Grilled Vegetable Bibim Guksu

You can shop for all of your Labor Day weekend supplied this Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market. You'll find pastured meats from Fair Valley Farm and Fog Hollow Farm and fresh produce from Camas Swale Farm, including tomatoes, eggplants, summer squash, and peppers for grilling.

If you are planning to grill this weekend, I can highly recommend a grilled vegetable version of bibim guksu, which is a variation on Korean bibim bap, but with soba noodles instead of rice. We've made this dish a couple times this summer with grilled vegetable, chicken skewers, smokey Chinese eggplant salad, crunchy cucumbers, cilantro, and kimchi. Every time it's been gobbled up before I can get a picture of the full spread.

Bibim Guksu

serves four

noodles
300 g (3 circular packets) of soba noodles
Cook in salted boiling water until barely cooked through (about 4 minutes), then immediately rinse under cold water until entirely cooled. Toss with the bibim guksu sauce (below).

Bibim guksu sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp rice vinegar
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp honey
1 tsp Korean gochujang paste for a mild, kid-friendly sauce, or more as desired 
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
Mix together all the ingredients. Taste and adjust flavorings as desired.

Serve the noodles at room temperature with grilled vegetables and meats, Chinese smokey eggplant salad (below), fresh cucumbers and cilantro, and kimchi.

Chinese Smokey Eggplant with Garlic

adapted from Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice

2 large eggplants

2 cloves garlic

2 tsp light soy sauce

2 tsp Chinkiang vinegar

2 Tbsp chili oil with its sediment (or use a diced fresh hot pepper and 2 Tbsp sesame oil)

1 tsp sesame seeds

2 Tbsp finely sliced scallions (green part only) 
Cilantro leaves for garnish (optional)

1. Prepare the eggplant and garlic cloves as in the recipe above.

2. Mince the garlic and dice the eggplant pulp. Combine in a bowl and toss with the remaining ingredients. Garnish with cilantro leaves if you like and serve with soba noodles.

Bibim Guksu with Summer Squash and Sesame Turnips

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, you will find fresh cut flower arrangements from Tiger Lily Art Company and lots of fresh produce from Camas Swale Farm including:

beets (cook in a hash with spinach or pack into foil bundles for the grill)

turnips (delicious cooked in brown butter or in the bibim gusko below)

radishes (try smashed in chili oil) 

carrots

potatoes

summer squash and zucchini (make a gratin or stir fry for bibim gusko below)

cucumbers

sugar snap peas

kale (try kale Florentine for brunch)

lettuce

cabbage (make some homemade kimchi for bibim guksu below)

Since recovering from a bout of food poisoning while traveling in Asia, I've had a strong craving for kimchi. Perhaps it's nostalgia for all the delicious Asian food we'd sampled, or a subliminal need for probiotic bacteria, but when I read this description of a cold Korean noodle dish bibim gusku (literally "mixed noodles") I immediately wanted to try it. One of my favorite dishes to cook for the family is bibim bap ("mixed rice"), and here was a summery version with similar flavors and formulation.

A little internet searching revealed that a more traditional version of bibim gusku would use thin white wheat noodles (Somyeon) and incorporate chopped kimchi into the sauce. I love the flavor of buckwheat soba noodles, so I used these, and I kept the kimchi separate to maintain one of the virtues of bibim family meals: everyone is happy when they can customize the spicing and toppings to their preference.

This dish lends itself to improvising with your Farmers Market finds. In a pan Asian mash up, I made a quick side of Fuchsia Dunlop's Chinese sweet and sour summer squash and gave julienned hot pink turnips a Japanese-inspired treatment after the kinpira gobo (stir fried burdock) from Elin England's Eating Close to Home. Served along with some crunchy sliced cucumbers and Gryffindor carrots, a boiled egg, and some briny kimchi, this was a perfect summer meal that will be a regular on our dinner rotation. 

