Rue's News: Cooking Class

Last week I took my first formal Korean cooking class. The theme of the class was Magkolli, slightly fermented Korean rice wine. (The Magkolli industry recently held a contest to choose a more "western friendly" name for Magkolli. The "winner" was Drunken rice. I don't think they should change the name at all, but if they are going to, I don't think Drunken rice is the best choice. I'm just sayin.) The menu was based on food that is typically eaten with Magkolli: Pa jun (savory scallion pancake) and Tteokbokki (rice flour noodles).

The tour started at Eumma market where me and the other 3 students met Daniel Gray of Seoul Eats fame. At the market we tasted and bought fresh ingredients and then we moved on to Ongo studios where Chef Shawn Park taught us how to make the dishes. He demonstrated how to cook both the Pa Jun and the Tteokbokki and then we were set up at our own stations and left to recreate the dishes on our own.

We started with the Pa Jun which made me really happy because it's one of my favorite things to eat. I was surprised to see how easy it was to make and how relatively healthy it was (okay, healthy before it gets fried). I always thought that pa jun was made with eggs, and it can be, but it doesn't have to be and we didn't use any eggs. All we used was flour, scallions, onions, garlic, shrimp, squid and a lot of soy oil. We mixed all the ingredients in a bowl and fried it up. The dipping sauce was a simple mix of soy sauce, sesame oil and red pepper. It was really delicious.

In Seoul you can't walk the length of a city block without seeing or smelling a tteokbokki stand. Visored Ajumas are constantly stirring it up with a sticky sweet ketchupy sauce and cut up onions and cabbage. I like tteokbokki but it’s not my favorite and I never thought about making it myself, until now. Chef Park said that his recipe was more grown up and sophisticated and he was right.

We lightly fried the small fresh tteokbokki and so they were both fluffy and a bit crunchy on the outside as opposed to being soft and chewy, as they usually are. They tasted almost like pop corn. It was a very different texture than I'm used to when it comes to tteokbokki and I really enjoyed it. We made a simple sauce out of gochujang (my new favorite condiment), water, fresh garlic, chopped onion and cabbage. After coating the tteokbokki in the sauce we topped it off with the sesame dream team: sliced sesame leaf (green perilla), freshly toasted sesame seeds and a light drizzled of sesame oil. It was tteokbokki - sesame heaven.

When we finished cooking we all sat together and enjoyed the food and magkolli while sharing our Seoul stories. I really enjoyed the whole experience, but especially learning how to make my own Korean food. I already made both dishes at home and can't wait to make them for our friends and family when we get back to NY. So if you're reading this, consider it an invitation to dinner! I'm taking another class tomorrow morning and I'll be learning how to make BULGOGI!! So stay tuned....

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