Recipe: Chicken Satay

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Satay is a common street food in Malaysia, where my parents are from. Any sort of meat can be cut into small pieces and grilled on a skewer to be satay and it is fun (for me at least) to taste all the offal-ly bits. Vendors repeatedly fan the charcoal grill and flip handfuls of skewers back and forth for that signature char. I have fond memories during visits with my relatives where we would go to bigger satay joints and they would bring piles of satay to our table and we would feast on them stick by stick. Back when I was a kid those places used to bill by a somewhat honor system of counting the number of empty sticks we had at the end…and boy, did we have a lot.

Satay made of marinated chicken thighs is the easiest for me to recreate on my grill at home. Chicken thighs stay relatively moist when grilled and cook quickly. I developed this recipe from my memories of what it should taste like so I am not sure if it is the most authentic, but it does taste right to me!

How to Make Chicken Satay

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs boneless/skinless chicken thighs, in 3/4–1” cubes
1 tbsp ginger, grated
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 tbsp neutral oil, plus extra for grill
peanut butter, to taste
hoisin sauce, to taste

For Serving

cucumber, cut into small chunks
red onion, cut into small chunks
cilantro
peanuts, chopped

Procedure

The night before, place 12 bamboo skewers in water and let soak overnight. This will help prevent them from burning to a crisp on the grill.

Also the night before, whisk together grated ginger, brown sugar, fish sauce, cumin, turmeric, coconut milk, and oil to make the satay marinade. Combine with chicken cubes and coat the chicken thoroughly. Cover/seal and store in refrigerator to marinade overnight.

Spear chicken onto the skewers and leave covered in the refrigerator until ready to grill. (If making ahead, wrap exposed bamboo with a damp paper towel to prevent from drying out.)

Pour the leftover marinade into a small sauce pan and bring to a full simmer. Whisk in hoisin sauce and peanut butter to taste. Set aside until ready for serving.

A charcoal grill is recommended to get that smoky grilled satay flavor. When grill is ready, brush the grill rack with a bit of extra oil. Add chicken skewers to the grill, turning occasionally until the chicken is cooked through. As the pieces of chicken are small, these will cook fairly quickly, so be sure to monitor.

Transfer peanut sauce to a serving dish and top with chopped peanuts. Serve satay with cucumbers, onion, cilantro, and peanut sauce.

This recipe was originally written for my friends at Nomtastic Foods.

Recipe: Bulgogi Rice Balls

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Korean rice balls, or jumeokbap (translation: “fist rice”), are typically a pretty humble food, served as a snack or as a common component in a dosirak, or packed lunch box. They get compared to their fancier-looking Japanese onigiri or temari sushi counterparts, but I think there is a lot to love about the Korean version. They are super easy to make (as easy as mixing some fun seasonings and cooked rice together and forming them into golf ball sized balls), really kid-friendly and picky-eater-friendly what with the lack of raw fish and with cute portions, and they are a visually interesting way to present a staple side dish without a whole lot of extra effort. The rice balls here feature bulgogi beef in two ways: some of them have strips of steak placed on top, while others have flavorsome ground beef mixed into the rice itself. You can make them as simple or as complicated as you’d like, and the garnishes that you see here are entirely optional (but I personally had a lot of fun decorating them).

I will seize any opportunity to decorate my food with edible flowers from my garden. I am sure among professional circles there is some culinary school of thought that garnishing food in this manner is superfluous. But you know what?—I am not planning on opening a restaurant any time soon and my objective is to help you, the home cook, make something that brings joy to your dinner table. I think that a little edible flower magic is an easy cheat to accomplish that. So, when Bibigo USA asked me to develop a bulgogi rice ball recipe for them, I bugged them to let me exercise some creative license with the garnishing. I encourage you to get creative with your own versions, too! Don’t worry about having the exact same ingredients that are listed in the recipe; those are meant to be guidelines, and to clarify what it is that you see used in the photos. Use what you have handy. For example, sometimes on stemmed herbs like basil, the large leaves wilt and break down first but there are still teeny leaves clinging on in relatively good shape; this would be a great way to let those shine instead of going to waste. If you don’t have access to edible flowers, cutting slices of carrot or radish into flowers are a great (and honestly more functional) alternative. Jumeokbap are so fun to eat, so I hope you have fun making them as well!

Here’s a before and after of these bulgogi rice balls before and after garnishing:

How to Make Bulgogi Rice Balls

Ingredients

4–5 oz ground beef
1–2 oz sirloin steak, sliced thinly against the grain
4 tbsp Bibigo Original Korean BBQ Sauce, divided
1 cup uncooked rice, washed and drained
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup Korean crushed seasoned seaweed snack*
1/2 tsp salt
3 perilla leaves, thinly sliced (optional)
1/2 tsp soy sauce
Sesame oil
Cooking oil

For Garnishing

Chives, chopped
Scallions, sliced thinly
Radish shoots
Pickled daikon, sliced thinly
Edible flowers
Sesame seeds, toasted

*I found this at a Korean grocery store and it’s specifically for jumeokbap, but if you don’t have it, feel free to substitute with furikake or crush up seaweed sheets and mix with a little salt.

Procedure

Soak rice in some water for 5 minutes, then drain. Combine rice and 1 1/2 cups water in rice cooker and set to cook.

Combine steak with 2 tablespoons Bibigo sauce and set aside to marinade. 

In a separate bowl, mix together ground beef and the remaining sauce, making sure to break down any clumps of beef.  Pour mixture into a small pan on medium heat and simmer until cooked, about 3 minutes. Set aside. 

Add enough cooking oil to coat the pan, turn up to medium-high heat, and sear the pieces of steak in a single layer for about 30 seconds on each side. Remove from pan and set aside.

When rice is cooked and slightly cooled, divide into two portions. For one of the portions, combine rice, cooked ground beef, seaweed, perilla, and salt into a bowl and gently mix to combine. For the other portion, combine rice with soy sauce.

Pour some sesame oil into a small bowl. Dip clean hands into the oil and lightly coat them to prevent sticking. Use hands to form the ground beef and rice mixture into small balls, about 1 to 1 1/4-inches in diameter. Repeat the process with the soy sauce rice, continuing to dip hands in sesame oil as needed to prevent rice from sticking.