Bibim Guksu

serves four

noodles
300 g (3 circular packets) of soba noodles
Cook in salted boiling water until barely cooked through (about 5 minutes), then immediately rinse under cold water until entirely cooled. Toss with a drizzle of sesame oil to help prevent the strands from congealing. 

sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp rice vinegar
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp honey
1 tsp Korean gochujang paste for a mild, kid-friendly sauce, or more as desired 
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
Mix together all the ingredients. Taste and adjust flavorings as desired.

sweet and sour summer squash
2 zucchini
salt
2 Tbsp cooking oil
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp Chinkiang vinegar
Quarter the summer squash lengthwise, and slice thinly. Toss with 1/2 tsp salt, mix well and set aside for 30 minutes or so to sweat. When you are ready to cook, squeeze the slices to get rid of excess water. Heat a wok over a high flame. Add the oil, then the garlic, and stir-fry for a few seconds until you smell its fragrance. Add the squash and stir-fry until they are hot and just cooked, but still a little crisp. Add the sugar and vinegar, with salt to taste, stir a couple of times, then tip on to a dish and serve.

julienned sesame turnips with edamame beans
3 large or 4 small turnips, washed, topped, and tailed
1 Tbsp canola oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sweet mirin or rice wine plus a pinch of sugar
1/2 cup fresh or frozen edamame beans
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp sesame seeds
red pepper flakes to taste

Slice the turnips and cut the slices into matchsticks. Mix together the soy sauce and mirin. Heat a skillet or wok over high heat and add the oil. When it is hot, add the julienned turnips. Stir fry for a couple minutes until a few start to brown. Add the soy sauce mixture and the edamame beans and continue cooking over high heat, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has completely reduced to a glaze. Remove from heat, drizzle with sesame oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds and red pepper flakes.

additional toppings
4 eggs cooked for six minutes in boiling water and immediately cooled for jammy yokes
julienned carrots and cucumbers
kimchi

Before serving, toss the noodles with the sauce (or leave the noodles undressed for very picky eaters), adding sauce a little at a time until the noodles seem lightly coated. Let people serve themselves their preferred toppings and mix the noodles with the toppings on their plates. 

Leftovers Bibimbap

This year, my solution for using up Easter eggs was bibimbap. This dish also served the purpose of using up leftover Easter ham, leftover roasted asparagus, and leftover collard greens, and made a dent in my latest batch of kimchi.

I took inspiration from the bibimbap sauce here and the miso lentils here. Once we got over the pain of peeling favorite eggs, this meal was a hit with enough different toppings to please everyone, including sesame carrots for bunnies.

Bibimbap from Easter leftovers

bibimbap sauce
1/2 cup gochujang
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp sugar or honey
1 tbsp sesame seeds
Mix together all of the ingredients and thin with 1-2 tsp water if it seems too thick.

eggs
hard boiled if you have ones to use up, or cooked for 6 minutes in boiling water.

ham
1 cup diced ham, sautéd in a hot skillet in 1 Tbsp canola oil and 1/2 tsp soy sauce until brown on edges. Add 1 tsp miring, cook down, and remove from heat.

cooked greens
1 bunch greens blanched and quickly sautéed in a little sesame oil, or use pot roasted collards, sauté with a chopped onion in olive oil and then roasted in a closed Dutch oven for one hour at 325 degrees.

roasted broccoli or asparagus
1 small broccoli head cut into spears, tossed with oil and salt, and roasted on a preheated baking sheet at 475 degrees for about 12 minutes. Alternatively roast trimmed asparagus similarly but for about 7 minutes.

sesame carrots
1 carrot julienned and sautéed in a hot skillet in 1 Tbsp canola oil with 1/2 tsp sugar until soften. Add 1 tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp mirin, cook down, remove from heat and toss with 1 tsp sesame seeds.

miso lentils
3/4 cup puy lentils cooked in boiling water until soft (~18 minutes) and drained. Transfer to a bowl and mix in 2 tsp miso paste, 1 tsp sesame oil, a small pinch of sugar and black pepper.

toasted sesame rice
Coat the bottom of a large skillet with 1 Tbsp sesame oil and heat over medium low. Add 4 cups of cooked rice (I like to use a mixture of brown and white rice) and pack down. Cook for about 5-7 minutes until the bottom has developed a toasted crust (peek with a spatula).   

kimchi and sesame seeds to garnish

To serve, scoop out a serving of toasted rice, layer on all desired toppings, and drizzle with bibimbap sauce.

Mung Bean Pancakes with Kimchi

With a large supply of kimchi from our Open Oak Farm cabbages, a recent New York Times recipe for kimchi mung bean pancakes caught my eye. 

