LetsLunch: Too Hot to Cook (Let's Make a Cheese Plate)

Once again, I'm a bit late on my LetsLunch offering. This month, hosted by Grace of Hapa Mama, we all contributed dishes for when the summer heat is really cranking and it's too hot to cook. 

I cheated a little and popped my bread slices in the toaster oven, but other than that this simple, delicious cheese plate is a breeze to throw together. 

From top right corner moving clockwise: peppercorn white cheddar, strawberries, brie, raspberry habanero preserves, green grapes, honey goat gouda, salad and crostini. 

The black peppercorn cheddar and strawberries are lovely together, and the preserves turned out to be a nice complement to both the brie and the goat gouda. A little prosciutto or nice salumi wouldn't be out of place here either, but I didn't happen to have any on hand. 

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Be sure to check out the other fabulous hot weather recipes put together by our LetsLunch crew.

Cheryl's Mango Key-Lime Pie on A Tiger in the Kitchen

Anne Marie‘s Lettuce Sandwich at Sandwich Surprise

Grace‘s Mung Bean Shaved Ice at HapaMama

Linda‘s Coconut Creamsicle Sodas at Free Range Cookies

Linda‘s Escape From San Francisco Picnic at Spicebox Travels

Lisa‘s Campari Granita at Monday Morning Cooking Club

Lucy‘s “The Girl in a Hat Goes on a Picnic” at A Cook and Her Books

Monica‘s Peanut Salad at A Life of Spice

Pat‘s Harvest Red Rice Salad at The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook

LetsLunch: Celebrating Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Happy LetsLunch, everyone!! I am so excited about this month's theme: dishes to celebrate Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

I've written many times about how I often feel trapped between the many cultures I belong to. I've never felt like I could truly identify with being Korean or truly Asian American, since I was not really raised in either culture.

But food has always been a way for me to feel a strong tie with my Korean roots. Would it have been nice to have learned how to make Korean bulgogi from my weihalmonie before she passed away? Of course. But, the beauty of the Internet is that I had Maangchi, right in my own home, acting as my own personal ajumma to teach me my favorite Korean foods, like bulgogi.

So without further ado, here's my quick and dirty guide to making Korean barbecue at home.

Much of Korean barbecue can be made up as you go. Everyone's mom and grandma makes it differently, as far as I can tell. This recipe relies on finely minced Asian pear and brown sugar for the sweetness. You can also use honey, mashed kiwi or even cola. This marinade, for about 1 lb of meat, is 3/4 cup soy sauce, 1/3 cup rice vinegar, 1/4 cup sesame oil, scant 1/4 cup canola oil, 3 TBS brown sugar, half an Asian pear (finely minced), all whisked together.

Korean barbecue has gotten quite popular, especially in cities with big Korean populations like Washington, D.C. (where I live) and New York City. Within a 20-30 minute drive from my house, there are literally dozens of kogijibs, or meat houses, where barbecue is the specialty. (Pro tip: if you're looking for an outstanding Korean restaurant, look for one that operates in the native Korean style of specializing in one dish or type of food.) I got an early start on this week's dish. The onion slices, mashed garlic and ginger, and some salt and pepper went into a bag with the meat a day or two before I was ready to cook. I added the marinade the morning I was going to grill.

Someday, I aspire to own one of those fabulous one-off butane grills and a tilted Korean barbecue grill like the ones they use at restaurants (or like this one). For now, I have a fabulous electric wok that I absolutely love, and it creates a really nice sear on meat like this. (if you're feeling curious about the meat, this happens to be skirt steak, but you can use almost any thinly-sliced, tender cut of beef you like. I've made it with everything from eye round to filet mignon)

While the meat was resting, I also grilled up the marinated onion slices with some lovely enoki mushrooms. Always buy twice as money enoki mushrooms as you think you'll need--they really shrink down when you cook them!

The benefit of making Korean barbecue at home is you can yank the meat off the grill while it's still medium rare. I'm not a huge fan of how long they usually leave the meat on your grill at Korean barbecue restaurants because it allows the meat to cook completely through. Snip the meat into bite sized pieces with scissors.

No Korean meal would be complete without panchan (two of these are storebought, one is homemade), so load your plate up and enjoy! At a restaurant, you might be given a basket of lettuce leaves (and bitter perilla leaves if you're feeling extra traditional), some sliced garlic, soybean paste and rice to make cute little lettuce wraps.

You can also sub little sheets of gim (this is actually nori, but shhh they're so similar) to wrap around your rice, kimchi and meat! I am fairly certain there is a Korean name for eating your food this way, but I've never managed to pick it up (as it's not something you would see on a menu in a restaurant).

So there you have it, the illustrated guide to Korean barbecue in the home. If you want to make kalbi instead of bulgogi, get short ribs instead of steak. You can get the kind that is pulled off the bone, or the kind sliced sideways, with the bone slivers still in tact.
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LetsLunch is a monthly meeting of food bloggers from around the world. We share themed blog posts via Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. We would love to have you join us, just tweet using the hashtag #LetsLunch to introduce yourself!

Check back to see what the others are posting on Friday for Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month:
* Lucy's Chinese Chicken Salad on A Cook and Her Books
* Lisa's Sesame, Eggplant and Noodle Salad on Monday Morning Cooking Club
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April Let'sLunch: Spring Break Foods

Happy April's LetsLunch, everyone!