Plate rice balls. Top soy sauce rice balls with pieces of steak. Then garnish all the rice balls as desired.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Mini Wonton Tangsuyuk

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I am a total sucker for funky mashups when it comes to food, and I am really happy with how this turned out. I love how my partnership with Bibigo USA has challenged me to think of creative ways to use frozen dumplings, such as in place of salad croutons, or in place of regular ol’ strips of meat here. (Credit to the YouTube channel Aaron and Claire as well, for inspiring me to find creative ways to use Korean frozen and pantry items while in quarantine. Their videos make me so happy!)

Tangsuyuk is typically the Korean version of sweet and sour pork/beef. There are some similar elements to its Cantonese-American counterpart, like crisp veggies and chunks of pineapple, but it tends to be more naturally colored and does not rely on tomato for its sweet-sourness. Instead, like many savory-sweet Korean sauces, it turns to fruits to get that natural fresh sweetness. (Yes, I know tomato is a fruit too, but I do feel it’s in its own category separate from apples and pears and pineapples.) For this recipe, I swapped the meat for adorable and flavorsome Bibigo Pork & Vegetable Mini Wontons. Heating them up by pan frying, and then keeping them hot in the oven until the very last moment before tossing with the sauce keeps them crisp and satisfying.

How to Make Mini Wonton Tangsuyuk

Ingredients

40 Bibigo Pork & Vegetable Mini Wontons
1/2 carrot, sliced
1/2 green bell pepper, cored and cut into chunks
1/2 red bell pepper, cored and cut into chunks
1/2 small red onion, cut into chunks
3/4 cup canned pineapple chunks
2 tbsp cornstarch
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp water, divided
1/4 cup sugar
4 tbsp apple cider vinegar
4 tsp soy sauce
3/4 cup canned pineapple juice
1/2 tsp sesame seeds, toasted
Salt
Cooking oil

Procedure

Heat a large skillet or wok. In batches, pan-fry mini wontons with cooking oil according to package instructions. (Alternatively you could also deep fry them.) Transfer to a baking tray and place in the oven at 200°F to keep warm.

Add enough cooking oil to coat the bottom of the hot skillet or wok. Add carrot slices and stir-fry for 1 minute. Next, add bell pepper chunks and stir-fry for 1 minute more. Then, add onion chunks and a pinch of salt, and stir-fry for an additional 1 minute. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons water with cornstarch to form a cornstarch slurry. Set aside.

Bring 3/4 cup water and pineapple juice to a simmer in a small pot. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Add apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, and a pinch of salt and stir to combine. Add the cooked vegetables and pineapple. Bring to a gentle boil, then give the cornstarch slurry another whisk before adding to the pot. Stir contents of the pot until the sauce becomes homogenous and syrupy. Remove from heat. 

Transfer mini wontons to a serving bowl and pour sauce and vegetable mixture on top. Garnish with sesame seeds.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Sweet and Savory Marinated Eggs

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I can never resist a perfectly boiled egg with a runny yolk but these are even more addictive that your typical soy sauce marinated eggs. Bibigo USA asked me to test out whether their Original Korean BBQ Sauce for bulgogi would work well as an egg marinade, and as it turns out, the answer is absolutely yes! Their convenient sauce has pear and apple purees in it, giving the sauce a rich sweetness that balances well with the savoriness and, when absorbed by the eggs, is super yummy. This recipe was inspired by Korean marinated eggs—in Korean, they are called mayak eggs, which translates to “drug eggs” because of their addictive quality!

I learned the best technique for making boiled eggs from this blog post by Eat With Your Eyes Closed. As instructed in the post, after slowly lowering the eggs into the pot of boiling water, I meticulously stand over the pot of boiling eggs and keep spinning them around and around with a chopstick for the first two minutes in order to ensure that the egg whites set with the yolk perfectly positioned in the middle. Don’t sleep on this technique!

I think that a 6-minute egg is the most perfect—the whites are set and tender and the yolks are still super runny when you cut into them. But, of course, feel free to cook them to your liking. The marinate will be delicious either way.

How to Make Sweet and Savory Marinated Eggs

Ingredients

4 eggs
3/4 cup Bibigo Original Korean BBQ Sauce
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp mirin
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 red Fresno chili or 5 Thai chilies, sliced (optional)
Sesame oil, for serving (optional)

Procedure

Stir together Bibigo Original Korean BBQ Sauce, water, scallions, sesame seeds, and sliced chili in a bowl. Set aside.

Bring a small pot of water to a vigorous boil. Meanwhile, use a safety pin or the tip of a very fine knife blade to carefully poke a small hole at the bottom (wider end) of each egg. (This helps air escape and allows the set egg to better conform to the shape of the inside of the shell.)

When the water is boiling vigorously, gently lower eggs and boil for 6 minutes for runny yolks or 10 minutes for cooked yolks.

Immediately transfer eggs into an ice bath. When eggs are completely cold, peel carefully.

Place a zip-top bag inside a bowl. Place eggs into the bag and pour marinate on top. Close bag, making sure to squeeze out as much air as possible. Place bag and bowl in the refrigerator. Eggs will want to float initially, but you want to make sure they are completely covered in the marinade. If you remember, occasionally rotate the bag or gently shift the eggs around to ensure that all surfaces have time to come in contact with the marinade. (Otherwise, you may end up with irregular patches of white if the egg is not fully submerged.) Allow to marinate overnight or for up to 3 days.

To serve, spoon egg and some marinate over rice. Drizzle with a bit of sesame oil.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Korean Fire Ribs with Melted Cheese

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I have probably already said this on here before, but I love my old school slow cooker. I know all the cool kids are about that instant pot life, but my slow cooker is reliable and I trust that it won’t blow up in my face. I love it for pretty much every situation where I’d want super tender meat, including fall-off-the-bone baby back ribs.

One of my favorite flavor combinations in modern Korean cuisine is super “fire-y” spicy meat with ooey gooey melted cheese. So I worked with Bibigo USA to develop this recipe for spicy ribs served piled high in the middle of a moat of melty cheese. Pro-tip, if you have a tabletop induction burner like I do, serve this whole skillet at the table with the heat set to a low setting to keep the cheese melty—we made some epic cheese pulls!

Other Variations for this Recipe

• If you can’t find the sauce mentioned in the recipe below, Bibigo Original Korean BBQ Sauce (a.k.a. bulgogi sauce) seems to be easier to find. Whisk together 3/4 cup of that sauce (or your own favorite bulgogi marinade recipe) and 1/4 gochujang and use that to substitute for the 1 cup of Bibigo spicy sauce.

• If you love Korean corn cheese, mix in half a can of corn (drained) into the cheese mixture.

