Recipe: Beef Barley Soup

So I went grocery shopping a few days ago. Which was a bit of a feat, as the landlady didn’t bother to mention to me that they were going to redo the concrete on the side path to my house (they had ripped it up a couple weeks ago, just before Chusok, because of a blockage in one of the drains to the house–I think the hole they made there was another random hole and not where they actually found the blockage. This seems to be common around here…when there was a flood in my house a couple years back, they started ripping holes in each room of my house even though they really didn’t know which pipe had burst. Now THAT was fun. Remind me to tell you about it sometime.) So anyway, when I went out to go to the market, I found the path out of my house blocked. I suppose I could have found a way to scale the concrete wall behind my house, but I didn’t really feel like climbing something almost as high as my head in a skirt. So I removed the blocking pole and walked across it anyway, after making sure that it was at least dry enough to walk on. (She “happened” to call while I was at the market to tell me not to walk on the concrete. I say “happened” because I’m sure she was just being her old nosy self and actually saw me leave the house. By the way this was at about 8:30 at night, so I doubt it was just a coincidence. Which means she never really intended to inform me at all. Do I sound ungracious towards my landlady? There’s a whole big story behind that too. Remind me to tell you sometime, if you’re not one of the people to whom I have already vented my spleen, most of my liver, and possibly one of my kidneys about it.) Apparently, there IS another way to get out to the street from behind the building, but it requires squeezing through a 6″ opening beside my boiler room. I always thought that was walled off. Now I know. Can’t fit through it anyway.

So ANYWAY, I went grocery shopping. I kinda like grocery shopping. (Except for this weird thing that happens every time. As soon as I make the decision to go, it immediately starts raining. Very strange.) I especially like it when nice people chat with me a little while I’m at a counter or at the till. (That’s one of the things I miss about being a native speaker in Canada–the pleasant small talk with strangers.) And for some reason, I’ve been buying a bit more beef than usual, so I’ve had to ask for things at the butcher counter the past couple of times. The first time, the older butcher started off chatting with me (of course, finding out my age and my marital status as soon as possible–but I like the way he did so. Instead of blasting me with the question, point blank, he asked me what “sir’s” job was, after I mentioned that I had been in Korea for nine years.) Which sir, I asked? Oh, you mean my husband? Oh, I’m not married. He seemed surprised that I have stayed in Korea for nine years of my own volition, not because of my husband’s job. Soon after this, the young butcher came out, and the older informed him quite enthusiastically that I was not married and sort of got him to take over the rest of my order. So butcher the younger proceeded to chat me up while he was mincing my beef. Quite fun.

So this time, even though they had the stewing beef I needed prepackaged in the refrigerator case, there was no ground beef out, so I had to go up to the butcher’s counter again. And, well, who do I see but butcher the younger, again, at my service. He didn’t chat so much while he was cutting up the beef I needed but as he handed it over, he spent quite a while telling me how important it was for me to believe that they have the freshest beef, even though you see that this beef I have cut off, here, has a different colour on the outside than on the inside…that’s just because it’s later in the day, but we really do have good quality beef here, and you must trust our quality, and it’s really good beef, and that slight discoloration is really nothing to worry about, and you absolutely must believe in us. Smiling charmingly the whole way through. Of course, I’m laughing and agreeing with him enthusiastically the whole time. Hmm, I think I’m flirting with the butcher, or he’s flirting with me, or something. Expect more recipes featuring beef for the next little while.

Oh, and as I was leaving the store? It started raining. Hands full and no umbrella. Next time that happens, I’m going back in and borrowing an umbrella from butcher boy.

Beef and Barley Soup
Adapted very liberally from Extending the Table, because I didn’t have peas (used green peppers instead) and I realized I still had some squash to use up.

