Korean Cooking Classes in December
Last Saturday we ran another full day of Korean cooking classes in our kitchen studio. We are overwhelmed that people actually find us and decide to take a chance on our cooking classes. We are also grateful that we already see two, three-time repeat participants for our monthly cooking classes! Thank you for your support! It is really encouraging for us that people do like coming to our classes!
We started the day by making 3 types of kimchi, because what better way is there to start a Saturday morning? ^^ We made the forever most popular Napa cabbage kimchi (baechu kimchi), spicy radish kimchi (kakdugi), and water radish kimchi (dongchimi) together, highlighting important ingredients and steps to watch along the way. In our effort to bring the 'kimjang' tradition to Manhattan, the communal tradition of Korean neighbors making kimchi together, we also made the traditional kimjang day meal, the bossam spread (pork belly and fresh kimchi spread). We also learned to cook with kimchi at its proper stage and made kimchi pancakes! If you are interested, check this helpful blog post by one of our participants with pictures throughout the class.
Next was Fun(damental) Korean Sauces. This class is designed to help people for a better understanding of handful basic Korean ingredients and encourage them to mix and match the ingredients in both traditional and creative ways. Once you have a basic understanding of the sauces they can apply the sauces in multiple dishes. We learned to cook some exciting vegetables, including shishito peppers (꽈리 고추 ggwari gochu), lotus root (연근 yeon geun), burdock root (우엉 woo eong) to mention a few. Particpants have so far been pleasantly surprised by the wide range of flavors from vegetable dishes, from hearty to refreshing (and spicy, tangy, nutty... ^^), all the while deeply satisfying and well-balanced.
Finally, the evening ended with our Winter Stews class. We had two soon-to-be brides in the party, which made the class all the more festive. We may have been already channelling the bridal aura when we happened to decorate our mini lavender tree with pastel pink ribbons for the day. After successfully breaking down whole chickens, we got through marinating bulgogi beef, cutting lots of vegetables, and making our own buckwheat noodles. Korean stews come in multiple courses, and there is no other joy like watching people enjoy the food we made together. For the hard work we had done, we ate bulgogi (thinly sliced beef in soy-pear seasoning) hot pot, buckwheat noodle soup in bulgogi broth, spicy chicken stew, stir-fried kimchi rice, and the finale with quince tea and green tea cookies (gluten-free)!
It was a great day for us as well as for our class participants. Thank you again for joining our classes in December! Until next time on January 31 and February 20~ Annyeong~
Check out our Facebook page, Instagram, and Twitter for more updates, and here are some photos from our class day. Click on a photo to see a slide show of the enlarged photos!
