Jessica's Dinner Party

Archive for the 'side dish' Category

Soy Braised Burdock Root

Yesterday, I shared with you a great way to use leftover, stale rice. Today, I will tell you about the side dish I ate it with: soy braised burdock! Burdock is a root most commonly used in Japan where it’s called gobo. In Korea it’s called woo-ung, 우엉, and it’s mainly used in kimbap, 김밥, a dish similar to the Japanese sushi roll. Burdock has a sort of sweet, earthy taste that disappears when cooked. After it’s cooked, the texture is similar to the potatoes in this dish.

November 05 2009 | asian and korean and recipe and side dish and thoughts and vegetarian | 4 Comments »

Petite Patties Korean Style

One of my roommates is in dental school and for the past couple months she’s been busy preparing for the board exams. We’ve been living together for two years now and have shared quite a few food memories. We occasionally make dinners, go out for Restaurant Week, and even took a couple of cooking classes together!

When she asked me if I could pack her lunch on the day of her board exams I was happy to do it. I kind of felt like a mom sending her kid off to take the SATs. I couldn’t sleep the night before because I planned to cook in the morning so the food would be nice and fresh. I was afraid I might not wake up in time, which is silly because I’m one of those people who don’t need an alarm to get up. I kept on looking at my clock throughout the night and finally at 6 am (1 hour before I planned to wake up) I got out of bed and started cooking.

August 31 2009 | asian and korean and meat and recipe and side dish and thoughts | 5 Comments »

Stir Fried Potato Side

Continuing with my love of side dishes, here is one that is good for both summer and winter. It is stir fried potatoes with onions and green peppers. Many potato dishes are heavy and unhealthy (ex. french fries, hash browns, baked potato with the works) but this one is light, nutritious, and deceptively delicious. A little salt and heat brings out the great natural flavors of this starchy vegetable. Whenever my mom set this out before dinner, my sister and I would slowly sneak a few chopsticks-ful until none of it was left when we actually sat down to eat!

I had a hankering for stir fried potatoes the other day so I went to my second best resource, this Korean cookbook, for the recipe. A red light should’ve gone off in my head when I copied down five green bell peppers, but I guess my mind was not functioning very well because I didn’t think twice about it. So, I went to the grocery store and bought two yellow potatoes and five green bell peppers. Once I started cooking, I began to feel like there were one too many green pepper slices but I just kept on cutting away. Seriously, I was like a robot, strictly following illogical directions! I blame it on the heat.

August 22 2009 | asian and korean and recipe and side dish and thoughts and vegetarian | 9 Comments »

Sweet and Spicy Cucumbers

A traditional Korean meal has a lot of side dishes. Some appear at the table all year round like kimchee, spicy fermented cabbage, while others are more seasonal. I love the site of a Korean dinner table because it is always crowded with so many plates of food. It looks like a mini food festival.

August 21 2009 | asian and korean and recipe and side dish and thoughts and vegetarian | 7 Comments »

Crudite and Dips

I love getting fresh local produce at the farmer’s market or local grocery store. The fruits and vegetable are always so beautiful, colorful, and very fragrant. It makes me feel really good that I’m eating healthy and being friendly to the environment. However, I don’t know why, but I don’t like to cook with the fresh produce. I feel guilty, as if I was tainting the pure flavors with my amateur cooking skills. I’m slowly changing my mentality, but I tend to eat a lot of my fruits and vegetables raw. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but sometimes it can get a little boring.

So, for the picnic I decided to bring crudite and dip! It’s a mix between enjoying the fresh flavors of summer and adding a little extra flavor. As usual, since I couldn’t narrow it down to just one, I made two. I made a hummus from a recipe that I had tagged in a Food and Wine magazine and a dip called Peacamole from the popular food blog, Chocolate and Zucchini.