1/2 lb. cubed stewing beef
1 lg. onion, diced
6 c. beef broth
3-4 stalks celery, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 lg. carrots, diced
1/2 medium butternut squash, cubed
1/3 c. pearl barley
2 T. vinegar
2 T. Worcestershire sauce
1 t. basil
Salt and pepper to taste

In bottom of soup pot, brown beef with onions and celery. Add broth to the pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until beef is tender. Add green pepper, carrots, squash, barley, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and basil and simmer until barley, squash and carrots are all cooked. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add more water if needed, especially if reheating the next day, as barley may absorb a lot of the liquid.

Serve with warm, buttered slices of homemade bread.

And just to give you an idea of what I’ll be posting soon, this (below) is what I was up to this morning. I’m going to try to actually post recipes AS I make things (though that has always been the plan, of course) because I was looking through the over 800 food photos I have and I realized that even though I could probably locate the recipe that I started from, I now have no ripping clue how I actually made them. Dang.

Anyway, brownies. And pasta.

Recipe: This morning’s bread

Why do I always end up baking at 3 o’clock in the morning?

I didn’t make my knitting meeting this weekend, and it looks like my wacky sleep schedule will be interfering with the second of the lectures on Korean culture this evening…but at least I cooked.

I tried out a new sandwich loaf recipe, and it looks like I did things right this time: I didn’t end up with two bread-shaped doorstops. I think it was a combination of using less flour, not being too timid with the temperature of the water for the yeast, waiting until the yeast was good and foamy before mixing in the flour, and preheating the oven.

The original recipe comes from the wonderful world of King Arthur flour, but i tweaked a few things, so this is how I did it:

Basic White Bread

2 c. warm water
2 tablespoons golden sugar
1 (scant) T. dry yeast
1/2 cup whole milk powder
2 T. vegetable oil
5 c. (or more) bread flour
2 1/2 t. salt

Make sure the 2 cups of water is about the temperature that you would love for a bath–you know, bearable when you stick your finger in to test it, but you start really feeling the heat after a few seconds. Basically, as hot as you can handle. Pour the warm water into your mixing bowl, along with the sugar, and stir to dissolve. Then, sprinkle the yeast over the surface of the water very gradually (this seems to help it dissolve faster, rather than all lump together.) Wait for the yeast to completely dissolve, then add the milk powder.

At this point, have a friend call you unexpectedly and interrupt you for about 15 minutes. When you come back, you’ll see that your mix is nice and foamy. Add 2 cups of flour and mix well. Add a further two cups of flour and mix. Sprinkle most of the remaining flour on the kneading surface and scrape the dough out onto the surface.

Knead the dough for two to three minutes, until it seems to be coming together, using more flour if you need to, but not too much (the dough will let you know when it’s had enough flour). Let it sit for a little while so you can wash and grease the bowl you were using, then knead for a couple minutes more. Place in greased bowl, turn over, and set in a warm place, covered with a damp towel, to rise until doubled (an hour or so).

Punch the dough down, and on a floured surface, knead it to remove any air pockets. Divide into two (even! why is that so hard?) pieces, shape into loaves, and place in two non-stick loaf pans. Slit the surface lengthwise, at least a centimeter and a half deep, and let rise, covered, until almost doubled (probably less than an hour).

Preheat the oven to 350 F and bake for 35 minutes.

As soon as possible, cut off two thick slices, toast them lightly, slather them with butter, and scoop some nectarine butter on top. Coz that’s what I did.

Recipe: Chocolate and Peanutbutter Squares

Seriously, who needs Reese’s? Which is a great discovery, because peanut butter and chocolate is not a popular combination here in Korea, so if I want any peanut butter cups, I have to haul them back from Canada in bulk in my suitcase. The less i can depend on bringing stuff from Canada, the better, so I was really happy that these turned out to be just as good, if not better than the store-bought stuff, and with ingredients (mostly) available at my local grocery store! Yay!

