Homemade Meals

Ever since living in Korea, I've been more inclined to cook at home. One reason is because there's not a lot of choices for food at 10pm at night. A second reason is because I enjoy cooking and cooking for two people is much more fun than one!

In this post, I'd like share some of the meals I've made that are in my circulation. I've separated them into breakfast and dinner. Lunch is usually leftovers so there's not much write about. 

Breakfast

Eggs in a variety of ways - scrambled, fried, sunny-side up, over-easy/medium, poached, hardboiled, with toast. It's simple to make in a variety of ways and you can add veggies if you make an omelet. 

Congee - about 1/2 cup of rice with 2 chicken bouillon cubes and 4 cups of water. I let it all boil in one pot - no need to stir. After it's boiled, I put in the pork or chicken and grate some carrots. When it boiled is when you can stir. Depending on how soft you want the grains to be, I usually cook it for about 30 min to 1 hour. The longer you cook it, the more water you'll have to add. Do not put a lid on it. After it's done, I take it off the stove and stir in two raw eggs one at a time. The egg cooks in the heat and creates a creamier texture. It's almost risotto like.

Dumplings - I put them single layered into a pan with a bit of oil and water and close the lid on medium heat. After a few minutes it'll have cooked the insides and then I turn up the heat so it'll pan fry the dumplings to make it crunchier. The dip is a mixture of soy sauce and sesame oil. I sometimes like to put in some hot sauce too. 

French toast - there are a few recipes and I can't seem to find the one I like. But it's usually a mixture of eggs, milk, cinnamon and vanilla. Soak the bread in the mixture and then put some butter in a pan and cook it on low heat. It's a shame that I can only do one at a time. And it is more time consuming so I don't do this that often. 

Other breakfast includes oatmeal, toast with peanut butter and nutella. 

Dinner

Fried rice - I always make some rice first in the rice cooker, about 1 and half cup of rice. You can make this with pretty much anything. I usually like to add cabbage, spam and corn. Sometimes I substitute the spam with ground pork. If using raw meat, I will cook that first then drain it and leave it in a bowl. Then I will steam some cabbage and corn in the pan with a lid on so it's cooked. Then I stir in the meat and add a bit of soy sauce. Finally I add the cooked rice and put some more soy sauce and stir it up. At this point, everything is cooked, it just needs to be mixed well together.

Tomato noodle soup - I like to quarter cherry tomatoes length wise, about a handful. Then let it boil in a pot with about 7 cups of water and 3 chicken bouillon cubes. Once it's cooked and the tomatoes are mushy, I'll put in some ground pork. I'll add in about a tablespoon of fish sauce.I like to use fusili noodles or rice noodles. I will either cook the noodle in soup over the stove or cook the noodles separately and the two together to serve. 

Shanghai noodle <recipe courtesy of Erica :)> I'll cut up the udon noodle package into four and boil them in hot water. I like to cook my meat separately to make sure it's cooked properly. So I'll cut up the pork into small bites and pan fry it until it's cooked through. Then drain it and leave it in a bowl. In the pan I'll put in sliced cabbage with enoki mushroom with some garlic powder and let it cook with a cover on. Once it's cooked, I'll open the lid and cook it until the water evaporates (or drained). Then I add in the meat and put some soy sauce in it. Next I add the udon noodles and put more soy sauce and oyster sauce. The portion of the sauce is to taste. I keep tasting it until it tastes just right. Also, I like to add beansprouts when I add the noodles. 

Udon in miso soup - I boil the udon noodle separately. The miso soup is an instant paste. I'll cook it over the stove in a pot and then add the udon noodle once they're done. I like to add some enoki mushrooms sometimes. This is pretty much a meatless dish. 

Pasta - I like to put pork or seafood (clams and shrimp) in the pasta. I also add some diced zucchini, spinach or whatever greens is available. I cook the meat first then the veggies and then add the pasta sauce. Sorry not from scratch but a jar. 

Curry - there are many kinds of curry powder and very simple to use. I usually cube some potatoes and carrots and boil them. I also cube the chicken and cook it separately. Once all is cooked, I put it in a big and deep pan and add some water and the curry powder. Leaving it on low, the sauce will thicken on its own and I can serve it over rice. 

Black bean sauce pork over rice (jajang sauce) - The sauce comes in a powder form. I usually put fatty
pork slices with cubed red and yellow peppers (sometimes zucchini) in it. Much like curry this goes well over rice. 

