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Traditional Korean Recipes

FoodMainsPasta and NoodlesTraditional Korean Recipes

Creamy Vegan Ramen Noodles

I love ramen noodles or “lah-myun” in Korean. My father would make Shin lah-myun (a very popular kind of lah-myun) every Sunday morning, like clockwork. I would wake up to the mouthwateringly spicy scent of it wafting up all the way from the kitchen right up to my bedroom.

There’s currently a ramen “hack” gaining popularity in TikTok where you add an egg, some mayo, and the soup packet into a bowl and cook this “base” with the ramen noodles to create creamy ramen. And while it looks interesting, it’s definitely not vegan. It did put me in the mood for creamy ramen noodles, though, which is why I decided to create my own version.

I used two things to create the creamy consistency–Korean soy milk and doenjang (fermented soybean paste). I love Korean soy milk or “dooyoo,” as it imparts a nuttier and sweeter flavor than its Western counterparts. Doenjang also provides both creaminess and intense flavor. Add a little big of soy sauce and we are off to the races when it comes to fancifying this otherwise humble lah-myun dish. I also packed in a heap of my favorite veggies–carrots, onions, zucchini, and cabbage, to give it extra heartiness. Cause, you know, my least favorite thing about lah-myun is how it never makes you feel full.

Creamy Vegan Ramen Noodles

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2 people

Ingredients
  

Instructions
 

  • Add both olive oil and sesame oil to a large, deep pan over medium high heat. Add the packet of soup base to the pan and begin stirring, to ensure the spices do not burn, for 1 minute.
  • Add the onions, mushrooms, garlic, and doenjang and stir until the vegetables are coated. Deglaze the pan with the soy sauce and then add water.
  • Add the soy milk and stir.
  • Next, add the ramen noodles, together with the carrots, cabbage, zucchini, corn, and dumplings.
  • Add the silken tofu and break up with a spoon.
  • Cook until the noodles are done, stirring as necessary, around 4 to 5 minutes. Garnish with gyerranmari slices, chili, and scallion.
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Traditional Korean Recipes

Budae Chigae

Budae Chigae used to be one of my all time favorite things to order at a local Korean bar. I genuinely believe that Korean bars make the most delicious Korean food. The BEST kimchi chigae, the BEST tteokbokki, and the BEST budae chigae.

For me, the challenge was trying to come up with a way to recreate the spicy, salty, umami packed broth, and I decided to just blend up a bunch of spices in my spice rack. Of course, if you’re not a snob, you can also just use the spice packet that comes with the ramen noodles we add at the end, lol. But, tbh, some ppl are not comfortable using a spice packet without really knowing what’s in them, so that’s why I came up with my own! And I’m pretty darn proud of it!

Budae Chigae is known to be meat heavy. I threw in some Field Roast sausage for that part. Anyway, it’s pretty spicy, so make sure to have a glass of water handy when you eat this. Also, you should probably eat it with rice (that’s how we ate it).

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Gluten FreeMainsTraditional Korean Recipes

EZ No Chop Kimchi Fried Rice

It’s been very cold and very busy in my household these days. This means I’m usually dead tired by the time dinner rolls around and I don’t want to spend a lot of time chopping and prepping vegetables. In these situations, my favorite thing in the world is making fried rice. It’s so easy, takes so much guesswork out of cooking, and your friendly frozen vegetables become a LIFELINE to a home-cooked meal that you can be proud of (while stuffing your face).

Instead of using a knife, I use kitchen shears to cut up my kimchi into bite-sized pieces. Kitchen shears are a main-stay in Korean kitchens. Korean ahjuhmahs use them for cutting up kimchi (as pictured), scallions (as we do in this recipe), and overlong noodles that are not easily slurpable. I once got a nasty comment on my Instagram about using kitchen shears to cut up my pajeon and it was clear the person was not very familiar with Korean dining etiquette (her loss).

The sauce is also a no brainer. Literally two ingredients: soy sauce and gochujang. You can keep this entire recipe gluten free by using gluten free soy sauce and gluten free gochujang. I make it in advance so that I can add it at the end, without any fuss.

