Yakbap- Yaksik or medicinal rice from Korea

Yakbap is a traditional Korean dessert, enjoyed in both North and South Korea.

“Yak” means medicine and “bap” means rice, so the name literally translates to “medicinal rice” because it is made with very healthy ingredients.

It is also called Yaksik or "medicinal meal".

It is sweetened with honey or brown sugar and includes a mix of highly nutritious nuts along with glutinous rice. Among the nuts, chestnuts, pine nuts, walnuts, the jujube (also known as Chinese dates) are essential, as they have strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

When eaten cold, glutinous rice contains a high amount of resistant starch, which helps nourish our gut microbiota.

It is traditionally eaten during the lunar festival Jeongwol Daeboreum (정월대보름), which coincides with the first full moon of the lunar year.

Ingredients:

• 500 grams of glutinous rice

• 200 grams of jujube (Chinese red dates)

• 40 grams of walnuts

• 40 grams of raisins

• 40 grams of pine nuts

• 100 grams of chestnuts

• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

• 285 ml of jujube seed tea

• 180 grams of brown sugar

• 1 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce

• 1 1/2 tablespoons of sesame oil

• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Method:

1- Wash the glutinous rice and soak it in water for 5 to 6 hours.

2- Make a cut in the shell of the chestnuts and boil them in salted water for 40 minutes.

3- Soak the jujubes (Chinese red dates) for 10 minutes.
Jujube is a Chinese date that you can buy in Asian grocery stores.

4- Once hydrated, remove the pits from the jujubes and cut them into pieces. Do not discard the pits—we’ll use them to make jujube tea. Place the pits in 500 ml of water, bring it to a boil, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Once the water has a golden-brown color, strain it, and your tea is ready.

5- Peel the chestnuts and cut them into small pieces. Set them aside separately from the rest of the nuts, as they will be added to the mixture later. Also chop the walnuts into small pieces.

6- Add 450 ml of water and 130 grams of brown sugar In a pressure cooker , heat it slightly until the sugar dissolves.

7- Add the rice, jujubes, raisins, pine nuts, and walnuts (all the nuts except the chestnuts) to the pressure cooker. Add a pinch of salt, the soy sauce, sesame oil, and cinnamon, and mix everything well.

Add jujube tea just until everything is covered. Cook on high heat until steam starts to come out of the valve; at that point, reduce the heat to low and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool until all the pressure is released, then you can open it.

8- Spread some sesame oil on a tray and place the cooked rice on it. This is the moment to add the chestnuts, then mix everything well.

Spread the rice evenly and press down the surface so it becomes slightly compact. Cover with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for at least one hour—though the longer it rests, the better.

9- Run a knife through the rice making vertical and horizontal lines to form small squares. These glutinous rice squares can be wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in the refrigerator for a healthy snack whenever you like.

Take them out and microwave for a couple of minutes to defrost, and they’re ready to eat.

Receta en Español

You can also watch the recipe at my Youtube Channel:

Here you have my  favourite cooking tools: https://viaja-en-mi-cocina-english.blogspot.com/2023/05/shop.html

North Korea

Koupas from Cyprus

                                                                                Receta en Español

Koupas are a kind of 'croquettes' very typical from Cyprus and Greece. They are also known als Kibe or kibbeh at Libano, they are made using bulgur, it is, wheat that they let dry after cooked.

You can find bulgur in different sizes; whole, half grain or thin , you must use this last one to prepare the koupas.

The filling of the koupas is also very important, you must use ground pork or beef.

This recipe shows the influence of Middle East into the Greek and Cypriot cuisine, at the same time, is shows the culture of these countries because they use pork meat, something that Middle East people would not dare.

Ingredients for the dough:

- 300 grams bulgur.
- 525 ml water.

- 80 grams flour.

- Salt.

- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.

- 1/2 teaspoon white pepper.

Ingredients for the filling:

- 400 grams ground pork or beef.

- Olive oil.

- 1 finely chopped onion.

- 2 tablespoon mint.

- 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon.

- 1/2 teaspoon cumin.

- 2 tablespoon pine nuts.

- Salt.

- Black pepper.

- Parsley.

Method:

1- This is the  bulgur that we are gooing to use:

2- We first prepare the dough, put the bulgur and salt in a bowl, add flour, cinnamon and white pepper, mix well and add boiling water, stir and let stand for 2 hours until all the water has been absorbed. To let stand you should cover it with cling film.

3- For the filling, first toast pine nuts.

4- Chop the onion and sauté it.

5- Add the meat and stir well, then cook until the meat has changed its colour. Add pine nuts, parseley, mint, cumin, cinnamon, salt and black pepper. Stir well and cook for more few minutes.

6- Soak your hands in water to prevent the bulgur to stick to your hands, take some bulgur and put it on your hand palm, smash it:

7- Place a little portion of meat over the bulgur.

8- Take other portion of wheat to cover the meat, use your hands to help you to wrap all the meat, and make koupas the same shape you see at the following pictures:

9- Fry koupas in hot oil until they change its colour to slightly brown. Place them on paper towel to absorb the excess of oil.

10 - Serve them with some parseley.

Where to find the ingredients

You can find bulgur near Madrid mosque, at Antonio Calvo street. El Carmen metro station.

Cheese Kadaif

                                                                               Receta en Español

I already have made a dessert with Kadaif to present Albania: Nuts Kadaif , the same dessert can be eaten in Armenia, it is delicious, but in Armenia they also make cheese kadaif.

This dessert is also called Kunafa.

Ingredients:

• 340 grams of butter.
• 500 grams Kadaif.
• 400 grams fresh mozzarella cheese.
• 80 grams goat cheese.
• 400 grams sugar.
• 1/2 liter water.
• 1 sachet vanilla sugar.
• A splash of lemon juice.
• Pine nuts or other kind of nuts.

Method:

1-  Extend Kadaif for 2 hours to make it get dry ,turn it on the other side and let it dry for another 2 hours.

2-  Spread half of the Kadaif on an oven proof dish, if Kadaif is very long you can cut it.

3- Prepare ghee, it is clarified butter. It is important to make this clarification to prevent butter to get burnt into the oven , given that the white part of the butter is the part that gets the higher temperature.

Heat butter , once it is liquid , turn the fire off. Take a spoon, and get rid of the white part of the butter that remains on the upper side.

4- Pour half of the liquid butter all over the surface of the Kadaif.  

5- Cut both cheeses into slices and put them over the Kadaif , building some layers.



6-  Spread the rest of Kadaif.

7-  Pour the remaining butter.

8- Preheat oven at 200 ºC. Cook in oven for 25 minutes until it gets brown. Let it cool.

For syrup:

9 - Take a pan, combine sugar, water, vanilla and a dash of lemon, bring it to a boil. Stir until sugar is well dissolved. It should take 30 minutes. Then turn off the heat and pour the cold water.

10 - Once Kataifi is cold, pour Syrup over it. Sprinkle pine nuts and let it cool at least 1 hour to let the syrup dry. The more you wait the more delicious it will be. Then cut in pieces and serve.

Where to buy Kataifi in Madrid

You can buy Kataifi near Madrid mosque, at Antonio Calvo street , I bought it at 'El Hogar'.

My Comments to the recipe:

When I made Nuts Kadaif I noted that I should pour all the syrup and the taste of the dessert is marvellous 24 hours after it has absorbed all the syrup.
In this case, it is not the same because cheese doesn't allow Kadaif to absorb the syrup, it is better to eat it when still hot.



Armenia