Adapted from recipe here

Chocolate Peanutbutter Squares

Base:
3/4 c. digestive cookie crumbs (crush up and whirl in blender)
3/4 c. light brown sugar
3/4 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. flour
1/2 c. butter, melted
3/4 c. peanut butter

Top:
180 g. dark chocolate bars, broken in small pieces
3 T. butter

Combine cookie crumbs and brown sugar in bowl, sift powdered sugar and flour in, and mix well. Add melted butter and mix well. Add peanut butter and mix well again. Press into two 8″x8″ baking pans lined with wax paper. Heat chocolate and butter in pyrex measuring cup in microwave for one minute or so, or until half melted. Take out of microwave and stir until smooth. Pour evenly over both trays, and use the back of a spoon to spread carefully until smooth on top. Chill until set, then pull out of trays and cut into 1″ squares. Makes 128 squares, though many of them “go missing” before you can actually store them in a container in the fridge to keep.

Orange Carrot Cake with Orange Yogurt Cream Cheese Icing

I took a look through a few carrot cake recipes that looked good:
Eggs on Sunday’s Solid Gold Carrot Cake
CD Kitchen’s Orange Carrot Cake
A Merrier World’s Carrot Cake
Epicurious’ Carrot-Orange Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Baking Bites’ One Bowl Carrot Cake

…and decided that Baking Bites’ carrot cake looked closest to what I wanted. Of course, I doubled it and modified a bit to use up what we had on hand…carrots that didn’t make it into last Sunday’s roast, two oranges left over from Jaret’s booth partner at the Outdoor Adventure Show, and some mandarin oranges that needed to be eaten soon.

Orange Carrot Cake with Orange Yogurt Cream Cheese Icing

2 c. brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. butter, melted and cooled
4 large eggs
1 t. vanilla
4 T. vegetable oil
Juice of two oranges
Zest of one orange
3 c. all-purpose flour
2 t. baking soda
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. salt
3-4 large carrots, grated

Stir together butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well, then add oil, orange juice, and zest and mix. Sift half of the flour into the bowl and mix together. Add the soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt to the remaining flour in the measuring cup and whisk together well with a fork, then sift this into the bowl, mixing quickly. Fold in the shredded carrots. Pour into your choice of non-stick baking pans (loaf, square, round, or muffin). Bake in a 325 to 350 degree oven (depends on your oven) until golden and knife inserted in middle of the cake comes out clean. Serve with icing.

Don’t bother with icing recipes that call for a gazillion cups of icing sugar; they are sickeningly sweet and all you really need to do is soften up your cream cheese a bit and sweeten it. The flavours come out SO much more nicely that way. Trust me. It’s yummy.

Orange Yogurt Cream Cheese Icing

1 regular package of cream cheese (8 ounces, I believe)
2 T. butter
1/2 c. sugar (icing or regular)
1/4 c. yogurt
Juice from one or two mandarin oranges

Whip all ingredients together with hand mixer until smooth and all sugar is dissolved. Adjust amounts to your own taste and to the desired consistency.

Recipe: George (Mint Nanaimo Bars)

This is a longtime family favourite. I always thought it was named after my Grandpa George, and had never heard of Nanaimo bars until well into my teens. Turns out, it was from one of the Best of Bridge cookbooks that mom has had forever, and they aren’t even mint in the recipe–I guess someone made that change so that they would be more “Christmassy”.

Bottom layer:
1/2 c. butter
1/4 c. brown sugar
3 T. cocoa powder
1 egg, beaten
2 c. graham cracker crumbs (will have to find a substitute in Korea…maybe digestive cookie crumbs?)
1 c. shredded coconut
1/2 c. chopped walnuts/pecans

Middle layer:
1/4 c. butter
2 c. icing sugar
2 T. Bird’s custard powder (not available in Korea afaik…maybe equivalent amount of cornstarch and a little bit of vanilla)
1/4 c. cream/milk
a few drops of green food colouring
1 t. peppermint extract (or more, you want it really minty…add bit by bit and taste)

Top layer:
3 chocolate squares (1 square=1 ounce=28 grams)
1/4 c. butter

Combine ingredients for first layer and press firmly into a 9″ square baking pan. Chill for half an hour.

