Spicy Italian Sausage Pasta

Sometimes I bookmark good recipes from food websites, such as Food Network, All Recipes.com and individual blogs. I often visit a blog written by a transplanted Korean who now lives in Washington, DC. She posts a lot of fun things about her U.S. life. One of the best  things are her lunch box ideas. She packs two lunch boxes every weekday. One is for her husband and the other is for her. Furthermore, her recipes are very easy and simple. Sometimes she introduces good grocery stores and shows her list of shopping items with their prices. It's very helpful!

This pasta recipe is from her blog. After she tried spicy Italian sausage pasta at a restaurant, she made it herself. She often packs it for their lunches. I often need lunch box ideas and it's a good tip for me!

Ingredients     
(I changed a little from her recipe.)
1 lb                hot Italian sausage from Giant
3/4 lb              pasta noodle
1 bottle           basil tomato sauce from Trader Joe's
2 C                 sliced mushroom
2 C                 sliced onion
1 T                 minced garlic
2 T                 chopped jalapeno
1 C                 grated parmesan cheese
olive oil, salt, pepper and chopped basil to taste

Directions
Parboil sausage in boiling water for 5-6 minutes and slice into bite size pieces.
Boil the noodles according to the box directions.
Stir-fry minced garlic in a hot pan with olive oil and add sliced onions.
When the onions turn brown, add sausage, mushrooms, salt and pepper.
Stir-fry everything until ingredients are almost 90% cooked. Then reduce heat, add cooked pasta noodles with tomato sauce and mix them well.
Sprinkle parmesan cheese and chopped basil on the pasta before serving.

http://blog.naver.com/zghyojin/220720363760

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Rice Paper Dumplings

I made Korean dumplings a few days ago and I had extra filling, but I needed some more dumpling wraps. I thought I needed to go to the grocery store, but I didn't feel like going out. So I came up with a good idea - use rice paper! 
Rice paper was in my pantry for a long time, so I needed a good recipe for using them. 
I took it out of the pantry and dip the rice paper in warm water - rice paper is delicate and only needs a quick dip in warm water to soften. 
Do not soak. If your rice paper is too wet, it will be very difficult to roll. 
And rotated rice paper in the bowl of water or quickly immersed it in the bowl for about 4-5 seconds.
When the rice paper is soft, placed on a clean board and put dumpling filling mixture in the center of the rice paper round and then folded the ends in and roll up firmly to enclose the filling. 
Repeated with remaining rice paper rounds and filling.
Heat a pan with vegetable oil and fried them.
That's all!

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Sesame Leaves Pesto Pasta - Perilla Pesto

Pesto; one of those sauces that is a must in summertime, anytime. It is one of the easiest ways to use up spare herbs, greens and to play around with different nuts.
Also, it's quick to throw together. A great way for using big bunches of herbs or greens languishing in the fridge, and practically impossible to screw up. So there is no excuse not to give homemade pesto a go.

This year I planted a few plants in pots to grow on my deck. Sesame leaf is one of them.

It is easy to grow and can become large quickly and out of control.

Actually, my garden has been growing like crazy - sesame leaves have grown a lot. So, I picked them and made pesto with the sesame leaves.
Have you ever made pesto with herbs other than basil?
Sesame leaf(perilla) is an herb in the mint family used in several Asian dishes. So I used it.
How to make it? It's very similar to basil pesto. I just used sesame leaves instead of basil and I added some more nuts and  Parmesan cheese to taste. That's it! 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/basil-pesto-recipe2.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=960thehxn1Y (Learn more, view video; 키미kimi)


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Whole Chicken Soup - Chicken Baeksuk

South Korea has been overcome by a new trend recently - the cooking frenzy. Cooking is the big thing right now; it's in dramas, variety shows, everyday life - everywhere. So I enjoy watching Korean cooking shows.  One of them is 'House Cook Master Baek.'
Master Baek teaches celebrities how to make easy homemade meals on the TV show and the show always says "You can cook, too!"
Even though master Baek is not a professional chef, he has been studying and is the CEO of 26 restaurant franchises with 169 branches across the country.  So he is good at cooking.
It is an intimate cooking show because he makes cooking easy.
For example, he uses paper cups and a normal spoon instead of measuring cups & spoons, because the are easy to find and buy.  Normally, the paper cup and spoon size are about the same as measuring cups and spoons in Korea.
And sometimes he uses coffee filter paper instead of cloth for a steamer. It's a good tip for a beginner.

Today, the show showed how to cook Korean chicken soup - Chicken Baeksuk.
Generally, many Korean people eat invigorating foods such as Samgyetang and Chicken Baeksuk to boost up energy and to ward off summer heat and stay healthy.
Baeksuk is sometimes mistaken as Samgyetang, because they are made in a similar way. However, they differ in the size of the chicken and placement of ingredients. In Samgyetang, the vegetables and rice are placed inside a small chicken. On the other hand, backsuk uses a bigger chicken, and rice is added after the vegetables and chicken are taken out of the pot.

Ingredients
1                whole chicken (I used drumstick and thigh each 1 lb)
1/2             onion
1 bunch     green onions
1/4 C          korean chile pepper powder
1 T             minced garlic
1 T             korean mustard
2 T             soy sauce
1 T             vinegar
1/2 T          sliced ginger
salt, sugar, pepper to taste

Directions
Start by washing the ingredients
Place chicken, onion, 2 green onions and sliced ginger in the pot, cover with water and boil for 30 minutes.
Remove chicken from boiling chicken soup and tear it into pieces.
Mix hot pepper powder with 1/4 cup chicken soup. (1:1)
Make sauce - mix hot pepper powder paste, minced garlic, 1 chopped green onion, Korean mustard, soy sauce, sugar and vinegar.
Parboil remaining green onions in the chicken soup and add the chicken.
Serve Baeksuk with sauce.

http://m.post.naver.com/viewer/postView.nhn?volumeNo=4809164&memberNo=19357942&vType=VERTICAL

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