How to Make Korean Fire Ribs with Melted Cheese

Ingredients

1 rack baby back ribs
1 cup Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce
2–3 tbsp gochugaru (or more!)
10 oz mozzarella cheese, freshly grated
1–2 oz cream cheese, softened

ingredients for Garnishing

1–2 scallions
1 red Fresno chili, thinly sliced
1 tsp sesame seeds, toasted

Procedure

Pat baby back ribs dry. Divide in half for fit if needed and place into the pot of a slow cooker. Combine Bibigo Hot & Spicy Korean BBQ Sauce with gochugaru to taste; pour half of the sauce mixture into slow cooker and thoroughly coat the exposed meat of the ribs. Set remaining sauce mixture aside. Cook ribs on low for 5 hours.

To make curly scallion garnish like the ones in the photos, slice green parts of scallions lengthwise into narrow strips and place in a bowl of cold water. Place bowl in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Remove cooked ribs from slow cooker and allow to rest for 20 minutes. In the meantime, prepare a foil-lined baking tray. 

Mix together mozzarella and cream cheese in a bowl. (Note: Please avoid using the pre-grated mozzarella, as this has additives to prevent the shreds of cheese from clumping together, and will also prevent the cheese from melting together smoothly.)

Cut in between bones of rack pieces to separate into individual ribs and place on foil-lined baking tray. Brush on the remaining sauce mixture. Place tray on the top rack of the oven and turn on the broiler setting. Broil ribs for 7–10 minutes until the edges are slightly charred.

Place cheese inside a cast iron skillet to form a ring. Heat cheese on stovetop on low until cheese just starts to melt, about 2–3 minutes. Then place under the broiler for 1–2 minutes until a few brown spots form. 

Pile ribs in the middle of the cast iron skillet. Top with scallions, sliced chili, and sesame seeds.

Grilling Method (Note that this version will not be as tender as the slow cooker option.)

Pat baby back ribs dry and remove the silverskin membrane.  Cut in between bones to divide into individual ribs. Combine Bibigo Hot & Spicy Korean BBQ Sauce with gochugaru to taste. Add ribs to a large zip-top bag along with half of the sauce mixture. Mix ribs and sauce until thoroughly combined and allow to marinate in the refrigerator overnight. Refrigerate remaining sauce mixture separately. 

Prepare grill. When ready, place ribs on the grill. Continuously brush ribs with remaining sauce mixture and turn until all ribs are cooked evenly.

Follow same steps for preparing cheese and garnishes as above.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Spicy Bibimbap Burger

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Bibigo USA challenged me to develop a recipe that used one of their products plus only 5 additional ingredients to make a delicious and flavorful meal. One of my favorite products of theirs is their version of gochujang—unlike the typical gochujang that is a thick paste in a plastic tub, Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce is much more conducive to being used as a sweet, spicy, tangy condiment. I knew it would be the only condiment necessary to make a delicious burger, so it inspired me to develop this bibimbap burger recipe.

My key to making a delicious burger at home is the super high-quality, fatty ground beef that I use for the patty. There is a tiny butcher shop in my neighborhood, The Butcher Shop by Niku, that sells ground domestic wagyu beef for a very reasonable price. I asked them once what their fat percentage is for this beef, and they said it was upwards of 40%, which is much higher than the ground beef I see at the normal grocery store meat counter. It really makes a difference, and I have not been able to make burgers with any other ground beef since…nor will I ever order a burger at a restaurant, because I know mine will be better! (Fast food chains do not count in this contest.) However, if you do not live near me and do not have access to affordable ground wagyu, I learned an interesting trick from my friend Dinesh (@myasiankitchen) for how to get your burger patty to be more tender and juicy: freeze a stick of butter and grate some of it into your ground beef! This will up the fat percentage of your patty and make it amazing!

For this burger recipe, I used ingredients that I thought were typical of bibimbap, to build upon the Korean theme. However, I encourage you to use your own favorite bibimbap ingredients and get creative! Or, even if you are making a regular cheeseburger, I honestly recommend trying Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce instead of ketchup because it’s such a complex and flavorful condiment.

How to Make Spicy Bibimbap Burgers

Ingredients

3/4 lb ground beef, high-fat recommended
2 hamburger buns (I used brioche ones)
1 oz spinach leaves, washed
6 medium shiitake mushrooms
2 eggs
Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce, to taste
Salt
Pepper
Cooking oil

Procedure

Divide ground beef into 2 equal portions. Here is the trick to getting perfect looking patties for your burger: Shape each into flat, round patties that are 125% the diameter of your hamburger buns, to account for shrinking when cooking. Then, gently make an indentation in the center of each patty; this will also help prevent the patty from swelling up and getting too tall to fit in your mouth. Note how my patties are exactly the same diameter as my buns when cooked—that’s how I did it! Place shaped patties in the refrigerator until ready to cook.

I used fresh shiitake mushrooms; if you are using dried, soak them in hot water until they are rehydrated. Trim off tough parts of shiitake stems and discard. Slice thinly. Heat a small skillet on medium-high and add a small amount of oil. Add mushrooms and sauté until cooked, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Heat a cast iron skillet on high heat. Season patties generously with salt and pepper on both sides. When skillet is very hot, turn down the heat to medium high. If using lean ground beef, add a small amount of oil to the skillet; skip this step if the meat is over 30% fat. Place patties on skillet. For medium rare, cook for 2.5 minutes, flip, and cook for another 2.5 minutes on the other side.

While patties are cooking, toast buns if desired. (Why wouldn’t you, though…?)

Remove patties from heat and allow to rest on a separate plate for 2–3 minutes. 

While patties are resting, heat 2 tablespoons oil in a small skillet and cook eggs over-easy.

Spread a generous amount of Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce on the inside of each half-bun. Assemble burgers in the order desired. I did spinach first, patty, fried egg, then mushrooms.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Biscuits Two Ways

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At my house, we are deeply divided between Team Sweet and Team Savory. My husband loves chocolate, pancakes, and PB & J; I love cheese, tater tots, and scrambled eggs. Fortunately, I am in charge of the cooking, so I get to feed us whatever I want, and my husband (the dish washer) is at the mercy of my charitable pancake breakfast and cookie baking every now and again.

But when I can, I try to adapt recipes into sweet and savory versions so we are both happy and get our cravings satisfied. If found that this is pretty doable when it comes to batter- and dough- based recipes, and usually causes only one extra dirty bowl at the most. For example, when I make a batch of waffles, I’ll follow a standard recipe for my husband that he can pour syrup and fruit over, and then part-way through cooking them I’ll add grated cheese and herbs into the bowl of batter to turn it savory.