Combine all the ingredients for the middle layer in order, using an electric blender, so that there won’t be any lumps, until smooth and fluffy. Spread carefully on top of bottom layer using an icing knife if you have one (I do, I stole it from mom hehe). Do not make the mistake (as I once did) of chilling this layer, or the melted chocolate will harden up as soon as you pour it and you will have one big lump of chocolate in the middle, not a nice thin layer. In order to make it easier to spread the top layer, just make sure the middle layer is nice and thick.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a pyrex measuring cup in the microwave (one minute will do–the chocolate should not be melted completely, but will continue to melt once you take it out of the microwave and stir for a bit). Pour carefully and evenly over middle layer and tilt pan to spread. Chill until set. To cut into squares, warm to room temperature first and cut carefully into small squares.

I like thinner squares, so I would be a little generous with the ingredients to make a tiny bit more, then make it in a 9″ x 13″ pan. In order to have enough chocolate for the top, though, I would add one or two more chocolate squares and a tablespoon more butter to the top layer.

Leftover Roast Beef Dinner Soup

Inspired by this recipe, but made with the leftovers from Mom’s awesome traditional Sunday night roast dinner. Best. Soup. Ever. Srsly.

2 T. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 or 3 stalks celery, diced
1 green or red pepper, chopped
1 c, mushrooms, sliced or chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 c. chopped leftover roast beef or steak
4 c. water
1 beef bouillon cube
1 can stewed, diced tomatoes
2 or 3 roast potatoes, diced
1 c. roast carrots, diced
2 or 3 roast onions, chopped
1 c. mashed turnip
1 or 2 roast sweet potatoes, diced
2/3 c. orzo
1/2 T dried oregano
1/2 T dried basil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in pot, add onions and red pepper and saute until slightly softened. Add garlic and saute, then add mushrooms and cook. Add beef and saute a few minutes. Add tomatoes and cook for a couple minutes. Add water and bouillon, then rest of vegetables, orzo, oregano, basil pepper, and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer at least 20 minutes, until orzo is cooked. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

Basic Pancakes

To get pancakes that look a bit more like the ones above, use less baking powder and more liquid. Mom likes ‘em that way, a bit more dense and crepe-y. Me, I like them as below:

Basic Pancake Recipe
adapted from Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cook Book

1 1/4 c. flour
2 T. sugar
4 t. baking powder (!!–I’m going to have to make these again just to double-check that)
3/4 t. salt
2 eggs
1 1/3 c. milk (1 c. for thicker batter)
3 T. oil (I think we forgot to add this, but the pancakes were great. Will double-check)

Mix flour, sugar, soda and salt in large measuring cup (easier to pour batter later). In small bowl, beat eggs, stir in milk and oil and pour into flour mixture. Stir just until flour is moistened.

Heat skillet on medium-high until a droplet of water sizzles. Brush with oil and fry until golden on both sides.

Serve with butter and maple syrup. Have some bacon with it too! And some fruit (for your health ).

Greetings from Canada!

So I got here in mid-December…I suppose that’s news to a lot of people But don’t take it personally that I haven’t gotten in touch, I just needed some time to myself. Since I got here, I’ve been:

1. De-pressurizing and de-stressing
2. Hiding from the entire world (think Thoreau’s Walden, not the hunchback of Notre Dame)
3. Having Christmas

4. Trying not to think (and mostly succeeding) about the fact that I have no job, no income, almost no home, and no apparent job prospects…whoops! better be careful, I almost thought about it…
5. Knitting

6. Augmenting my yarn stash

7. Baking and cooking

8. Reorganizing my online experience
9. Looking at the snow

10. Preparing to enter Phase 2 of my four-phase plan to Get A Life, which is getting in touch with people and joining the human race again Talk to you soon!

wednesday morning baking

Hanging out with some handsome guys (my level 4 writing class) on the last day of class…we went to the new Starbucks across the street from the school–it’s really nice, very relaxing, good music, and they have really great sparkling apple juice, and signature ice chocolate that is amazing! (It’s also behind the new soup restaurant on the main street called “The Soup”, which i highly recommend–their chicken jambalaya and hungarian goulash are out of this world!!!)