Anyhow, I made this earlier today and had to stop myself from eating the whole panful of it before I shared any with my husband it was so so so so good. It’s truly so easy there’s no excuse not to try!!

EZ No Chop Kimchi Fried Rice

5 from 3 votes
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2 people

Ingredients
  

Instructions
 

  • Using kitchen shears, cut up your kimchi (if you want).
  • Make the sauce by mixing together gochujang and soy sauce.
  • Add 1 tbsp of sesame oil and 1/2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil to a non-stick pan over medium high heat. When the oil begins to shimmer, add the kimchi. Cook for about 2 minutes, until kimchi starts to change color (gets lighter).
  • Add frozen vegetables. Cook for about 1 minute. Then, create a well in the center of your cooked veggies and add the liquid egg replacer.
  • Allow the egg to cook a little, and then begin to scramble them within the well.
  • Incorporate the scrambled egg into the rest of your vegetables and cook for about 2 minutes (until the egg is cooked). Create another well in the center of your vegetables and add 1/2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. Add 2 cups of cooked rice.
  • Cook the rice in the well for about 1 minute. Then begin mixing together with the vegetables. Cook for about 1 additional minute. Then add sauce.
  • Add scallion greens, sesame seeds, and sesame oil. Mix together before eating.
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FoodGluten FreeTraditional Korean Recipes

Rainbow Jeon (Pancake)

I love cabbage, carrots, green onions, and, of course, the potato. I decided to make a pancake out of them (which you can make GF by using GF flour and GF soy sauce). I call this “Rainbow Jeon” because of how colorful they turned out. And I love the idea of cutting them up into little rectangles, because they remind me of those small mini-sandwiches you get when you go to those fancy afternoon teas.

You don’t need a dipping sauce for these either. The batter is infused with garlic powder, onion powder, and soy sauce, making each bite a massive umami bomb.

I don’t really have much more to say about this recipe (I’m such a terrible blogger), so I’ll leave you to it. Make this. You will love it. My husband ate the whole thing by himself.

Rainbow Jeon (Pancakes)

5 from 3 votes
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4 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 1 jalapeno, seeded and sliced
  • 1 russet potato, julienned
  • 1 large carrot, julienned
  • 4 leaves red cabbage, julienned
  • 4 green onions, chopped
  • 1/2 cup JUSTEgg (or plant milk)
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/4 cup flour (can substitute in GF flour)
  • 2 tbsp potato starch
  • 1 tbsp garlic powder
  • 1 tbsp onion powder
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp oil, for frying
  • 1 tbsp black sesame seeds halved

Instructions
 

  • After chopping up all the vegetables, add them to a large bowl.
  • Add the liquid egg replacer (or plant milk), together with the flour, potato starch, salt, pepper, onion, powder, and garlic powder. Add soy sauce and mix everything together.
  • In a medium non-stick pan, add oil over medium high heat. When the oil begins to shimmer, pour the entire contents of the bowl into the pan.
  • Cook for about 3 minutes, until the underside is golden brown. Flip using a large spatula. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cook for an additional 2 minutes and then flip once more.
  • Cook for 1 more minute and then remove from the pan. Cut into rectangular pieces.
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EntreesFoodMainsTraditional Korean Recipes

Egg Sushi

I pulled out my eyebrow pencil and began filling in my grandmother’s brows. It was graduation day—after 3 years of law school, I was finally graduating.  I was wearing a brand new Anne Taylor suit in all white and strappy white heels. But, Hahlmuhnee also wore her very best—a gold and Burgundy hambok, and though she didn’t ask, I knew she wanted my help with her makeup. My grandmother was born in a small village in North Korea. She never had any formal eduction. She married my grandfather, who was a poor farmer and then the Korean War happened. They became refugees. Eventually, through my mother, hahlmuhnee immigrated to the United States. Even though she never said it, she was so proud of me. At my college graduation, as I passed her in the audience to receive my diploma, she got up out of her seat and stopped me to shake my hand. After my law school ceremony, many came up to me to tell me, “Your grandmother is so beautiful!” Looking at my grandmother in her hanbok, I realized that it was as much her graduation day, as it was mine.

