Bibim Nengmyun (Gochujang Buckwheat Noodles)

Unless this is your very first visit to the blog, you know we are spicy food eaters.  I'm pretty sure sriracha has replaced ketchup in my regular diet (yes, it's all I put on my hot dogs), and the Monkey Scientist believes salt and pepper means salt and crushed red pepper flakes.  When the roommate and I were at HMart, the women handing out samples warned us a few times that we should be careful because whatever they were giving us was very spicy.  We disagreed.

I say all of this as a warning.  This dish was barely more than spaghetti and marinara sauce in our house, but our house is clearly not the norm.  If you hate spicy food switch on over to this post. And just ignore all that crushed red pepper....



One thing I love about Asian foods is the variety and intensity of the spiciness they offer.  Korean foods in particular have great flavor even in the spiciest ingredients.  Whenever we go to the Asian market, we have to pick up a container of gochujang.  This time, I learned something new about gochujang!  It is rated in terms of spice where the higher number is spicier.  Gochujang rated 1-2 is mild, 3 is medium, 4 is hot, and 5 is "burn your face off" hot.  Or at least I think that's what this label was trying to tell me.  We picked up a 3 and a 5 (the latter for the Monkey Scientist, of course).  We don't actually buy this brand, despite their amazing graphic design.  We buy Sunchang because the woman at HMart told us it's the best (and some others seem to agree).



I liked this dish because I thought it would be a good way to test out the difference between the gochujang rated a 3 vs the 5.  Honestly, I was terrified of the 5 at first.  The picture on the jar doesn't have eyes anymore!  But it actually wasn't that bad.  At first, I don't think there is even a difference between the 3 and 5, but once it hits your mouth the 5 does create a tingle.  I definitely burns a little bit, but it's also sort of just like a really pungent half sour pickle.  For every day, the 3 is just fine, but I'm ok with keeping the 5 in the house as well.

The dish itself is...interesting.  Which I know was what my great grandmother said about things she didn't like, but that's not what I mean at all.  I wouldn't say it was my favorite thing I've made recently, but it was a nice change of pace to what we usually eat and was super simple to throw together.  It's a cold noodle dish, which I'm not very accustomed to making.  I like the cold of the noodles contrasted with the heat from the gochujang. The tobiko on top added a nice bite that I enjoyed a lot.  The original recipe was served with a hard boiled egg, but that did not sound up my alley at all. Otherwise, the recipe itself was very good!



BiBim Nengmyun (Gochujang Buckwheat Noodles)
slightly adapted from spoon fork bacon

Ingredients
8 ounces Korean-style buckwheat noodles
1/3 cup gochujang
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 ½ tablespoon low sodium soy sauce or tamari
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
garnish:
1 tbsp tobiko (flying fish roe)
¼ small hothouse cucumber, julienne

Instructions
1. Cook the buckwheat noodles according to package instructions.  Rinse in a colander under cold water until the noodles are cool.
2. Combine the gochujang, sugar, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and sesame seeds in a small bowl and whisk until smooth.  The gochujang will be thick at first, but just keep whisking!
3. Pour the sauce over the noodles and stir to coat.  Garnish with tobiko and julienned cucumber.

What we had for dinner this week

OK I'm still behind on blogging.  I have no pretty pictures for you.  But I wanted to share the recipes we made this week to give you cooking inspiration!

Sunday night: Bibimbop from Cooking Light  We used steak instead of tofu (the Monkey Scientist is from the Midwest, I can't just be feeding him tofu!).  Bibimbop is my favorite Korean dish.  My favorite is from Kang's in Ann Arbor - I love how the hot stone makes the rice at the bottom crispy.  This recipe simulated it well by crisping up the rice in the cast iron skillet.  Lots of wonderful Asian flavors.

Monday night: Roasted Chicken with Red-Skinned Potatoes and Carrots
Washed a 5 1/2 lb chicken, covered in olive oil, chicken seasoning from the Christmas Tree Shop, and freshly ground black pepper, inside and out. Stuffed it with a lemon, cut in half.  Filled a dish with quartered potatoes and carrots (did nothing else to them beside clean and cut) and then put the chicken on top.  Baked at 475 for 25 minutes and then at 400 for 45 minutes.  I cooked it breast-side up for the first 45 minutes and then flipped it for the last 25.  Perfection, and still eating leftovers for lunch.

Tuesday night: We ate at Tesoro in Van Ness.  Not overly impressed.

