Cooking, recipes 13 and 14 and Tuesday Tip

Not that this is particularly surprising, but I've noticed that since I've started cooking at home more and we've been eating out less, we're spending less on food!  Magic!  I'm liking this new trick.  Hopefully, I can keep this up -- the slightly reduced rate of cooking is working better for me, and after April, I'll try to stick to a similar pattern, though with maybe slightly bigger dishes (which is easy for me) and slightly fewer cooking days.

Anyways, we got potatoes at the CSA a few weeks ago, and last week there was green garlic, and I stumbled upon this recipe for Korean-style pancake potatoes and there we were.  I ended up modifying it quite a bit based on what I had in the fridge and through looking at other recipes, but I thought I should start giving credit to recipes I get online.  Anyways, besides the potatoes, the fridge is overrun with greens, and the pancakes needed a side, so I made a simple side dish of greens and porcini with lemon and soy sauce.

Korean Potato Pancakes

1 lb waxy potatoes  (I used La Soda red potatoes.)
1 head of green garlic (I used 2, and it was overkill.  Mu and I both enjoyed it, but I'm not sure others would)
a scallion or some chives or green onion, if you want (I didn't have any and it was fine)
1 egg
salt to taste (though the dipping sauce is plenty salty)
chili pepper (optional, but nice -- I used about a teaspoon of the stuff I ground up the other day)
neutral oil for frying

Dipping Sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
splash of lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar

Greens and mushrooms
Bunch of greens (I used a bag of kale and a bunch of chard...not sure how much that actually was)
A handful of dried porcini
Soy sauce
lemon juice from 1/2 - 1 juicy lemon
splash of sesame oil
neutral oil
ginger to taste (I just used the kind from a spice jar because I was too lazy)
Penzey's Bangkok blend (optional, you can probably use plain chili or nothing at all)

Pancakes, cooking

Start the greens first, since they can take a while to soften, and they also can sit around while the potato pancakes finish.  Put the dried porcini in a bowl of hot water to soak.  Cut up the chard and kale (I didn't cut my kale and wish I had) into manageable chunks.  Heat some olive oil on medium high heat and add the greens, in batches if necessary.  Once they've started cooking down, about 5 minutes, add the porcinis and their soaking liquid.   Add a splash of sesame oil, some soy sauce, about half a lemon worth of juice, and about a cup of water.  Lower heat to medium, cover, and let cook until the greens are soft, about 20 minutes.

Pancakes and a lady :)

Greens and porcini after the liquid is gone

In the meantime, peel and grate the potatoes using the small holes on a box grater (I had Mu to help with this part, which was really nice). Using a fine strainer or cheese cloth, drain the potatoes into a bowl.  Let the potato liquid sit until the water separates from the starch.  Carefully drain the water, leaving the starch behind.  Finely chop your garlic.  Combine grated potato, garlic, starch, an egg, salt, and chili powder and stir well so everything is distributed.  Heat about a spoon of oil over medium heat.  Once it's hot, add a tablespoon of the potato mixture, then shape into a flat-ish circular pancake.  I did 5 at a time, that's how much space my pan had.  Cook until the bottom is crispy and golden, about 3 minutes.  Flip and do the other side until it's brown.

While you're cooking the pancakes (or, most likely, before you put the first batch on), check on the greens.  Once they're soft, uncover them, add ginger and Bangkok blend, adjust soy sauce and lemon to taste, and allow to cook uncovered until the liquid boils away (I ended up having to drain some).  Also between pancake batches, make the dipping sauce by combining all the ingredients.

Serve hot, especially the pancakes!

Pancakes and greens and a bowl of dipping sauce to share

Recipe summary
Time: About 45 minutes, mostly hands-on.  Mu helped with peeling and grating the potatoes, which probably saved about 10-15 minutes.
Serves: Greens turned out to have 5 servings, and there were a total of 10 pancakes.
Highlights/thoughts: I wasn't sure I could achieve a "Korean" pancake, because I don't know what element in this actually makes it Korean.  It did make me think of dim sum, though, so that's probably good.  The chili powder really added a nice bit of heat and flavor, as well.  The greens were really helped by the presence of the porcinis, so that was nice.  Porcinis are magic that way. :)
Would I make this again? Definitely.  The pancakes felt like a huge success, and were much easier that I was afraid they'd be, and given how often we get greens from the CSA, I'm always making some variation or other on this recipe.

And now for Tuesday Tip!  I know for some people, cooking is this great pleasurable thing that they look forward to and that's a break from their daily lives.  I'm not those people.  There are times when cooking does feel fun (when I'm trying a new and easy recipe, or when I'm making a reliable favorite), and there are certainly things about it that are gratifying (other people saying that my food is yummy, or feeling like a recipe was surprisingly successful, like today), but most of the time, it feels like a necessary and somewhat annoying chore.  One of the things that makes it more annoying for me is that I end up feeling like I'm stuck in the kitchen, with nothing to stimulate me while I'm chopping and stirring.  At the same time, it can be hard to keep up a conversation while I'm juggling different steps in a recipe or different dishes.  So, Mu came up with a solution for me.  He hooked up an old pair of speakers in our dining area so that they're broadcasting into the kitchen, and now I can plug in my phone and listen to podcasts or music while I cook!  The phone itself isn't loud enough to be heard over whatever I'm doing, but the speakers are perfect.  When we have our own house, I'm totally having a sound system put in the kitchen!  But anyways, that's my tip for people who aren't greatly enthused by cooking itself -- music or podcasts can be a great help without being (for me) too distracting!