I volunteered to act as our host this month and suggested the theme: "Spring Break Foods." I've been super excited the past few weeks, planning for my "adult spring break" trip to Disney World.

I didn't know I was going to make pizza as my Spring Break Food. But, as luck would have it, a friend gifted a set of Mickey pizza plates to me last week and I knew my LetsLunch was set.

There's nothing fancy about this pizza. I used a garlic herb crust from Trader Joe's, some whole milk mozzarella, and a simple homemade tomato sauce.

To make the sauce: heat 1 can of whole tomatoes, mostly drained, plus half an onion, and a pinch of salt for about 15 minutes. Remove about half of the tomatoes and most of the onion, and pulse with a hand blender, then break the remaining tomatoes gently with a spoon. Stir the blended tomatoes back into the broken ones. Add a splash of red wine and continue cooking at least 5 more minutes. If the sauce seems too thin, stir in some tomato paste, 1 TBS at a time. 

I pre-baked the crust for about 8 minutes with a little cornmeal underneath to add some texture. Then sauce and cheese (less of both than might think), and back in the oven at 475 for about 15 minutes.

And, this is the part where you get to see how ugly my pizza turned out. Which is fine, if you ask me. In the competition between food being delicious and beautiful, I'll take delicious. The cheese aggressively sliding off my slice just means it was a) abundant and b) incredibly melty.

So, I hope the rest of my LetsLunchers are finding ways to get away or find some R&R at home this spring. A week from today I'll be heading to Disney World (again!) to visit a friend of mine who works at Animal Kingdom.

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Let's Lunch is a monthly virtual lunch date made up of foodies and bloggers from all over. Want to join us? Send us a tweet to introduce yourself using the hashtag #LetsLunch.

Check out what everyone else made this month:

Jill's Basil-Infused Cotillion Cocktail at Eating My Words
Lucy's Pepperoni Pizza Swirl Muffins at A Cook and Her Books
Lisa's Beetroot and Salmon with Horseradish at Monday Morning Cooking Club
Linda's Instant Carrot Cake at Free Range Cookies
Karen's Sourdough Sandwich Bread at Geofooding
Linda's Guide to Eating in Cancun at Spicebox Travels
Ann Marie's Mofongo with Ground Beef at Sandwich Surprise

#LetsLunch: Super Bowl Wings, Two Ways

So far in the new year, I'm continuing to be sadly neglectful to this little blog. But, I was very excited to work on these tasty wings for Super Bowl Sunday last week! 

Our Lets Lunch group picked foods to eat while watching sports on tv this month -- just in time for last week's Super Bowl (or, the Stupid Bowl as I often refer to it).

I love Super Bowl wings. Ever year, whether I'm with a big group, a small group, or if, like this year, it's just me and my husband, I like to go all out for chicken wings for the Super Bowl. 

Some years I make buffalo wings, other year's I've made sticky teriyaki wings. This year I went with Korean Fried Chicken again and also pulled together a curry-spiced wing recipe for Lets Lunch. 

I borrowed some techniques for battering and frying chicken from this Serious Eats Food Lab post. I thought it worked well for the curry wings, but ultimately may not have been worth it for the Korean wings. 

To start, I gave each pound of wings a couple hours of soaking in a buttermilk bath spiced with salt, pepper and coarsely chopped garlic (about 8 cloves for each batch). The curry spiced wings also got a tablespoon of sweet curry powder. After a few hours, I drained the wings from the buttermilk.

This is the step I borrowed from Serious Eats: coating the wings in a mix of corn starch, baking soda and salt. I think for the curry wings it added a nice crispness to the end result. It made less of an impact on the Korean wings, because of the gochuchang sauce that gets added at the end.

The other aspect I borrowed from Serious Eats was in the batter, though, instead of following the recommendation for using half water and half vodka, I took a chance with a beer batter. This was absolutely the right choice (I used about 3/4 of a Blue Moon) and it was delicious. After prepping and frying the Korean wings, I mixed a tablespoon of Moroccan spice rub, a tablespoon of sweet curry powder, and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper into the batter for the second half.



It took about a bottle and a half of mixed peanut and canola oils to fill my wok to acceptable frying levels. In the past, I have sometimes steamed the wings first to ensure that they cook completely. This year, I went with a slightly longer frying time (around 10-12 minutes) to get a nicely browned outside on the wings.


In the end, the Korean wings get tossed with a sweet and spicy gochuchang sauce and topped with toasted sesame seeds and green onions. The curry wings get an aggressive salting as soon as they're removed from the wok.

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Lets Lunch is a digital monthly meet up of food bloggers and writers.

Check out other posts from around the web here or on the hashtag #LetsLunch

Cheryl's Mongolian Buuz at A Tiger in the Kitchen

Annabelle's Idiazabal and Black Pepper Gougeres at Glass of Fancy

Grace's Taiwanese Beef Sliders at HapaMama

Jill's Spiced Pecans at Eating My Words

Karen's Sporting Eats at GeoFooding

Linda's Trio of Salsas from Oaxaca at Spicebox Travels

Lisa's Sausage Rolls at Monday Morning Cooking Club

Lucy's Crabcakes with Chipotle Mayo and Citrus Salad at A Cook and Her Books

Rashda's Finger Lickin’ Good Curried Ribs at Hot Curries & Cold Beer