You win some, you lose some...

 First some failures...

I have been craving some Korean food. Matt has been gone too often that I haven't been able to go with him to a Korean restaurant, so I decided to make my own!

I got 2 books from the library, armed myself with a lengthy (& relatively expensive) shopping list and headed to Cleveland Asia Market.

Korean meals are based on rice, meat and several side dishes known as 'banchan'.

My cookbook assured me that although the effort to make several banchan may at first seem overwhelming you can make several days worth in one go.

My first main dish was "sundubu jjigage" (spicy vegetable and tofu stew). I was very excited to try this dish, the cookbook says it is "a healthy, spicy stew that elevates tofu from basic to exciting. In this stew, the base of dried anchovies and kelp (which has got major umami flavor) lend a tremendous depth of flavor for very little effort.
However, boiling kelp and anchovies for 20 minutes seemed to produce very little depth of flavor for tremendous effort!!!!

The stew contains shitake mushrooms, watercress, leeks, zucchini, onion, chile pepper, scallions and tofu.

It sounded and looked great. BUT it was so weak, the leek seemed completely out of place and I was unable to find the magic umami flavor that I associate with a good Miso Soup.

I must point out that I was not able to find one of the ingredients, gochujang (a red pepper paste), but I did add extra gochugaru (a red pepper powder) in hopes that it would make up for any lack in strength. I failed.

The flavors of the ingredients neither came together nor stood out as contrasts. Very bland indeed. Bleurgh!

The side dishes were also a failure.

I tried to make Sauteed Carrots and Butternut squash (reminded me of grated carrots and parsnips we have with christmas dinner), Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Sesame Sauce (the flavor of the sesame seed paste didn't seem to work with the texture of the potatoes. I've tried using this paste in a noodle dish and I wasn't pleased with that either, I think I need to try another brand of paste) and Cold Broccoli Salad (too much sesame oil)

I ended up throwing it all out, which drives me crazy. It's throwing money away. I just know that I wouldn't have eaten any of it. Very disappointing.

The Kimchi Jjigae with Tuna turned out fine. Although, I will cut the onion into smaller pieces next time. This is not a dish that you should try unless you already know that you LOVE kimchi! There is a LOT of Kimchi in this stew. The leftovers in the fridge smell delicious :D

Now on to some successes....

At the end of last week I had some left over brie and baguette so I did a little experimentation. 

A layer of brie, a layer of kimchi and 30 seconds in the microwave on high = ABSOLUTE HEAVEN!!!!

Not deterred by yesterdays abysmal failures, this evening I decided to tweak some previously cooked recipes.

The first was 麻婆豆腐 (Pock-Marked Mother Chen's Bean Curd)
I had cooked this dish before and it was good, but I wanted to make it excellent.

The recipe calls for minced beef, but I found myself enjoy the dish 'despite' the beef, not because of it. I am not a huge meat eater, I could quite happily eat a majority of vegetarian dishes and, in fact, when Matt is gone I rarely cook with meat.

So this time I chose to leave the beef out. I also used a different type of tofu, a silken tofu. I was super happy with both these tweaks. This is a delicious spicy dish with a hint of vinegar and a great depth provided by some fermented black beans. I really prefer the mouthfeel of silken tofu.

The next dish I wanted to tweak was the scrumptious 鱼香茄子 (Fish Fragrant Eggplant)
The name is a little misleading, the eggplants do not end up tasting like Fish!!! Instead, they are cooked in a sauce that is often served with fish. It is pretty much the sauce that was served with what Joshua called "the best fish in the world!". It's a shame that I didn't cook this dish whilst he was still here, I have a feeling he'd have really liked it.

The recipe requires you to deep fry the pieces of eggplant before making the sauce. Eggplant is pretty much a sponge and so even though you can attack the fried pieces with a roll of kitchen towel there's still going to be a lot of oil in those suckers. The result is, not surprisingly, eggplant that has a wonderful buttery feeling in the mouth. The combination of the mouthfeel and the amazing sauce results in a dish that is to die for. I love it!!!

However, since starting all my Chinese cooking I have lost 20lbs and I don't want it to go back on, so I'm trying to find ways to make some of the higher fat dishes a little more on the lean side.

Tonight I skipped the frying stage and instead just cooked the eggplant in the sauce. From start to finish the dish took less time to cook this way.
The eggplant didn't hold it's shape as well as when fried, as it was cooked in the sauce for a longer overall time. But it did soften up and still had a lovely consistency.
I'm not going to lie, the version where you do deep fry first is better, but this version was still great! I won't feel like I'm sacrificing anything when I eat this dish.
Sorry the photo is blurry! I should also point out that when I first did this dish the eggplant retained the beautiful purple of its skin. I don't know if the frying preserved it or the shorter time in the sauce.
Also, this is using asian eggplants, they don't require salting prior to use!