happy thanksgiving

this year, i was invited to two thanksgiving meals! it's always a treat to enjoy turkey and all the fixin's around thanksgiving.

for me thanksgiving isn't thanksgiving without pumpkin pie. i always use libby's recipe for pumpkin pie. i did bake a lot longer than i expected. however, everyone was very happy to have pumpkin pie.

i also made fresh whipped cream which is very simple to make. just take some whipping cream or double cream, add some powder sugar (also called icing sugar) and whip until it gets stiff. however, be careful. make sure you don't overbeat it. you don't want it to get too stiff.

happy thanksgiving everyone!

stuffed french toast

there's a great place in philadelphia called sabrina's that makes delicious breakfast dishes. one of them is stuffed french toast. i decided to try and make my own.

take a french baquette and slice them into 2 inch pieces. then slice them in half but not all the way so you have a hinge. lather one side with cream cheese (let it soften to make it easier to spread) and the other side with any kind of jam you like.

in a bowl, mix together egg and milk (for one serving i used one egg and about 1/2 cup of milk). add a sprinkle of cinnamon and about 1/2 tsp of vanilla. add the french toast slices covering both sides and then let them sit in the mixture until the bread soaks up all the liquid. flip occasionally.

in a pan on med-low heat, melt a dab of butter. place the french toast on the pan cooking evenly on both sides.

enjoy by itself or with maple syrup.

many mandu

i usually have to shop at the korean grocery store if i want mandu, korean dumplings. while perusing the local grocery stores, i tried to find any kind of dumpling, but sadly none of the stores sell dumplins, not even the chinese kind. so the last time i was at the korean grocery store, i bought some mandu skins to try and make them at home.

last weekend, i spent my saturday afternoon making 85 mandu (korean dumplings). i guess i had a lot of skins. i used a mandu recipe from my favorite korean cooking lady, maangchi. i did skip a few ingredients like mushrooms and korean chives because i couldn't get them. also i added thin vermicelli which i had in my cupboard. i made some shaped for frying and some made for soups.

what's nice is that they freeze very nicely. just lay them out on a baking sheet but make sure they're not touching each other. after they are frozen, you can store them in a ziploc bag. i fried a few mandu and i made dukk mandu gook (rice cake dumpling soup) afterwards. yum! great for those cold nights.

katsudon

my former roommate, bombelly, might not be a chef in the kitchen but surprisingly her brother is! he came to visit and stayed at our place for awhile. he made the best katsudon (pork cutlet with egg and rice).

i was going to try and make it following his recipe, but it was a bit more complicated and time consuming so i found another recipe for katusudon instead.

i adjusted the broth since i didn't have dashi. instead i used anchovy broth made from dried anchovy.
also i increased it from 100ml to about 400ml of anchovy broth.

comfort food

one of my comfort foods is nooroongji, burned rice. i know it probably doesn't sound appetizing. it's not completely burned.

before the age of the nonstick rice cooker, rice was made in simple pots. there was always a layer of rice stuck the bottom of the pot. koreans never waste anything, so by adding some hot water to the pot, you can have nooroongji bop (burned rice porridge).

some restaurants serve nooroongji bop with soft tofo spicy soup. the rice is brought in a stone bowl. after you scoop out the rice, they'll add hot water to the bowl.

growing up i never really had nooroongji because in our home we had a non stick rice cooker. one day my dad made it for me.

just take any leftover rice and spread it evenly on a frying pan. heat it until it turns a nice golden brown color. when it's done, add it to a pot of boiling water. let it simmer for about 5-10 minutes for the rice to soften. and then enjoy! great with kimchi.

kimbap with egg

there are those occasions where i might have leftover kimbap. what do you do with leftover kimbap? it doesn't taste great if you re-heat it in the microwave.

i learned a trick from my friend, juicy, when we used to live together in california. she actually learned this from her aunt.

crack an egg into a bowl and scramble it. then dip the kimbap in the egg coating all sides and then fry on a pan with a little bit of oil.

simple and easy!

spider web apple muffins

i still have a plethora of cooking apples in our garden. recently i found a recipe for apple muffins on my friend's facebook page. however, rather than just topping it with brown sugar as instructed i decided to do something for halloween.

so i made spider web apple muffins. the recipe for the apple muffins is below. i tried making a cream cheese frosting, but it turned out very runny. i think the cream cheese here must be different because usually it has a nice frosting consistency. well, it made the spider web look nice. i also added orange food coloring. to make the spider web, first frost the muffins. then i used a black gel cake decoration to make 3 concentric circles. with a toothpick starting from the center, make a line going towards the edge. keep doing this until you get the spider web pattern. then you have a pretty spider web.

i made so many muffins that i decided to take them to church. well i found out that children in the UK are not used to cream cheese frosting (or philadelphia as they call it here). when they see a muffin/cupcake, they expect a sugary surprise. well, one taste and they rejected the muffins. oh well... at least the adults enjoyed it!

Cream together:
2 cups sugar (I use 1 1/2 cups)
2 eggs (I added another egg)
1 cup oil
1 Tablespoon vanilla

Sift:
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 cups peeled, cored, diced apples (around 3 apples)
Brown sugar for topping (around 1/2 cup)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (gas mark 4) and line muffin pan with paper liners.

Cream together sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon (I never sift and they turn out fine). Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and mix until combined. The batter will be very thick. Add the diced apples.

Fill paper liners almost to the top, about 3/4 of the way full. Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-24 minutes. Makes 18 muffins.