Seng Dubu (두부)

Tofu (dubu, 두부) dish in Korean restaurant Damso in Amstelveen. Address: Dorpsstraat 88  1182 JG Amstelveen, Netherlands. The name is seng dubu. I'm not sure, but it seems 'seng' just means 'fresh'.

Use firm tofu, not silken tofu. Serve the tofu warm, heat in liquid or microwave.

Spicy dressing made of: spring onion, sesame seeds, a little sesame oil, plenty Korean soy sauce: gook-kanjang (국간장), black pepper, Korean chilli flakes and fresh chilli. Cut, mix and drizzle over warm tofu.

Interesting side dish: Brussels sprout Korean style. Quite unique!

Korean BBQ: bulgogi (불고기). The lettuce was the wrong shape (eikenbladsla, shaped like the leaf of a northern red oak), so it was very difficult to make a nice wrap.

Patbingsu (팥빙수): summer dessert: shaved ice, milk and sweet azuki beans. Mix well before eating.

Pa Jun (Korean pancake)

For two pancakes:

Mix 1 cup of flower (120 gram), 0.75 cup of water (180 ml), one egg (beaten) and some kimchi juice (according to taste) together. Add more water if the batter is too thick.

Add scallions, halved and cut into 2 inch lengths and some kimchi (finely cut). Optional: carrot, sliced red chili peppers, onion, zucchini or mushrooms.



Let the batter sit for about 10 minutes.

Fry the pancake in a skillet for 4 minutes.



Flip over and fry the other side for 2 minutes.



Serve with dipping sauce made from: rice vinegar and soy sauce (1:1) and some drops of sesame oil.



Or for a more elaborate sauce: 1/3 cup rice vinegar and 1/3 cup soy sauce, 1 tablespoon sesame oil, 1 tablespoon chili pepper flakes, 1 tablespoon scallions (thinly sliced) and 1 teaspoon chopped garlic.

Korean ginseng chicken soup

When you are ill you need to eat chicken soup. In Korea this chicken soup is eaten in summer time to strengthen the body when it's hot. The Korean name is Sam-Gae-Tang.

The recipe is easy. You need a small chicken, one chicken each person, so it needs to be really small.



Stuff the chicken with some soaked rice (sweet rice if you have it), dried Korean dates (also called Chinese dates), fresh garlic, fresh (green) ginseng. Optional are: ginkgo nuts (roasted and peeled), dang-gui and goji berries.

Boil the stuffed chicken in plenty of water and add some of the ginseng, dates, rice and garlic to the pot. Boil for one hour or 1,5 hours. In the last few minutes add spring onion.



Serve with salt for dipping the chicken pieces.

Braised mackerel with radish

A simple mackerel recipe. Cut the mackerel crosswise in 2-inch pieces, remove vins and head. Wash the fish.

Peel a Korean radish (Tae Baek) and cut in 2-inch chunks. One kilo for 2 mackerels. Slice 2 onions in large pieces.

Add all the ingredients to a large pot.

Make the seasoning:
12 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon shredded ginger
125 ml soy sauce
75 ml hot pepper flakes
2 tablespoons sugar
250 ml water

Bring to a boil. Pour broth over the fish.

Add spring onions and green and red pepper.

Simmer for half an hour. Evaporate excess broth.

Ssamjang (쌈장)

No recipe. Buy the green container.



Ssamjang is made from fermented soybean paste, gochujang (chili paste), sesame oil, onion, garlic, green onions, and sugar.

I love ssamjang as a dip for raw onion. Ssam means 'wrapped' and is usually used to eat leaf vegetables, like lettuce, wrapped around meat, rice and some ssamjang.

Kimchi pancake / 김치전 / Kimchi jeon

Kimchi pancakes

1/2 cups all-purpose flour (Dutch: bloem)
1 cup of chopped kimchi
3 tbs of kimchi juice
2 tbs chopped (spring) onion
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix and fry like a normal pancake. First mix the flower with the water to make a smooth batter. Then add the other ingredients.

Dipping sauce:
Mix soy sauce and rice vinegar 1 to 1.

Kimchi bokkeumbap (김치 볶음 밥)

Kimchi bokkeum-bap means: kimchi-mixed-rice. It's the Korean version of nasi goring. You take some left over rice (don't use fresh cooked rice!) and fry it with several ingredients. The main ingredient is kimchi (김치) made from Chinese cabbage.

The basic ingredients: cooked rice and kimchi:



Kimchi is already pretty spice but you can add one teaspoon of hot pepper paste (gochujang). You can also make this dish without the hot pepper sauce, especially when you use many other ingredients. Gochujang is rather overpowering:



Cut kimchi finely (note: I didn't cut the kimchi in the photo's below). Fry the kimchi and pepper paste in some oil (sunflower, sesame or a mixture of both):



Add the rice and fry on a low fire for 15 minutes:



I make this dish as an easy and quick lunch. Prepare some side dishes like (Japanese) pickled daikon and seaweed salad (chuka wakame) and you're done in 15 minutes.



This is the basic version. You can also add a can of tuna, left over meat, shrimps, mushrooms, onion, carrot or zucchini. A can of tuna in juicy olive oil works best. Just make sure to chop all ingredients rather small. To serve you can fry an egg and put it on top of the kimchi bokkeumbap and sprinkle some shredded gim (dried seaweed), chopped scallions or sesame seeds as a garnish. You can make kimchi bokkeumbap into a rather rich dish. Or keep it simple when you're pressed for time.

In Amsterdam all ingredients are available in Dun Yong, Stormsteeg 9 near the Nieuwmarkt.

야채전 (ya-chae-jeon)

Or: vegetable pancake. ('Jeon' (전) = pancake). This dish is also referred to as pa-jeon (파전), with 'pa' (파) meaning 'scallion'.

Batter: 1/2 cup flour, 2/3 cup water, 1 ts salt.

Vegetables: spring onion, Asian chives, green chili pepper and zucchini.

Make batter with flour and water and mix it with the the vegetables cut in small pieces. The vegetables should be about 4 cups.

Optional: shrimp or other seafood and one egg. With seafood the pancake is called hae-mul pa-jeon (해물파전).

Fry the pancake in a large pan over low heat. Place the chopped seafood on top (optional). When the pancake is almost cooked (aprox. 8 mins) spread one egg on top (optional). Turn the pancake over and fry until done.

Serve with dipping sauce made from 2 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tbsp of ricevinegar. Use chopsticks to dip pancake in dipping sauce. Traditionally pa-jeon is eaten with makkoli (막걸리) but sake is also excellent.

The Cantonese name for Asian chive is Gao choy, the Thai name is Bai Gui Chai.

Korean BBQ: bulgogi

This couldn’t be simpler.

Slice good quality beef, like sirloin steak (Dutch: lendelapje), in very thin slices and marinate in bulgogi sauce for half an hour. When pressed for time buy a jar of bulgogi sauce from an Asian food store.

These are the basic ingredients for the marinade:

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons rice wine
2 tablespoons sesame oil
8 cloves garlic, minced
4 scallions, minced
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, salt

When the BBQ is hot, place heavy tin foil on the grid and fry the marinated meat. At this point you can add mushrooms and sliced onion.

Grilling without tin foil is also possible, but the meat has to be sliced much thicker.

When the meat is done, take a leaf of lettuce (or any other large leavy vegetable), put some rice on it, the hot meat, a little fermented soy bean paste (sunchang ssamjang), slice of garlic, kimchi, and fold the lettuce leaf to form a small package. Eat.

The fermented soy bean paste provides for a great umami taste and can also be used as a dipping sauce for cucumber, raw onion or carrots.