The article was about cooking with kids (in this case the daughter of chefs Jean-Georges and Marja Vongerichten).  I was skeptical that our kids would try pancakes with kimchi (my jars of fermenting cabbage are a source of jokes for them right now, but someday they will see the light). However, I thought the basic principle (similar to falafel) of making a batter from soaked, raw legumes could be the starting point for all sorts of pancakes. So for my recipe I left out the kimchi juice from the batter and incorporated grated raw carrots and chopped mint into half for kid-friendly Korean style latkes. Both versions were delicious as appetizers for dinner, and the remaining batter made a tasty lunch of fritters on top of a green salad. 

Mung Bean Pancakes

adapted from “The Kimchi Chronicles,” by Marja Vongerichten and Julia Turshen

makes about 20 pancakes

batter
2 cups split mung beans
1/4 cup short grain rice, such as sweet rice
1 cup water
1 tsp fish sauce (optional)
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
pinch of salt
1 cup kimchi (or 1 cup grated carrots and chopped mint, plus more salt)
neutral oil, such as canola, for frying

dipping sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
2 scallions, green and white parts finely chopped

for serving
cilantro leaves
lime slices
sriracha sauce

1. Combine the mung beans and rice in a fine-meshed colander and rinse well with cold water. Transfer to a bowl and add 8 cups of lukewarm water. Cover the bowl and soak at room temperature for at least 6 hours and up to 24 hours, changing the water once or twice.

2. Prepare the pancake batter by draining the soaked beans and rice and transferring them to the jar of a blender. Add 1 cup water, the fish sauce (if using), sesame oil, soy sauce, and salt and blend into a slightly coarse paste. Do not overmix. Transfer to a large bowl, finely chop the kimchi and stir into the batter. You could also divide the batter into two bowls and incorporate 1/2 cup finely chopped kimchi into one and 1/2 cup grated carrots, chopped mint, and a pinch of salt into the other.

3. To fry the pancakes, heat a large skillet, such as cast iron, over medium heat and add 1 to 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil. Heat until the oil shimmers. Using a 1/4 cup measure, ladle in the pancake batter, flattening each pancake to 1/3-inch thickness. Cook until crisp and browned on one side, about 4 minutes. Flip the pancakes and cook until browned on the other side, another 2 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.

4. While the pancakes are cooking, you can make the dipping sauce by combining the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, red pepper, and scallions in a small bowl and mix until blended.

5. Serve the pancakes warm with the dipping sauce, cilantro leaves, lime slices, and sriracha.

Soft Tofu Hotpot (Soondubu Jjigae)

Our latest favorite use for homemade kimchi is in Korean stews cooked with soft tofu. Here is my husband's guest post about this winter treat.

In the winter a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of soondubu jjigae, or Korean soft tofu hotpot. This easy dish is perfect for cold evenings, and the combination of a broth overloaded with richness and custard-soft tofu gives a great framework for adding whatever is handy around the kitchen. It does take a few specialty items and ingredients, but it is well worth a trip to an Asian grocery to pick them up. The first is the hotpot, a stone pot coated in enamel. In Eugene, Sunrise market carries these in the back corner. Other specialty items (also available at Sunrise) are soon tofu, which is even softer than soft or silken tofu, and Korean chili paste, Gochujang (this comes in a tub or as a sweeter condiment in a ketchup-style bottle, get the tub).

Soft Tofu Hotpot (Soondubu Jjigae)

serves two (split ingredients between two hot pots)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/3 lb top sirloin, sliced thin against the grain (or try a seafood version, adding clams and mussels to the broth)
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 green onions, sliced into rounds.
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons Gochujang
vegetables -- beet greens, kale, carrot, zucchini, whatever.
1/2 cup sliced rice cake (optional)
2 cups good stock (I used homemade chicken stock)
1/4 cup diced shiitake mushrooms
4 tablespoons kimchi
1 small package soon tofu

for serving
dried kelp
2 eggs
cooked white rice

1. Set the hot pots directly on the stove top and heat with a medium low heat. Then set some rice cooking, so it will be ready along with everything else. Next, slice the sirloin, mince the garlic and cut the green onion. Then prep the vegetables (slicing carrots or washing greens). 

