Author: JIN

A home cook and a foodie with a healthy appetite celebrating everything delicious, sweet and spicy in life
Posted on by — 3 Comments

Turmeric coated Tofu and Asian pear salad with Kimchi dressing

Superfood Tofu kimchi salad

Like our neighboring countries in East Asia, Tofu is one of the most essential ingredients in Korean diet. Koreans eat it steamed, boiled, cooked in soup, lightly fried, braised or even raw. I too have eaten countless tofu in my lifetime, and it had been a kind of food I was so used to eating that it almost became too insignificant to have an opinion about. But things changed a little when tofu started gaining a reputation not only as a healthy food but also as a bland and tasteless food that gives almost no pleasure of eating.

Continue reading Turmeric coated Tofu and Asian pear salad with Kimchi dressing

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Vietnamese Cooking Class in Nha Trang

Vietnamese homecooked meal

Vietnam has a special place in my heart. It was the first foreign country that I had lived for a few months, guess you could say it was my first home away from home. I had a few family members living in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City in early 2000s, and I spent about 6 months there and traveled around the country before I went to college in London.

I also went back a few times afterwards, and the country has been changing like nowhere else I’ve ever seen. My recent trip to Nha Trang was yet another proof. Nha trang is a coastal resort city near Saigon probably best known for its gorgeous white sandy beaches. The beaches really are stunning, but the city has so much more to offer in terms of hustling and bustling markets, local eateries, stylish restaurants, and nightlife. Continue reading Vietnamese Cooking Class in Nha Trang

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Basil, mint and Pecorino Romano pesto

Growing up in South Korea, basil was not an ingredient that I was ever familiar with. I ate dishes with basil at Italian restaurants, but I had never seen the fresh basil until I went to study in London. First thing about fresh basil that hit me before anything else was its fragrance. The unique and intoxicating aroma of basil blew my mind instantly. Like Marcella Hazan wrote in her book Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, “The less basil cooks, the better it is, and that its fragrance is never more seductive than when it is raw.” …What a beautiful thing to say. Continue reading Basil, mint and Pecorino Romano pesto

Posted on by — 3 Comments

How to use old sour kimchi – Kimchi fried rice

As kimchi started gaining its superfood status, my friends started asking me all sorts of kimchi related questions. And two of the most common questions among them were 1. Does kimchi ever go bad if you keep it too long? 2. What do you do with a few weeks or months old sour tasting kimchi? Continue reading How to use old sour kimchi – Kimchi fried rice

Posted on by — 4 Comments

20 minute meal – Squid ink spaghetti with crab and green chilis

crab chili squid ink pasta

I came down with a terrible flu last week. So terrible that I didn’t even have much appetite (that rarely happens to me), and couldn’t think of what to have for dinner. Fortunately my appetite came back after a couple of days, which I figured as a sign of recovery, and one of the first things I wanted to eat was pasta. In fact, I could eat pasta pretty much everyday, not a problem for me at all. Continue reading 20 minute meal – Squid ink spaghetti with crab and green chilis

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Fig Salad inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi

If you are a vegetarian or a lover of vegetarian cookery you must have heard of Yotam Ottolenghi. Earlier this year I bought one of his cookbooks called “Plenty More”, follow-up to his bestseller “Plenty”, and I love love love it. Not only this book has a plenty of fresh, healthy and delicious recipes, it is also full of visually stunning dishes that immediately say “Eat me!” or more like “Make me, then eat me!” :-). Continue reading Fig Salad inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi

Posted on by — 5 Comments

Sweet, sticky, spicy chicken wings with orange & honey glaze

The first thing I do when I come up with a recipe is taking a note on my phone. Then I usually move onto testing it, and make necessary changes. If I decide to post the recipe, I either picture what the dish is going to look like in my head or doodle it out on my sketch pad. I remember finishing all those steps for this recipe months ago. I was ready to work on my post, then my husband and I went to a bar (nice bar, not a trash one) and ordered chicken wings. And oh boy, were they the worst chicken wings we’d ever had…I think they were one of the worst things I ever had to put in my mouth. I just couldn’t get it, who messes up chicken wings? Not only we stayed away from eating any type of chicken wings after that, I couldn’t even hear the word ‘chicken wings’ without having a gag reflex. Continue reading Sweet, sticky, spicy chicken wings with orange & honey glaze

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Spicy garlicky soybean paste prawns and soba noodles

prawn noodles with Korean fermented soybean paste

Although my recipes in this blog are mostly vegetarian, I equally enjoy eating and cooking meat and seafood. Unfortunately my husband cannot eat most shellfish, which in fact is my favorite protein. So whenever I am not dining with him or he’s out of town I go hard on eating and cooking shellfish. Not that he banned me from eating them when he’s around, (he only pouts a little if I order them at restaurants sometimes) but sharing our food together is so important to us that I don’t want to cook or eat anything that he cannot enjoy. He was away for over 2 weeks recently, and I was able to come up with a couple of shellfish dishes that I really like during this time. This prawn soba is one of them, and it is simple, healthy, and delicious. Continue reading Spicy garlicky soybean paste prawns and soba noodles

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Spiced lentil stuffed peppers with halloumi and honey drizzle

One of my absolute favorite things to cook for the last few months has been roasted bell peppers. My mom always makes me eat them fresh and raw back home, (which isn’t too bad) but roasting really does bring out all the natural sweet juice and flavor from them, and I think it is the best way to eat bell peppers. I never use green peppers though, because these unripe peppers are not as sweet as other ones even when they are cooked. Continue reading Spiced lentil stuffed peppers with halloumi and honey drizzle

Posted on by — 7 Comments

Sweet nutty fruity banana, date and fig loaf

I have never been a huge bread person. Probably because I grew up eating rice, and we had no oven (Koreans didn’t use to bake much). Also my grandma always told me that bread is hard to digest and I would have tummy ache if I ate too much of it. (She loves the baked goods now though, especially sweet fluffy cakes :-)). So naturally I am not much of a baker, especially the sweet kind. I made a chicken pie and a flat bread long time ago, but I didn’t enjoy the process enough to go back to baking for some reason. My husband on the other hand, grew up eating tones of amazing cakes, pies and cookies made by his mom. He is also an excellent baker himself and has been taking care of the dessert department for all our dinners and parties for years. Only recently I started to bake sweet things, just out of curiosity and of course, ‘The Great British Bake Off’. (If there is anyone out there who hasn’t watched the show yet, start right now!) My first attempt was a disaster at best, I really didn’t know what I was doing or baking. Continue reading Sweet nutty fruity banana, date and fig loaf