I decided to experiment with this concept and turn a batch of biscuits into a sweet and savory version. I used BA’s Sour Cream and Onion biscuit recipe as a starting point for the ratios of the key ingredients, but my execution was pretty different (and IMO, easier). After making a base I split the dough into two portions: a sweet version with honey and a savory one with cheddar, scallions, and black pepper. These don’t have a huge rise because I intentionally made them big and flat for purposes of making breakfast sandwiches, but they could be made taller and smaller if you so choose.

I think these are best when they are fresh from the oven and just barely cool enough to tear open with my hands. So, I recommend only baking what you plan to eat right away, even if it’s just one of each, and freezing the rest. Freeze them on a parchment-lined tray first and then you can transfer them to a freezer bag. When ready to bake, pop them directly from the freezer to a parchment-lined tray and bake them for an extra 5–10 minutes.

How to Make Two Kinds of Biscuits in One Batch

Ingredients for base

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus extra bench flour
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp sugar
10 tbsp butter, plus extra for finish
1 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
kosher salt

Ingredients For Savory Biscuits

2 scallions, chopped
1/3 cup cheddar, grated
lots of freshly cracked black pepper

Ingredients For Sweet Biscuits

1 1/2 tbsp honey, plus extra for finish

Procedure

If you have the half-cup sticks of butter like I do, start by throwing at least one stick into the freezer; if working with a block, freeze all 10 tablespoons.

Stir up your Greek yogurt to be an even consistency. If it is super thick, add a teaspoon of water to thin it out.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and a pinch of salt and whisk together.

If you have a portion of butter that you did not freeze, cut that portion into tiny cubes, trying to keep it as cold as possible. Add that to the dry ingredients and use cold hands to smash into small crumbles. Then use a box grater to grate in the frozen butter, and once again use your hands to incorporate the butter with the dry ingredients into a crumbly-looking mixture.

Pour about 40–45% of the mixture into another bowl. (Just eyeball, it will be fine. I did this because the savory ingredients will add more volume and I wanted all the biscuits to be uniform in size. If this does not matter to you, just divide evenly.)

Make the savory biscuits: In a small bowl, combine scallions, cheese, and pepper and toss to combine. Add these to the smaller portion of dry ingredients and whisk together. Create a well in the center. Pour half of the yogurt in the well, then use a fork to slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the wet yogurt. Once all the yogurt is absorbed, use your hands to gather the dough together and fold it on itself a few times until it is a cohesive dough.

Make the sweet biscuits: Drizzle honey over the remaining flour and butter mixture. Then form a well in the center and repeat the same process of incorporating the remaining yogurt as before.

Preheat your oven to 425°F.

For each portion of dough, you will do three sets of letter folds to create layers in your biscuits. Dust your work surface with flour and do so throughout the process as needed to prevent sticking. Shape one portion of dough into a 9” x 3” rectangle, fold in a third from the right and then a third from the left (like you would fold a letter). Then rotate 90 degrees and repeat the shaping and folding. Rotate again then do the process one more time. Finally, rotate, shape, and cut your dough into 3 biscuits. Repeat this process with the other portion of dough.

Place biscuits on a parchment-lined baking tray. Optionally, spread a tiny bit of melted butter on top of the savory biscuits and top with a bit of coarse salt; and spread a small amount of extra honey on top of the sweet biscuits.

Bake for 17–20 minutes.

Recipe: Korean Egg Toast / Gilgeori Toast

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I partnered with Bibigo USA to help their audience “travel” through food at home by developing a recipe for a classic Korean street snack. One thing I noticed about the street foods when I was in South Korea last year, was that a touch of sugar was often included in otherwise savory snacks. Even the famous cheese-filled Korean “hot dogs” (a.k.a. battered and fried cheese on a stick that allows you to make the most epic of cheese pulls!) come dusted in sugar on the outside.

Gilgeori toast (which means “street toast”) is no exception. This toast typically involves shredded veggies and egg cooked together into a square and topped with a sprinkle of sugar and a squirt of ketchup or jam; it’s then served rolled up in a slice of soft, gently toasted, buttered white bread, either in a paper cup or wrapped in foil. For this version, I used Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce instead of ketchup, which helped bring together the sugar and the savory ingredients really well. Other variations I’ve seen include adding ham or different types of cheeses, either inside the egg patty or layered on top. This is a great recipe to help use up random scraps of ingredients that you have in your fridge, and it is really fun to experiment to find your favorite combo!

There are other “egg toast” places in South Korea where the toast is actually more like what Americans would call a sandwich, served with two slices of bread in a cute cardboard holder. I decided to make my gilgeori toast look more like those. For those of you who live in the SF Bay Area, I’ve found that the thick milk toast sold at Manila Oriental Market (shown in the photos for this post) works really well for Asian toasts and sandwiches that typically have a soft white bread. Another place I like for milk bread is Andersen Bakery, where they sell whole loaves so you can slice to the thickness of your liking.

I was also excited that this recipe helped me find another use for my little rectangular omelette pan that I bought in Seoul. It is meant to be used to make rolled egg omelettes (typically known in the States by the Japanese name tamagoyaki) but it came quite in handy for making these square egg patties for gilgeori toast. Don’t worry if you don’t have one, though; just pile your ingredients in the center of a skillet or flat griddle and use a pancake turner/spatula to help shape your ingredients into a square.

How to Make Gilgeori Toast

Ingredients

2 slices milk bread
1 large egg
1/2 cup cabbage, finely shredded
1/4 medium carrot, julienned
1 slice (1 oz) ham, thinly sliced
1 scallion, thinly sliced
2 tbsp butter, divided
1/2–1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce
salt, to taste

Procedure

Combine shredded cabbage, carrot, and scallion into a mixing bowl. Add a pinch of salt and gently massage everything together to combine and soften. Mix in ham. Set aside.

Heat a large skillet or griddle on medium heat. Add 1/2 tablespoon butter and allow to melt and coat the cooking surface before adding the bread. Allow bread to toast on one side for about 1.5 minutes or until golden. Remove bread, melt another 1/2 tablespoon of butter, and toast the other side of each slice. Set toasted bread aside.

Crack egg into a separate bowl and beat vigorously. Add beaten egg to the vegetable and ham mixture, and gently mix to combine. 

