Have some kimchi that's gone just a tad sour? Don't throw it away! In colder weather I would make some delicious kimchi jigae (stew). But since in the summer I like to eat cooler dishes (than a boiling stew), I make kimchi pancakes. They are simply to make, and surprisingly delicious. But let's be honest, what Korean food isn't delicious?

Ingredients

• ​1/2 cup kimchi
• 1 cup flour
• 1 sliced green onion
• 8 Tbs liquid- usually I use 4 of kimchi juice, 4 of water. Today I only had 3 Tbs of kimchi juice so I just used 5 Tbs of water.
• Oil for cooking (canola or vegetable)

Steps
Step 1: cute kimchi into bite sized pieces, slice green onion, then mix everything together in a bowl. Add more flour or liquid until you have something inbetween a batter and a dough. (yeah, that easy)

Step 2: Start cooking the pancakes!
​Heat about 1/2 Tbs of oil (you'll use this much for each pancake) over medium high-high heat in a skillet. This will make 1-3 pancakes depending on how large you want them to be! I decided to go with three. After heating the oil, drop the batter into the pan, spreading it  out with a spoon.

Step 3: After about 2 and a half minutes of cooking, you should be able to see the edges are all cooked. Check that the bottom is nice and toasty brown, then flip! Cook for another 1-2 minutes.

I always serve these pancakes with my all-purpose dipping sauce (meaning I use if for pancakes, eggrolls, and mandu). 1 part soy sauce, 1 part vinegar, 1 part water, a couple of tablespoons of sesame seeds. As always, taste the sauce and adjust to your liking! (a fun addition is a half tablespoon of gochugaru to give it some spice!)

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My sister visited this weekend, so obviously we needed to make something delicious! We both love studio ghibli films, and planned on watching one that night. What better combination than watching Ponyo and eating the Ramen that appears? ^.^
We decided to use our favorite packaged Korean ramen and dress it up like in the movie. When I eat ramen, I actually usually add in egg and green onion like I did this night. But for my sister we added something special: HAM!

Ingredients

• Package of your favorite ramen! Ours is the shin spicy ramen
• 1-2 eggs per ramen (depending on how much you want)
• 1 green onion per ramen
• a couple slices of thick sliced HAM!

Below is a picture or the ramen I usually buy. In Korea they pronounce the food as "ramyun", ergo the packaging. In order to get the ham I wanted, I went to the deli counter and asked if I could get a quarter pound of ham cut to cheese thickness. 

Steps to Making the Ramen
Step 1: Preparing all of your toppings separately is simple and can be done ahead of time. Hard-boil some eggs, and cut them to your liking. My sister wanted them cut in half like the movie, but I think that's too difficult to eat so mine are sliced. You can also make egg strips: make a plain omelet and slice thinly. Slice the green onion. Buy the ham. Step one: done!

Step 2: Make your ramen according to the package! I prepare mine by boiling water on the stove top, adding the soup flavouring, then cooking the noodles for about 3 minutes. 

Step 3: Place your toppings! I used the egg and green onion, my sister use egg, green onion, and HAM! Hers ended up looking prettier..

Step 4: EAT! With some kimchi and rice, of course. And if you're like us, this step also includes watching Ponyo.

 
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I have recently started drinking coffee. So being the person I am (i.e. loves spending money on food-stuffs), I also invested in three flavoured syrups, three flavoured sauces, and a fantastic french press. The only issue I've found is that neither of my roommates drinks coffee.  As a result, I always make too much -_- 

So I take my leftover coffee and have it in a jar in the refrigerator. It makes it easy to grab for an iced coffee any time of day. Usually I'll have my iced coffee with some almond milk and a couple of teaspoons of coffee syrup.

But for a special treat, I decided to make some Vietnamese style iced coffee! This drink is absolutely delicious and tastes like coffee flavoured ice cream. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup Chilled Coffee
• crushed Ice
• 1 Tbs Vanilla syrup
• 1/4 cup sweetened Condensed milk

Instructions
Putting the drink together is really simple. Start by filling your glass with crushed ice. Stir in coffee and vanilla syrup. The last step is to pour the condensed milk over the top and watch it gorgeously flow down to the bottom. 

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When I came home from school every day, my grandmother would always have food waiting. Usually it consisted of fresh rice, kimchi, and keem (seaweed that you would use for sushi, "nori" in japanese). But on some special days, I would come home to some delicious korean-seasoned meat patties. I know, "meat patty" doesn't sound super appetizing. But they were sweet and salty and delicious! 

Recently I noticed that at Noodles and Company they are selling gochujang glazed meatballs, so I thought why not take a crack at combining the two? Here is my attempt!

 Meatballs:

• 11 oz ground beef or meat alternative
• 1/4 lb firm tofu
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (3/4 cup for meat alternative)
• 1 medium grated carrot
• 1/4 cup minced onion
• 2 sliced green onions
• 1 Tbs. garlic
• 2 Tbs. sugar
• 3 Tbs. Soy sauce
• cornstarch for coating
• vegetable oil for pan-frying

Glaze:

• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 sliced green onion
• 1 Tbs. sesame oil
• 1/8 tsp. powdered ginger
• 2 Tbs. sugar
• 1 Tbs honey
• 1 Tbs Cornstarch
• 1-2 Tbs sesame seeds for garnish

N.B.: There are a couple things to note on the ingredients. Firstly, since I am a vegetarian I am using a meat alternative. The alternative I am using is the brand "beyond meat" and is pictured below. When I made my meatballs originally, at least a third of them ended up falling apart. My suggestion is if using a meat alternative, use an additional 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs. Extra breadcrumbs should help hold the meatballs together. 