Chicken salad - This is lettuce, quartered cherry tomatoes and pan fried chicken slices with balsamic vinagrette. This is needed when we've been eating too much heavy food. It's nice and refreshing. 

Neil is a wonderful cook and usually he makes a meal once or twice a week and it's always delicious! He makes a mean roast pork with the most buttery mashed potatoes among other things. I'm a lucky girl :)

A day in the life of a hagwon teacher in Gwangju

(This is a post I've been meaning to write but haven't had the time)

We've been here for almost a year and things are finally going in a routine manner. We work 5 days a week with the weekends off. Working in a Hagwon (aka English Academy) means we work late. So here's a snapshot of a typical Monday morning.

Morning

Neil usually starts the day off by waking up anywhere between 8am and 9am and then heads to the gym that's a block away from us. I'd wake up and spend about half an hour to an hour on my ipad, catching up with the west coast and playing some games. Eventually I'll get up and wash the dishes (if it hasn't been washed the night before). If I hadn't packed lunch the night before I'd start prepping breakfast and lunch. By the time Neil gets back, breakfast is usually ready and lunch is cooling down. Typical breakfast includes dumplings, eggs and toast, congee or if I'm feeling fancy then french toast. On extremely lazy days Neil will have oatmeal and I'll have nutella and peanut butter on toast. Oh and we always have either coffee or tea in the morning that Neil makes. Our lunches are usually leftovers from the night before or I'll make something easy like fried rice. 

We'll watch a short Netflix TedTalk or episode of something funny while having breakfast. Then I'll usually take a shower first because it takes a lot longer for me to get ready in the morning. I'm usually still finishing my coffee or tea. By the time we're both ready - dressed and packed - we'll head out the door by 12:30pm. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, we have to get to work by 1:00pm. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, it's 2:00pm so we'll spend an extra hour watching tv or leave early to run an errand like pay bills or buy something. 

Afternoon

By the time we get to work, most of the other teachers are just trickling in as well. On Mondays, all the Korean teachers have a meeting so that usually runs from 12pm-ish to about 1:30pm. I usually begin my lesson planning. There are 8 classes in one day that are paired up into 4 blocks. Korean and Native teachers share half the classes and students are generally here for 2 hours. The first block is usually the youngest students ranging from 7 years old to 10 years old. We teach them course books - which are designated books with a set curriculum. There's a pattern to these and eventually you'll get the hang of them and it's fairly simple to teach. The next block are a bit older but still in Elementary school. But again, still course books with set curriculum. In the third block, we have the older students, either in the last few years of Elementary school or first year Middle school. Native teachers focus mainly on teaching reading and writing books. Reading two times a week and writing once a week. Our last block are the Middle school students. There tend to be less of those students and some teachers have more breaks at this time. Once students have graduated from Middle school they no longer come to us and goes to a different type of hagwon.

I digress. Mostly planning is a bit robotic. I have a notebook where I write down what I plan to do with the kids. Usually the first thing I do is check their homework then we review vocabulary. Depending on the type of lesson, we read or do an activity. I also note down what homework I'm assigning for the day. For my younger students, I always give them special stickers for homework and if they've done well in class, I'd give them a certain amount of the school stickers. They all have sticker books that they'll collect and claim a prize from the receptionist. 

After planning my lessons, it's about 2:30pm and Neil and I head to the break room and have our lunch. Most of the other native teachers also eat around this time so we all sit together and catch up. Shortly before 3:00pm we can hear kids running and talking in the lobby and know we'll have to get back to our desk soon because classes start at 3:00pm. After each block of classes, we'll get a 10 minute break, which is nice to give us time to sit down or use the bathroom. On Mondays I teach 7 classes and get to leave at around 9:00pm. 

Night

Since March, Neil and I both get off at 9:00pm on Mondays so we'll head home together. Depending on what we're eating for dinner, we sometimes stop by the grocery along the way to pick up stuff. After getting home, we'll put our stuff down and get out of our work clothes. I start prepping dinner. Usually dinner is ready in about an hour. I specifically choose easy meals so I don't have to spend so much time cooking so late. A typical dinner includes black bean pork over rice, chicken curry, tomato noodle soup, shanghai udon fried noodle, pasta, or a chicken salad. After eating we'll usually watch an episode of something on Netflix to relax and digest. Then we'll get ready for bed. While in bed, I'd play on my ipad some more and Neil would be on his phone reading. Then we'd call it a night and start the day all over again. :)