Week 9 - Korean

I wrote this back in March, but I think I was waiting to publish it until I had finished all the weeks in-between. I'm not planning to go in order anymore since I'm so behind, and this is posted pretty much as written two months ago.

We love Korean food, but I had a really, really hard time choosing a dish for this challenge. I wanted to avoid anything too spicy, so that eliminated a bunch of dishes, and I also needed to skip anything with ingredients that required a visit to a Korean grocery store, since we were doing our best to not go out while all the COVID variants spread around the city. (Present day note: We were not vaccinated at the time, and no timeline had been announced for our age range yet.) My initial thought was pajeon, but at the time I was trying to choose a dish, B was in the middle of an anti-green food phase, so that was out. Eventually, after watching a bunch of YouTube videos (in Korean and English), I decided to try out a type of hotteok that was potato pancakes stuffed with cheese. I didn't follow any specific recipe, but tried to put them all together for the ingredients we had.

The ingredients for the hotteok, which I decided to make vegan for my lactose intolerance, were:

- 2 large Russet potatoes ($1.23)

- 2 pinches of salt ($0.02)

- 1 tsp sugar ($0.03)

- 1 tbsp cornstarch ($0.10)

- freshly ground black pepper ($0.02)

- large handful of shredded mozzarella cheese ($1.67)

- 1 tbsp vegan butter ($0.16)

The cost for the hotteok was about $3.23. We ate it with a can of green beans and some smoked salmon, but not sure how much the whole meal cost since we bought the smoked salmon almost four years ago on a trip to Vancouver. My guess would be that the entire meal was under $10 though.

The steps for making the hotteok were:

1. Prep - peel potatoes and chop into large chunks.

2. Add potatoes to small pot of cold water with a pinch of salt, bring to a boil, and then cook potatoes until fork tender.

3. Drain potatoes, add to large mixing bowl, and mash.

4. Add pinch of salt, sugar, cornstarch, and black pepper to the mixing bowl, and mix well until smooth.

5. Take small handfuls of the potato mixture, roll into a ball, and then flatten out into a bowl shape in your hands. Add a little mozzarella, and then close up the potato to seal in the cheese. Roll into a ball again, and then flatten into a disc.

A bit of an uneven flame...

6. Melt butter in skillet over medium low heat, and then add the potato balls. Cook until both sides are golden brown.

The finished product tasted like mashed potatoes with a slight hint of cheesiness. It probably would have been cheesier if I had used non-vegan cheese or a different brand, because this one wasn't super cheesy in flavor. They were good for B, because it meant mashed potatoes without having to use a spoon. Overall, they just tasted like pan-fried mashed potatoes. Glad we tried it, but might try a different type of hotteok next time.