Sweet Potato and Kimchi Pancakes

The genesis behind this dish was that I wanted to make sweet potatoes latkes.  I'm not sure why I wanted to make sweet potato latkes, but I did.  I guess it stems from the latkes I had the other night at a friend's apartment on the last night of Hanukkah.  I tend to forget just how much I like latkes until I stumble across them somewhere.  So I started looking for recipes for sweet potato latkes online and found this recipe instead by Andrea Reusing.  Andrea is the chef at my all time favorite restaurant in Chapel Hill, NC - a place called Lantern Restaurant.  Sweet potato pancakes with kimchi?  Sounds delicious to me.  They're not exactly latkes, but that's ok.  Because they are super delicious.  The flavors of the sweet potatoes and the kimchi work brilliantly together.  My only complaint about the pancakes was that the batter was wet enough that it was pretty difficult to get the pancakes nice and crispy.  The texture was a little soggy.  Plus you had to be really gentle with the pancakes while forming and flipping them because the batter was so wet.  But on the plus side, I really don't think the flavor of the pancakes themselves could have been improved at all.  They were a little sweet and a little spicy, with great balance and freshness.  The sweetness and slight acidity of the Soy Vinegar Dipping Sauce really worked with the pancakes.  Pancakes and latkes both suffer from an inherent heaviness and doughiness, but somehow these pancakes avoided that trap.  Man I have to go back to Chapel Hill to eat at Lantern Restaurant again.    Andrea Reusing really knows her stuff.

Recipe after the jump!

Fuji (Honeycrisp) Apple Salad with Kimchi, Bacon, Maple Labne

When I first moved to New York one of my law school classmates told me about Momofuku Noodle Bar.  By the time I got home that evening I couldn't remember what it was called so I told Alex on the phone that there was a restaurant named "Wabonka" that we needed to try.  That's right.  Wabonka.  Alex still makes fun of me to this day about the mix up.  And I (probably) deserve it because I was way off.  It happens from time to time.  During my first few trips to the Momofukus, this was the dish that stood out the most in my mind.  I tried several dishes - but this was by far my favorite.  I have been there several times since then and added several more dishes to my list of favorites but this is the only dish that I regularly try to recreate (although not in all of its glory) at home.  This is the first time I have ever made the apple kimchi with bacon and it's certainly the first time I have made the maple labne.  Maybe the full recipe at home reminded me again just how much I love the Momofuku restaurants.  Where else would someone combine a Midde Eastern yogurt, maple syrup, bacon, apples and kimchi?  But somehow it works.  Actually, Alex and I made another Asian-inspired dish using maple syrup several months ago - Fatty 'Cue Brussels Sprouts.  It was pretty freaking good, and this dish is too.  You get a very complex assortment of flavors - spicy kimchi, sweet apples and maple syrup, tart labne, meaty salty bacon and peppery arugula.  It just works.  I don't know how but it does.  All of the flavors are assertive and bold, yet the dish was very nice balance.

Recipe after the jump!

Korean Steak and Kimchi Quesadillas

I love meals made almost entirely from repurposed leftovers.  They make me feel so virtuous and thrifty.  Plus meals are so much easier to make and quicker to put together when your proteins are already cooked and some of your ingredients are already prepped.  I made these quesadillas with the leftover Momofuku Marinated Hanger Steak Ssam with Red Kimchi Puree and Ginger Scallion.  We used the leftover hanger steak, the leftover red kimchi puree, and the leftover ginger scallion sauce.  I had originally intended to make our quesadillas with some brown rice tortillas that I picked up at Trader Joe's, but when I took them out of the fridge today they looked a little moldy.  So I threw them out.  And decided to use some lavash (also purchased at Trader Joe's) for our quesadillas, which actually worked quite well.  The only other thing we needed was some grated cheese and we were in quesadilla-making business.  And it was good business.  Our quesadillas were quite delicious.  I really enjoyed them - they were really easy to make, and very tasty.

Recipe after the jump!

Momofuku Marinated Hanger Steak Ssam with Red Kimchi Puree and Ginger Scallion

So this might be our last Asian-inspired meal of the week.  Or at the very least it is the last Asian-inspired meal that I had planned on making.  Actually, that's not entirely true because we made enough steak for two meals, which means that we are going to do the trendy thing and make some Korean quesadillas later this week.  But I'm not sure it counts as Asian-inspired when you start making quesadillas, which are totally Mexican-inspired...  But anyway, for the last Asian or Asian-inspired meal for the week, I had to go to David Chang because I love David Chang and his whole Momofuku empire.  Actually, randomly enough Alex and I went to Ma Peche last night and had a fantastic meal.  Ma Peche is David Chang's newest restaurant in the city and his first restaurant drawing on Vietnam for inspiration.  It's also his first restaurant outside of the East Village and how lucky am I that it ended up opening up a few blocks away from my office?  More on Ma Peche later.  For now, back to these hanger steak ssams.  My original plan was to use this marinade to make the beef, and then to use the beef in quesadillas.  But then I realized that we had two hanger steaks in the freezer, so I thought why not make the ssams and then use the remaining marinated steak to make quesadillas later in the week?  I love it when you can use "leftovers" again to make an entirely different dish!

