Pearl Barley with Korean Spring Greens + A Le Creuset Giveaway

My favorite food season has to be Spring, especially because it's the season of wild herbaceous Korean spring greens! They are called bom-namul (bom: spring, namul: wild plants) and are usually delightfully bitter and super nutritious. A lot of these are eaten raw and seasoned lightly with gochujang or soy based sauce, or they are added in a variety of soups and adds wonderful aromatic flavors to the dish like this stone pot rice!

Here's a little lesson to the greens I'm using in this dish. In the most left of the picture above of the bright leafy greens, is called minari (미나리) aka Korean watercress. It also looks and tastes similar to Chinese celery. It has a very crisp, fresh herby taste and is a popular side dish and ingredient in bibimbap. It's iron content is higher than spinach, calcium content more than milk and an excellent source of other minerals.

The middle of the picture you see greens that look like succulents is called dol-namul or dot-namul (돋나물). They grow on rocky soil and is really a leafy succulent that is very juicy and sweet. It has a very mild flavor so it is usually eaten raw and tossed into salads. In the small bowl at the right is a leafy vegetable called chwi-namul (취나물) that grows in the mountains and field. It has a heart-shaped serrated leaves that are sort of fuzzy and has a mild bitter and grassy flavor. If you've had perilla leaves, it's sort of like that, but more spinach mouth-feel. All these vegetables can be found in your local Korean supermarket. If not I've put some suggestions below for substitute vegetable you'll find anywhere.

I've been a long time fan of Le Creuset items and when I was given this Sakura Dutch Oven, I couldn't wait to do a spring time dish for it. I love doing rice dishes like this or pilaf in a dutch oven because the food inside the pot loses no moisture due to the heavy lid and everything gets surrounded and cooked in the steam that's created. This results in a locked in super flavorful dish and makes veggies very tender and rice extremely fluffy. This particular dutch oven I received is 4.5 qt and can make large portions enough for a family with lots of hungry children :)

I love cherry blossoms and was really sad that the weather was too cold for a really big bloom in the DC area. Although, nothing beats seeing them in Kyoto or Korea. It's absolutely beautiful there, but I'm glad I have this pot for some sakura admiring year-round!

If you'd like a Sakura Dutch Oven of your own, follow both @lecreuset and @misshangrypants on Instagram, tag two friends and comment what you'd make in this too.

Pearl Barley with Korean Spring Greens

makes 4-6 servings

1.5 cups pearl barley
1.5 cups short grain rice
3.5 cups konbu/dashima stock ** see steps for alternative

1.5 cups chwinamul (possible substitute - perilla leaves or swiss chard or spinach)
1 tsp sesame oil
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp garlic, minced

8 bella mushrooms, sliced (or morels)
1 bunch minari (aka Korean watercress or dropwort; possible substitute - Chinese celery)
2 cups dolnamul (possible substitute - wild chives, ramps or fiddleheads)

Sauce
2 red chilis, sliced finely
2 stalks green onion, diced
1/2 tbsp garlic, minced
5 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1.5 tsp roasted sesame seeds

1. Wash pearl barley and rice together in a large dutch oven (or pot) and then cover well with water and soak for 2 hours
2. To prepare konbu/dashima stock, simmer two pieces of 4x4" of dashima in 4 cups of water for 10 mins. Alternatively you can use 1:1 dilution of vegetable broth and water. Drain soaked barley rice and pour 3.5 cups of made stock. Bring to boil and simmer on medium heat for 10 minutes with lid on, then turn down heat to low for an additional 10 mins
3. Meanwhile prepare vegetables: for chwinamul, you may find this fresh in supermarkets or frozen. Don't get the dried version as that is usually made into a Korean banchan. Cut chwinamul into 1" length and blanch in hot water for 30-45s. Run under cold water to stop it cooking and squeeze all the water out. Then sauté and loosen with 1 tsp sesame oil, pinch of salt and 1/2 tsp of minced garlic for 3 minutes. Alternatively you could use swiss chard in the same manner! The rest of the vegetables just need to be washed and set aside. Cut minari into 1" length as well
4.  Once cooking time has reached 20mins, open lid and add sliced mushrooms and chwinamul right on top of the rice. Cover pot with lid again and let cook on low for another 10 mins
5. Switch off heat and let barley rice sit for 5 mins, then add cut minari and dolnamul and fluff rice while mixing vegetables gently
6. Mix all sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Serve rice hot with sauce on the side to mix in to taste

This post was sponsored by Le Creuset. I'm teaming up with them via CoactionPR to create awesome recipes. I was compensated for this post, but all opinions are completely my own and not endorsed. Thank you for supporting products that keep this blog running!

