Here’s how to cook your fave Korean food at home – and it’s easier than you think!
DO you know your bibimbap from your gochujang?
Don’t panic, because Seji Hong’s new cookbook Korean Made Easy, is the fast route to recreating all your favourites at home.
She shows us how to make a delicious kimchi fried rice dish in only 15 minutes – with a retro surprise ingredient!
These are perfect recipes for a Friday-night fakeaway, and once you’ve got the ingredients in your cupboard, you can make them again and again.
So, pop Love Island on the box and get the girls over for a cheeky Korean hotdog with the recipe below.
Or if you’re in need of some TLC, Seji’s chicken noodle soup is the perfect dish for you – it’s bowl food for the soul.
One-Pan Kimchi-Fried Rice With Spam
Serves: 2
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Cals: 471
Sat fat: 6g
Ingredients:
2tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra for the eggs
1 spring onion, plus extra to garnish, thinly sliced
80g Spam, cut into bite-sized cubes
150g kimchi, finely chopped
1tbsp sugar
1/2tbsp soy sauce
1/2tbsp fish sauce
Steamed rice, at room temperature
Sesame oil, for drizzling
2 eggs
Method:
1 Put the oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat and stir-fry the spring onion and Spam for 2 minutes.
2 Add the kimchi, sugar, soy sauce and fish sauce to the pan and stir-fry for a further 2 minutes. If the seasonings start to stick, add a dash of water.
3 Next, add your room-temperature rice and stir-fry over a high heat for 3 minutes.
4 Drizzle sesame oil over your ingredients and give them a good mix before removing the pan from the heat.
5 Heat a little extra oil in a small pan and fry the eggs. Add them to the rice mix and finish with the extra spring onion. Serve hot from the pan – tuck in with a spoon.
Soul-Nourishing Chicken Noodle Soup
Serves: 2
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Cals: 348
Sat fat: 3g
Ingredients:
2L water
200g skinless chicken thigh fillets
2 onions, roughly chopped
6 cloves garlic, peeled
2tsp salt
200g fresh noodles or fresh tagliatelle
1/2 small courgette, cut into batons
Spring onions, sliced, to garnish
For seasoning the chicken:
1tbsp soy sauce
1tsp ground black pepper
40g coarse gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes)
Method:
1 Bring the measured water to the boil in a large pan. Add the chicken breast, onions, garlic and salt. Simmer for 20-25 minutes.
2 Once cooked, remove the chicken, onion and garlic from the broth using a slotted spoon. Allow the chicken breast to cool, then shred it. Mash the cooked garlic. Discard the cooked onion.
3 Combine the shredded chicken and mashed garlic in a bowl with the seasoning ingredients. Toss together.
4 Return the pan of chicken broth to a medium-high heat and bring it to the boil. Add the noodles and courgette. Check for seasoning and add salt and black pepper to taste.
5 After 5-7 minutes, once the noodles are cooked, remove the pan from the heat.
6 Divide the noodles between 2 bowls. Top each bowl with the seasoned chicken and sprinkle with sliced spring onions. Serve piping hot.
Korean Hotdogs
Serves: 4
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Cals: 760
Sat fat: 10g
Ingredients:
4 jumbo hot dog sausages
120g panko breadcrumbs
Vegetable oil
White granulated sugar
Gochujang ketchup, to serve
For the dough:
250g plain flour
100ml milk
1 egg
2tbsp sugar
1tsp salt
1tsp baking powder
Method:
1 Spear each sausage lengthways with a wooden skewer, so there is around 10cm of the skewer sticking out.
2 Combine the dough ingredients in a large bowl. Thoroughly mix together, then leave at room temperature for 1 hour to allow the dough to rise. The consistency of the mixture should be somewhere between that of a batter and a dough, leaning closer to the dough’s texture – thick and sticky.
3 Once the dough has risen, evenly coat your skewered sausages with dough. For ease, place the dough in a long glass for easy coating and dunk the sausage in the glass. The batter should adhere to the skewers without dripping off easily.
4 Spread the panko breadcrumbs on a tray lined with baking paper and gently roll the dough-coated skewers, shaping them around the sausage as you go.
5 Heat the vegetable oil in a deep pan (allow enough to cover the corn dogs) to 175°C or until a cube of bread dropped into the hot oil browns in 30 seconds. Carefully lower the corn dogs into the hot oil and fry for about 5-6 minutes until golden and crispy.
6 Using tongs, remove the corn dogs from the pan and let them drain on a wire rack. Sprinkle white sugar over the corn dogs and drizzle with gochujang ketchup.
How many calories should men and women consume?
According to the British Nutrition Foundation
Female
Energy – Around 2,000kcal
Fat – No more than 78g (or 35% food energy)
Saturated Fat – No more than 24g (or 11% food energy)
Carbohydrate – At least 267g (or 50% food energy)
Free sugars – No more than 27g (or 5% food energy)
Protein – 45g
Fibre – 30g
Salt – No more than 6g
Male
Energy – Around 2,500kcal
Fat – No more than 97g
Saturated Fat – No more than 31g
Carbohydrate – At least 333g
Free sugars – No more than 33g
Protein – 55g
Fibre – 30g
Salt – No more than 6g