2. Turn the heat up to medium, and add the oil to the hot pots. Add the sliced sirloin, letting it sear a bit on one side (around a minute). Give the meat a stir, then add the minced garlic and the white part of the chopped green onion. Stir for another minute. Add the fish sauce, soy sauce and Gochujang. Stir a bit, then add the stock, fresh vegetables that need more cooking time, such as carrots, shiitake mushrooms, and rice cakes, if using. At this point I turn the heat up a bit more, to get the broth boiling. As it all heats up, add the kimchi. After heating for several minutes, the soon tofu can be gently spooned into the broth, taking care not to break it up. You can add other things as well, such as greens and zucchini. Don't overfill the hot pot though, or else you may end up severely burned transporting it to the table!

3. Get the table ready, bringing out the rice, kelp sheets, green onion greens, and an egg for each person. Also put out a heat-resistant pad for each hot pot! At this point, the hot pot should be at a good simmer, so put on oven mitts and carefully carry each hot pot out to the table. As soon as it is served, each diner should crack an egg into the hotpot and immediately break the egg yolk with a fork, giving it a good stir so the egg dissipates into the broth. Tear in some kelp, sprinkle on green onion, and then add rice as you eat, which slowly thickens the broth over time. The richness of the broth comes from the seared beef, fish sauce, mushroom, stock, kelp and stirred-in egg, all of which add to the incredible umami flavor. The hot pot keeps the contents searingly hot until the end, and the Gochujang gives a spiciness that adds to the overall warming sensation.

Kimchi and Bo Ssam

It's official: the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market is over for the season. You can catch some culinary action on the corner of Agate and 19th this evening at the Dia de los Muertos Festival from 4 to 9 PM. If you are suffering from a sense of loss over the end of your summer Sunday routine and the passing of the sunny days, here is my prescription: be sure to preserve some of the last of fall's harvest for the rainy days ahead.

With a final collection of Sweetwater Farm's produce -- arrowhead cabbage, kohlrabi, carrots, celery, green onions, and garlic -- I made a delicious version of this kimchi. 

We turned on the oven for the slow roasting of a sweet and salty slathered pork shoulder, following this Bo Ssam recipe from David Chang's Momofuku. 

And we enjoyed these delicious lettuce leaf packets of tender pork and rice topped with a little bit of preserved harvest.

Kimchi and Bo Ssam

Kimchi
follow this recipe from Momofuku, using the following vegetables:
1/2 small cabbage, cored and chopped into small strips
1 kohlrabi, peeled generously and cut into matchsticks
2 big or 4 small carrots, scrubbed and cut into matchsticks
2 big or 4 small celery stalks, sliced into 1/4 inch slices

Bo Ssam
follow this recipe from Momofuku. We used a smaller pork shoulder, but cooked it for almost as long to achieve the "souffle effect" when the meat is falling apart and the fat starts to bubble.

Serve on tender lettuce leaves with a scoop of white rice, a couple forkfuls of pork, and a generous dollop of kimchi.

Scallion Pancakes

I wanted to share this recipe for scallion pancakes, which falls under the category of amazing things you can make with just flour and water, including farinata and corn tortillas. I made these pancakes earlier this spring with some lovely shallot scapes from Open Oak Farm, but now you could make them with Sweetwater Farm's scallions, which are amazingly flavorful and hefty, and deserve a starring role on your table. 

I remember when I sampled scallion pancakes as a teenager on my first visit to a Korean restaurant and I was intoxicated by their chewy, flaky texture. At the time, I thought these delicacies must involve many exotic ingredients, but now I realize that they are just flour and water and some special tricks for processing the dough. First, you use boiling water, which denatures the proteins in the flour and gives the dough a tougher, chewy consistency. Then to achieve the flakiness, you roll the dough flat, slick it with sesame oil, wind it into a snail shape, and flatten it again. You do this several times, incorporating the scallions in the last round. 

Finally you fry the pancakes until crispy. These were a big hit with the whole family eaten piping hot with a soy dipping sauce. I was happy to introduce my kids to this Korean delicacy, demystified and delicious. 

Scallion Pancakes

adapted from Serious Eats (makes 2 large pancakes)

For the dipping sauce:
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon finely sliced scallion greens
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons sugar

To prepare the dipping sauce, combine all the ingredients and set aside.

For the pancake dough:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup boiling water
about 2 Tbsp sesame oil
1 cup chopped scallion greens
about 2 Tbsp vegetable oil for frying
salt to taste

1. Place the flour in the bowl of a food processor. With the processor running, slowly drizzle in about 3/4 of boiling water. Process for 15 seconds. If the dough does not come together and ride around the blade, drizzle in more water a tablespoon at a time until it just comes together. Transfer to a floured work surface and knead a few times to form a smooth ball. You can also mix the dough by hand and knead for about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Transfer to a bowl, cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap, and allow to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature, or up to overnight in the fridge.

