Disclaimer: I’m not Korean or fluent at the language; I can only translate the parts that I understand. There are probably many mistranslations here, but the idea is roughly the same.
Please watch videos for the exact amount of ingredients. Teacher Soomi sometimes uses her hand for measurement, so it’s hard to put the exact amount in words.
Hints of the guests are 9-month pregnant and has a Chinese husband. They are Ham So Won and Jin Hua. She expects to deliver on Dec 18th. Dongmin asks what she craves for. So Won answers oily food. She lives in China for 10 years but never looks for Korean food. She thinks it’s better to eat Korean food in Korea. However, when she’s pregnant, she really craves for Korean food. Her husband tries to cook Korean food for her, but he’s pretty bad at it. She throws them away secretly. Teacher Soomi asks chef Yeo to translate. Her husband reads his letter out loud. Dongmin jokes, “He doesn’t read in Chinese, but you still translate!!!” Chef Yeo laughs, “Bc he has a Chinese accent.” So Won says that he’s learning to write Korean nowadays.
Ingredient for today are home-made tofu, ripened kimchi and pork neck. Teacher Soomi says that these are great for expectant mother and baby.
Recipe: Fried Tofu and Ripened Kimchi
Use a big fry pan in low heat.
Cut kimchi long bc it’ll wrap with tofu. Put them in the pan. Cook them longer than pork neck. Also use ripened kimchi juice.
Stir in garlic. [Dongmin: You have to use your bare hand to mix them in a hot pan!]
Add 2 tsp of red pepper flakes (add more if you prefer it spicy).
Add some water and cover with a lid.
Chef Choi: He’s taking note of everything. [Dongmin: I thought he’s taking a test-taker.] He looks just like me when I first started.
That is a 600g pork neck. Cut them in thin slices.
Making marinade: add lots of garlic, some sprinkles of black pepper, 2 tsp of red pepper flakes, 1 tbsp of red pepper paste.
Chef Choi: Teacher is going fast today as well. [So Won: did you add red pepper flakes?] Why are you going so fast today? [Teacher Soomi: I’ll slow down.]
Cut 1 onion (1.5cm thickness), 1 leek and red/green peppers.
Dongmin: Does your husband like Korean food?
Jin Hua: Yes, I like them, especially kimchi and kimbap.
Dongmin: Our teacher makes the best kimchi in Korea.
Teacher Soomi: I’ll give you kimchi later. Take ripened kimchi home.
Jin Hua: Teacher, I love you~
Teacher Soomi: Please give a lot of love to our So Won.
Add pork into the pan, then onion and red/green peppers.
Flavor with 1 tbsp of yangjo ganjang and 1tbsp of plum extract.
Add more water if liquid in the pan disappears.
Dry tofu with paper towel. Cut tofu in thick blocks.
Teacher Soomi: Get rid of tofu’s moisture. Didn’t Mikael blot it dry?
Chef Mikael: It’s not me.
Dongmin: If you don’t dry off tofu when frying it, it’ll be like over there.
Decorate with black sesame seeds (optional).
Just flip tofu over once.
So Won: What happened over there?
Chef Yeo: He’s rushing bc it’s evaluation time.
Chef Choi: Dongmin, go away~
Teacher Soomi: What’s going on over here? Omo omo omo I can’t live bc of him. He’s crazy. He has to get hit today. I won’t let him be. What’s wrong with you?
Chef Choi: I don’t do well if I leave this show one day.
Jin Hua: He burned his tofu? He shouldn’t fry them on high heat.
Teacher Soomi: These become deep fried.
Chef Mikael: I’ll give him half of mine.
Add leek as the last step.
Chef Choi: Mikael, come over here to taste this.
Chef Mikael: Ah, it’s very spicy. I don’t wanna eat.
Teacher Soomi: There shouldn’t be any liquid left.
Jin Hua: It is delicious.
Teacher Soomi *tastes from chef Yeo’s*: This is perfect.
Teacher Soomi *tastes from chef Choi’s*: You didn’t add sugar right? It’s delicious. [So Won: Why does it have a different taste?] [Dongmin: Different taste? Surprising right?] [So Won: They definitely follow the same steps, but why?]
Teacher Soomi bursts out laughing after tasting from chef Mikael.
Chef Choi: Did you do something bad today as well?
Teacher Soomi: This tastes like your husband’s cooking… You know what I mean? It’s strange… I want to know why.
Place them so one shows the brown side and the other shows the side with black sesame seeds.
Dongmin: When Teacher does this, it feels like a real cooking show.
Teacher Soomi: This is not cooking but science.
Recipe: Radish Rice
Teacher Soomi: Next week is Korean SAT, so mothers are worry over packing lunch boxes for their children. We’ll make radish rice since it’s good for digestion.
Cut radish into thick strips. (Or else it’ll become porridge.)
Teacher Soomi: Check to make sure that your child likes the taste of radish rice a few days before the actual test day.
Put thick radish strips on top of cook rice and reduce to medium heat.
Recipe: Zucchini and Tofu Soup
First, half fill the pot with water then bring it to a boil.
Teacher Soomi: Chef Choi, please pay attention!
Cut tofu into ugly shapes and do the same for zucchinis.
So Won: I want to eat [squash and salted shrimp stir-fried] the most.
Teacher Soomi: Some dishes are pretty to eat, but we can eat ugly ones too. Just wait, the taste will definitely be different.
