What Korean food freezes well?

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    • #49370
      mrseum
      Member

      I will be going on vacation for a month with my (then) year old son, and want to make some food to freeze for my husband.

      But everything that I cook does not seem like it will freeze well. Dwenjjang Jigae, no soups.

      Can I freeze Dwaejigogi and Bulgogi? What about Jajang sauce? Fried rice? I’ve tried freezing curry before, but it seperates. :/ There must be something I can freeze. I’m going to buy some frozen soondae, because he loves soondae and that will be easy for him. I’ll probably make some Curry for the first few days I’m away. But I do not want him living off of Ramyun, kimchi and Bap for a month!

      And it really does need to be simple, something he can heat and eat; he is NOT a cook. Sometimes he adds too much water to ramyun. (But I think he just does that so I’ll make it! ;) )

      Thanks!

    • #53408
      kumaxx
      Member

      you can freeze soups like oxtail-soups or chicken broth with no problem. Meatdishes are no problem either.

      pre-fry the meat, let it cool of, put it in a bag and freeze it. Then just put the bag in hot water and let it sit there until its hot. make a test run to see.

      I freeze jjajjang and Curry with no problem. Why does yours separate? you use bags or tupper? my tip: dont freeze warm things. let it cool of in the fridge for a day. Curry will be hard then anyways and may not separate. same goes for jjajjang.

      what i did for my girl-friend was something like this: rice, veggies, meat, let it cool of. make a tin-foil pouch and put everything in. put the pouches in a bag and freeze them. He can take the tin-pouches out and put them in the oven for about 30-60 mins by 180° (without the bag), depending on how much is in there. also.. make a test run.

      dont freeze veggies with too much water in them, they will turn mushy, dont freeze dubu.

      are you sure, your husband will suffer? it will be like his bachelor-days all over again. in other words: glorious…

    • #53409
      mrseum
      Member

      Kumaxx; thanks! I’m LOL’ing at the “bachelor days”. I’m not sure why the curry seperated, I cooled it on the stove, then it went to the refrigerator, and then the freezer. And I tried this a few times, so I do not freeze it anymore.

      The oxtail soup; I will try that again. I just bought some oxtail today. I made it once according to my 2 american translated cookbooks, and it didn’t turn out right. Now I will try the way my father in law explained.

    • #53410
      cat76
      Participant

      Hi- Koreas always makes big pot of ‘Jang jo rim’ (beef and hard boiled egg braised in soy sauce) for their family when they are away. I don’t know if you know what it is or not but they keep for a good long time ( i don’t know if it will for a month) Anyway, you keep them in the fridge and you just shred the meat as you eat each meal – meant to be eaten cold.

      Braised beef in soy sauce

      This is soooooo Korean thing to do!

      I personally think many Korean food is hard to freeze besides some soups because we heavily rely on fresh vegetables. Would he not eat American food at all ? because I think western food freezes better – like lasagna.

      If I freeze Bulgogi, I’d rather freeze them raw than cooked. He can just thaw and just sautee, that doesn’t require much skill. I think you should just teach him! now is good chance and when you come back he’ll even make dinner for you!

      Goodluck

    • #53411
      GraySocks
      Participant

      You can freeze kimchi jjigae. Just warm the container it’s in to get the sides to “un-stick” and then place in warm pot and pour a tiny bit of water, and it’ll go back to soup-consistency in no time! What you can also do is marinate some meats such as bulgogi, kalbi, dwaejigogi, and then freeze it in individual portion-sized bags. That way, you can take out one bag, allow to thaw, then cook. These last for some time if frozen. Also, mandoo stays good for long time in the freezer. There’s one thing I especially enjoy that I don’t mind coming out of a freezer, it’s these little meat pies (my mother calls it dong geuh rang deng). It’s just a little 1.5″ diameter “pies” filled with meat and veggies pressed and fried.

      Hope these helped!

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