Olympics, 이해, and More Delicious North Korean Food

Like Christmas Truce in World War I, the recent Olympics allowed for a temporary warming of relations between north and south Korea, between people still locked in a conflict that is decades old. To incorporate these events into the blog, I decided to cook up some more North Korean food, and headed off to the North Korean food website to peruse recipes. What the site tells us is about the food culture of the northern peninsula, before partition and war, and even before (or during) Japanese occupation. It also sheds some light on what the elite and prosperous of the north – those who are not starving – might eat today. I settled on some steamed venison meatballs with mushrooms served up with some stir fried baby bok cabbage.

Venison Meatballs with Mushrooms North Korean Style
(Adapted by Laura Kelley from North Korean food website)

Ingredients

Meatballs
1.3 pounds ground venison
6 ounces mushrooms, minced
4 ounces rice bran
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
1/4 teaspoon black pepper powder
1 teaspoon tangerine/ orange peel

Sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon green onions
2 teaspoons garlic
1 cup Korean soup broth
2 teaspoons Korean red pepper powder
1 teaspoon potato starch (corn starch is an acceptable substitute)

Serve with
Stir fried Baby Bok cabbage
Rice
Favorite Banchan

Directions
Prepare the bamboo steamer for use by soaking or running under cool water to hydrate the wood fibers. Knead meatball ingredients together while you wait.

Knead venison with mushrooms and other ingredients until the spices and distributed evenly throughout the mixture. Roll into medium to large meatballs, place on a plate and chill until ready to cook.

Make sauce by heating the sesame oil in a small sauce pan or wok. When starting to smoke add green onions and stir fry for 1 minute, then add garlic and stirfry for another minute. Add Korean red pepper powder and stir together. Now add soup broth and stir until warm. Cook on low heat for 10 minutes. If desired, thicken with potato starch or corn starch.

Fill wok part of the way with water, and heat. When water starts to boil, place steamer in wok so tht it sits above the water line to steam the meatballs. Place meatballs in a single layer and steam about 5 minutes per side

While steaming the meatballs, you can stir fry the cabbage. I elected a simple stir fry with a bit of sesame oil, onion, garlic, fish sauce and soy, and it was delicious.

The original recipe (ingredients and directions) is below:

사슴고기버섯완자찜

[기본음식감]사슴고기 600g, 버섯 150g[보조음식감]료리배추 200g, 비게 100g, 깨소금 5g, 고추 10g, 간장 10g, 후추가루 0.5g, 참기름 5g, 귤껍질 5g, 닭알 2알, 파 20g, 감자농마 5g, 마늘 10g, 국물 100g

1. 사슴고기는 갈아 잘게 썬 비게와 버섯, 다진 파, 참기름, 간장, 깨소금, 후추가루, 귤껍질가루를 두고 반죽하여 완자를 빚는다. 2. 국물에 잘게 썬 고추, 간장, 깨소금, 후추가루, 다진 파와 마늘, 감자농마를 두고 양념즙을 만든다. 3. 완자에 닭알물을 발라 잘게 썬 버섯을 묻히고 쪄서 접시에 담고 즙을 친 다음 료리배추볶음을 옆에 놓는다.

__________

The original recipe was a bit confusing, ingredients were listed once and used twice without any statement of amounts being split; there was no salt listed in the recipe (I added some to the meatballs); and try as I might, I couldn’t score rice bran at any of the local Asian markets, and had to settle for Panko crimbs instead. I translated and interpreted it the best I could.

__________

The meatballs tasted great! The venison was a different flavor, but not at all too gamey for a recipe using ground meat. The cabbage was also good and the two go great together with a little rice in between. The meatballs were a little dense from a textural point of view. The panko didn’t “cut” the meat the way rice bran or western breadcrumbs would have, so the leanness of the venison was apparent. The sauce was welcome for its moisture, but didn’t add much in terms of flavor. It was a bit spicy and could have used another flavor, other than the broth – perhaps more tangerine peel? I think that would have been great. I cooked a Chinese eel recipe a couple of years ago that had a wonderful tangerine-peel flavored savory sauce. I think this would have worked nicely with these meatballs.

All in all, cooking North Korean recipes off of their own website is an interesting cultural exploration, and one that I intend to continue periodically on Silk Road Gourmet. For past looks at North Korean food, follwo these links for venison tenderloin, and NK kimchi.

(Recipe translation and interpretation by Laura Kelley, Words and photos by Laura Kelley.)

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