A continuation of my Korean cuisine journey a la Chinese New Year 2021.
The number of blogs or recipes available now is wonderful. When I first searched for a Kimchi recipe in the early 2000s, it was not an easy recipe to find off the internet, nowadays, too many to choose from. I will have to look at my printed copy and have a look if the same site is in the top in the search engine or SEO or many many pages behind.
One website that I keep going back to recently is by a Korean-American koreanbapsang for the Korean BBQ food ideas. I, as such, cannot claim originality to some of the recipes, or maybe I can?, that I’ve tried or tweaked. Tried or tweaked meaning, I do not have the actual ingredients available in my kitchen and nor was I going to splurge or make an extreme effort to get on the public transport to try and find it.
The Ssamjang or what I refer to as a dipping sauce was a hit with my brothers’ (not 1 but 2) daughters who love Korean food. It goes very well with regular steak too!
Anyway, the Ssamjang was made as an accompaniment to the Samgyupsal Gui (Grilled Pork Belly) which I tried to copy for the 2021 Reunion Dinner. Unfortunately, the Pa Muchim (Scallion Salad) or what to me is more of a relish did not receive high accolades for all the effort that was put into making it.
Ssamjang (Korean Soybean Dipping Sauce)
Ingredients:
2 tablespoon doenjang (fermented soybean paste. I used Japanese miso which is also fermented soybean paste)
1 tablespoon red chilli flakes (preferably Korean. I used Indian coarse chilli flakes)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sesame seed (if you have time to lightly toast them, it gives you a greater flavour, if not, as is is fine – to me)
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
pinch of salt
2 tablespoon rice wine (I used Hua Tiao or Chinese cooking wine. White wine makes a good alternative)
Method:
Add all the ingredients together and mix well. Add more rice wine to reach the liquid consistency of your choice. Think dip or dressing.
Simply Living 
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