Phyllis
Louise Harris
April
2016
Mention
Korean food and I immediately think of barbecued ribs and kimchi. But, Korean donuts? They are not part of my tasting memory.
There
is so much to learn about Asian cooking that researching, testing and tasting
have been a big part of my life for more than 40 years. When I was researching Korean
food for the book Asian Flavors: Changing
the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, I turned to the co-founder and managing
editor of Korean Quarterly Martha
Vickery for guidance. While I had eaten Korean food in the Twin Cities and in
San Francisco and had interviewed a number of Korean chefs, my knowledge was
limited. Martha took me on a culinary tour and introduced me to her food
writer, Mary Lee Vance, PhD. What a wonderful journey to take; one that you,
too, can experience.
Each
issue of Korean Quarterly offers a
wide variety of Korean news, views, reviews, entertainment and food information.
In the Winter 2016 issue, Mary Lee offered some insight about a food that is
found in nearly every cuisine – fried bread. Donuts, crullers, beignets, klejner, sai yong or whatever name they are called appear all over the world.
Basically, they are all fried bread. In Korea there are several including kkwabaegi that is like a twisted donut
or cruller or hotteok, more like a
pancake.
According
to her recent column, when Mary Lee gets a craving for donuts, she turns to
refrigerated biscuits or frozen bread dough and sometimes makes hotteok, a popular “Korean street food
that is a kind of pancake, but thicker and doughier, usually with a filling
featuring crushed peanuts. Hotteok
mix is sold in Korean stores, but with a little ingenuity one can make a very
reasonable facsimile with something like frozen bread dough.” Just shape it
into rolls and fill them with brown sugar, crushed peanuts and a touch of
cinnamon before frying.
Her
article includes a recipe for kkwabaegi
from the website of “ Maangechi, a chef
who has been teaching the basics of Korean cooking on the Web for years.” Basically
it is yeast dough that is shaped into twists and coated with sugar and
cinnamon. The finished kkwabaegi can
be frozen and thawed to enjoy later as well.
For
more information about Korean Quarterly
go to http://www.koreanquarterly.org/Home.html. KQ has
received more than 20 awards of excellence from the MN Newspaper Association,
was nominated for a national award for Ethnic Issues in 2002, received several
awards from Korean organizations and is a member of the Korean American
Journalists Association. For the complete recipe for kkwabaegi go to http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/kkwabaegi . And check out her
other recipes. They are a great way to start that journey through Korean
cuisine. Also visit your local Korean restaurants and markets to taste the
wonderful flavors of Korea.
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Read more about Asian food
in Minnesota and try more than 160 recipes in Asian Flavors: Changing the
Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, in bookstores and on amazon.com.
Watch the EMMY® award winning “Asian
Flavors” television show based on the book on tpt MN. Check local TV listings
for broadcast times or view the show streaming online at:
http://www.mnvideovault.org/mvvPlayer/customPlaylist2.php?id=24552&select_index=0&popup=yes#0
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