Korean Bulgogi and Kimchi Nachos

One of my favourite game day snacks is nachos and this time I though that I would combine them with one of my favourite cuisines, Korean cuisine, and so I present to you these Korean themed nachos with bulgogi, kimchi and plenty of melted cheese! Bulgogi is Korean BBQ beef that is marinated in a tasty sweet and salty sauce that is absolutely divine all by itself but it gets even better in these nachos. Kimchi is fermented cabbage that is on the sour side and can be spicy but when combined with the sweet bulgogi and the melted cheese it mellows out and really brings these nachos together! From there you can top the nachos with what you want and I like to go with sour cream (well I actually use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream), green onions and sesame seeds. If you like things hot, you can't go wrong with a spicy gochujang sauce or some sriracha! Of course everything is better when topped with a fried egg with a runny yolk so turn these bulgogi and kimchi nachos into a meal by adding some!

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Roasted Butternut Squash, Shiitake Mushroom and Kale, Kimchi Bibimsoba

I was tired of all of the heavy eating and needed a break so I was thinking that a slight twist on bibimbap, a Korean style mixed rice bowl, using soba noodles instead of rice, along with plenty of fall vegetables would hit the spot! Soba noodles are made from buckwheat and it is a nice alternative to rice and hey, who doesn't like slurping noodles? For the vegetables I went with diced butternut squash that I coated in gochugaru chili flakes and roasted until tender and caramelized along with some sauteed kale and mushrooms and fresh homemade kimchi. The whole thing is of course finished off with a spicy gochujang hot sauce sauce before mixing and enjoying! This is perfect for a light meal and you can easily add meat or even better, a fried or poached egg with a runny yolk to make it more substantial! What a tasty way to detox from all of that holiday food!

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Summer Vegetable Bibimbap with Corn, Zucchini and Black Beans

Some of my most popular recipes are not the healthiest which may give the impression that I spend my days eating things like grilled cheese sandwiches and hot melted cheese dips which is not the case. I believe in moderation and although the grilled cheese sandwiches and dips definitely have their place I try to balance them out with healthier dishes and even if they are not as glamorous I wanted to start sharing more of them with you. On of my favourite 'healthy' meals is bibimbap, a Korean rice bowl, where the rice is topped with pretty much anything you want along with a spicy chili pepper sauce. One of the things that I like most about this dish is that you can use what ever you have on hand from meats to vegetables and leftovers are just perfect. If you are using only raw vegetables and leftovers then this meal only takes as long to make as it takes to cook the rice and if you have leftover rice then it only takes 5 minutes to throw together! I like to make big batches of rice and assemble all of the other ingredients on the weekend so that I can throw these bowls together quickly for meals throughout the week.

Recently I have been enjoying bowls of bibimbap filled with some of the amazing summer produce that is around right now including corn and zucchini which along with the rice and some beans makes for a pretty complete healthy meal in a bowl! Instead of going with plain white rice I like to go with more whole grains including things like brown rice, bulgar, farro, and even quinoa. For this particular bibimbap I wen with a nice mix of brown and wild rice.

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Spring Quinoa Bibimbap with Asparagus, Fiddleheads, Fava Bean and Ramps

This past weekend the farmers market was full of new fresh local produce including ramp (aka wild leeks), fiddleheads, favabeans and asparagus. I had left some slots open in my meal plan this week to pick up some of the new arrivals to make a dish or two but now that there was so much selection I just could not decide what to get! In the end I decided to get a bit of everything and I was already thinking about what to use them all in on my walk home. Bibimbap is a Korean 'mixed rice' dish where vegetables and meats are served over rice and then all mixed up before eating and it seemed like a great way to enjoy all of springs bounty! Although bibimbap is normally made with rice, I like to make it with quinoa both for the extra nutritional value and because of the great texture that quinoa has. This dish is really easy to make though if you are starting from scratch rather than using leftovers it can take a bit of time to cook all of the vegetables but it is well worth it. Most of the vegetables are steamed or blanched and then optionally sauteed in a bit of oil along with the ramps. This spring bibimbap is finished with a fried egg with a runny yolks and a spicy gochujang sauce.

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Kimchi and Bacon Grilled Cheese Sandwich

In addition to trying out some new grilled cheese recipes during National Grilled month I wanted to update a few older ones and top on my list was one of my favourites, the kimchi and bacon grilled cheese! Kimchi is a spicy fermented cabbage that works surprisingly well in a sandwich with lots of ooey gooey melted cheese! Bacon and kimchi are like a match made in heaven and I can hardly resist adding some to a kimchi grilled cheese! It actually works out kind of well since kimchi can be a little wet and since you don't want a soggy grilled cheese is is a good idea to saute the kimchi a bit to reduce the excess liquid and using a little bit of the bacon grease works perfectly!

