Kongnamool Moochim
I’ve been trying not to let fruits and vegetables compost in the bottom of the fridge anymore. It’s often difficult to buy variety that two humans with reasonable appetite can consume before they go bad. The item that I have the most difficulty with are bean sprouts. We generally go through about half a bag before they liquefy. This time I was determined to eat them all in a manner that wasn’t stir fry or bibimbap (how we normally consume them). With a simple google search of bean sprouts recipe I discovered Kongnamool Moochim – Seasoned Bean Sprouts – (ok i give up the korean isn’t encoding properly) a very simple dish that I served with rice– not quite the 100% traditional serving style but one that worked quite well for our dinner. (one example recipe can be found here). I made mine spicier than E’s, and it was good. However, the experience made me pause, why had I not checked google before? Or even more disturbing, this simple recipe appears in my vegetarian korean cookbook. Why had I not thought to look there? Why did I rely on google when I have many different cookbooks? (please don’t answer that, but I have the feeling I’m not the only one to behave in this manner)
Food thought for the week: what surprisingly simple way have you found to use up ingredients?
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Clean-out-the-refrigerator soup is a classic for me. I use a broth base and add any veggies that are on the verge of turning, as well as beans or pasta or whatever I have around.
Last night I roasted a ton of carrots and broccoli that languished in the fridge. Yum!
in Japan, you can find a bag of mixed sprout and vegetabes (mostly sprouts) that my sister claims is the japanese equivient of sloppy joe’s (quick, cheap, love by children)–
its is mostly sprouts, with some cabbage, onion, carrot. (1 onion, about the same amount of cabbage-and perhaps 1 medium carrot shredded) stir fried and then steamed for just a minute or two. (add some liquid after a stir fry) –the classic is miso, but spicy sauce is is some times used..
(my sister used “red dog sauce”‘ as well as miso–red dog is a ketchup like condiment–only its spicier (it sort of taste like A-one steak sause/ketchup combined)
(its also common to add small amount(1 to 2 ounces)of meat (or tofu, or a single egg, or.. ) and to stir fry the protein first, then the veggies, then add sauce and serve with rice.
it sounds simple –but it is good–and taste better than it sounds!
One of our troubles is celery. I love it for soups and chicken salad. However we can’t seem to eat a whole bundle of it. Then I figured out we can buy celery a stalk or two at a time. I can buy just what we need for the week and then not worry about the rest of it turning to mush. It’s all by the pound so it ends up saving us money too.