Anyway, it was nice hanging out with Tony, Jun, and Johnny outside of class–after a full month of writing torture!!! I know, i’m evil, but with a one hour class, there’s too much to learn in too little time! They did really well, though–they ended up writing some excellent short stories that were pages long, totally organized, really descriptive, funny, and well written. If you’re reading this, i’m really proud of you guys!

As for this week, I have four new classes, ranging from Pre-Conversation level to level 4, and everybody seems nice so far–although it will take a bit of time for the pre’s and the 1’s and I to adjust to each other

But only 56 days of teaching left until the end of my contract, and then back to canada for a couple of months! YAY!

And now on to the kitchen chronicles:

For the past few days, i’ve actually been going to bed early–new rule: no internet after work, just a bit of translation if i can keep my eyes open. So i’ve been sleeping well and waking up at 8-ish, which is nice! In fact, yesterday i was up at 7:30 and this is what i did:

Excellent cookies, but SWEET! I didn’t cut down the sugar much because i didn’t want to screw around with the physical properties of the dough–i wanted something a bit chewy in the centre, and these are! I had some cranberries that i need to use up (i’m trying to use up all my food/dried goods/spices before i put everything into storage for the couple of months that i will be in canada–oh, did i mention that i’m moving out of my apartment?) and some white chocolate that shinjae brought back for me from europe, but only 2 small bars, so i supplemented with a few chocolate chips. The recipe is from here, but i modified it a bit….

Cranberry and White Chocolate Chunk Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 c. butter softened
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
1/3 c. white sugar
1 egg
2 T. maple syrup
1 t. vanilla
1 T. some sort of alcohol (i used soju!)
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 t. baking soda
Pinch salt
1 c. dried cranberries
1/2 c. white chocolate chunks
1/2 c. chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars together. Add egg and vanilla, maple, and alcohol. Mix well. Stir together flour, soda and salt separately, then add to wet ingredients. Mix in cranberries and chocolates and drop by the tablespoonful onto greased cookie sheets, a couple of inches apart. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or so–keep an eye on them and take them out when they are brown around the edges but still soft in the centre. Cool one minute on tray, then transfer to rack to cool completely.
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This is a bit different from my previous recipe. Both are good; i would have to compare them both side by side to decide which are better…found this recipe here. This one’s good because i don’t really need icing sugar, which is hard to get around here.

Lemony Lemon Squares

Base:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 T. cornstarch
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 c. cold butter, cubed

Filling:
3/4 c. granulated sugar
2 T. flour
Pinch salt
1/2 t. lemon extract or 1 t. lemon zest
3 eggs, room temperature
1/2 c. lemon juice
3 T. heavy cream

Combine the flour, cornstarch, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Add the butter cut together with pastry blender until the dough forms even, moist crumbs and sticks together when pinched. Press the dough into the bottom of a greased 8 or 9″ baking pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and bake the base until pale golden, 20 to 22 minutes.

Filling: Reduce oven temperature to 325°F. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, flour, salt and lemon extract/zest. Add the eggs, lemon juice and cream and whisk until just blended. Carefully pour mixture into the warm base. Bake until filling feels firm when touched lightly, about 20-22 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack; cool to room temperature. Chill for 2 hours before cutting into squares or bars.
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And this is to take to work for dinner, and to use up some of the dry goods in my cupboards. The original recipe is here, but of course i changed a bit–didn’t have any olives, and needed to use up the rest of my cream…