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Lemon Curd Creme Puffs with Matcha White Chocolate Ganache

I'm done with my surgery rotation and I finally have time to meddle in the kitchen! Even if I was waking up at 4am and sleeping 4 hours everyday, I'm going to miss the excitement of being in the operating room. Surgery has been hand downs my fav rotation and I got to work with so many amazing people (including an attending who may be reading this...but I only have high praises for him hahaha ;))

I can't believe I spent all of winter in the OR and it's almost spring! Here, I made some cream puffs filled with fluffy lemon curd cream and topped them off with matcha white chocolate ganache and edible flowers. Don't they just look like spring and sunshine?

Don't let the long list of instructions fool you! These are actually very simple to make. You can make the lemon curd cream the night before, so all you need to make are the puffs and matcha ganache the next day. If you have a kitchen aid mixer, making the dough will be a breeze. I have mixed the dough by hand before and I think that's why my right arm is twice the size of my left :P. Hope you guys are enjoying the warmer weather!

Lemon Curd Creme Puffs with Matcha White Chocolate Ganache

makes 20-25 mini creme puffs

Pâte à Choux (made here too!)
1 stick butter, cubed
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup flour
4 large eggs

Whipped Lemon Curd
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
juice of 1 large lemon and zest
pinch of salt
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp powdered sugar

Matcha White Chocolate Ganache
1-2 tsp matcha powder
1/4 cup white chocolate chips (I used ghirardelhi)
1/4 cup heavy cream

• Cream puffs: 

1. Preheat oven to 425 and line a large baking tray with parchment paper or a silicone mat
2.  In a medium sized pot, put in the butter, milk, water, sugar and salt. Place on medium-high heat and stir frequently. Once it has all melted and starts bubbling on the top, reduce the heat to low
3. Dump in the flour and stir with a heat proof spatula. It will start coming together and form a giant shiny yellow ball (less than 5 minutes)
4. Place the dough in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and stir slowly to cool for about 2 minutes. Crack 1 egg at a time and mix on low until it is thoroughly incorporated. Repeat with the other eggs. Now the dough will be smooth, yellow and thick.
5. Transfer into a pastry bag with a 1/2" tip. Pipe out 1.5" mounds on the prepared tray about 1 inch apart (they don't spread too much). Using a wet fingertip, smooth the top of each mound where you pulled the dough away from the tip so they don't burn in the oven. 
6. Place in the oven, reduce the temp to 350F after 1 min and bake until puffs are golden brown (~30-35mins). DON'T open door while baking or all the puffs will deflate! Once they come out, take a paring knife and poke a hole in the side to let the steam escape and transfer to a cooling rack.

• Lemon Curd (made the night before):

1. In a small pot, whisk egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest and its juice and salt. Heat on medium flame and continuously whisk until thickened slightly. Whisk in cornstarch and keep whisking until it is the consistency of greek yogurt (taste test here and add more sugar if needed). Take off heat and cool for a few minutes. Place saran wrap directly on the lemon curd surface and stick it in the refrigerator
2. In a clean and cold mixing bowl, whisk heavy cream and powdered sugar on high until stiff peaks form. Whisk in vanilla
3. Fold the now cold curd with the whipped cream. You don't have to use all the cream if you think it's too much. I put in 3/4 of it I think
4. Only pipe in the cream when you are about to eat/serve it, otherwise the puffs can get soggy.

• Matcha Ganache
• Stir matcha powder, chocolate chips and heavy cream in a small bowl. Microwave in 10 second bursts and stir. Mine was done in 14 ish seconds. I always have trouble with white chocolate seizing on me, so now I have chocolate PTSD and check every 5 seconds
• Drizzle this over lemon curd cream filled puffs and serve!

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Spring Bloom Cookie Wreaths

Hello Spring! It was an amazingly hot day yesterday in Richmond. I actually broke out into a sweat while walking up to school (sometimes my only exercise ever), and all the pretty pink flowers that bloomed in this one tree had just shriveled up from the heat and fallen off :\ I think it's going to be hot all weekend, which means I need to either get up earlier so I can walk at snail pace and avoid getting pit stains on my scrubs or refuse to raise my arms all day.

