Asian Soups

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.

Typical Korean seaweed soup which I made many times.  This week I learned a 2 things:  covering the salmon with foil locks in the flavor and keeps it moist.  I used the foil before but did not cover it. 2nd thing:  rosemary, 1st time using it and I see why white people love it.  It gives the salmon that extra flavor I didn't know it can have. Well, next week's soup is Al tang.

I cheated this time...used an instant pack to make the hot and sour soup.  I was going to try to follow Souped Up Recipes , hot and sour but I got lazy and wanted to make beef and broccoli  (Thai version by Hot Thai Kitchen) too. The results: Soup:  I added more black vinegar to make it more sour.  Tofu, mushrooms, and 3 eggs were added. Good enough. Beef and Broccoli:  very good...more flavor than Panda Express' version.

I tried the Tom Yum soup recipe by Rachel Gaewski and it turned out great.   Next time I will try the non coconut milk version. Also, I made pad thai following by Lauren Allen.   Wow, that was tiring to make both...the shrimp was the "star" of both recipes.

My mom didn’t eat kimchi so I didn’t have much kimchi stew growing up. I mostly followed the recipe by Sue at My Korean Kitchen. Except I used pork ribs (HMart $9.46 for 7 ribs) instead and added a little salted shrimp.  Damn...I forgot to put in the onions. Anyway, it was very good, the pork was tender for only cooking for about 30 minutes...marinating it with mirin and black pepper helps a lot. If you want a quick meal, just buy some pork and have a quick Korean meal.