Ajumma's Simple Korean Recipes

Rolling kimbap (Korean seaweed rice rolls) with a rolled omelet gives you two filling rolls even with few ingredients. If you cook the egg well, you can make it without trouble even the first time. The rolled omelet is soft, and the rice and seaweed add nuttiness. Finishing with toasted sesame oil brings out the aroma. The order is simple. Make the rolled omelet, put it on the rice, and roll it in the seaweed. The rolled omelet makes two soft rolls Cooking the egg in a thin layer and rolling it up gives a soft texture. The rice and seaweed add nuttiness, and toasted sesame oil brings out the aroma. Adding carrot or pickled radish gives a crisp texture, but it is tasty enough without them. ⏱ At a Glance Servings: 1 (2 kimbap rolls) Estimated cooking time: about 10–15 minutes for the rolled omelet and rolling (cook the rice separately as you usually do) Extra prep: cook rice, prepare eggs Difficulty: Easy Equipment: frying pan Flavor: soft egg, nutty seaweed and rice 🛒 Ingredients...

Mix drained canned tuna and ssamjang (Korean seasoned paste) into rice for a one-bowl meal. Adding lettuce and an egg makes it savory and satisfying. Lettuce gives a crisp texture, and the egg adds softness. Finishing with toasted sesame oil brings out the nuttiness. The order is simple even the first time: mix the tuna and ssamjang into the rice, top with lettuce and egg, then drizzle with toasted sesame oil and mix. Tuna and ssamjang create savory depth Drained canned tuna keeps its nutty flavor. Mixing in ssamjang adds the taste of doenjang (fermented soybean paste) and gochujang (Korean chili paste) for the savory depth typical of Korean food. Lettuce provides crisp texture, and toasted sesame oil adds nuttiness. The egg brings a soft richness. ⏱ At a Glance Servings: 1 Estimated cooking time: about 5–10 minutes for prep and mixing (includes frying the egg if you choose that option; cook the rice separately as you usually do) Extra prep: trim lettuce, drain tuna, cook rice, pre-...

Fry Spam with scallions for a sweet, savory aroma, then stir-fry onion and eggs and finish with mayonnaise. Serve over rice and mix—it brings together a salty, nutty taste in each bite. You don’t need many ingredients. Spam, scallions, onion, eggs, mayonnaise, and soy sauce are all you need, and one pan is enough. Frying the Spam with scallions brings out their aroma and a little sweetness, while the onion softens as it cooks. Even if it’s your first time, the order is simple: fry the Spam and scallions first, cook the onion and eggs, mix in the seasonings, and spoon everything over the rice. Spam, scallions, and mayonnaise make it savory Spam browns and becomes richer and saltier when fried. Adding finely chopped scallions lets their aroma soak in and brings out a gentle sweetness as they cook. Mixing in mayonnaise softens the richness, while Korean soy sauce and Korean cooking wine balance the seasoning. Onion loses its sharp edge and turns sweet as it cooks. The eggs add a savory ri...

Today I’m making tteokguk, Korean rice cake soup. It’s thin slices of rice cake in a clear broth. You don’t need to simmer beef bones for hours. One beef stock cube is enough for the broth flavor. The cube melts in hot water and makes the stock. If you only simmer the beef, you get meat flavor but the broth stays thin. The cube carries the stock taste. Sear the beef first in the same pot, leave it there, then add the water and cube so everything cooks together. Toppings are egg crepe strips, seasoned gim (Korean roasted seaweed), crumbled, and Korean large green onion (daepa). If you don’t have 30 g of Korean large green onion (daepa), use 30 g of scallions (jjokpa). Match by weight, not by stalk count, because thickness and aroma differ. The cube makes the stock, the beef cooks with it This tteokguk is rice cakes in beef stock. Put one beef stock cube into 500 ml water and bring it to a boil. Sear 80 g of beef in sesame oil first, then leave it in the pot. Pour the water and cube into...

Today I'm making janchi guksu, Korean party noodles in a clear broth, with chicken stock. I won't simmer a whole chicken. I'll use a chicken stock cube. A cube becomes broth once you boil it in water. Add 100 g Korean radish (mu) and Korean large green onion (daepa), then lift them out. Of the 50 g green onion, use 40 g in the broth and keep 10 g for the top. If you don't have daepa, use 50 g scallions (jjokpa) in the same split. They differ in thickness and aroma, so match the weight, not the stalk count. Don't cook the noodles in the broth pot. Boil them separately, drain them, and pour over the broth after the radish and onion are out. Broth with radish and green onion This is janchi guksu served in chicken broth. The 100 g radish and 40 g broth onion go in from the start, not only as garnish. Once they've given their flavor, lift them out. The 10 g garnish onion goes on at the end. Without daepa, split 50 g scallions the same way: 40 g for broth, 10 g for th...

Today is a spicy squid rice bowl, ojingeo-bokkeum deopbap. Cleaning squid looks fussy, so I will show you the easy way. Peel the skin, score the squid, then stir-fry the squid with the vegetables and seasoning on high heat for a short time. Spoon the stir-fry over rice and you have one bowl. This is a home bowl with the seasoning clinging to the rice, not a saucy stew. Cleaning is half the dish Squid sizes vary, so weight after cleaning is more reliable than counting squid. After the skin, innards, and quill are out and the squid is drained, you want 150g. Rub the surface with coarse salt and the skin slips off. Score the inside in a crosshatch, then cut bite-size pieces. The cuts help the seasoning cling and shorten the cooking. Cook the onion and Korean large green onion (daepa) before the squid. When the vegetables soften, add the squid. When it turns white and curls, add the seasoning. Squid can turn tough if it fries from the start, so it goes in later. ⏱ At a glance Servings: 1 E...

