Asian/Fusion Archives - Page 23 of 30

Spicy Charred Baby Octopus Skewers

Charred Baby Octopus Skewers
Korean Chili Marinade, Red Onion, Meyer Lemon

Oh how we adore grilling season! Let’s kick it off with something a bit unusual… and exotic, spicy, smoky, charred, chewy, lemony too. These Korean chili marinated baby octopus (jjukkumi) skewers are interesting enough to serve at your next great BBQ party, yet easy enough to serve for dinner tonight.

Octopus has a mild sweet flavor – hard to dislike – but sometimes the texture can be off-putting for some people. This par-boiled, marinated, then grilled method solves the texture problem. The Korean chili marinade brings spicy yet fruity flavors, and not many can resist the char from an open fire. Grilled red onion and warm Meyer lemon juice balance out the flavor profile. As a bonus, it’s served on a stick. Ooh ooh fire up the grill!

Baby Octopus Skewers Recipe

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Cold Fusion Cuisine: Noodles, Peanut Butter Sauce, Banana

Cold Fusion Cuisine

Buckwheat Noodles, Peanut Butter Sauce
Banana, Serrano, Scallion, Peanut, Cilantro

Cold Fusion: The hypothetical process of creating energy at room temperature by the fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium. If possible, this process could potentially provide unlimited cheap energy for all of humanity. One problem – scientists have never been able to duplicate that 1989 experiment.

Fusion Cuisine: The melding or blending flavors, foods, or techniques from the cuisine of one or more regions, cultures, or ethnicities.

Cold Fusion Cuisine: The harmonizing of foods from different regions into a stellar cold dish. One rarely sees peanuts or peanut butter in Korean cuisine. Here I’m pairing fresh Korean buckwheat noodles with a zippy sauce made with peanut butter and banana.

Cold Food Festival: Hansik Day is a traditional Korean holiday which falls on April 5. The festival is a time to honor one’s ancestors and welcome warmer weather. Like the Chinese, Koreans eat cold food on this day. Try my cold buckwheat noodles, with peanut butter sauce and Szechwan peppercorns for an energetic celebration of flavors!

Buckwheat Noodles, Peanut Butter Sauce Recipe

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Korean Cold Noodles with Crab & Asparagus (Bibim Naengmyeon)

Korean Mixed Cold Noodles with Crab & Asparagus (Bibim Naengmyeon)

As the weather warms, we’re looking forward to cooler dishes. Bibim naengmyeon is a Korean spicy cold buckwheat noodle dish typically served with cucumber, radish, and hard boiled egg. Sometimes sliced beef and Korean pear are added. To celebrate springtime, I’m making my bibim (mixed) naeng (cold) myeon (noodle) with asparagus and Dungeness crab.

Korean Mixed Cold Noodles Recipe

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A Korean Sweet Treat ~ Hwa Jeon with Honey and Flower Petals

The Prettiest Rice Tea Cakes ~ Hwa Jeon 화전

They’re simultaneously simple and sublime. Not exactly a cake nor a cookie, a doughnut nor a pancake. But a little disk of fried rice flour with a hint of sea salt, that’s all. Sprinkled with edible flower petals and drizzled with orange blossom honey. Served with rose petal tea.

With Spring right around the corner, this delightful Korean sweet treat called hwa jeon is certain to charm your guests.

This dessert is naturally gluten-free. It is made from glutinous rice flour also known as sweet or sticky rice flour. “Glutinous” refers to the type of rice, not gluten.

Hwa Jeon Recipe

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bulgogi panino ~ kimchi, cheddar, ssamjang mayo

bulgogi panino ~ kimchi, cheddar, scallion, ssamjang mayo

Now this is a sandwich. A Korean-Italian sandwich, Bulgogi Panino. Bulgogi (literally “fire-meat”) is grilled marinated beef which is piled on a roll with kimchi, cheddar, scallions, and ssamjang mayo – then pressed and grilled on a panini maker.

The thinly sliced beef is marinated in a soy sauce-brown sugar-sesame-garlic marinade then cooked over fire. Napa cabbage kimchi and sharp cheddar cheese is one of my favorite food combinations. It simply rocks – kimchi’s zingy fermented flavors are balanced by the rich cheese. And ssamjang mayo, nothing like the ubiquitous chipotle mayonnaise, is a bit spicy but has an incredible depth of flavor. Ssamjang is a thick, spicy paste made from combining gochujang (red chili paste) with doenjang (fermented soybean paste) with sesame oil, onion, and garlic.

There is obviously no shortage of flavor going on here…

the bulgogi panino recipe

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