My husband is OBSESSED with JUSTEgg. And I’m not going to lie–having a chicken egg alternative has dramatically expanded my culinary world. There are soooooo many dishes from my childhood that became immediately accessible due to this mung-bean bit of genius. These Egg Sushi or tamago nigiri definitely bring me back to my mother’s kitchen or all those Japanese restaurants I used to go to with my family.

Quick Tips

  • Cool the rice a bit before you try to shape it. Otherwise, you will not only burn your hands, but you will have a hard time keeping the rice from sticking. You may even want to wet your hands a little to avoid the sticky rice situation.
  • You absolutely need to use a non-stick pan to make the gyerranmari (Korean word for omelet, but also known as tamago, in Japanese). If you try using any other pan–particularly if this is you’re first time trying this technique–you will get very frustrated.
  • You do NOT need to use a square pan; however, you do want to use a smaller pan, so achieve similar dimensions. Just slice off the ends (which won’t be as neat as when you use a square pan) and eat them, instead of using them for your nigiri.
  • You will also want to cool, slightly, the gyerranmari before slicing into it. Otherwise, the cheese will completely ooze right out and it will be too hot to handle.

Egg Sushi

5 from 2 votes
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Ingredients
  

Instructions
 

  • Add mirin and rice wine vinegar to rice and mix to incorporate.
  • Shape the rice into ovals, about the length of an egg, but not as wide.
  • Cut approximately 10 strips of roasted nori, each roughly 1/3 inch thick.
  • Add carrots, scallions, jalapeno, salt, and pepper to JUSTEgg and stir. Add oil to a nonstick pan (see notes below) over medium heat and pour approximately 1/2 of the mixture. Add 1/3 of a slice of cheese.
  • Once the JUSTEgg is nearly cooked, begin curling it (watch the video). When it is fully rolled up, push the roll back to the other end of the pan (the end you started rolling).
  • Pour 1/2 of the remaining amount of JUSTEgg mixture and repeat (i.e., add cheese, roll, and push back).
  • Pour the remaining amount of JUSTEgg mixture and repeat.
  • Slice the omelet into 1/4 inch slices. Place them on top of the rice ovals you made earlier in the recipe. Wrap them with the strips of nori.

Notes

For a list of my favorite pots, pans, and other stovetop items, including the pan I used for this recipe, check out “Stuff I Love: On the Stovetop“!
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MainsTraditional Korean Recipes

Yubuchobap

I don’t believe in soulmates. Or, love at first sight. I don’t believe in swooning or spooning, excessive employment of the words “love” or “need” or “passion.”  I believe in hard work. I believe in discipline, even in love—especially, in love.  I believe in being on time, picking up the tab, sending flowers to someone whose mother is sick, being quiet and listening even when it’s your turn to talk.  I believe that chance encounters only offer us a chance to be kind, because kindness is the most importantly underrated thing.  I believe in forgiveness, in peeling back the skin and taking a real good look at the wounds resting beneath the surface, because it’s so goddamn critical to understand the pain of the earth. I believe in the way he held my hand last night when I had a nightmare until I fell back asleep, the way my poodle shakes her butt when I come home until I kiss her nose, I believe in the traffic lights that slip into my bedroom at 3 in the morning because they tell me, quite desperately, that the world is too large to be alone.

Believe it or a not, the above is a shortened version of my OkCupid profile–the same one that lured my now husband to message me and ask me out on a date. I made these yubuchobap while my husband was out running, because I figured with all the rice and the tofu, it’s sort of the perfect post-run meal. I suppose the fact that he scarfed them down in less than 3 minutes is proof that he enjoyed them!

Quick Tips

  • Make sure to adequately cool the rice before you try to start shaping them into balls. If you don’t, you’ll not only burn your hands, but the rice will be too sticky to shape.
  • Speaking of sticky, keep a bowl of water nearby so that you can wet your hands to avoid having the rice stick to them throughout this process.