I think I was supposed to talk about the beauty of Spring and flowers, but somehow got onto the topic of sweating and pit stains (sorry!). It's also going to be mother's day this Sunday!! The day just reminds me of how expensive flower bouquets can be (and how much I love my mum :P). I think one of our pet peeves is receiving flowers. We'd much rather receive a dozen hamburgers or a cake (my mum says straight up cash please)... such romantics :\ So, I wish I could bake these lemony bright cookies for my mum instead of flowers and give her a humongous hug for being the best mum ever. Unfortunately, she is in LA and if she knows that I've been baking instead of studying, she'll have my head on a plate.

These cookies were inspired by winter holiday wreath cookies made by bon appetite (link below). I've gone an put a spring flair on them with dried flower petals I bought at a loose leaf tea store, poppy seeds and chopped nuts. They're just so pretty and motherly looking! I hope your mum loves them as much as I do!

Spring Bloom Cookie Wreaths
inspired by bonappetite

Cookie dough
1.5 stick butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs, room temp
zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla

2.5 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Toppings
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp milk
handful of dried strawberries, candied rose petals, dried petal tea herbs
handful of chopped almonds or pistachios
poppy seeds

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, lemon zest and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt and then knead the dough as it comes together.
2. Make a smooth ball with the dough, seran wrap and flatten slightly. Place in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight (if overnight, let it thaw a little before rolling)
3. Preheat oven to 400F. Generously flour your surface and rolling pin. Roll out cookie dough to 1/4" thick and cut out wreaths
4. Bake for 6-10 mins or until the edges slightly brown. Let them completely cool out of the oven
5. Whisk together in a small bowl, powdered sugar, lemon juice and milk. Dip cooled cookies face down into the icing and let the excess drip. Work quickly to decorate petals, poppy seeds nuts (whatever you like!) on the icing and pressing slightly to make sure it adheres
6. Let the icing completely dry (may take more than an hour) and serve. Keep remaining cookies in a airtight container and they will last for many days!

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Spring Greens Bibimbap

Hey, happy hump day! I'd like to be more excited about posting today, but today is phlebotomy day. Which means... some student is going to be sticking a needle in a non-existent vein in my anemic arm and sucking out a vial of my blood. Even a trained phlebotomists take a couple of tries and still leave a massive bruise. I'm just scared out of my mind, that all I will have left by the end of today is a stump where my arm is. Haha kidding... but so help me if someone does that "wriggling" motion to find the vein... [insert knife emoji]

Sorry... I didn't plan on talking about blood so early in my post, but that's all that is on my mind :P What I DO want to talk about is SPRING GREENS. Vegetables just taste so robust and vibrant, their flavors so bold and bright! So, I'm highlighting them today in a Korean bibimbap, which is a dish composed of mixed rice, greens and a hot spicy sauce (bibim = mix, bap = rice). Some bibimbaps are cold or hot, some served in stone pots, some entirely composed of vegetables or with meat and raw seafood. I grew up eating bibimbaps almost every week when it was refrigerator clean out days. We would get a bowl of hot rice, throw in just about anything from the fridge and mix it up with fried gochujang (Chili paste).

I promise that this recipe has a bit more finesse than my childhood kitchen sink bibimbaps. There are dandelion greens, spinach, radish, pea shoots and all things spring! And the secret is ALL IN THE SAUCE. Because this is somewhat of a cold/warm bibimbap, the bibim sauce is not what you will find in a typical bibimbap that people are used to in the US. But, it is very popular in Korea and especially my hometown (Busan), where we eat a lot of seafood bibimbaps. The sauce is zesty, tangy and slighty sweet and just makes this bibimbap work. You can even use it like a salad dressing!

SPRING GREENS BIBIMBAP
serves 4

Bibim sauce
1/4 small apple, grated
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp sugar or agave
1 tsp minced garlic
2 heaping tbsp Korean chili pepper paste (gochujang)

1 bunch dandelion greens (of red and green stemmed kinds)
handful of pea shoots
handful of alfalfa sprouts
5-6 radishes
1/2 carrot
1 bunch wild spinach
3-4 bowls of cooked short grain rice (white or brown)
4 fried eggs, sunny-side up
sesame oil
sesame seeds

1. Coarsely grate apple in a small sauce bowl. Squeeze in lemon juice, add vinegar, sugar, garlic and gochujang. Mix thoroughly, wrap and let the flavors come together in the fridge (best made day before)
2. Wash and cut dandelion greens into bite sized pieces. Julienne radishes and carrot
3. For the wild spinach, blanch in boiling water for 1 min. Rinse with cold water and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Loosen and marinate with a little sesame oil, sesame seeds and salt to taste
4. In a large bowl, place desired amount of just cooked hot piping rice and top with a sunny side up egg. Arrange all the veggies around the yolk
5. Drizzle a little bit of sesame oil, dollop a few generous tablespoons of the bibim sauce, and garnish with sesame seeds. Mix and enjoy!