Heat a rectangular omelette pan or small nonstick skillet on medium heat. Melt 1/2 tablespoon butter. Add the egg mixture as one small pile, then use a cooking spatula or turner to flatten the pile and shape it into a square as the egg sets. Cook until the bottom starts to turn golden, about 2 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 tablespoon of butter on top, then carefully flip over and cook until the other side starts to turn golden.

Place omelette on top of one slice of toast. Sprinkle sugar over the top, then drizzle Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce. Top with the remaining slice of toast. 

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Galbi Vegetable Wraps with Ssamjang Sauce

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With the ability to travel internationally still being very iffy, I have been trying to scratch that travel bug itch at home by creating themed meals. Oftentimes they are based on places that I have visited before—trying to recreate fond eating memories or satisfy nostalgic cravings. And the best themed dinner nights are the ones where the meal also lends itself to being interactive, so that communal eating at the dinner table also becomes a stay-at-home activity. We have been making hot pot and budae jjigae more often than before, but Bibigo USA asked me to develop a recipe that could help others capture the Korean BBQ experience at the dining table, even for those who don’t have a tabletop burner or cooktop. For this recipe, the meat is cooked on the stovetop first, and then served at the dining table with leafy veggies, dipping sauce, and fresh garnishes so that you and your quarantine companion can enjoy assembling and eating wraps together.

Back when eating at restaurants was a thing, I loved going to KBBQ restaurants with friends, cooking tons of meat together at the table, and eating it piping hot wrapped in different vegetables. And when I visited South Korea, I noticed that giant perilla leaves were popular for these ssam (which means “wrapped” in Korean); they definitely became my favorite to use for wrapping up the juicy marinated meats. I am lucky enough to have a great local Korean grocery store (Kukje Supermarket) where I can buy them to use for my homemade ssam, but shiso or regular leafy lettuce are also great.

Because the convenience of Bibigo’s Korean BBQ sauces makes the marinating process basically effortless, I used the saved time to make sure I also had an awesome dipping sauce (a.k.a. ssamjang) to serve with my wraps.

How to Make Galbi Ssam with Ssamjang Sauce at Home

Ingredients for the Galbi

1 1/2 lbs galbi-cut beef short ribs (cut flanken-style)
2/3 cup Bibigo Original Korean BBQ Sauce or Bibigo Hot & Spicy Korean BBQ Sauce
Cooking oil

Ingredients for the Ssamjang

2 tbsp doenjang (Korean fermented soybean paste)
1 tbsp Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce
1 tsp honey
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 tbsp onion, finely diced
1 scallion, sliced
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sesame seeds, toasted

Ingredients for the Wraps*

6–8 lettuce leaves
6–8 perilla leaves
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 jalapeño, thinly sliced
1–2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

*These are just estimates; use as much as you’d like to enjoy your ssam-making experience!

Procedure

Place short ribs in a zip-top plastic bag. Add marinade and coat meat. Seal bag, removing as much air as possible. Place in the refrigerator and allow to marinade for at least 30 minutes—I marinated mine overnight and they turned out so flavorful and delicious!

Combine ingredients for ssamjang into a small bowl and stir together. Cover and place in refrigerator until ready for serving. (Can be made up to 3 days in advance.)

Heat a large cast iron skillet on medium-high. Add about 1 teaspoon of cooking oil, then add marinated short ribs in a single layer. Cook for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, until meat looks seared. Flip and sear the other side. Repeat in batches, adding 1 teaspoon of cooking oil when necessary.

Serve galbi with other wrap ingredients at the table, family style. To make each wrap, use kitchen shears to cut away the bones and cut the galbi into small pieces. Spread ssamjang on a vegetable leaf to taste (I like to slather on a lot!), add a few pieces of galbi, and garnish as desired.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Spicy Mandu & Vegetable Soup

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We are all craving comfort foods right now but many soups and stews take hours to prepare. But I partnered with Bibigo USA to come up with something that would give us that warm, comforting feeling for our bellies without that extra time and planning. This recipe includes a quick and versatile spicy broth base that provides plenty of flavor without having to simmer on the stove all day. With the protein component being taken care of using Bibigo’s convenient mandu—their Beef & Vegetable Dumplings are my favorite frozen dumplings!—the soup can be filled out with whatever veggie scraps you have in your fridge. This soup is a great refrigerator cleanout meal! If you want, cut your veggies into cute flowers to transform them into something special!

How to Make Spicy Mandu & Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

2 tbsp Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
4–5 tsp fish sauce
2 tbsp soju or mirin
2–3 tsp gochugaru
2 1/2 cups bone broth or any prepared broth
1/2 large carrot
2 gray squashes
6 cremini mushrooms
2 scallions
6 Bibigo Beef & Vegetable Mandu

Procedure

In a small bowl, combine the Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce, garlic, fish sauce, soju, and gochugaru and mix thoroughly. Set aside.

To prepare the vegetables, slice the carrot into 1/6-inch thick disks. Cut the gray squashes into disks or matchsticks. Slice the scallions on a bias, and set aside the softer green parts for garnish. (Optional: Use a flower-shaped vegetable cutter on the carrot slices. Then use a small paring knife to cut flower designs into the caps of the mushrooms.)

In a small pot, bring the broth up to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and stir in the spicy sauce mixture. Add the whites of the scallions and all the carrot pieces. Simmer for 2 minutes to allow the carrots to become more tender, then add the squash and Bibigo Beef & Vegetable Mandu. After 4 minutes, add the mushrooms. Simmer until mushrooms are tender and mandu are heated through, about 2–3 minutes.

Divide broth, vegetables, and mandu into 2 bowls and garnish with the green scallion slices.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Make Gimbap with Your Veggie Scraps

Gimbap (sometimes spelled kimbap) are Korean rice rolls, usually filled with a combination of fresh and sautéed veggies, and sometimes with egg or marinated meat. They are also a great way to use up random veggie scraps that you might have left over in your fridge from other meals. At a time when we are trying to make the most of the fresh produce we have at home, gimbap is a great way to avoid those miscellaneous veggie odds and ends from going to waste. All you need to do it cut everything in long, thin pieces so they are easy to roll up into your gimbap. CLICK HERE to grab a more detailed recipe that I wrote for my friends at Nomtastic Foods!

Recipe: GoChuJang Chicken Bibimbap with Purple Rice

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This is not your typical bibimbap! This recipe shows how to make a bold, spicy chicken using a convenient sauce from Bibigo USA. In place of the classic bibimbap vegetables are bright spring vegetables that make these bowls colorful and unique. However, this is a great way to use up any vegetable scraps in the fridge. The term bibim is in reference to the mixing of various ingredients, so really, anything goes.