How about a clear bowl of clam kalguksu today? Purged clams matter. Clams that still hold sand make the broth cloudy and muddy. If they are already purged, do not soak them in salt water again. Rub the shells and rinse them. When the shells start to open, the clam liquor runs out. You do not need a separate stock for a clean, savory broth. The meat is chewy against the noodles, and the broth is light enough to finish the bowl. Use store-bought noodles, or mix dough, roll it, and cut it. If the dough feels like too much, start with store-bought noodles. The broth order stays the same. Only the noodles cook differently. Dried, fresh, and hand-cut noodles do not cook in the same pot Do not drop dried noodles into the broth pot. Boil them separately. If you pour that water into the broth, the flour water clouds it. For 2 people, use 200g dried kalguksu noodles and 2L boiling water. From about 7–8 minutes, lift one strand and cool it a little. If the center has no hard core and the noodle i...

Sweet and savory bulgogi is a classic Korean home-cooked dish, pairing naturally with a warm bowl of rice. While it is often stir-fried in a wide skillet until lightly caramelized, simmering thinly sliced beef with dangmyeon (Korean sweet potato glass noodles) in an earthenware pot creates a comforting, juicy topping that turns any meal into a satisfying rice bowl. Because the beef is sliced paper-thin, it cooks up tender in about 10 minutes without requiring long braising. Bringing the beef, fresh vegetables, and glass noodles together in a single pot and ladling them over warm rice gives you a complete, hearty one-bowl meal without needing many side dishes. By watching how the beef cooks so it does not turn tough, and taking the pot off the heat before the noodles absorb too much of the broth, you can make a moist, tender bulgogi deopbap at home. Simmering Bulgogi with Rich Broth in an Earthenware Pot Unlike dry-fried bulgogi, a classic ttukbaegi bulgogi requires a generous amount of...

A can of tuna, mayonnaise, and warm cooked rice are enough to roll kimbap. Season the rice with Korean seasoned salt (mat-sogeum) only. The filling is drained tuna and mayonnaise. Keep danmuji, Korean pickled yellow radish, on a separate plate. Do not mix toasted sesame oil into the rice. After you roll the kimbap, brush it on one outer side only and sprinkle sesame seeds so the outside smells nutty. Season the rice with mat-sogeum only Chamchi-mayo is already salty. If the rice is heavily seasoned too, each bite turns salty and heavy. One roll uses 150g cooked rice. That is the amount you spread thin on one sheet of gim (Korean roasted seaweed). Korean seasoned salt (mat-sogeum) is only one pinch, 0.5g . Mix while the rice is warm, then let some steam escape before you put it on the gim. Hot rice right on the sheet tears the gim. Drain the tuna; mayonnaise is half the weight Pour one 100g can of tuna into a sieve and press with a spoon to drain the oil. Leftover oil makes the filling...

Leftover cooked rice in the fridge, plus Korean large green onion (daepa) and eggs, is enough for one bowl. Daepa gyeran bokkeumbap is Korean fried rice: those three go into one pan and dinner stops there. It is not Ketchup Kimchi Fried Rice. There is no kimchi and no ketchup in this pan. It is also not Korean Soy Sauce Egg Rice, where hot rice is mixed with soy sauce and egg on top. Here the daepa is fried in oil first so the aroma gets into the grains, then the eggs and leftover rice share the same pan. Keep two things. Loosen the leftover rice before it hits the pan, and add the rice only after the daepa smells ready. The daepa aroma has to come first Daepa is not a garnish you sprinkle at the end. It has to fry in the oil first so the scent soaks into the rice. Use the white part and the green part together. The white part gives sweetness and aroma; the green part leaves color at the end. If you start on high heat and scorch it, only bitterness remains, so stay on medium heat until...

Some evenings a single stew on the table makes rice easier to finish. Kimchi jjigae is a Korean home stew: well-fermented napa cabbage kimchi and pork are sautéed in one pot, then water is added and it is simmered. Render fat from the pork first and sauté the kimchi in that fat so the sharp sourness eases a little. If you start everything in water, the kimchi stays raw-tasting and the broth turns thin. Well-fermented kimchi builds the broth 200g napa cabbage kimchi works better when it is well fermented. This stew does not use a separate stock. The liquid the kimchi gives off as it sautés, plus 500ml water, is the broth. If the kimchi is still young, sauté it a little longer and wait until it wilts before you add water. If it is very sour, about 2ml sugar (1/3 tsp) in the sauté step keeps the acetic bite from jumping out. The pork gives up its fat first Sauté 120g pork belly or pork neck first until fat renders. The kimchi needs that fat so it turns translucent and the broth does not l...

Some evenings you still want a warm bowl of rice, even if you have no energy to put out several side dishes. Kongnamul-bap is Korean rice cooked with minced beef and soybean sprouts (kongnamul) laid on washed rice, then steamed the way you usually cook rice. You do not brown the minced beef in a separate pan. Spread it over the rice and it cooks while the rice cooks. When the rice is done, fold in a Korean regular soy sauce (jin-ganjang) seasoning and mix lightly. Do not pour the seasoning into the pot from the start. Add it after the rice is cooked, or the bottom turns salty and the top stays bland. The sprout aroma soaks into the grains The flavor of this rice starts before the seasoning. As the kongnamul heat through, moisture leaves the stems and mixes with the rice water. That liquid soaks into the grains and leaves a sprout aroma in the rice. You do not have to pick off every head and tail. Rinse them under running water and shake off the dirt. The beef does not need a separate s...