Wednesday night: Spicy Chicken Thighs with Cucumber Avocado Salsa from Cookin' Canuck  - I'm now completely obsessed with this recipe.  Took 15 minutes to throw together, including cooking time, and tastes AMAZING.  The ancho chili powder (which I got at World Market) and cumin have almost a cinnamon-like spice to them.  The honey in the salsa is the perfect amount of sweetness and the lime gives just the right tang.  I loved the load of vegetables on top of the chicken - I didn't even need to make a grain to fill us up.  We made it on a cookie sheet with sprayed with olive oil rather than a rack and it was fine.  Definitely give this one a try!

Thursday night:  BBQ night!  Our friends have been organizing barbecues every Thursday at my apartment building.  This week I'm bringing Peanut Butter Cup S'mores Bars from Mel's Sweet Life.  The assembly wasn't so easy (forming that last bit into an 8x8 square? All I had was crumbs.)  But they've been sitting on my counter overnight and I'm quite confident they'll be delicious.

Hopefully I can get you some full recipes and pics over the weekend... I will do my best!

Dak Bokkeum with Spinach (Korean Stewed Chicken with Spinach)

About a year ago, my coworker took me on a trip up to Maryland for what we called "Coworker's Without Cars Day".  It was my first trip ever to H-Mart and I was so excited to find all of the Asian ingredients I couldn't get at my local grocery store.  One of those ingredients was gochujang, a fermented Korean chile sauce.  Of course, being the klutz that I am, I dumped an entire container of gochujang on my foot while we were in the store and made quite the scene.  I was cleaning it out of my flip flop for months.



Despite the scene, I never got around using the gochujang until now! I know - a total shame and I had promised a recipe last April that I never got around to making.  My gochujang actually technically expired since then, but I looked online and there seems to be some consensus that this stuff never really expires and the date on the back is more a "best by" date (had to look online, all of the description around the date was in Korean).  The top layer did turn a little bit brown rather than bright red, but it tasted fine and we didn't get sick so it seemed good to me.



When you go to buy this, there is a huge aisle of H-Mart with different heat intensities of gochujang. It comes in a rectangular red tupperware and on the back right upper corner it will say gochujang in English in itsy bitsy font and it should say in English just how spicy it is. I think mine is the regular spice level and it was very spicy!  For those of you without an H-Mart or other Asian market, I hear a rumor that Annie Chung has a version of gochujang that's sold in regular grocery stores, though I've yet to see it.  Or, if you live in DC, they actually sell it at Tenley Mini Market, oddly enough.  Not exactly what you expect to see in a liquor store but they have it!



With all of this talk about gochujang, you probably want to know if it's worth it, right?  Man, oh man is it worth it.  This is one of my favorite recipes I've made in a long time and the whole time I was eating it I kept remarking to the Monkey Scientist how much I enjoyed it.  If you cook Asian food frequently, you might even have everything you need at home already so you can make this tonight.  You make the whole dish in basically one pot (and your rice cooker) which makes for fairly easy clean up.  The dish doesn't even need to be babysat while it cooks - you just throw it in and walk away.  That's my favorite kind of meal to make!  And the taste is out of this world! It's got a hefty spice level (the Monkey Scientist barely added any sriracha on top) and is packed with flavor.  It's super filling and healthy (just make sure you trim the fat off of the chicken thighs) as well!  It's a total win-win-win dinner - the two of us couldn't praise it enough.



Dak Bokkeum with Spinach
Korean Stewed Chicken with Spinach
from Cooking Light

Ingredients
1/3 cup gochujang (Korean chile sauce)
1/4 cup (1/2-inch) slices green onion bottoms
2 1/2 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
2 tablespoons minced peeled ginger
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1/2-inch strips
1 1/2 cups uncooked short-grain white rice (sushi rice)
1 1/2 cups water
1/3 cup water
3/4 cup (1 1/2-inch) slices green onion tops
1 (5-ounce) bag fresh baby spinach
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Instructions
1. In a large bowl, combine gochujang, green onion bottoms, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, brown sugar, and crushed red pepper. Add in strips of chicken thighs, cover, and put in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
2. Place the rice in a mesh strainer. Fill a large bowl with cold water and place the mesh strainer in the water so that the water covers the rice. Stir the rice gently and then remove from water. The water will be milky. Drain water and then repeat 2-3 times until the water comes out nearly clear.
3. Cook the rice with 1 1/2 cups water in a rice cooker. If you don't have a rice cooker, place water and rice in a pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cover and allow to cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 20 minutes. (I actually added a pinch of sea salt to my rice cooker as well.)
4. While the rice is cooking, add 1/3 cup water to a dutch oven and bring to a boil. Add the chicken mixture and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat, cover, and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Uncover and allow to simmer for an additional 10 minutes or until the mixture reduces, stirring occasionally.
6. Remove from heat. Stir in green onion tops and spinach and allow the spinach to wilt. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over the rice.