2. Divide the dough into two even pieces and roll each into a smooth ball. Working one ball at a time, roll out into a disk roughly 8-inches in diameter on a lightly floured surface. Using a pastry brush, paint a very thin layer of sesame oil over the top of the disk. Roll the disk up like a jelly roll, then twist roll into a tight spiral, tucking the end underneath. Flatten gently with your hand, then re-roll into an 8-inch disk. Paint with another layer of sesame oil, twist into a spiral, flatten gently, and re-roll into a 8-inch disc. Repeat the oiling, rolling, and flattening process a third time. 

3. Now for the final rolling step, paint on the sesame oil and sprinkle the dough with 1/2 cup scallions, roll and twist again, flatten and re-roll into a 8-inch disk. Your first pancake is formed. Repeat the whole process with the second ball of dough to form the second pancake.

4. Heat oil in an 8-inch nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering and carefully slip pancake into the hot oil. Cook, shaking the pan gently until first side is an even golden brown, about 2 minutes. Carefully flip with a spatula or tongs (be careful not to splash the oil), and continue to cook, shaking pan gently, until second side is even golden brown, about 2 minutes longer. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Season with salt, cut into 8 wedges. Serve immediately with sauce for dipping. Cook the remaining pancake in the same way.

Homemade Kimchi

Right now in the microbiology course I'm teaching we're considering all the different ways that microbes make a living, eking out energy from the most unlikely sources and in the most unlikely settings. It's hard not to feel a little superior as humans, knowing that we have the luxury of aerobic respiration, popping out dozens of ATPs for every sugar molecule we ingest, while the slow fermenting microbes toil away to make a couple of ATPs from the same starting material. But, while dashing to class after frantic mornings getting the kids off to school, I've been thinking that there's a lot to be said for those fermenters' slower paced lifestyle. It's not all about the ATP. I'm certainly grateful for those fermentation byproducts, especially when they result in a delicious and easy kimchi stir fry supper at the end of a long day.

This kimchi recipe is based on David Chang's from Momofuku. It is easy to prepare once you locate the Korean chili powder, called kochukara, which I grabbed while racing through Sunrise Asian Food Market on a mission to find roasted black sesame seeds, although I forgot the jarred salted shrimp called for in this recipe. The chili powder went into a gingery, garlicy, salty, sweet paste that I tossed with cabbage, daikon radish, carrots, and green onions. Then I left the cabbage-affiliated microbes to their leisurely fermenting as we dashed off to a Saturday soccer game. Later that evening I tucked my jars in the refrigerator, instructed to let the kimchi continue fermenting for a couple of weeks, but we couldn't resist sampling it the next day. It was already delicious, with a strong kick of ginger.

A stash of kimchi is a readymade stir fry in a jar: a bounty of precut vegetables, softened but still with plenty of crunch, in a delicious sauce, that just needs heating up with some starch and protein. We're particularly fond of this kimchi fried rice recipe for a quick weeknight meal. A new favorite is kimichi fried rice cakes, topped with strips of cooked egg and a sprinkle of those sesame seeds. Given our speedy rate of kimichi consumption, our diligent cabbage fermenting microbes barely made it to their two week mark before we had gobbled them up. 

Cabbage Kimchi

adapted from Momofuku

makes 1 to 1 1/2 quarts

1 small to medium head cabbage, discolored outer leaves discarded

2 tablespoons kosher or coarse sea salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 bunch scallions, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces (greens and whites)

1-2 julienned carrots

1 small daikon radish, peeled and julienned

20 garlic cloves

1 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger 
1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup kochukaru (Korean chile powder)

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/4 cup usukuchi (light soy sauce)

2 teaspoons jarred salted shrimp (optional)

1. Cut the cabbage lengthwise in quarters, slice out the cores, then cut the quarters crosswise into 1-inch-wide pieces. Toss the cabbage with the salt and 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a bowl. Let sit for a few hours at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator. 

2. Combine the garlic, ginger, kochukaru, fish sauce, soy sauce, shrimp, and 1/4 cup sugar in a large bowl. If it is very thick, add water 1/4 cup at a time until the brine is just thicker than a creamy salad dressing but no longer a sludge. 

