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

Chicken Cubes with Pears from China

 Chicken in cubes with Pears is a typical dish from Yunnan, a province in southwest China.

Legend has it that in 1657, Li Dingguo, who was named Prince of Jin for his services to the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, fled to the city of Kunming (in Yunnan) to escape the attack of Qing troops. There, a peasant woman learned of Li Dingguo's arrival and wanted to make him a delicious dish. She killed her best chicken, diced the meat, and to enhance the flavour, she also diced some pears. The prince liked the dish so much that it became a traditional dish of the region since then.

It is a fairly simple dish to prepare, and the combination with pears and hamprovides the typical umami flavor of Asian cuisine, easily ending up in a spectacular dish.

Yunan

Ingredients:

- 250 gr. chicken breast.

- 1 beaten egg.

- 30 gr. cornstarch.

- 150 gr. pears.

- 50 gr. ham.

- Chives.

- Ginger.

- A dash of sesame oil.

- Lemon.

Method:

1- Beat the egg, add cornstarch and mix well.

2- Cut the breast chicken into 1 and a half cm thick cubes, add the chicken to the bowl where you have the egg, mix well and let stand for 15 minutes.

3- Meanwhile peel and cut the pears into cubes the same size as the chicken breast, add a dash of lemon to prevent it from oxidating.

4- Put the chicken breast in a strainer, let the excess of egg pour in a dish under the strainer.

5- Take a Wok, pour some oil, fry the chicken for some minutes until you see the color begins to change, add the pear and cook for half a minute, take everything out and put it in a striner to get rid of the excess of oil.

6- Fry half of the chives and the ginger for 1 minute, add the ham and cook for 1 more minute, add the chicken and pear, mix well and cook for 1 more minute.

7- Now put on a dish, sprinkle the rest of the chives over the chicken and a dash of sesame oil.

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

Receta en Español

China

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Fried rice with SPAM

 Nauru is a country in Oceania, this country needs to import most of the vegetables, fruits and meat because the island only has 21 Km and the land is not capable of grow vegetables, no need to say, there is no space to have cattle.

Vegetables arrive frozen and the meat is canned!. One way to eat meat is the popular 'SPAM' , it is a mixture of different parts of pork meat.

One of the typical dishes is fried rice with 'SPAM' , omelette and frozen vegetables. It is a dish imported from China due to the great quantity of chinese inmigrants.

Ingredients:

- 2 eggs.
- Rice.
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil.
- Salt.
- 1/4 tablespoon pepper.
- SPAM
- Frozen vegetable.
- 1/2 tablespoon fish sauce.
- 1/4 tablespoon de sesame oil.
- 1 tablespoon and a half soy sauce.
- 2 clove of garlic.

Method:

1- Wash the rice and cook it at high heat adding double quantity of water and salt. Once it reaches boiling point put it on a low heat, cover and cook for 15-20 minutes. Let stand while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2- whisk the eggs.

3- Pour some coconut oil in a frying pan, heat the oil and add the egg , make the omelette cooking 2 or 3 minutes every side.

4- Cut garlic and  SPAM in little pieces.

5- Put the remaining coconut oil in a casserole, sautée the garlic and   SPAM for 3-4 minutes.

6 - Cook the frozen vegetables in water with salt, once it reaches boiling point put on a low heat and cook for 15 minutes.

7 - Add the vegetables with the SPAM, stir and cook for 2 minutes.

8 - Add rice and stir well.

9- Add pepper, fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and cook for 2 more minutes.

10- Add the omelette that you have cut in little pieces.

Receta en Español

You have the recipe on Youtube:

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

Nauru