제육볶음 Jeyookbokeum or Spicy Stir-fried Pork used to be one of my favorite Korean dishes because of the sweet and spicy sauce it has. I made my Spicy Chicken in Tweaked Jeyookbokeum sauce because I was craving for it.
Yes, I, too, used to eat pork and other red meat. I've changed my diet since because I was having the same symptoms my mother had before aneurysm took her away from us. My mom couldn't cook - so now you see why I never believed my father when he used to say we have to learn how to cook because our future husband may give us back to them. He's kept my no - cooking skill loving mother.
It wasn't just the red meat that must have caused my Mom's early death. At 45, my Mom was stressed out after losing her job and having to live a... way~~ different lifestyle she wasn't used to. Nineteen years and 5 days ago, she had a severe headache and probably - a high blood pressure, that's according to my dad's story. I wasn't there because I was already living my own life trying to be independent at 19. Two days later, she vomited blood and though my father insisted to take her to the hospital - strong head as I am (who do you think did I take after?), she slept on it and didn't wake up the next morning.
When I turned 28, I went through quite a lot and I have noticed that I was having the same symptoms she did, I kept track of what I ate during those weeks and the stress level I was having then and found the blame on red meat. During those days that I ate red meat, I was irritable, had headaches, aching neck that felt like the vein on my neck were being stretched - it hurt. I was 54 kilos compared to my usual 48 kilo - ideal weight. The weight didn't bother me, the health issues do, my heart would sometimes feel like its being ripped and though I was very sporty and active even then, I had a fat heart.
If you have been in my country, then you know how ... either - very oily, salty, sweet and tasty most of our dishes are. Scared and living alone I've decided to switch to just white meat and veggies and less deep - fried viand. I stopped eating out and avoided fast food as much as possible and it did not just saved me more money but I also lost weight without going on a diet nor skipping a meal, I felt much lighter and my heart aches were off and my being irritable was gone. I've made more switches and more changes on my diet - reading and attending health seminars without the willingness to automatically get convinced because in my opinion, each of us have our own body needs so don't get me wrong, I am not writing stuff here to convince you to make a switch. I am writing to share what I have experienced and what worked and still works for me.
Okay, how on earth did we end up on that long story? Well, just because I have stopped eating what I used to eat doesn't mean - I don't crave them anymore. The smell of bacon still arouses my palate so do ham and galbi - and sometimes, during those days of the month - Jeyookbokeum.
The advantage about knowing how to cook or making your own food is that - you can always tweak or alter the ingredients and still satisfy that craving palate. I have cooked chicken in my also tweaked Jeyookbokeum sauce.
Here are the ingredients of my Spicy Chicken in Tweaked Jeyookbokeum sauce.
Yes, i have tweaked the sauce and mostly all of the ingredients. The Koreans use Gochujang or chili paste to make the sauce and here's a peek of what's in it..
Here's how to cook it:
Let the dried shiitake mushroom soak for half an hour.
Clean and wash the chicken and the vegetables while those shiitakes are having a swim.
Marinade the chicken while waiting for the shiitake to soak.
Mix all the chicken marinade ingredients altogether in one bowl.
Poke the chicken drumsticks with a fork to make sure it absorbs the taste. I've learned this technique from my nana.
Marinate the chicken on the sauce for half an hour.
Work on the vegetables next.
Slice the carrots in thin slices. I did mine diagonally but - slice yours however you want to.
Do the same to the sweet pepper. Discard the seeds or clean and dry them up and replant for next spring.
Once the shiitake has soaked enough and re-hydrated, slice them, too into thin slices.
Set aside.
Once the chicken has marinated enough, heat up a tablespoon olive oil in the pan.
Throw in the chicken and let simmer on medium heat for how ever many minutes it says it would take to cook in the package. Mine says, 30 minutes.
Seven minutes before the chicken cooks, add in the carrots, shiitake and kimchi.
Two minutes before the chicken's all cooked - add in the slices of sweet pepper.
Serve and eat warm with any vegetable you like. This was dinner but I couldn't help but have a cup of rice then, it just goes perfectly with rice.
BREAKING NEWS:
Two days after the first walnut germinated, sprouted two other baby walnuts at the same time.
In as short as two days, they are rapidly growing but I will have to wait till the other two manages to breakthrough the top layer of sand in the pot. Although I am not expecting two more walnuts to breakthrough, I am hopeful because a day before the first baby walnut plant peered out of the sand, I saw 5 dark spots and cracked sand tops on each spot.
Since, three have already managed to germinate, I therefore conclude that the method I followed and wrote about on growing walnuts from seeds in this post - is effective.
Have you also grown yours? How's it going then?
The winners of the Steemit Culinary Challenge #2 shall soon be announced.
I took all of these pictures with my Samsung Galaxy A3 2016 edition and made my own gif at makeagif.com
I took all of these pictures with my Samsung Galaxy A3 2016 edition and made my own gif at makeagif.com