Happy CNY! Normally CNY is a pretty big national holiday in Korea. Everyone gets together and indulge themselves with healthy festive foods. I didn’t use to like being called to the kitchen by my mum and aunties, which meant no playing but working. They made me open the jars of spices and sauces when they needed extra hands. We all had to sit around and make hundreds of dumplings which I was not good at and very slow. After hours of cooking, a big table full of nice food and drinks was for guys. Kids had a small table set-up next to it with less food because adults and kids don’t sit together in old days. I understand now, though, kids are messy eaters and noisy. Then of course these lucky guys just eat and leave. More work for women who didn’t even eat a proper meal because they were busy replacing the empty plates for new ones and feeding kids. I felt sorry for my mum and aunties on CNY after seeing how much physical work they actually do for a family gathering. Having said that they didn’t seem to mind at all, a lot of giggling and chit-chats happening in the kitchen. It was all about cooking with love! Oh good memories 🙂 I think some families don’t do this kind of big gatherings any more nowadays because they are busy with their life or rather want to go on overseas holiday. But really, family comes first, nothing more important than that. I would love to be back home for CNY which unfortunately I haven’t done for almost 10 years since I’m living far away from my family. So this year I’ve decided to invite some of my friends and their partners over for dinner to celebrate CNY and have a feast. Bring back my spirit of feeding “the family”!

Entree
– Creamed spinach& artichoke on tea bread
– Pork buns
– Mango salsa in wonton cups
– Caramelised pear and onion crostini

Main
– Black tea braised pork on rice
– Crispy potato with thyme and broccoli salad with blue cheese and mustard vinaigrette
– Caramelised carrot, dates, orange & quinoa salad with pomegranate dressing

Dessert
– Lemon panna cotta in a tea cup with home-made sesame honey comb

I wish you all an amazing, prosperous and peaceful 2014 x

Bulgogi is marinated thinly sliced beef dish, one of the popular Korean foods. Beef should be tender and melting in your mouth. Basic marinade is soy sauce, garlic, ginger, chilli, onion and sesame oil, but everyone has their own twist on the marinade in Korea that makes the Bulgogi flavour different  from house to house. My mum’s secret weapon is using purée of acidic fruits which breaks down meat protein and therefore makes it tender when cooked. It also helps to balance sweet and sour. Normally kiwi fruit, Asian nashi pear, apple or pineapple works well. You need to make sure you don’t leave meat in the marinade too long otherwise it will end up all mushy.

I don’t usually cook lamb because of strong smell of it, but this lamb Bulgogi was not too bad actually. I’m surprised it tasted as nice and tender as traditional beef Bulgogi. To make Bulgogi you need thin slices of meat either beef or lamb. If you cannot find in the supermarket, go down to your local friendly butcher. They can help you with that. Marinade meat for an hour or two. Cook in a frying pan in high heat. It’s thin marinated meat so shouldn’t take long to cook. My tip is not to crowd the pan otherwise temperature drops down and the beautiful juice all comes out of the meat. Quickly stir-fry and serve with sesame seeds on top. I served Bulgogi with a stuffed capsicum and red cabbage sauerkraut. I cooked half cup of quinoa with turmeric and mint first. Then put it in the halved red capsicum and cook in the preheated oven (180) for 20 minutes until capsicum is tender. I topped with cottage cheese and roasted pepitas. It was very tasty and well-balanced flavours – sweetness from roasted capsicum, nuttiness from quinoa and pepitas, and creaminess from cottage cheese. Delicieux!