Saturday, 17 December 2011

Pork Bone Soup a la Maangchi

Maangchi - I've spent hours analyzing her blog, her korean dishes, her videos,  her Gamjatang - Pork Bone Soup hits a craving cord.  Struck was I in wanting to try her recipe.  Struck was I, who lived no where near a korean grocery.  Struck was I who waited so long to be able to make her recipe.  Struck was I who one time went into H-Mart (korean grocery) and found they ran out of pork bones!!  Sadden and depleted, I waited and waited for another few weeks.  Until finally, upon another trip to H-Mart, they had full stock of pork bones! I strucked gold!! The excitement I felt running around the grocery, piling our basket full of ingredients needed to make Gamjatang!. Sesame leaves! Sprouts! Perilla powder! Oh the fun I was going to have the next day making this!

I remember this day clearly.  It was a Friday night.  A night where I am usually exhausted from a full week's of work and commuting, I was exhilarated! Just before we left to go out for dinner, I soaked those pork bones in water, letting time extracted the unwanted, irony blood. 
After we came back from dinner, I  rolled up my sleeves, cleaned all ingredients  and followed Maangchi's instructions step by step.
http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/gamjatang

Now imagine my excitement throughout this making of Gamjatang to realize in the end, when my Mr. tried it, I made it too spicy!!!  It still tasted like Pork Bone Soup mind you but apparently it was too spicy to really enjoy the flavour of the soup! Let's clarify this point, amongst our friends, ppl we know, we can tolerate alot of spice as compared to them, so when I say this soup was too spicy... it was too spicy!  But we ate it regardless! 

After analyzing what I must have done differently than Maangchi, I realized several things.  I brought the wrong soybean paste, (i brought the seasoned soybean paste instead of the regular, straight up soybean paste) add more red pepper power than asked for, add extra dried chili in stock.  I've learnt my lesson.  Never under estimate Maangchi.  :)
The following are my photos as I attempted the Gamjatang.
Vegetables - washed and cut up

Prep for stock base

Ingredients needed to make paste

Paste and Maangchi :)

Stock simmering

Pasted added to stock

Vegetables added to stock

Final dish ! (spicy!)

The Ultimate no beans Chili Stew

         Yes I have been neglectful of this blog. Its been two months since the last post and I absolutely have no excuses.  I mean, I've been cooking day after day. I have been taking really rough photos as I go along.  See, THAT's the easy part! But having to archive dishes onto this blog, requires extra time.. which lets face it.....not alot of us have! So, for the sake of time, I shall post up several dishes today.
        I delicate this post to all those chili lovers who constantly complain there are way too much beans in chili stews.  Guilty has charged, my mr. and I are the complainers.  Yes, we know beans are relatively inexpensive, mostly used as a filler to extend the stew for extra health benefits, but there is only so much beans we can take in one sitting!  We've had many chili stews from restaurants, fast food chains and consistently, there is a 6:1 ratio of beans to meat.  Lets face it, its the MEAT that provides the flavour of the stew! So after some research, I've settle on a recipe I found through a blogger "Lick My Spoon."  After the first time following her recipe, I have altered the recipe to make it spicier and of course, I omitted the beans.:)
Chili Stew after simmering.
The no beans Chili Stew
Ingredients:
3.5 - 4 pounds of ground meat; beef & spicy Italian sausage without casing (your choice to mix other meats too:)
10-13slices of applewood bacon - diced
1 & 1/2 carrot, 1 large Spanish onion - grated
6-7 cloves of garlic - diced
4 roasted sweet red peppers (I used the ones in store brought jars for convenience)
7 whole roasted jalapenos
1 796ml can of tomatoes (san la marazano brand:))
1 796ml can of homemade tomato sauce (you can find a recipe of the homemade italian tomato sauce on my blog, just omit the meatballs)
approximately 1/4cup ketchup
2 tsp of chili powder (optional)
3-4tbsp of sugar, worcestershire sauce, sriracha hot sauce & dark melted chocolate
if you just happen to have some rind of parmesan cheese left, throw it into the pot, if not, don't sweat it :)

Directions:
1.  Have a large pot where you will be stewing the chili ready.  In a separate pan, on medium heat, cook your meats separately until brown.  Place cooked, brown meat into large pot.
2.  While your meat is cooking, roasted your jalapenos and set aside.  grate your carrots, onions; set aside.
3.  Once all the meat has been cooked, saute your carrots, onions and garlic separately until almost cooked.  By cooking each item separately before combining into a huge pot is that the flavour will retain itself and add dimension to the overall dish. (Something I learnt from Korean cooking.:) )
4.  Once all items above are combined into the large pot, cut off the stems of the jalapenos and puree in the food processor along with the roasted red peppers.  Add this paste into the large pot and mix everything together.
5.  Now to heat to medium high and begin to add the tomato sauce, can of tomatoes, sugar, ketchup, worcestershire sauce, sriracha hot sauce, melted dark chocolate & the optional chili powder and or parmesan rind
6.  Mix well add a little bit of water if necessary.  Once stew begins to bubble, turn down heat to low and simmer for 4hrs.

The best way to eat this is ... if you have any patience... leave it overnight in the fridge.  The next day, heat it up and trust me, it will taste mighty good than if you were to have this right after simmering for 4hrs.   Below are some photos I took along the way. This may help you.! Enjoy!!!


Saute your meats :)
All ingredients in pot:)

vegetables added :)


Homemade sauce

add your can of tomatoes!

melted chocolate yummm.

ALL ingredients mixed prior to simmering.