So this hanger steak itself has really nice flavor to it.  But hanger steak always has great flavor.  Except that when you marinate the hanger steak in apple juice, onion, etc. you end up with hanger steak that is sweeter and less beefy than usual.  Not that the steak was super sweet, but it definitely had a distinct sweetness to it.  The sweetness was balanced out by the spicy funkiness of the kimchi puree, and the brightness of the ginger-scallion sauce.  Now I have had the hanger steak ssams from Momofuku Ssam Bar back in the day before they took all of the ssams but the Bo Ssam off the menu.  While our homemade version based off the recipe in the cookbook was good, I thought you could definitely taste the difference between the restaurant version and our homemade version.  But who really cares?  It was still delicious.

Recipe after the jump!

Brussels Sprouts with Kimchi Puree and Bacon

So to address my lack of Asian (or Asian-inspired) recipes of late, I decided to make a brussels sprouts recipe from the Momofuku cookbook.  Now I know that brussels sprouts aren't an inherently Asian ingredient.  In fact, I would be shocked if they ever turned up in any form of Asian cuisine.  But these are tossed in kimchi puree, so that has to count for something, right?  Granted, there is bacon and butter in there, but come on.  You have to give me points for trying, especially since I didn't get home from work until about 8:45 pm tonight with the brussels sprouts.  Luckily I had Alex at home cutting up the bacon batons and making the kimchi puree.  I really do need to use this cookbook more.  When you flip through it there are so many fabulously interesting recipes!  And most of them are at least nominally Asian, which goes perfectly with my renewed desire to cook lots of Asian (or Asian-inspired) recipes.  Next up, the Pan-Roasted Asparagus with Poached Egg and Miso Butter (even though asparagus are not exactly in season right now) or the Pan-Roasted Bouchot Mussels with OS.  Yum.  

I think I will cut down on the amount of butter next time, because I didn't really think it added much to the brussels, except to make them a little soggy.  I would have preferred that the brussels remained charred and crispier.  So maybe I will halve the amount of butter next time and char the brussels sprouts just a few more minutes.  Since our brussels sprouts were pretty small, I only cooked them for 10 minutes once I returned them to the oven.  Next time I will go at least 12 minutes, but probably the entire 15 minutes, and then cut down on the butter.  But I loved the combination of the brussels sprouts, the kimchi, and the bacon.  It's not a flavor combination that would ever occur to me on my own, but they are awesome together.

We served our delicious brussels sprouts with some sunny-side up eggs with runny yolks that we drizzled with soy sauce and topped with more of the kimchi puree.  I think that together they made the perfect meal. 

Recipe after the jump!

Scallion (or Sesame) Pancake Roll-Ups

This recipe is another one of my favorite quick and easy weeknight meals.  I got the idea from a place down by NYU called Kati Roll.  At Kati Roll they serve a variety of different meats rolled up in Indian flat bread (aka paratha).  My favorite roll is the Unda Chicken, in which they put marinated chicken, a thin layer of scrambled egg, various herbs, red onion, and some hot sauce upon request.  It is delicious.  Since I don't have paratha at hand, but I often have frozen scallion pancakes in the freezer, I have made a more Chinese version of the my favorite Unda Chicken kati roll.

Generally I use whatever leftover meats I have at hand, although sometimes I whip up some five spice duck breasts to throw in there.  Those are probably my favorite, although some leftover skirt or flank steak is fabulous too.  I also make a vegetarian version with scallions, cilantro and thinly sliced red onion from time to time.  The one I made today was vegetarian because the fridge is rather empty at the moment.  This recipe is incredibly easy to customize because the only real requirements are the frozen scallion or sesame pancakes and an egg or two.  You can by frozen scallion pancakes at almost any Asian market, although I don't see the sesame ones quite as often.  I actually prefer the scallion pancakes, but since the sesame ones were on sale the last time I picked up one of those too.

As a side dish I served a lazy knock off of the apple kimchi they serve at Momofuku Ssam.  I have the recipe in the cookbook, but I am too lazy to cook up bacon and whip up maple labne on a regular basis.  As a side dish, this works just as well and takes no time. 


Recipes after the jump!

Korean BBQ-Style Burgers

I love burgers.  Alex always makes fun of me because I have this unceasing obsession with burgers.  And he thinks that since I have rather "gourmet" tastes otherwise, it's funny that I like burgers as much as I do.  We have tried all kinds of burgers - from Italian-inspired burgers with prosciutto, basil, and mozzarella, to Southwest-inspired burgers with bacon, guac, pickled jalapenos, and monterey jack cheese.  But since I am currently obsessed with The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook and Korean food, we decided to make the Korean BBQ-style Burgers.  We also had a great jar of Mother-in-Law's Kimchi in the fridge that I have been wanting to use so it all just seemed like fate.  Well, it would have seemed more fateful if I hadn't had to make a last minute trip to the grocery to buy hamburger buns, but what can you do?

Anyway, one of my favorite things about this burger is that it uses flavors traditionally used in Kalbi or Bulgogi marinade and then pairs it with kimchi and quick cucumber pickles - all on a bun.  The burgers were very moist and very flavorful, although when I make them again I might add a pinch or two of Korean red pepper flakes and 1 tsp of salt to the burger mix to give the burgers a bit more spice and heat.  Otherwise, they were delicious.  We served them with my favorite sweet potato fries from Trader Joe's.  Yum.  We also tweaked the recipe a little and since we had some left over mixed vegetable pickles that I made a week ago, instead of making Jaden's quick cucumber carrot pickle from the cookbook, we just thinly sliced some scallion and cucumber and threw it in with the mixed vegetable pickles.  Done deal. 

Recipe after the jump!