Yubuchobap

5 from 1 vote
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2 people

Ingredients
  

Instructions
 

  • Add olive oil to a large saute pan. When the oil is hot, add the frozen vegetables, together with some salt and pepper.
  • When the vegetables are soft, add the JUSTEgg and begin scrambling until eggs are cooked (around 2 minutes).
  • In a separate large bowl, add cooked rice, together with mirin and rice vinegar, as well as the scrambled eggs, and both kinds of toasted sesame seeds.
  • Place the rice in the refrigerator until it has cooled enough to handle. Then, roll the rice into golf balls.
  • Stuff the rice balls into the tofu pockets. Sprinkle with additional sesame seeds before serving.
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MainsTraditional Korean Recipes

Steamed Kimchi Buns

One of the best parts of going to HMart when it first opened its doors here in Illinois was undoubtedly the Korean food court. In place of Sbarro’s and Panda Express were diminutive eateries advertising Jjajangmyun and Kimbap. It was like Korean food HEAVEN. There were so many choice, but for me, I started very meal at the food court with Steamed Buns. There was a beautiful dumpling (“mandoo”) shop at the far end of the food court, and while my brother and cousins lingered by the noodle restaurant or the bakery, I always made a beeline for the dumplings.

steamed buns on plate

I went back after going vegan and of course, was sad to learn that I could no longer enjoy their buns. So, I decided it was high time to make my own and the results were GLORIOUS.

Now, not gonna lie—this is a labor intensive recipe. You will spend a couple hours putting these babies together, but you get a total of 16 buns and they will taste so delicious, you’ll wonder why you never bothered trying this before. At least, that was the reaction I had. What is they say? Necessity is the mother of all invention?

Here are a few tips to make this recipe really come together for you:

  • Use ingredients YOU like for your filling, but be mindful of excessive moisture. You don’t want a totally SOGGY filling. That is why we press the tofu, here.
  • Adding a tablespoon of soup (or light) soy sauce really brings the flavors alive in your filling.
  • Use a food processor on the vegetables, saving your poor hand and wrists from carpal tunnel.
  • Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough into discs (I had a huge one, but a nice small one would be perfect)—the thinner they are, the harder they will be to fill without tearing, BUT, the more delicious they will be!
steamed bun

Steamed Kimchi Buns

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16

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup warm water
  • 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
  • salt
  • pepper
  • 1 16 ounce block extra firm tofu pressed
  • 1 teaspoon plus 1 Tablepsoon sesame oil
  • 5-6 cloves garlic just peeled
  • 1 shallot (or 1/4 onion) chopped
  • 1 carrot chopped
  • 5-6 mushrooms chopped
  • 1 potato chopped
  • 2-3 leaves red cabbage chopped
  • 3 whole scallions chopped
  • 1/2 cup kimchi
  • 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 Tablespoon soup (light) soy sauce
  • 1 cup vermicelli noodles cooked

Instructions
 

  • Add the yeast and sugar to the cup of hot water and set it aside to “proof.”
  • Add the flour, vegetable oil, and a pinch of salt to a large bowl. Next, add the proofed yeast mixture and begin stirring everything with a wooden spoon (or your hands) until a dough forms.
  • Knead the dough for approximately 5 minutes. Shape it into a smooth ball. Add a teaspoon of sesame oil to the bottom of your bowl and place the dough ball in the bowl and cover it with a towel. Set it aside in a warm place for approximately 1 hour, until the dough doubles in size.
  • In the meantime, add 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and 1 tablespoon of sesame oil to a large pan. When the oils are hot, add the garlic, shallot, carrot, mushrooms, potato, cabbage, scallions, and kimchi to the pan.
  • Cook the vegetables for about 2 minutes and then add 1 tablespoon of the soup (light) soy sauce. Cook for an additional 7 to 8minutes, until the vegetables are nice and softened.
  • Add the vegetables to a food processor, together with 1 cup of cooked vermicelli noodles. Grind the vegetables and noodles until they are the size of a small pebbles.
  • Place the vegetable filling back into a bowl and add the pressed tofu, using your hands to break the tofu apart. Incorporate the tofu into the vegetables. Set the filling aside in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.
  • When the dough has proofed for about an hour, punch the dough to release excess gas. Knead the dough for about 1 minute and roll it back into a nice smooth ball. Place it back into its bowl, cover it with a towel, and let it rest for another 35 minutes.
  • Once the dough has completed its second “proof,” knead the dough once more for about 1 minute and then divide it into 16 equal pieces.
  • Using a rolling pin, flatten a small piece into a round disc, about the size of your hand. Place the disc on your hand, scoop about 2 tablespoons of the filling onto the disc, and then fold and pinch the edge of the disc, until the filling has been completely enclosed.
  • Place the ball, seal side down, and roll it between your hands to smoothen the seal. Place the bun on a square of parchment paper and into your steamer, while you repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.
  • Allow the buns to proof for an additional 20 minutes beforesteaming. Steam them for 20 minutes.
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EntreesTraditional Korean Recipes