Beef and Tomato Casserole

500 g tubetti or any small pasta, uncooked
1 lg. onion, chopped
1 lg. green pepper, chopped
1 T. minced garlic
Olive oil
1 lb. ground beef
Salt
8-10 lg. mushrooms, sliced
2 14.5 oz. cans of tomatoes, diced
2 c. zucchini, diced
1 1/2 c. corn
2/3 to 1 c. cream
1/2 lb. cheddar cheese, grated

Heat 2 T. olive oil in a large pot. Add onions and peppers and saute until soft. Add garlic and zucchini and cook 1 more minute. Add tomatoes, bring to a simmer and cook ten minutes, then turn down the heat and keep warm. While tomatoes are cooking, cook the pasta until al dente. In a separate frypan, heat 1-2 T. oil on medium high and add beef, breaking it up. Let sit a bit between stirring to brown nicely. Add salt to beef while cooking. Remove browned beef to tomato mixture, keeping most oil in the frypan. Add mushrooms to frypan and saute until lightly browned. Add to tomato mixture. Add corn to tomato mixture and heat through. Remove from heat. Add cream, two-thirds of the cheese and the pasta to the pot and mix well. Transfer to casserole dish(es), and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for at least half an hour.

craft and food update

Well, since the last time i updated this journal, i’ve been busy! This week, i decided to jump back into translation. Hyunjung and i have decided to study translation together in preparation for next year’s translation contest. With all the putzing around i’ve done this year, and all the miscommunications with Paul, there’s no way we will be able to do anything about submitting this year. Anyway, we have lots of research to do, and i have decided to just get lots of practice by translating all the stories in the 2007 Yi Sang Short Story Collection, and will decide later what to submit for the contest. Good luck to us! I haven’t studied Korean seriously in such a long time, it is rather slow-going at the moment

1. yarn2, 2. blanket pile, 3. what a mess, 4. testflowers, 5. red ripple, 6. turquoise ripple, 7. chevron swatch, 8. multicolour crochet circles, 9. candleflame shawl swatches

So, i finally collected all the yarn colours for my two new ripples, though i am on pause with both of them at the moment, as i have run out of the base colours–i need to go back to namdaemoon and pick up more of those honkin’ huge skeins of turquoise and red. Meanwhile, i have untangled all the scraps and have started making granny-square flowers a la yarnstorm, though i’ll be outlining them with black instead of white. i have about 35 so far, but i need about 120 for a full size blanket…depends on how much leftover yarn i have, i guess.

Also, i have rearranged things so that i can pile all my blankets in one place. i love the look of that!

I’m also swatching for two other projects: a chevron scarf, and a candle flame shawl. I definitely won’t be using these yarns for those projects–i need to hit an upscale yarn shop and invest in some beautiful, soft, natural fibers (hopefully for a reasonable price!) Love the patterns though! Much more fun and challenging than stockinette, or the 3×3 rib i’ve been doing for YEARS on the grey blanket!! I also want to try this pattern.

1. peanutbutter cookies, 2. beef and veggie stirfry, 3. honey whole wheat bread2, 4. out of the oven 2, 5. with a bowl of chowder, 6. homemade sausage and egg NkMuffins, 7. baked eggs, 8. comfort food, 9. pizza fresh from the oven, 10. banana bread, 11. butter tarts done, 12. tzatziki and pita snack, 13. July14dinner, 14. sort of greek dinner, 15. french bread 3, 16. french bread 5, 17. i love cherries, 18. my favourite oatmeal raisin chocolate chip sunflower seed cookies, 19. potato salad, 20. moussaka done, 21. at dunkin donuts, 22. apple bread pudding crisp, 23. tuna salad, 24. frozen berries 2, 25. banana coconut bread 3, 26. bruschetta 4, 27. pasta salad 2, 28. butternut squash salad, 29. turkish delight from haily, 30. iced coffee

Recipes and details to follow…but the highlights are: my awesome bread-baking skillz, homemade pizza, tzatziki, moussaka, and the egg mcmuffins!