Mini Baby's breath Christmas tree from sis~ Christmas 2017 ♡

Lovely sis sent me lovely flower~ a mini white Christmas tree made with baby breath and cypress leaf~ love it so much! Always feels so blessed to have sis who know what I really love~♡ 

Korean Pork + Beef Patty Hamburger~ TteokGalbi Hamburger 떡갈비 햄버거

Lately, we have been eating McDonald's Samurai Beef Junior burger quite often so I start thinking of making our own since fast food is not so healthy. Then, I have this idea of making Tteokgalbi into hamburger after searching for recipe on how to make meat patty for burger. I just recently made Tteokgalbi as one of the dish for his birthday meal. Tteokgalbi 떡갈비 or grilled short rib patties is a Korean beef dish made with minced beef short ribs. It taste like beef burger patty and surprisingly pretty close to Samurai beef junior burger except Tteokgalbi taste slightly sweet due to the patty coating sauce. 

Ingredients:

Can Make 8 Meat Patties:

Minced Pork - 350g
Minced Beef - 250g

1/2 Medium Onion - Minced

3 Tbsp Minced Garlic

2 Tbsp Corn Starch

2 Tbsp Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp Mirin

1 Tbsp honey / Sugar

2 Tbsp Sesame Oil

Some Black Pepper

Coating Sauce:

1 tablespoon soya sauce

1 tablespoon mirin

1 tablespoon honey

For the make Burger

Burger buns

Butter

How to Cook:

Step 1. Add the minced pork, minced beef, minced onion, minced garlic, and the marinades (2 Tbsp corn starch, 2 Tbsp soy sauce, 2 Tbsp mirin, 2 Tbsp sesame oil, 1 Tbsp honey, and some peppers). Mix well and knead the meat mixture using your fist for 10-20 seconds.

Step 2. Place the meat mixture in a container with cover in the fridge for at least half an hour to one hour - to let the meat mixture marinate well.

Step 3. After half an hour, take out the meat mixture from fridge. Use a spoon to scope the marinate meat mixture and make it into ball shape by using palm. The meat ball shape is about half size bigger than the golf ball. 

Use your palm to press on the meat ball a little to make it into patty shape.

With the amount of the pork and beef above, it can make into 8 meat patties. 

Step 4. Get 2 burger buns, cut the bun into two (here I didn't cut and separate both sides instead I left some part of the bun attached). Melt some butter in heated pan and placed the buns (inner part) to toast it for 1 minute. 

Toast until the inner part of bun turn crispy. Remove from pan and set aside.

Step 5. Heat the pan with 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and start grilling the meat patty. I am making 2 burgers so I grill 2 patties for each burger here. Gently press the meat patty to flatten it a little while grilling it. The thickness of the patty should be around 2cm thick. Pan-grill the meat patty on medium fire for both sides until it is cook. 

Step 6. After both side of the meat patty is cook, brush the coating sauce that prepare earlier on both size of the patty. Continue to let it grill with coating sauce for 10 seconds more for each side, and the Tteokgalbi meat patty is ready! It is normal that the patty surface looks burn due to the coating sauce.

Step 7. While the patty is still hot, quickly place the cheese slice on it (so it will melt from the heat from patty). Remove it from pan, and placed it on the buns. 

Squeeze some mayonnaise on top of the patty, add some tomatoes slices and my Tteokgalbi burger is ready!

He loves the Tteokgalbi burger very much. The combination of 2 pork + beat meat patty is juicy and tender. The meat patty can be freeze and keep up to 3 months. Now I can made Tteokgalbi burger again whenever I feel like want to.

Korean Seasoned Spinach~ Sigeumchi Namul 시금치 나물

Today, I am sharing the Korean seasoned spinach that I always made as banchan. It is one of the most common banchan that will appear on Korean's table. Sigeumchi namul is normally made of blanched spinach seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, minced garlic and chopped spring onions. There are few types of spinach available and any type of it is alright to use for making Siguemchi namul, not necessary has to be Korean spinach. There are also other type of seasoned spinach side dish such as Sigeumchi namul with gochujang and Sigeumchi namul with mashed tofu that I made before. I will share those recipes next time when I make again.