Crunchy Gochujang Cauliflower

crunchy cauliflower in wok

What Was the Concept Behind This Dish?

So, I’ve been watching Korean dramas non-stop since quarantine started and basically, it looks like Kdrama characters have shifted all their food-love from lamyun to fried chicken or “chi-mek” which is a combo of “chicken” and “mek-joo” (which means beer).  I think I could create an entire second blog devoted to just veganizing Kdrama food and if I turned it into a mukbang, I could probably retire…. Should I do it?

I digress (as usual).

Anyhoo, because of all the fried chicken-ness of Korean dramas, I’ve been wanting to see if I could veganize some of my favorite “fried chicken” recipes.  Hence, the Kkampoong Tofu I posted a few weeks ago.  Next, I wanted to try my hand at General Tso’s chicken and that’s how this recipe came to be.

It’s Always The Hole In The Wall…

The BEST General Tso’s Chicken I’ve ever had in my life was from Mandarin Wok on Green Street in Urbana, Illinois.  Mandarin Wok was one of those highly functional restaurants, where they clearly committed all their money to creating delicious food… and not the décor of the restaurant, if you get my drift.  The menu consisted of tri-fold pamphlets at the register.  At least, the one that I could read.  The “real” menu, I understand, was the Chinese that was scrawled onto the wall behind the register.  And it was there that the “real” General Tso’s Chicken lurked in plain sight, if not translation.  Luckily, I had a couple of friends in college who could read Chinese and put me onto the menu, so that I could simply under “Number 36, please.” 

And MY GOD it was so good. The outside was crunchy and sauce was spicy and tangy at the same time. It was so delicious I would often wrap some up in the styrafoam container they gave us drive it home with me all the way to Chicago. It was never as good as eating it at the restaurant (or in the same city), but it was still incredible and worth it. 

My Tricks For Making This Recipe.

  • I used cauliflower here because the flavor pairs incredibly well with the sauce, and moreover, it isn’t too heavy like tofu might be.
  • I like to cut the cauliflower into big chunks, as while they are marinating, they will inevitably start to fall apart (and create little chunks for “popcorn cauli”!).
  • I marinate the cauliflower in a little “no-chicken” vegetable base to add some extra flavor.
  • You have to coat each chunk of cauliflower very well in the corn starch. A thin coating will not create the “crunch” you’ll want.  It should be thick—thicker than you think is necessary.
  • You can double fry the cauliflower for extra crunch.
crunchy cauliflower in wok

Crunchy Gochujang Cauliflower

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2 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1 head cauliflower rough chopped
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon “no chicken” vegetable base
  • 3 tablespoons  plant milk
  • 2 2 cups plus ½ tablespoon corn starch
  • 1 tablespoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon regular soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon vegetarian oyster sauce
  • 1 teaspoon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon gochujang
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 4 cups vegetable oil for frying
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup onion chopped
  • 5-6 cloves garlic minced
  • 2 leaves red cabbage chopped
  • 1 carrot chopped into very small pieces
  • 2 whole scallions chopped
  • 1/3 cup vegetable broth
  • 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Instructions
 

