Our 1st Korean cooking experience

Richard and I love Korean food. We will enjoy it once a while for celebrating some special occasion. Kimchi soup is one of our favorite dishes. Last weekend, we decided to do Kimchi soup steamboat since there was a pack of Kimchi store in our refrigerator for months. I searched for a few recipes on internet. Most of the recipes said that we need some Korean ingredients which are chili pepper paste (Gochujang) & chili powder (Gochutgaru). It makes me headcahe because here, Korean Mart is not as popular as Japanese Mart which we can easily find it in most of the shopping centre. I really had no idea where to look for.


At the end, I thought to try my luck at Jaya Jusco One Utama where we bought the Kimchi last time. We were disappointed because besides Kimchi and some Korean junk foods, there were no other Korean ingredients. We thought to give up making the soup this weekend. Before we left Jaya Jusco, I saw an old lady arranging some packing Kimchi, her t-shirt shows that their company distributing Korean food. I guess she was the right person to ask. Oh yes! I was right! With the help of this old lady, we managed to get Gochujang & Gochutgaru at Lotte Mart beside Cold Storage which is located at One Utama new wing. :>
The Kimchi soup tasted at least 80% like what we have in Korean restuarant here. We felt happy with the result as it is consider successful. And we do enjoy the time cooking together.

Richard said maybe next time we can try to make sushi...
our first Japanese cooking experience? hahahaaa.....
why not? :>

Picture from internet. This Gochujung is exactly same as what i bought in Lotte Mart.
Picture from internet. Sample of Gochutgaru. I just wonder would it be same taste if we use local chili powder?

The next morning, we went to morning market and Tesco to buy necessary ingredients and started to make our first Korean dishes. I didn't follow exactly what had been written in the recepies, some amendment had been done according to the advice from the korean lady at Lotte mart.

1. Boil pork bone soup for 2 hours.
2. Marinate 2 slices of pork belly with wine (绍兴酒) & some black pepper powders for 15 minutes.
3. Slice 2 white onions and fry together with 2 cups of Kimchi and marinated pork belly for around 10 minutes. Kimchi will turn a bit translucent when it is soften.
4. Later on, mixed the pork soup with no.3, and add in some Chinese cabbage(大白菜)
5. It will looks like Kimchi soup now. Add in Gochujang & Gochutgaru according to your preference. I put around 3 table spoons of Gochujang & 2 table spoons of Gochutgaru.
6. I did add some salt to make it more tasty.
7. Now, the Kimchi soup is ready.

Raw foods served on table were bean curb, chinese cabbage, green onion, mushroom, 2 types of fish balls, green bean noodle and pork belly.