Have you ever had Korean-style purple rice? I think it is so pretty. However, it’s not made from purple rice like you would expect. It’s actually made from cooking regular old white rice with a little bit of black rice (also known as forbidden rice) mixed in. Because of this, you can totally customize your perfect shade of purple based on the amount of black rice you add. I thought a shade of pale lavender would be pretty to go with the spring veggies in these bowls, so this recipe shows how to get that color. But I encourage you to experiment with different amounts of black rice to get the color you like. The most I have done along with 1 scant cup of white rice is 1/4 cup of black rice, which rendered a much more bold shade of purple than the one you see here. Just keep in mind that black rice is harder and cooks a little differently than white jasmine rice, so if you are using a lot of it, you may want to adjust the amount of water you cook it with. (At the same time, if you don’t have black rice in your pantry, you can certainly make this with white rice!)

How to Make Gochujang Chicken Bibimbap with Purple Rice

Ingredients for Purple Rice

1 scant cup jasmine rice
2 tbsp forbidden/black rice

Ingredients for Gochujang Chicken

3 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
3 tbsp Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce, plus extra for serving
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp mirin

Ingredients for Bibimbap Bowls

1/4 cup prepared kimchee
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1 sheet seaweed paper, cut into thin strips
1 watermelon radish, thinly sliced
2 easter egg radishes, thinly sliced
1 cup snap peas, trimmed
1/2 cup microgreens or sprouts
2 eggs

Procedure

To prepare the purple rice, combine both types of rice in the pot of a rice cooker. Rinse the rice thoroughly in cold water and drain completely. Then add 1 1/2 cups of water to the pot. Set the rice to cook in the rice cooker. Then keep warm.

In a small bowl, combine chicken, soy sauce, and cornstarch and toss to combine. Leave in refrigerator for at least 10 minutes.

To make the sauce for the chicken, combine Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang Sauce, sugar, soju, and 2 tablespoons of water and whisk together until sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

Bring a small pot of water to a boil, add snap peas, and blanch for 1 minute. Drain and plunge snap peas in ice cold water to stop the cooking and keep them bright green. Slice snap peas in half on a bias. Set aside.

Heat up a wok on medium heat and add 1/4 cup vegetable oil. Add some of the chicken in a single layer but avoid crowding pieces together. (And be careful, as oil may splatter!) Shallow fry for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes on each side until chicken is golden brown and fully cooked, then remove and set aside. Continue to shallow fry all the chicken in batches. Once all the chicken is cooked, reduce the heat to low, drain the oil from the wok, and carefully pour in the sauce mixture. Once all the sauce becomes bubbly, add the chicken, toss to coat, and stir fry for 2 minutes.

In a skillet, heat up the remaining 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. Fry eggs as desired.

To serve, divide cooked rice into two bowls. Top each with 1 egg, then half of the other prepared ingredients. Serve with extra Bibigo Hot & Sweet Go-Chu-Jang on the side.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Blue Coconut Rice (in Your Rice Cooker)

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Blue rice has a wonderful wow factor visually, but it’s also a pretty typical part of Southeast Asian cuisine. In Malaysia, where my family is from, I associate it with sweet sticky rice desserts called kuih. But I have also seen savory coconut rice in other Southeast Asian dishes sporting this beautiful hue. The color is all natural, and comes from butterfly pea tea, which is just dried butterfly pea flowers. When steeped, they produce a rich royal blue colored liquid, that turns purple/magenta when combined with an acid like lemon juice. I don’t personally find that the tea has much flavor without adding sugar/honey, but it sure is pretty.

It’s really up to you how much tea you want to steep and for how long. Obviously, the darker the tea, the darker and more vibrant the color of your rice will be. The recipe below is just a suggestion; I like to get mine pretty seriously blue, but I also think that dishes like nasi kerabu look beautiful with a pale blue rice.

In San Francisco, I buy my butterfly pea tea from a great grocery co-op called Rainbow Grocery, but I have also seen it available online. If you are unable to find it, you can still make a very easy coconut rice by using regular ol’ water in this recipe.

How to Make Blue Coconut Rice in Your Rice Cooker

Ingredients

1 cup rice*
1/2 cup coconut milk, shaken before measuring
pinch of salt
1 tbsp butterfly pea tea
1 cup+ hot water (a little more than a cup will account for the loss of water absorbed and strained out by the tea)

*Note about measuring rice: Some rice recipes base their measurements on the small plastic cup that comes with many rice cookers. To avoid confusion, this recipe uses the standard U.S. measuring cup, which is about 240 mL.

Procedure

Combine the hot water and tea and allow to steep for at least 15 minutes, or up to overnight. (The rice in the photo at the beginning of this post used tea that was steeped for about 30 minutes.) When ready, strain out your tea flowers and use the liquid only. (You may still be able to get another round of blue liquid with the flowers you strained out, but it won’t have much flavor.)

Thoroughly wash and drain your rice and put it in the pot of your rice cooker. Add your tea, coconut milk, and salt. Stir to combine. Cook your rice as you normally would in your rice cooker. My tiny rice cooker literally only has one setting that says COOK, so that is the setting I use.

When done, fluff your rice with a rice paddle, because who fluffs rice with a fork?

You can use this same rice preparation as a base for my cheater version of mango coconut “sticky” rice! Find the recipe by visiting my friends over at Nomtastic Foods!

Recipe: Steamed Dumplings with Spring Onion Broth

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I partnered with Bibigo USA to develop an elegant, spring-themed way to dress up their Chicken & Vegetable Steamed Dumplings. These dumplings are super convenient and already so presentable with their lovely pleats, so I wanted to come up with a way of serving them that supplemented but didn’t distract from the flavor of the dumplings. I decided to make a broth with springtime alliums—chives, onions, and leeks—celebrating their flavor when they are young, mild, and sweet at this time of year. I was very excited that the chives growing in my backyard had just started to blossom when I shot this recipe! I think their tiny little lavender-colored flowers are so pretty on top of this dish, don’t you?

Note: I developed this recipe before my city, as well as much of the country, adopted stay-at-home protocols for helping to prevent the spread of COVID-19. I acknowledge that fresh produce and specialty ingredients may be less available with minimized grocery store visits, but that dressing up some tasty frozen dumplings may still be very welcomed at this time. Here are some recommended substitutions for ingredients in this recipe:

• If spring onions are unavailable, scallions, also known as green onions, are a good substitute.