  • Place cauliflower chunks into a large bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of the vegetable base (I like “Better than Boullion”),together with the plant milk. Mix the cauliflower so that they are evenly coated and set the bowl aside (you can also refrigerate it overnight).
  • To another large bowl, add 1 cup of corn starch (save the rest for later), ½ tablespoon of garlic powder, and ½ teaspoon of black pepper.  Stir everything together with a whisk and set it aside.
  • Prepare the sauce in advance by whisking together the 1 teaspoon of the vegetable base, regular soy sauce, light soy sauce, vegetarian oyster sauce, mustard, gochujang, maple syrup, and ½ tablespoon of corn starch. 
  • In a very large cast iron pan or deep fryer, bring the vegetable oil to350°F.  While you are waiting for the oil to get hot, dredge some of the cauliflower in the corn starch + garlic powder mixture.  Make sure that each chunk is thickly coated with the corn starch. You want the cauliflower to be super dry. 
  • Place the dredged cauliflower in the hot oil, ensuring not to crowd the pan.  You will have to work in batches and once the corn starch is all used up, add the second cup of corn starch, together with the garlic powder and black pepper, so that you can continue to fully dredge your cauliflower.
  • Fry your cauliflower for approximately 3 to 5 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Remove them from the oil and place them on a cooling rack to drain the excess oil.  Repeat for the remaining cauliflower.
  • Once all the cauliflower has been fried once, you can fry them all a second time(without worrying about over-crowding the pan) for extra crunch.
  • Once you have completed frying all your cauliflower, begin making the sauce by adding extra virgin olive oil to a large pan over medium high heat.  When the oil is hot, add the garlic, onion, carrot, cabbage, and scallions to the pan. Sautee the vegetables until the onion starts to turn translucent, about 2 minutes.
  • Add the vegetable broth and cook for another 30 seconds.  Then, stir in the sauce you prepared earlier.  Cook the sauce over medium high heat for about 1 minute, until it gets thick.
  • Turn off the heat and pour the fried cauliflower into the sauce.  Stir the cauliflower gently until they are evenly coated.  Drizzle them with a the sesame oil and sprinkle the sesame seeds. Serve immediately.
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Gluten FreeLifeTraditional Korean Recipes

Gluten Free Kimchi Pancakes for the Korean Heart.

kimchi pancake on cast iron pan

My mom is most proud of me when I eat kimchi. Or maybe, she is most proud of herself when her American daughter shamelessly pilfers a sliver of fiery cabbage with her two fingers from the kimchi byung (jar) squatting in the back of her fridge like a rather contented troll. Whenever she catches me doing this, or watches me make a meal out of nothing more than rice, water, and a handful of bright red radishes, she shakes her head and mutters,

“You are so Korean.”

I know what she is thinking of. She is recalling every single time I hurled, “I’m not Korean, I’m AMERICAN!!” in her face throughout my fraught adolescence as a child of immigrants. But there is some truth to her logic. There is something fundamentally Korean about not kimchi, per se (lots of people like kimchi), but its role as more than a condiment or a side dish or an exotic “foodie” thing to write about on your trip to Seoul.

An amazing writer once wrote, “The heart is an organ fire,” to which I would reply,

“The Korean heart is an organ of kimchi.”

kimchi pancake on cast iron pan

I can still feel the prickle of my mother’s anxiety over that squatting kimchi byung in our fridge whenever our next door neighbor came by or I invited white friends over after school. I remember when I used to hate the sight of kimchi at the dinner table because it signified, for the millionth time, that instead of eating meat and potatoes like they did on Family Ties, we’d be eating the same old boring “Korean food.” I remember making fun of my Dad for eating kimchi with his spaghetti when my mom finally relented and cooked us an “American” meal. I remember the first time I treated my entire creative writing class, in college, to Korean food and one of the kids covered his nose and whispered, “God, the smell.” I remember the time I thought about going vegan and how the first thing I worried about was losing kimchi.

Losing me.

One kimchi expert has explained that

“kimchi almost never spoils. Prepared correctly and with enough salt, it can ripen for months, even years, until it becomes mukeunji — kimchi that’s so concentrated in flavor that it burns the tongue and tastes wonderful when stewed.”

Eric Kim, “Think of Kimchi as a Verb,” New York Times, July 2, 2020.
kimchi pancake on cast iron pan

I married the first man I ever loved. When I divorced him, I asked my therapist, “Will I ever love anyone else the way I loved my ex-husband?”

