Happy Friday, again, everybody!
I have had a very tough week, I don’t want to make it an excuse for lacking updated post, but this time it’s really is. Earlier this week, my younger cat, Rain, he ran away in front of my eyes. I don’t know how many words I should use to describe how devastated I felt. He disappeared for 24 hours and that was one of the darkest moments in my life, I’m telling you. The moment I was able to hug him in my arms, I knew I will never let him go out of my sight ever again. If you happen to have a cat or dog, please please keep them away from your front door. Otherwise you may end up feel what I felt days ago, and I really do not want you to experience those not so pleasure moment.
That was enough of depression moment. Back to happy time. Lately, I have a weird desire that is to dress up my meal as much as I can. And by dress up I mean transform regular rice into weird, fun or cute shapes. Sometimes, I have to admit I made them way too cute to eat. So today, in stead of making rice into cute & fun animated balls, I only did such simple rice balls: roll them as round as I can and then garnished with toasted sesame seeds and seaweed. I have to say, it’s easier to eat this way but still keeps the purpose of dressing up my meal.
It’s been awhile since the last time I made stir-fried dish at home. I really don’t know why I prefer other cooking methods than this one. I may underestimate the power of stir fry because it’s one of the fastest cooking methods and should be your number one choice if you are super hungry (in my opinion, of course). So to celebrate the come back, I wanted to use an ingredient that I barely used before and that was when water dropwort and squid came to my mind. Water dropwort, what the heck is that, you might think? It looks and tastes like Chinese celery but its stems are smaller and thinner. It’s called Minari in Korean. It grows in damp, bog-like condition. It’s best used in spicy Korean fish soup and stir-fried dish.
By now you may guess today recipe is all about Korean cuisine. If you haven’t known yet, I’m a biggest fan of Korean food. At some point on this blog, I did mention that I even preferred to eat Kimchi over my own country’s most authentic & traditional food: Pho. I’m eating Kimchi with everything and choosing Korean restaurants over any other cuisines every time I went out. Yes, I’m that obsessed.
I hope you’ll find time to make this spicy and sour squid with water dropwort because not only it’s super delicious but also it’s very fast to make. Not to mention the profile level is not your regular stir fried dish (thanks to the miracle of water dropwort). Ok, I’m gonna stop here and I will see you very soon in the next post (which is in two days, I promise).
Spicy and Sour Squid
Ingredients:
1 fresh or frozen squid, cut into rings
2 tbsp Korean red pepper powder
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp water
1 tsp sesame oil
1 small bunch of water drop wort, washed
1 small carrot, cut into desired shape
1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
Steps:
- Cut water drop wort into 2 inches sticks.
- Bring a pot of water to boil, then cook squid’s rings for 1-2 minutes. Transfer cooked squid into a bowl, set aside.
- Combine Korean red pepper powder, garlic, sugar, vinegar, fish sauce, water and sesame oil in a small mixing bowl. Mix well.
- Heat a medium nonstick pan over medium high heat. Add vegetable oil, carrot, onion and stir fry for 1-2 minutes. Add cut water dropwort and stir fry for another minute.
- Add the pepper powder mixture into the pan. Turn off the heat then add squid’s rings, stir to combine everything.
- Serve hot immediately with steamed rice. Enjoy!
T.U