Secondly, the gochujang is optional. My grandmother didn't use it, but if you want a little kick, go ahead and add it into your glaze mixture. I opted not to use it today.

Making the meatballs:
Step 1:​ Before mixing everything together, we need to prepare the vegetables and tofu. For the tofu, chop into small pieces.(Read how to store leftover tofu here). Mince onion and garlic, grate carrot, and slice green onion into smaller pieces. 
Step 2: Combine all ingredients (save for the cornstarch and vegetable oil) in a bowl. You should have a mixture that looks like this:

Step 3: Form into 1-1 1/2 inch meatballs. This recipe should make about 18 meatballs. 
Step 4: Set up a plate with cornstarch on it. This is your coating station! Take each meatball and roll in the cornstarch, lightly coating it. 

Step 5: Now we are ready to cook the meatballs! Heat about a quarter cup of vegetable oil in a pan over medium high heat. Once the oil is thoroughly heated, carefully place the meatballs in the oil for 1 minute on each side (even though they are balls, I imagine there are 4 different sides to cook on, so I cook them for a total of 4 minutes each). I was able to cook 6 at a time. Note that for real beef meatballs, the meat will not be cooked through all the way. This is okay! Place the meatballs aside once pan-fried, so that we can continue cooking them in the sauce. 

Making the Sauce:
Step 1: Combine all of the ingredients listed for the sauce. I suggest using a whisk to combine thoroughly, particularly in order to dissolve the granulated sugar.
​Step 2: Heat your pan up over medium heat. Add the sauce and whisk until it just starts to bubble.

Putting it together:
Final step: Place meatballs in the glaze/sauce and cover. Let cook until meat is completely cooked and sauce is thickened. Top with sesame seeds (or not, it just makes it pretty!).

I ended up eating my meatballs with fresh rice and some kimchi. The meatballs are pretty saucy and sweet, so the spice and tartness of the kimchi pairs perfectly with them!

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This one is a personal favorite of both me and my sister. Our grandmother makes it whenever we have cucumbers on hand. It's also another super easy recipe! 

• 1 Cucumber
• 1 Tbs. Hot pepper paste (gochugaru)
• 2 Tbs. Soy Sauce
• 1 Tbs. Sugar (or more to taste)
• 1 Tbs. Salt
• 1 Tbs. Sesame Oil
• 1 Tbs. White Vinegar
• 2 Tbs. Sesame Seeds
• 1 sliced green onion
• 1 Tbs. minced garlic

Preparing the Cucumber:
​Step 1: In order to prep the cucumber for your delicious banchan, start by peeling strips of the skin off if you purchased an English cucumber. These cucumbers' skin can be a little tough otherwise. If you purchased pickling cucumbers, go ahead and skip this!

Step 2: Next, cut in half, scoop out the seeds, and slice! Place in a bowl and toss with the salt and sugar. It should look like this:

Step 3: Let the cucumber sit for about 30 minutes. The salt draws out extra moisture, which cucumbers have a lot of! After 30 minutes, you can drain all of the liquid. [N.B.: In my radish kimchi recipe, you use some of the liquid. You can do that here, but the cucumbers will still have plenty of moisture.]

Seasoning the Dish!
Step 4: Seasoning the dish is actually quite simple. Place the other ingredients in with the cucumber, and combine! You should have a delicious banchan in no time. 

Warning: So delicious it may not last longer than one meal. ​

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Kimchi is the staple of korean side dishes and comes in many varieties. The most common in western culture is kimchi made with napa cabbage. This kimchi I've made today however, is made with korean radish, called Mu. If you can't find Mu in your grocery store, daikon radish will work as well. It is a deliciously crunchy kimchi to have with your rice and maybe some delicious korean meatballs! (Recipe to come soon ;) )

• 1 Medium sized Radish (Mu or Daikon)
• 3 Tbs. Hot Pepper flakes (Gochugaru)
• 1 Tbs. Minced Garlic
• 2  sliced Green Onions
• 3 Tbs. Soy Sauch or Fish Sauce
• 2 Tbs. Salt
• 2 Tbs. Sugar

A note on the ingredients: To make a more authentic Korean radish, use fish sauce. Since I am a vegetarian and usually like staying away from fish sauce, I substitute in soy sauce. 
Additionally, feel free to change the amount of any of these ingredients! In particular, you may want to adjust the amount of hot pepper flakes to your spice preference. This is just the ratio that I personally like. :)

Step 1: First things first: preparing the radish. To get our radish all ready for kimchi making, first I peel and rinse the radish. Then cut into 1/4 inch cubes.

Step 1.1: Place the radish in a bowl, toss with the salt and sugar. Let this sit for 30 minutes. Why? The salt will help pull out excess water from the radish. During this time I slice my green onions/mince my garlic.  After 30 minutes, drain all but approximately 1 Tbs. of the liquid.

Step 2: Mix in remaining ingredients.

Step 3: Enjoy! Yup, it's that simple!

I placed most of my kimchi in a jar which I set out on the counter. Since I like my kimchi a little more fermented, I will let it ferment for a couple of days before putting it in the refrigerator. The rest I put in a container to put in the refrigerator as is, for fresher, crisper kimchi!