The notion of “first love,” or 첫사랑 (“chut sa-rang”) has gained an almost mythical quality thanks to kdramas and the confucian ideals of repressing emotions for the sake of the greater good. Perhaps some of that filtered into me, as I started to doubt my heart’s capacity for a second or third or fourth love. I viewed my heart as a battery, thumping passionately and vigorously during the first half of my life, but with little juice left after being wrung through a divorce. Was I destined to live out the rest of my life with at most a spectral version of love? Something that reminded me of love, maybe tasted a little bit like love? Maybe that’s all we’re allotted in life–one all-consuming 뜨거운 affair and if you can’t make it work… well, such is life.

These are the questions that made divorce even more agonizing–the uncertainty of the world I was stepping into somehow made the world I was leaving look less uninviting.

kimchi pancake on cast iron pan

I met Anthony through OkCupid. And despite what he claims, I didn’t really think it would go anywhere for awhile. For the first several dates, I didn’t know how to act around him, and I was worried I would hurt him more than I would hurt myself. I distinctly recall one of my girlfriends warning me, “Honey, I would worry more about yourself than breaking his heart.” But eventually, the “piano guy” won out over all the other suitors and before long, I knew I was ready to re-enter the ring.

Only, this time, I was armed with something that resembled self respect, that may have even looked a bit like confidence. My heart had been scathed within an inch of its life, but remained intact and, surprisingly, still in heavy pursuit of elan and joy.

We got married in Rome two years ago.

I woke up this morning and had to repress the urge to ask him, “Will you marry me? Again?” I am 41 years old and I am silly and giddy and hot-headed and moody, but mostly, I continue to marvel at how cluelessly I lived in my 20s and 30s, how little joy I really knew, then, compared to what I know now.

It was salted, it was aged, and now, this heart burns.

GF Kimchi Pancakes

This is a tweak from my prior recipe for gluten free pancakes. By adding a little kimchi juice and chunks of overripe kimchi to the batter, you guarantee a kimchi explosion with every bite!
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8 pancakes

Ingredients
  

Pancakes

  • 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 3/4 cup non-dairy milk
  • 1/2 cup blanched almond flour (almond meal will result in less fluffy pancake)
  • 1/2 cup sweet white rice flour (do not replace with regular white rice flour)
  • 2 tbsp cornmeal
  • 1/4 cup potato starch
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp garlic powder
  • 1 tbsp onion powder
  • 2 scallion whites chopped
  • 2 scallion greens (julienned)
  • 1 Korean green chili (sliced)
  • 3 cloves garlic (sliced and minced)
  • 1 cup kale (cut into ribbons)
  • 1/2 cup overripe kimchi (plus more for topping)
  • 1 tsp kimchi juice

Dressing

  • 1/4 cup soy sauce (tamari is a GF soy sauce)
  • 1 tsp maple syrup
  • 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp mirin
  • 1 tbsp sesame seeds
  • 1/2 jalapeno or Fresno chili pepper (seeded and thinly sliced)
  • 1 tbsp garlic (minced)
  • 1 tbsp Korean pepper powder (optional)

Instructions
 

  • Stir white wine vinegar into non-dairy milk and set aside. In a large bowl, mix together all dry ingredients with whisk or fork.
  • Add minced garlic (1/2 of your garlic should be minced and the other half should be thinly sliced, which you will save for "toppings"), the chopped scallion whites, 1/2 of the Korean green chili, and the kale to the dry ingredients.
  • Add 1/2 cup of overripe kimchi, as well as 1 to 2 teaspoons of kimchi juice. Using a pair of kitchen shears, snip up the kimchi into bite sized pieces (you can also chop the kimch in advance, but it always makes a mess).
  • Add in non-dairy milk mixture and whisk until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated. The batter will be very thick (almost like cake batter), but if it's too thick to work with, add 1 tablespoon of non-dairy milk at a time until it gets to a workable consistency.
  • Add a little oil to a skillet (I used a cast iron skillet) to medium high heat. When the pan is hot, add some scallion greens, sliced garlic, and/or kimchi directly to the pan. Then, pour small ladleful (about 3 tablespoons) of batter.
  • Lower the heat to medium-low and cook for about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes before flipping. Cook until both sides are evenly browned and serve with the dressing (which you make just by mixing all the ingredients together).
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