<st two years have been a great pleasure to write Cooking for Carls for the Carletonian. From interviewing Carls for personal stories with food to introducing various ethnic cuisines and food traditions, I have learned a lot and enjoyed the process greatly.
I strongly believe that food tastes best when shared with others. I also hope that sharing food stories will provoke the similar joy and reveal interesting aspects of people and community. The Carletonian is looking for the next writer who will continue this food column.
For my last column, I would like to share a Korean food recipe. The past seven years in the United State, throughout my high school and college, undoubtedly I missed Korean food a great deal. What I missed is not just food, but the memories of my family and Korean identity. One winter break, after another academically challenging term at Carleton, I headed to San Francisco to find some safe and cozy space in my older sister’s house. Saera, being always the caring and motherly figure, greeted me with not only warm hugs but also with lots of Korean food for my tired body and soul.
From extra spicy kimchi soup, to potato pancake, steamed dungeness crabs, and braised short ribs (gal bi jim), I had a several days of feast. I was grateful for having Korean food which is quite rare in Northfield and for her love transformed into delicious dishes. The food was exceptionally tasty and we had to call our parents in Korea to inform them about it. The greatest success was with the Korean style braised short rib dish, called gal bi jim. This is one of the widely enjoyed traditional dishes and always shows up at every important family gatherings and holidays. While my sister’s first attempt turned out to be quite good, we still agreed that my mother’s is the best. So we specifically requested over the phone, “Mom, the first thing we want to eat when we go back is gal bi jim. A lot of it.” And the next week, I found two big pots of gal bi jim, when I arrived at home.
Korean Braised Short Ribs (Serves 6)
Ingredients:
5 lbs. beef shortribs, cut into serving pieces about 3-4 inches square
4 tbsp. sugar
3 tbsp. sesame oil
1 ½ cup soy sauce (Oriental soy, not American brand)
3 green onions
5 cloves garlic
pinch of pepper
5 carrot
15 chestnuts
6 mushrooms
3 cups water
2 tbsp. pine nuts
1 egg, prepared and shredded for decoration
Directions:
1. In a large pot, combine all of the above ingredients along with 3 cups of water and bring to a boil. (Don’t worry if all the ingredients aren’t covered by liquid, it will be as it cooks.)
2. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes until meat has shrunken away from the bone, but isn’t falling off. Stir occasionally. (This cut of beef is already very tender and does not require long simmering.)
3. Serve while hot in shallow bowls with short sushi rice, so the rice soaks up some of the delicious sauce.