her hints or share with her glutton free ideas? My email is in profile thanks. I am also Chinese :)
chef Benedict Manila, Philippines joined 11/11 & has 45 comments
Posted June 12th, 2012 at 2:51 am | Log in to reply.

wow korean jelly salad really appreciating… and is that acorn jelly right?

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Seasoned acorn jelly
Korean name: 도토리묵무침
Romanized: Dotorimuk-muchim
Also Romanized as: dotorimookmuchim, dotorimuk muchim, dotorimukmuchim

Categories: appetizer, cold, side dish, snack, spicy, vegetarian
Made with: acorn jelly powder, Asian chives, carrot, cucumber, edible chrysanthemum, garlic, green onion, honey, hot pepper flakes, lettuce, onion, perilla leaves, sesame oil, sesame seeds, shredded red pepper, sugar,