• Soju may be replaced by any sweet cooking wine. This ingredient can also be replaced with 1 teaspoon of sugar.

• Any prepared canned or boxed broth may be used for this recipe in place of bone broth.

And speaking of scallions, most store-bought ones still have their roots attached to the bulb, making them very easy to regrow at home. The next time you use some, cut off and reserve about a 2–3 inch piece on the bottom, including the bulb and roots. Place these bottoms in a tall glass and submerge the bulb and roots in water. Give them a little time and sunlight and you’ll see new green shoots start to emerge.

If you have a bit of outdoor space, I also recommend growing your own chives! I bought a little seedling plant maybe 7 years ago or so, when I first started planting vegetables in my backyard, and I have had a constant supply of chives ever since. Because they bloom and the seeds easily self-sow, I’ve had little chive plants pop up all over the place, and they have done really well when transplanted into pots or other parts of the garden. They would do great in a small pot on a sunny balcony, and then in the spring and summer, you’ll have beautiful little flowers to garnish with, too.

How to Make Steamed Dumplings with Spring Onion Broth

Ingredients

4 packages Bibigo Chicken & Vegetable Steamed Dumplings
1 large leak, washed and chopped
3 spring onions, finely sliced
1 shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp soju
2 1/2 cups bone broth
2–3 chives, chopped

Procedure

In a large saucepan on low heat, combine butter, leeks, spring onions, and shallot. Allow to sweat gently for 5 minutes, then add garlic and stir. Cover and sweat for an additional 10 minutes, stirring halfway.

Stir in soju and allow most of the liquid to cook away. Then add bone broth and simmer on low for 15 minutes.

Prepare steamed dumplings according to package instructions.

Divide spring onion broth into 4 shallow bowls. Arrange 6 steamed dumplings in each bowl. Sprinkle chives on top to garnish.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Mushy Peas on Toast

CLICK HERE to grab my recipe at Nomtastic Foods! I’m pretty sure many of us have an old bag of frozen peas lurking in the bottom of our freezers…this recipe transforms them into a vibrant spread. Your home cafe will be cranking out bougie toasts in no time, and you won’t even need avocados!

Recipe: Bulgogi Steak Tacos with Chimichurri & Spicy Pickled Root Veggies

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I love buying heirloom carrots in different colors. They usually are small and come with their beautiful greens still attached. But one thing I have struggled with in the past is what to do with the greens. While I have tried putting them raw in salads, the flavor is a little too earthy for me. I hate to waste food, especially now, when we are all trying to keep our grocery trips limited and make the most of what food we already have in our pantries and fridges. When Bibigo USA challenged me to come up with a no-waste recipe idea for Earth Day, I jumped on the challenge to resolve my carrot conundrum.

Because the texture of the carrot top greens are similar to parsley, I realized that a chimichurri would be an ideal way to use up the greens in a delightfully palatable way. The bold acidity of the vinegar in a chimichurri is just the thing to balance really well with the earthy taste of the carrot top greens. Since chimichurri is usually an accompaniment for steak, I thought steak tacos would be a fun way to use all these ingredients together. This recipe uses carrots and radishes in the form of spicy pickles, their green tops in the form on chimichurri, and steak marinated in Bibigo USA’s convenient bulgogi marinade to make no-waste tacos that are both beautiful and bright in flavor.

How to Make Bulgogi Steak Tacos with Chimichurri & Spicy Pickled Root Veggies

Ingredients for the Steak

1 lb sirloin steak
1/4–1/2 cup Bibigo Original Korean BBQ Sauce
1 tbsp butter

Ingredients for the Pickles

2 radishes
4 small carrots
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
2–3 tsp gochugaru
3/8 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup water, boiling
1/4 cup water, warm
1 tsp sesame oil

Ingredients for the chimichurri

1 cup carrot leaves, washed and dried
1/4 cup radish leaves, washed and dried
1 tsp dried oregano, finely crushed
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp gochugaru
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp good quality olive oil
finely ground black pepper to taste

For serving

10 corn tortillas

Procedure

Divide steak into long chunks, about 2 to 2 1/2 inches wide. Place in a wide dish and add enough Bibigo Original Korean BBQ Sauce to cover the steak. Allow to marinade in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

To prepare the pickles, thinly slice carrots and radishes. Combine carrots and boiling water in a bowl and let stand for 1 minute to allow carrots to soften. Drain. Add warm water, salt, and sugar and stir until salt and sugar have dissolved. Add radish slices, gochugaru, and rice vinegar. Stir to combine and set aside to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

To prepare the chimichurri, chop root vegetable leaves until very fine. Transfer to a bowl and mix in dried oregano, garlic, gochugaru, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Stir in vinegar and olive oil. Set aside and stir thoroughly again before serving.

Drain marinated steak and use a paper towel to pat dry. Heat a cast iron skillet on high. Add butter and swirl to coat skillet. Add steak in a single layer. Allow steak to cook undisturbed on one side and then flip and cook to desired doneness on the other side (2 1/2 to 3 minutes on each side for medium rare). Transfer to a grooved cutting board and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

While steak is resting, drain liquid from pickles and add sesame oil. Toss to combine.

Heat corn tortillas in a dry skillet or over a gas burner until edges are lightly charred. Transfer to a tortilla warmer or basket with a damp cloth.

Slice rested steak into thin slices against the grain. To assemble tacos, place about 5 pieces of steak on each tortilla, add a small spoon of pickles, and drizzle chimichurri on top.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Toffee Bars

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My mom used to make toffee bars from an old Betty Crocker cookbook as part of her big Christmas cookie bakes, and being a child of sophisticated tastes, they were the ones I looked forward to the most. I never knew why they were called “toffee bars” though? The crust tastes like brown sugar shortbread because that is basically what it is.

While sheltering-in-place I’ve been baking a ton, but because it’s just me and my spouse (happily) trapped here together, I have been adapting recipes to produce smaller amounts. I took one third of the old recipe and swapped out the egg for Greek yogurt to make the right amount for baking inside a loaf pan.

The original recipe, as my mom used to make it, called for a topping of chopped walnuts. But I find that flakey salt is the way to go if you are gonna top a slab of melted dark chocolate with anything. Because I had some edible flowers that I’d purchased from the farmers market, plus more growing in my own back yard, I decided to add some of those plus some bee pollen to really dress these up. This ingredients have minimal impact on the taste, and are entirely optional. Just don’t skimp on the flakey salt.

This recipe was adapted from Betty Crocker.