Ingredients:

Spinach (about 300gram)

Cold or ice water

For the seasoning:

Soy sauce - 1.5 tablespoon 

Sesame oil - 1 tablespoon 

Sesame seeds - 1 teaspoon 

Minced garlic - 1-2 clove

Chopped spring onion - 1 stalk

How to cook:

Step 1

Wash and clean off the root, usually the whole plant can be eaten including stems and roots. However I gotten a Chinese spinach, so I need to separate the leaf from stems, then remove the outer layer of fiber on stems and discard only the root edge. 

Step 2

Bring the water to boil in a pot. Once the water is boiling, blanch the spinach until wilted. Usually took about a minute or less.

Step 3
Remove the spinach immediately and soak in cold water, rinse off the water and again soak the spinach in another round of cold water to make the spinach chill. 

Note: I use cold water from water purifier. If you don't have water purifier with cold water function, you may need to prepare the cold water ahead before cooking (if prefer) or just rinse it thru running tap water until it is cool down. 

Step 4
Gently squeeze out the excess water using your fist.

Step 5
In a bowl, prepare the seasoning~ 1.5 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, 1 teaspoon minced garlic, sesame seeds and chopped spring onion. Place the blanched spinach into the bowl and mix well. and it is ready to serve.

It can be store in fridge in airtight container for up to a day if not consume. We normally prefer make fresh and eat immediately. Beside eaten as a banchan (side dish), sigeumchi namul is use to make bibimbap too! You may also check my bibimbap recipe in the blog.

Last day in Busan~ Compose Coffee 컴포즈 커피

Last day in Busan. Early this morning, after sent off relatives to Gimhae Airport, instead of take taxi home, I suggest to take Busan Metro so I could take a glance of some the districts (outskirts of Busan) that I never visit before. Begin from Gimhae Airport, we first take the LRT where we able to see the view from train window for several numbers of station. Until we transit at Daejeo for Metro Line 3 and metro (train) started to go underground all the way until we reach Yeonsan metro station. 

After arrived Yeonsan station, I quickly grab my last a-coffee-a-day in Busan before head home. This is another 2,500 won caffe latte from another Busan coffee chain named Compose Coffee 컴포즈커피. Established around the same time as when cheap and affordable take-out coffee culture started in 2015. This branch that I get my compose coffee is in Yeonsan. Up to today they have around 150+ chains all over Korea and continue to expand. Can't believe a month long break in Busan end just in a blink of eyes. I am glad that I've been travelled a lot, see a lot and eat a lot again during this trip.

Texas street, Busan

In Choryang-dong, opposite the Busan Station, there is this "Texas Street" known as red light district, just one street away from Busan Chinatown. During the 1940-50s, this area was setup up as an entertainment area to cater the needs of Americans soldiers and foreign ship crews. During the day time, it seems like a normal commercial district that serve foreigners and foreign sailors. However, at night after shop closed, it turn into night life districts with nightclubs and hostess bars open. I was told that this area has a lot of local Busan Russian population, therefore the business are cater for the Russians as well. You may tell from the signboards as it has Russian word on it. Not recommended to visit Texas street alone at night, especially for ladies, since it is a "red-light district". However day time is fine to visit around just like what we did. As we are here on Monday, which is a common rest day for the Korean businesses. Majority of the shops are closed and not operating. Including Chinatown.

Second time visit~ Gamcheon Culture Village, Busan 감천문화마을

Our last 2 stops of go round Busan in 1 day is Gamcheon Culture Village. This is my second time visit here, 3 years ago I visited Gamcheon together with my family during our family trip to Korea. The village has changed a little compared to first visit. Those main attractions such as Prince and the Fox still remain the same. Just like 3 years ago's visit, this time also I didn't manage to go further explore every corner of the village. Still, I am happy to be back to Gamcheon again for the beautiful sea view from highest point of the village.