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Sweet Chili Chicken Quesadilla

Sometimes my freezer seems like it is an uncontrollable monster that is always full and I am engaged in an unending battle to free some space in it. Although it is sometimes scary to do so, I like to try opening it up every once in a while to try to find something to use to make some more space. When I braved opening the freezer up this time I found the last of the salsa naranja that I had made a few weeks ago and I decided to finish it off. The salsa naranga is a salsa with a base of oranges and sweet chili sauce that is built up with chilies and plenty of fresh herbs. I was thinking that some sweet chili sweet chili quesadillaswould hit the spot, I mean its hard to go wrong with a lightly toasted tortilla overflowing with melted cheesy goodness, and as luck would have it, I also had some leftover shredded chicken in the freezer. In addition to the cheese, chicken and salsa I added some sauteed onions and even more fresh herbs to round things out. I guess I have to admit that these quesadillas prove that there are some really tasty meals lurking around in the freezer!

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Kongnamul Bap (Korean Beansprout Rice Bowl)

After making the sweet chili chicken rice bowl I have been thinking about rice bowls a lot and I remembered another rice bowl that was on my to-try list, kongnamul bap, a Korean beansprout rice bowl. I really enjoy beansprouts but I do not seem to use them all that often and when I do the recipes often call for a small amount and the rest of the large bag goes to waste so I liked that this recipe call for a whole bag. Another thing that I like about this recipe is the interesting way that it is cooked in that the beansprouts and beef are placed on top of the rice and water in the pot that it is cooked in. Although you do not have to, I cooked the beef in a pan before adding it to the pot with the rice and I seasoned the beef with some soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil first.

Whenever I think about Korean cuisine I think about kimchi and it has to be one of my favourite foods so I could not resist sauteing some up along with the beef and then adding it to the pot with the rice. You may notice that the amount of water in this recipe is about half of what it normally is when cooking rice and that is because the beansprouts will release enough liquid to finish of the rice perfectly. The final component of this rice bowl is that it is topped with a tasty sauce that has salty aspects, sweet aspects and plenty of chilly heat along with the intoxifyingly aromatic sesame oil.

I had a feeling that this rice bowl was going to be good but I did not know just how good! It is just packed with some of my favourite flavours and every bite had me going back for another! This is definitely hearty enough to make a meal out of and an extremely satisfying one at that!

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Sweet Chili Chicken Rice Bowl

When I found the recipe for the salsa naranja it was a part of a recipe for a sweet chili chicken rice bowl and given my mild obsession with rice bowls it was next on my list to make. The basic idea behind a rice bowl is that is is a complete meal in a bowl with a base of rice and from there you can go pretty much anywhere you want. Two of my favoutrite examples of rice bowls are bibimbap and the burrito bowl and I always like to experiment with new ones. I started the rice bowl with the chicken which I decided to do bulgogi style and I went with my usual chicken bulgogi recipe but I removed the chili paste since it was going to be served with the salsa naranja and given that we already had an orange theme going I added some orange juice to the marinade. I then turned the rice bowl into a complete meal by adding a fried egg, steamed spinach and plenty of tasty garnishes like fresh cilantro and basil, sliced chilies and fried shallots in addition to the tasty orange salsa.

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Calamari Tacos with Salsa Naranja

Now that I had a fresh batch of the salsa naranja or orange salsa it was time to use it in something and first up was some calamari tacos inspired by Kogi BBQ. Up until I heard about these tacos, I had never even thought about using calamari in tacos and I was immediately enchanted by the idea! The calamari is marinated in a citrus, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil and chili powder marinade before being quickly seared at high heat to cook them without turning them rubbery. The tacos are then assembled in corn tortillas with an onion and cilantro relish, a healthy helping of the sweet and spicy orange salsa along with some more sesame seeds and cilantro for garnish. I was a bit surprised by how well the calamari worked in these fresh and tasty tacos and I can easily see them quickly becoming a summer favourite!

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Salsa Naranja (Orange Salsa)

I came across the idea of a salsa naranja, an orange salsa, on Kogi BBQ a while ago and it sounded really good! More recently I came across a recipe for the salsa naranja on Chow while searching for something else and decided that I would have to try it! In addition to the Mexican influences this salsa also has Korean and Thai aspects that really make it shine! The salsa naranja starts out with a base of sweet chili sauce and orange juice and builds up the flavour base with garlic, ginger, plenty of fresh herbs, chilies is several different forms and it is finishes off with sesame seeds. Don't let the long list of ingredients fool you as once you have them all assembled all you need to do is puree them in a food processor and it is well worth making. I have to say that this is one amazing salsa! It is sweet and spicy, full of flavour and all of the herbs give it a fatastic freshness that will have you eating it by the spoonful.

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Kimchi Reuben Sandwich

I had still had some corned beef left over and with corned beef, cabbage and kimchi burritos and reuben sandwiches on my mind, I naturally thought about combing them to create the kimchi reuben sandwich. This reuben sandwich has two forms of fermented cabbage with the sauerkraut and the kimchi and the combination is pretty amazing. The sauekraut brings a nice light tanginess and the kimchi brings some flavour packed heat. As with the regular reuben, you have to be concerned about the amount of liquid going into the sandwich and I find the best way to deal with it is to lightly saute the sauekraut and kimchi to remove any excess moisture. I have to say that I quite enjoyed the heat that the kimchi added to the sandwich and the kimchi went particularly well with the creamy Russian dressing to which I added a touch of gochujang.

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