sunday dinner

i totally forgot yesterday that my halloween post was my 100th!!! yay!

while i was writing it, i was waiting for dinner to finish cooking... my third attempt at korean cooking was a total and complete success. now i don't have to live on kimchi fried rice and ramen! haha!

i got up in the morning after about five and half hours of sleep... couldn't sleep any longer. with the whole day ahead of me and nothing to do with it, i decided to head to the homeplus for my bi-weekly foreign food excursion. usually the foreign food consists of dill pickles and ritz crackers, but this week i discovered a few new ones.

yes! NACHOS! now i just need an oven so i can smother them in cheese!

and what would nachos be without SALSA?!?!?! it's a little hot for my taste, but it's salsa, sweet, sweet, salsa... (insert homer gurgling noise)

lipton ice tea mix! mmm.....

with catechin (whatever that is) and vitamin c! mmmm... goodness!

i was determined to cook a nice dinner for myself though, and not just hog out on nachos...so i searched the internet for korean recipes and found "dakdoritang". simply put it's like a chicken stew. here it is:

in a heavy pot mix together: 2 tbsp of minced garlic, 2 tbsp kochujang (hot pepper paste), 2 tbsp kochukaru (red pepper flakes), 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar, 2 tsp oil, 1 tbsp fresh ginger, 2 cups water.

add chicken, about 8 peices - whatever parts you like best - this was the first time i bought chicken (or meat of any kind) in korea, and this turned out to be a whole chicken chopped up into bits.chop up an onion, a large carrot, and a few potatoes, and throw them into the pot.

mix it all up in the pot...

cover, and cook on medium heat for about 40 minutes.

the recipe that i found says to serve it with rice, but it isn't really necessary. with all the potatoes, it just turns into too much starch...it doesn't look so beautiful, but it was delicious! and i have enough left over to feed myself for ages! and what would a nice dinner be without some nice wine... this is one of my favourite wines, and i got it for free!!! the last time i went to homeplus i bought two bottles, when i got to the cash they told me that these bottles were 2 + 1... that means buy two get one free... but they were OUT... so they told me next time i came i could have my third... and here it is. i still have a bottle on reserve for next time i have anyone over... if ever.

anyway, it was a really nice dinner, think i'll make it a regular thing... every week a new korean recipe.

so, i'll be 'offline' until wednesday nov. 1 in the afternoon because tomorrow i'm being sequestered at the gimhae foreign language high school tomorrow. i'm recording their 'listening exam' and in order to protect the integrity of the exam i have to be hidden away until the students take it... you know, so the parents don't try to bribe me! haha! i'll document it all as best i can, hopefully they'll let me take photos. until then!