Asian Soups

Oct 2, 2020  What is the secret to making good food?  Following directions?  Fresh ingredients? I've cooked at home at least once a week (mostly on Mondays, my "Sunday") and made the best spicy beef and spicy pollack roe soup because of this one ingredient. Growing up, I enjoyed home cooking so I learned some recipes from my mom.  Washing vegetables, meat several times, cleaning them well.  I made great soy stewed beef following these directions. What's the secret?  For the Korean spicy beef or pollack roe soup, it's the sauteing of LARGE GREEN ONIONS and watching Chef Paik Jon Won,  Make some green onion soup and stay strong!   helped a lot.  (Thank you Steve Lee for the link)  These green onions really brings out the flavor.   For the pho soup, charring the onions gives the soup that extra kick and caramalizing the onions is a must for great curry which is not listed on the directions on Japanese curry box.  Although I don't believe, "Caramalized onions

A few weeks ago, I had 2 spicy tuna hand rolls, karaage and cold sake in a ramen shop in Culver City. The chicken was tender and had a nice flavor so I had to see if I could make it at home. I followed the recipe by Seonkyoung, the best karaage.   I used the Japanese concentrated broth instead along with the frozen sanukiya udon...I can't use any other after using this. Cutting up the thigh was a little tough...this was a big chicken. Of course, I had to make a soup but it was over 90 degrees in LA so no hot soup. I decided to make cold udon by Daniel, Future Dish. The chicken turned out great, tender on the inside with just the right amount of flavor, not too oily. It's just a little work in cutting up the thigh into small pieces.

 Still very hot in Los Angeles so no hot soup today. Tried the cold seaweed soup by Sue, My Korean Kitchen. Also, I made boiled pork by Kwon's Corner. The cold seaweed soup was okay...just not into seaweed that much. I really like how the bossam turned out...no smell with a very light smoky taste and so tender. I know about using garlic and ginger to take away the smell, but the COFFEE and BEER upped it and gave it more flavor.  Also, charring the pork before boiling it must have given that slight smoky flavor. I ate it with perilla leaves and Korean cabbage soaked in salted water. "On top of that", I made the "oyster radish salad" by Maangchi.  This was very good, I added crushed Thai red peppers and  sliced garlic instead on minced.  I believe this is more of a kimchi than salad.

 Made salmon again using Erin's recipe.   Just added butter, pepper, lemon, and rosemary.  I made the "Life changing" udon recipe by Seonkyoung.  It was not life changing, but was very good.

 I have been spoiled and have a hard time eating the same food the next day.  So this recipe of just making the Japanese curry helped me eat curry with rice for dinner and curry with udon for lunch the next day. I followed the recipes by Seonkyoung and Ivan Orkin, the "Gaijin" I liked how Seon made the curry separate and added toppings later.  For Ivan, I used his "nuke" version of preparing the carrots.  Taste similar and save time.

I used mostly Maangchi recipe for the seasoning paste , except I substituted the fish sauce and added salted shrimp and added some minced ginger. I wanted it extra spicy so I considered using the Korean extra spicy powder, but instead I went the natural route and used sliced jalapenos and sliced Thai peppers.  This turned out great;  extra spicy with flavor.  This al tang as good as my dad used to make. I bought some frozen salted pollack roe from HMart for $18.99 for about 8 pieces.  Also, added Korean radish, squash, littlekneck clams, Korean green peppers, tofu, some sliced unions, and large green onions. There is no fishy smell to this pollack roe (al tang) soup, but when I made it with black cod fish a few days later, the soup was a little oily and definitely a slight fishy smell.