Korean cooking

On our last weekend abroad, I bought about 7 new cookbooks. I can't help it, but there's something about cookbooks that makes me happy. I like to stroll around cook shops, pick up some cookbooks and loose track of time. I forget about the rest, when I'm going through those books. They make my mind go mad and brilliant ideas sprout from what the pictures tell me.

I'm a creative cook and I like to try out foreign cuisine. For the first time, I bought myself a Korean cookbook. I had never eaten Korean food before, but it sure looked very appealing to me. Some ingredients I already had in my pantry, because every now and then I look to cook Thai food. While shopping around Aalst, I ran into a small Asian supermarket. Great! Just what I was looking for! I got the final ingredients for my new recipes and I rushed home to prepare my first Korean dish.

I like the freshness and the tang of Asian food. Plenty of crispy vegetables, lovely spices and healthy components make excellent dishes. One of my favorites was a beef stock filled with meaty oyster mushrooms and bean sprouts. Let me share the recipe with you! My guest the other night was pretty excited about this stir-fry, so I'll make it again!

What do we need:

• 500 ml of beef stock
• 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
• 2 eggs, beaten
• oil
• 4 oyster mushrooms, cut down in strips
• toasted sesame oil
• 1/2 zucchini, shredded
• 1/2 broccoli, cut up
• 100 grams of Asian noodles or a package of bean sprouts (depends on how many carbs you want to eat)
• 3 spring onions, chopped diagonally
• 1 red chilli, chopped finely
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• salt and pepper
• toasted sesame seeds

what do we do:

• Add the soy sauce to the stock and set the pan aside.
• Make an omelette out of the eggs and cook it on both sides. Don't forget to season with salt and pepper. Roll up the omelette and slice it.
• Bake the strips of oyster mushroom in a small amount of oil. Sprinkle some sesame oil over the mushrooms and set them aside.
• Stir-fry the zucchini and set them aside.
• Stir-fry the broccoli and set it aside.
• Cook the noodles and drain them.
• Heat the stock and add the bean sprouts, if you're having those instead of the noodles. Season the stock with garlic and chilli.
• Divide the noodles (or the bean sprouts) over 2 bowls. Top with the mushrooms, zucchini, broccoli and omelette.
• Pour the stock over the veggies and top with spring onions and toasted sesame seeds.

I like my Korean soup with some extra zing: sambal oelek! Absolutely perfect for this dish. I wouldn't have a problem adding beef or shrimp or tahoe or substituting the bean sprouts for Chinese glass noodles.