Are you interested in cooking something light, healthy, gorgeous and delicious? Then this is the recipe I recommend! It will be a perfect for brunch on a weekend.

It’s bean porridge, called kongjuk (콩죽) in Korean. Porridge (juk) is loved by Koreans for its soft texture, lightness, nutrition, and its ease of digestion. Today’s recipe is bean porridge made with dried split green peas. You can make kongjuk with pretty much any kind of beans, even fresh beans, although the cooking time will vary depending on the size of the beans and how hard they are. No matter what type of beans you use, the key is to cook them enough so they can be easily mashed. I used dried split green peas in this recipe because they are delicious, make a beautifully green porridge, and are available almost everywhere pretty cheaply.

A 1 pound bag of dried split green peas will make a little more than 5 cups of peas when soaked. Usually 1 cup of beans makes 1 serving, so you can make 5 bowls of nice porridge with one pound of beans. That’s good, nutritious, delicious value! And then freeze any soaked beans you don’t use this time to make more juk later. I also found out that frozen soaked beans are faster to tenderize than nonfrozen.

The traditional way to make kongjuk is to make it with beans and rice together into a thick porridge. My recipe is a variation on the traditional, I make porridge with split peas and a jujube rice cake garnish. As I said in the video, make kongjuk with your family and friends and let’s have a bean porridge party! : )

Ingredients

For 2 servings

For rice cake:

Directions

Prepare the beans:

  1. Put the soaked beans into a thick pot and add 2 cups of water. Cover and boil over medium heat for 1 hour, or until soft and tender enough to mash. Stir with a wooden spoon occasionally. If you use frozen soaked beans, it will actually take less time, from 30 to 40 minutes.
  2. Mash the beans with a wooden spoon and put them into a strainer over the pot. Little by little, add 3½ cups water to the beans as you stir and press them through the strainer with a wooden spoon. 
  3. Discard the rough stuff and lumps, and add ¼ cup glutinous rice flour to the peas in the pot. Stir well.

Make the jujube garnish:

  1. Hold a jujube in one hand and your knife vertically in the other. Push it into the jujube until you can feel it touching the seed. Turn the jujube as you work your knife around the seed, to separate it from the jujube fruit.
  2. Flatten the jujube fruit onto your cutting board, sticky side up. Put some some pine nuts on the edge and press them into the jujube. Roll the jujube around the nuts.
  3. Squeeze it tightly so it holds together, then cut it crosswise into slices.

Make the rice cake dough:

  1. Combine ½ cup glutinous rice flour, ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, and ¼ of cup hot water in a bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon until the dough cools down enough to be handled with your hands.
  2. Knead the dough by hand for about a minute until smooth. Wrap it in plastic wrap and set aside for about 10 minutes.
  3. Dust your cutting board with potato starch. Divide the rice cake dough into 2 equal pieces, and flatten each piece on your cutting board into disks about 4 inches in diameter, getting them well dusted in the process.
  4. Layer one disk on top of the other and cut them into two squares, then four rectangles, about 2 inches by 1 inch pieces.
  5. Press the leftover dough together into a lump and make small rice cake balls with it. Dust them with starch and set aside.

Lightly fry the rectangular rice cakes:

  1. Heat a skillet with 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil. Fry the 4 rectangular rice cakes for 1 minute over medium heat. Turn them over and cook another minute.
  2. Turn down the heat to low and keep cooking until both sides get crispy.

Cook the porridge:

  1. Bring the bean porridge to a boil. Add the rice cake balls and 1 teaspoon kosher salt.
  2. Cook for another 3 minutes until the porridge is bubbling and the rice cake balls are fully cooked.

Construct and serve:

  1. Ladle the porridge into 2 bowls.
  2. Gently lay 2 fried rice cakes on top of the porridge of each bowl. Set some jujube garnishes on top of the rice cakes.
  3. Serve hot.

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2 Comments:

  1. Aquasol The Internets joined 7/17 & has 1 comment

    This looks so wonderful, can’t wait to try and make it! :3

  2. Lavachan Wisconsin, U.S.A. joined 7/17 & has 1 comment

    This is soooo yummy. Maybe a little too warm for the summer here but I don’t care. I will definitely make it again. I love the little rice cakes in it~
    Here is a picture~

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