How to Make Toffee Bars

Ingredients for Toffee Bars

1/3 cup butter, softened at room temperature
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 tsp plain Greek yogurt
2/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks*

Toppings

flakey salt
bee pollen
food-safe flower petals

* You could also chop up a baking bar or use chocolate chips. The less stabilizers in your chocolate product, the better it will melt.

Procedure

Cut a strip of parchment paper to match the width of your loaf pan and use it to line the pan lengthwise, allowing the excess to hang over the top. (While the pastry does not really stick after baking, it is helpful to have this as handles for lifting it out of the pan.)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine butter, brown sugar, vanilla, Greek yogurt, and salt in a mixing bowl and cream until smooth. Mix in flour. Press into the loaf pan in a smooth layer. (I like to place a piece of wax paper over it and use the back of a spoon to smooth it out.)

Bake for 25–30 minutes until golden brown but still soft. Immediately sprinkle chocolate on top and allow it to start melting. Spread the chocolate evenly.

Sprinkle flakey salt and other toppings, if using, evenly over the chocolate. Allow chocolate to set for at least 30 minutes before lifting out of the pan, and then allow the chocolate to fully set and cool (about 2 hours at room temperature) before cutting into bars with a large knife.

Recipe: Dalgona Mocha

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Dalgona coffee is everywhere on Instagram and TikTok right now, and while it makes me feel a little like a sheep to have jumped on the trend, I also prefer to have a more warm and fuzzy perspective on it. From what I understand, this style of coffee first became popular in South Korea when people self-quarantining were looking for a way to capture Seoul’s wonderful cafe culture while not being able to leave their homes. While friends and loved ones can’t grab a cup of coffee together to socialize at the moment, I like thinking about how the explosion of dalonga coffee on social media means we are all having coffee together in a way.

The recipe for dalgona coffee is super easy to remember: equal parts of hot water, instant coffee granules, and sugar in a bowl, and then whisk the crap out of it and serve it on milk. But the other day I swapped out a little bit of the coffee granules for unsweetened cocoa powder to make a mocha version, and got several DMs about the proportions I used, so I figured I may as well make a blog post about it. The tiny amount of cocoa was enough to really change the flavor, even for my spouse who doesn’t like coffee and has the weakest sense of taste of anyone I’ve met.

Happy whisking!

How to Make Dalgona Mochas

This recipe makes 2 drinks with a generous amount of whipped coffee foam, piled high for the ‘gram.

Ingredients

3 1/2 tbsp instant coffee granules
1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
4 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp boiling water
12 oz milk (I used full fat oat milk)
extra unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting, optional

Procedure

Combine instant coffee, cocoa powder, sugar, and water in a bowl that is roomy enough for some major whisking action.

Using an electric hand mixer, whisk the ingredients together, working your way up to the highest setting and rotating the bowl as you go, until everything is a homogenous foam with medium-stiff peaks. (I do not recommend a stand mixer, which has trouble when the volume of ingredients is so small. You could certainly do this manually with a regular whisk but you will be whisking a very long time to get the texture seen in these photos.)

Divide the milk of your choice into two small glasses and top with the whipped mocha foam. Dust a little extra cocoa powder on top. Take several dozen photos, then enjoy!

Recipe: Honey Butter Shrimp & Garlic Fried Rice

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We all know that you have to use leftover rice for fried rice in order to avoid a soggy, sticky disaster, right? This is great if you already have leftover rice lying around, but what about those spontaneous fried rice cravings? What kind of comfort food recipe expects you to plan for those cravings the night before? Not this one! When Bibigo USA asked me to develop a recipe for them using their Bibigo Cooked Sticky White Rice, I was honestly thrilled to learn that this product existed because it meant being able to make fried rice on the fly, no planning required! While I (like everyone else, probably) grew up on that fried rice with the frozen peas and carrot cubes tossed in, my adult palette has been loving a simple garlic fried rice—heavy on the garlic!—topped with some sort of delicious protein.

The inspiration for my honey butter shrimp comes from a couple different places. First, those big, buttery, succulent shrimp from Hawaiian shrimp trucks; the experience of indulging in something so luxurious whilst eating out of a takeout container in a car left a lasting impression that I needed to be able to replicate that experience in the comfort of my own home. And second, after seeing honey butter flavored EVERYTHING in South Korea—from almonds to potato chips to a dipping sauce for KFC—pairing it with shrimp seemed like a no-brainer.

The recipe below is for one hefty serving but can easily be multiplied. Just be sure to not overcrowd the pan for your shrimp. Allowing space for the shrimp to crisp up in their potato starch dusting is important to achieve that North Shore shrimp truck goodness.

How to Make Honey Butter Shrimp & Garlic Fried Rice

Ingredients for Honey Butter Shrimp

8 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/6 cup potato starch
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp gochugaru
salt to taste

Ingredients for Garlic Fried Rice

1 package Bibigo Cooked Sticky White Rice
2–3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tbsp butter
1 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
salt to taste

For garnish

1 tbsp chopped cilantro
lemon wedges

Procedure

Open package of Bibigo Cooked Sticky White Rice according to package directions and microwave for 30 seconds. Fully remove lid and set aside.

In a large, shallow bowl, combine potato starch and pinch of salt. Add shrimp and toss together until shrimp are fully coated. Refrigerate until ready to cook.

Heat wok on medium-low heat. Add garlic and butter and stir continuously, cooking garlic until golden brown, about 3–4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Increase heat to high and add oil to wok. Add Bibigo Cooked Sticky White Rice, soy sauce, and salt to taste. Stir-fry for 6–7 minutes. Add butter and garlic mixture, stir to combine, then fry for an additional 1–2 minutes. Remove from heat.

In a small bowl, microwave butter for 15 seconds, or until just melted. Whisk in honey, sugar, gochugaru, and salt to taste. 

Heat oil in a non-stick skillet on medium-high heat. Fry shrimp in a single layer for about 2 minutes on each side, or until golden. Turn off heat and drain any excess oil. Add honey butter sauce and toss to coat shrimp.

To serve, plate fried rice and add shrimp on top. Sprinkle cilantro and garnish with lemon wedges on the side.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!

Recipe: Pantry Puttanesca

CLICK HERE to visit my friends over at Nomtastic Foods and get my recipe for this pasta alla puttanesca. Right now, we are all looking for ways to reduce our time outside of the house and #stayhome to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This recipe utilizes flavorful ingredients that come in cans and jars to make a hearty pasta dinner.