Add zucchini chunks to the hot water.
Cut red peppers thinly.
Dongmin: Jin Hua, show them the size. Don’t show them like that. [Chef Yeo: Like armband style(?)] This size!!
Add tofu and 2/3 tbsp of garlic.
Teacher Soomi: You add salted shrimp now. If adding it from the beginning, the taste of salted shrimp won’t be there.
Add 2 tbsp of salted shrimp. Taste to your preference.
[Teacher Soomi adds more salted shrimp bc it’s bland for her.]
Dongmin: If it’s bland, add more salted shrimp. If it’s salty, add more water.
[Not in the video: It’s done after decorating with red peppers and green onion.]
Recipe: Pan-Fried Tofu Patties
Squeeze out tofu’s excess water.
Add 250g of ground beef, chopped shiitake mushroom, 1/3 of chopped onion, 1.3 of chopped carrot and tofu.
Mix them and add 1 tbsp of garlic and 3 sprinkles of black pepper.
Dongmin: You didn’t add tofu? [The rest: You haven’t add tofu yet?]
Chef Mikael: I’ll mix them all first then add tofu later.
Teacher Soomi: No! Mix them together!!! You have to mix them like this for the hand taste.
Add some flour to the mixture to bind them together.
Add 1 tbsp of yangjo ganjang, 1 tsp of sugar and a pinch of salt. Beat 2 eggs.
Chef Yeo: Beat 2 bottle of oil? I heard it wrong..
Dip each patty in the beaten egg before placing in the pan.
So Won: I can really eat 100 of these.
Teacher Soomi: Usually, you dip in flour then egg before frying, but flour isn’t good for the digestion of pregnant women. So I didn’t use a lot of flour.
Everyone: Thanks for the food~
Teacher Soomi’s sauce for radish rice: green pepper, green onion, soy sauce, sesame oil and sesame seeds
Dongmin: This is the perfect lunch box for KSAT.
Jin Hua: To tell you the truth, I didn’t eat since yesterday.
So Won: We kept talking about today’s delicious food.
Chef Choi: Tofu is very good for pregnant women.
Teacher Soomi: Chef Choi, have you ever given me this kinda heart before?
Chef Choi: I drop it here…
Dongmin: Can you make these at home?
Jin Hua: I already wrote these recipes down. [Chef Mikael: Since he wrote them down.]
Teacher Soomi: Even though all are full now, I think all pregnant women need to eat cheonggukjang (fermented soybean paste). The baby will say “Thank you very much, grandma Soomi.”
Recipe: Ripened Kimchi and Fermented Soybean
Dongmin suggests to let Jin Hua cook by himself.
Lightly roast ~8-9 anchovies in the pot.
Cut washed ripened kimchi into chunks and add them to the pot.
Teacher Soomi: He’s doing better than chef Choi.
Shake rice water before pouring.
Don’t add fermented soybean paste from the start. Wait for kimchi to cook before adding it.
Prepare 1/3 of onion (1cm cut), red/green peppers, leek (1cm cut), tofu (cut same size with kimchi and onion).
Take out anchovies (it becomes bitter if cook for long).
Add 1 tbsp of garlic, 1 tsp of red pepper flakes, fermented soybean paste, half a portion of tofu, onion and red/green peppers.
Dongmin: Oh, [Jin Hua’s] soup is boiling very well. How’s it? Can you cook this? Is it easy?
Jin Hua: It’s not easy.
Add in half of chopped leek.
It’s evaluation time~
Teacher Soomi *tastes from Jin Hua’s soup*: You did really well~ This tastes the best. The flavor is perfect. [So Won: Since he learned from Teacher, it definitely has the Korean taste.] It’s strange. Why was Mikael’s soup bland? We did everything the same.
Chef Choi: Even following every step together, he looked at the ingredients differently. He cut the tofu like this.
Teacher Soomi: Turn off the heat. It doesn’t taste as good if you keep boiling it. We just ate and now we eat again.
Chef Yeo: We have a different space for it in our belly.
Dongmin: Just think that fermented soybean is the digestive medicine. Ok, come here to take your med.
Chef Yeo: This smelled very strong back then. I think it’s my first time to eat this ripened kimchi and fermented soybean.
Teacher Soomi: But the taste is still the same.
So Won: It’s my first time seeing my husband ate this well.
Dongmin: She said she was full, but she still finished this.
Teacher Soomi: These people come here to kill our rice!
So Won: I thought I couldn’t eat anymore.
Recipe: Mapo Tofu
[T/n: I won’t translate this part. Just watch it please~]
Recipe: Shrimp and Tofu Tangsu (Sweet and Sour?!)
[T/n: I won’t translate this part. Just watch it please~]
Chef Choi names it as “Soomi ya, I won’t leave anymore”. (hahahaha)
Recipe: Banitza (Traditional Bulgarian Food)
[T/n: I won’t translate this part. Just watch it please~]
It’s either I’m a gluttony or Teacher Soomi knows all of my favorite food!!!! Seriously, I love love love tofu~~~ Ah, I can’t wait to make tofu patties and mapo tofu (Wish me luck y’all~)
It’s my first time learning about banitsa. I can tell that I already like it. One of my favorite dessert is baklava and this food is very similar to it. (I really like the flaky texture of phyllo~)
HanaviMeManga 