3. Julienne the carrots and daikon and slice the green onions. Drain the cabbage. In a large bowl, combine the vegetables and the brine.

4. Transfer the kimchi to clean glass jars. Pack the kimchi down so that the vegetables are submerged in the red spicy brine (the goal here is to have the vegetables in an aqueous, oxygen-depleted environment that promotes fermentation of lactic acid bacteria and prevents the growth of other bacteria). You can leave the kimchi to ferment in a cool place for a day or refrigerate directly. Though the kimchi will be tasty after 24 hours, it will be better in a week and at its prime in 2 weeks. It will still be good for another couple weeks after that, though it will grow stronger and funkier.

Rutabaga Dduk Bokki

It's a little difficult to love a rutabaga. Compared to a genial, mild mannered potato, a rutabaga can come across as sharp and bitter. I like to temper its impact by roasting it together with a variety of root vegetables; mixed in with mellow, earthy parsnips and sweet beets, it brings complexity and depth to the discussion. 

But maybe the rutabaga is just a bit misunderstood, and we should stop thinking of it as a bitter potato and embrace it as a big, lovable radish. In this way it can play a staring role in Asian dishes, standing in for sharp, crisp daikon. 

During my first pregnancy I had strong cravings for sweet and spicy Korean stir fries that more than once sent my husband to Cafe Seuol for late night take out orders. Recently I've been experimenting with making a Korean street food, dduk bokki, that features these fun rod-shaped rice cakes. I started with this recipe, but wanted to include more vegetables, and it turned out that rutabaga was the perfect fit, adding bulk and a sharpness that balanced the sweet carrots and leeks.

This dish worked well for dinner because the kids enjoyed it deconstructed, having developed a taste for teriyaki beef from Ume Grill, and the grown ups enjoy a flavorful and satisfying one pot meal. And I think the rutabaga enjoyed being appreciated for its unique and special qualities. 

Dduk Bokki

Note: this recipe includes teriyaki style beef, but for a vegetarian version, you could simply omit the beef or substitute in baked tofu.

Marinated beef
1/3 lb beef, such as tri tip
1 tsp sugar
2 Tbsp soy sauce
4 Tbsp rice wine
plenty of black pepper
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 tsp corn starch

Rice stick stir fry
1/2 lb rice cakes (available at Asian markets in the freezer section)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp gochujang (Korean red pepper paste, in a box like this)
1  Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp sesame oil
1 rutabaga
2 carrots
1 leek (or 1 bunch of green onions)
2 medium bok choy or 1/2 small cabbage
1 Tbsp canola oil
sesame seeds for garnish

1. Set a large pot of water to boil. Slice the beef into thin slices. Stir together the sugar, soy sauce, rice wine, and black pepper, and marinate the meat in this while you prep the vegetables and rice cakes.

2. When the water is boiling, add the frozen rice sticks and cook for about 5 minutes until they are cooked through (taste to make sure). Then drain them in a colander and drizzle over a little canola oil to prevent them from sticking.

3. Peel the rutabaga and carrots and cut them into small matchsticks. Trim the root and green ends from the leek, slice lengthwise, and wash thoroughly. Then cut into 1/2 inch slices widthwise. Chop the bok choy or cabbage into thin strips.

4. Mix together the minced garlic, sugar, gochujang, soy sauce, and sesame oil and set aside.

5. Heat a large skillet or wok over medium high heat. Add the oil and when it is hot, add the sliced meat. Cook for a couple of minutes and then flip with tongs to cook the second side. Mix the cornstarch into the marinade, and when the beef is cooked through pour over the corn starch mixture and cook for another minute, stirring. Remove the beef to a plate, scraping off as much of the sauce as possible.

6. Return the pan to the heat and add a little more oil. When it is hot, add the rutabaga and carrot matchsticks and cook for a couple of minutes. Once they start to soften slightly, add the leeks, cook for a minute, and then add the bok choy or cabbage. Keep cooking and stirring until the vegetables are cooked through but still slightly crispy. Add the rice cakes and toss with the vegetables. Then add back the cooked beef and stir in the gochujang sauce. If the sauce seems too thick, you can add a little water. Cook everything together until it is warmed through and then remove from the heat and serve garnished with sesame seeds.