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Raspberry pistachio sable

Hello from the Atlanta airport on my way back to Richmond! Ah, I'm not looking forward to school and starting to feel exhausted already haha. I really should have caught up on sleep, but I started reading this fantasy book series and once I start I can't stop (all nighters, reading on the can etc...). I've been trying to read everything non-medical before school starts! I've also been baking up a storm, and baking into the wee hours of the night. It's bad when you've been startling your family as they come downstairs and see a glowing oven and a pair of eyes in the darkness...oops)

I'm all about spring baking now and really starting to enjoy the warm weather. Actually, it's always warm and sunny weather in LA. I'm just leaving it and going back to Virginia D: Sorry, going back to school brings out the whining in me. I can't help it. I guess I'm just going to have to whine for the next 10 years of my life. haha...(?)

But, I'm super excited to see my friends, my bf and even grudgingly have to admit that I want to go back to a scheduled life. I get so antsy not doing anything and so so restless. I'm the worst couch potato and also the worst person you want to sit next to while watching anything, because I WILL ask numerous questions throughout the movie. I've been driving my mum up the wall while she watches her Korean dramas. "Where is the love triangle? Why is the female protagonist so helpless? Who is she in love with again? Why is the evil wealthy mother so cruel?" You know... the typical K-drama plots. I really only watch them to ogle at the actors hehe...

I leave you with this recipe inspired from a recent visit to a French pastry shop. I think I'm speaking for a lot of bakers out there, but there are times when you see an overpriced pastry and you think to yourself..."I could make that for a fraction of the cost". So I returned home, googled sables, consulted a few French cooking blogs, and got to baking. Here, Sables aka French buttery shortbread is covered in cool vanilla pastry cream, topped with fresh raspberries and studded with crushed pistachios. I recommend you make it (like, seriously) ;)


RASPBERRY PISTACHIO SABLE
makes two 6x3" sables
sable breton recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan

Sable breton
70g granulated white sugar
80g butter (~7tbsp)
pinch of salt
2 large egg yolks
zest of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
112g all purpose flour (~ 1 cup)
7.5g baking powder (~ tsp)

Pastry cream
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp flour
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream + 1 tbsp powdered sugar

honey
handful of shelled pistachios, chopped coarsely
6oz raspberries, washed and dried

1. Cream butter, salt and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, vanilla, lemon zest
2. Add flour and baking powder and mix with a spatula or wooden spoon until a soft dough forms
3. Press dough into tart molds, filling about half way up. Make an indentation in the middle so you have raised edges (I actually cut a generic cardboard box that holds 4 sticks of butter in half lengthwise and covered that with foil to make my molds! Yay for DIY!). Cover with Seran wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hrs or overnight
4. For the pastry cream: whisk in a very small pot all the ingredients except whipping cream. Heat and continue to whisk on medium heat until it becomes goopy. Wrap with seran wrap and cool to room temp. In a small bowl, whip heavy whipping cream with powdered sugar until stiff. Fold into cooled pastry cream, cover and put in the refrigerator
5. Preheat oven to 350F and bake sables for 15-20 mins or until the top is golden brown. Allow to cool completely
6. Spread honey on the raised edges of the sables and sprinkle coarsely chopped pistachio. Shake off excess. Spread a layer of pastry cream in the center and arrange raspberries on top 

*Best baked and eaten on the same day. Otherwise, cover and keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

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Whopper Stuffed Cupcakes with White Chocolate Glaze

I don't understand this Richmond weather. I thought it was supposed to warm up. But it is getting more cold and rainy. At least I don't suffer from allergies! The bf goes through entire kleenex boxes, his eyes are super puffy... and the sniffling!! It's killing me. HAHA kidding. Because he reads this, I need to be nice.  He pops his anti-histamines and now he squirts steroids up his nose. I'm always joking that he's going to become like A. Schwarzenegger with all those 'ROIDS.

Six more exams until summer! I can't wait to go back to LA. I think I'm going to try surfing again. Gosh, I really miss Costa Rica and the perfect surfing conditions. I'd love to go again, but I seriously came back looking like a monkey (far too tanned). I don't get a healthy golden glow like most. Just burned brown/sienna. Worst color evaarrr D:

Here are some cupcakes I made for my friends birthday. These are incredibly moist and keeps that way for a few days. You can substitute with any candy you like!

Whopper Stuffed Cupcakes with White Chocolate Glaze

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