Soup with Pancakes...Weird Combination?

This post isn't as weird as the title makes it seem. I made my take on a spicy Korean kimchi veggie soup with green onion pancakes.

Spicy Korean Kimchi Veggie Soup

The soup consists of tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms, tofu, kimchi, all in a chicken stock mixed with a few tablespoons of the kimchi base and black pepper. Usually, this soup isn't vegetarian (besides it being in chicken stock) because I like to add in sausage the majority of the time.

The green onion pancakes ARE vegetarian, and surprisingly not as difficult to make as I thought. Peter from Taiwan Om Nom taught me how to make these. These "pancakes" are more similar to a tortilla then a typical pancake. I'm not sure why they're referred to as pancakes since the Chinese translation doesn't translate to pancake either...

Green Onion Pancake dough

The green onion pancake dough consists only of 2 parts all-purpose flour to 1 part of water. Mix the two thoroughly with your hands, feel free to flour your hands and use a bit of extra flour to prevent stickiness. Then let the dough sit for 30-45 minutes, covered with a towel. I got impatient and didn't do this...make sure and take the extra time to do this because the texture of your pancakes won't turn out as well if you don't! I learned this the hard way. Mine were definitely not as good as the ones Peter made in this post.

Green Onion Pancake spiral shell

Separate the dough into small palm sized portions and roll each of them out. A tip is to use wax paper on the kitchen counter with a generous amount of flour when rolling out the dough. I also didn't have a rolling pin, so I usually either use a cylindrical tall drinking glass or a tall shot glass depending on the size of the dough. Take about half a teaspoon of vegetable oil and spread it on the surface of the rolled out dough and add salt and chopped green onions. Roll the dough up like a fruit roll up; remember those sweet, "healthy" childhood snacks?. Then roll the "long rope" of dough into a snail shell shape. After it's in the snail shell shape, roll it out once again and then fry it in a shallow pan of vegetable oil.

See, it's not TOO weird. Okay, maybe it is a little bit. Definitely not as weird as the pancakes you were thinking of though, right?

Korean Food

Korean food has become one of my favorite types of Asian food. Everything is always really flavorful, and you can't go wrong with the cute side dishes called banchan that come with your meal.

Galbi/Kalbi with banchan

I went to the Korean Grill in Chinatown Austin for my Korean food fix while I was visiting. I ordered the Galbi/Kalbi (different restaurants spell it differently), which is marinated pork or beef short ribs that come out on a sizzling plate with onions, similar to how fajitas are served at Mexican restaurants. You can really smell the aromas when the plate is making its way to your table.

A fun thing when it comes to Korean food is that most entrees are served with banchan. Banchan are various small appetizers ranging from kimchi, pickled cucumbers, tofu, bean sprouts, daikon, egg omelet roll ups (I'm pretty sure that's not the correct name) etc. Don't be fooled by how small they are, most restaurants will refill them!

 

My favorite out of all of the side dishes are the pickled cucumbers on the bottom right corner of the photo above.

Korean Inspired Chicken

My next chicken dish is completely different from my last post even though I'm using the same cut of chicken, the chicken thigh. This time around, there is a longer wait time since I used a marinade for the chicken. I used a Korean BBQ Kalbi Marinade, typically used for pork short ribs. The chicken was marinaded in this sauce overnight before baking. The chicken was baked for about 45 mins at 350 degrees, with flipping the chicken halfway through.

Alongside the chicken, I made some steamed white rice and stir-fried veggies. The zucchini and baby bella mushrooms were seasoned with just salt and pepper and stir-fried in some olive oil. Simple, tasty, and healthy.

I also had a side of kimchi. The easiest comparison I can make is that kimchi is similar to pickles except it's more spicy than sour, and instead of using cucumber, the main ingredient is napa cabbage (chinese cabbage). The kimchi I had was napa cabbage that was pickled/fermented with ginger, green onions, garlic, salt, and chili pepper.

Two different brands of kimchi.

Here is the complete dish with the chicken!