Rice Pizza

 

Ever heard of a rice pizza? This was actually my first time making a pizza with rice instead of a dough and I had no idea what it would taste like (well, maybe I had some idea). And? It tasted GREAT. I don't know how other people make rice pizza, but I'm pretty happy with my recipe. I wanted the pizza to have a thin, crispy crust of scorched rice, like nurungji. I used a combination of normal white rice and sweet, or glutinous rice so that the grains would stick together better. It's tasty and light!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Rice Pizza
or Nurungji Pizza serves 2 hungry adults or 3

Ingredients

To make rice

• 1 cup normal white rice
• 1/4 cup sweet, or glutinous rice
• 1/2 Tbsp vegan margarine, melted
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 1/2 cups water

Paste and toppings

• 2 cups tomato paste
• 1/2 red or yellow pepper
• 1/2 green pepper
• 1/2 large onion
• some canned olives
• some mushrooms
• any herb of your choice, to sprinkle
  

Steps

1. Wash rice. Put rice and water in the pot of your rice cooker, along with margarine, salt, sugar, and water. Cook rice.
   
   
2. While the rice is cooking, prepare the toppings. Chop all the vegetables. Grease a large skillet with oil, and saute the toppings until the onion is slightly golden. Transfer into a bowl and set aside.
   
   
3. When the rice is ready, grease the skillet again and flatten out the rice into a large, round disk. On medium high heat, wait several minutes, checking if the bottom of the rice has browned.
   
   
4. When the rice has browned, flip it over. Spoon on the tomato paste and place the toppings. Wait for about 10 minutes, checking now and then to see if the rice has browned. Preheat oven to 480F.
   
   
5. Grease a large pyrex pan (4.8QT - 4.5L) with oil. When the rice is ready, transfer into the pan. Since you want a thin, crispy crust, you need to flatten out the rice as much as you can. The rice and sauce should combine, turning the grains red. Sprinkle herb(s) of your choice.
   
   
6. Place the pan in the oven - bake 5 minutes, broil 5 minutes (a total of 10 minutes). Make sure the rice doesn't burn. Yum!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Kimchi Doenjang Jjigae

Jjigae is sort of like stew. There's a difference between jjigae and guk; jjigae is more salty and has less water, while guk is more soup-like, less salty and more watery. For this jjigae, I mixed kimchi and doenjang (Korean fermented soybean paste) together and it tasted great. Not only is it delicious when served with a bowl of hot rice, doenjang and kimchi are both well known for their great health benefits. But I must point out that this recipe is not for vegans, because I believe that most, if not all, commercial kimchi consists of fish sauce. Yeah, so unless you make kimchi at home... I have to say that vegans cannot eat kimchi.

I added a young pumpkin, but really, it can be subsituted with any vegetable of your choice, or you can add things like tofu. Serve with rice and a few side dishes. Enjoy this simple, yet delicious jjigae.



. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


Kimchi Doenjang Jjigae
or Kimchi Soybean Stew serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 1/4 and 1/8 cups Korean soybean paste
• 2 cups chopped kimchi
• 1 young pumpkin, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 and 1/4 cups chopped scallions
• 7 cups water or vegetable stock

Steps

1. In a pot on high heat, mix kimchi and onion with a little bit of water. Add more water if it evaporates, just a little at a time, until the onion is almost cooked.
   
   
2. Lower the heat to medium-high and mix with Korean soybean paste. Keep adding water a little at a time.
   
   
3. When kimchi and onion absorb the paste, add water or vegetable stock, a young pumpkin, soy sauce, and minced garlic. Turn to high heat, put on the lid, and bring to a boil. Let boil for 5 minutes.
   
   
4. Lower to medium heat, let it cook for 10 minutes. Add chopped scallions and let it cook for another 5 minutes. The more you cook jjigae, the better it will taste.
   

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Making Kimchi Doenjang Jjigae

Shikhye

Now, we've - my sister and I - been wanting to post about Korean food for quite a while now, but haven't had a chance to - or was too lazy to write out a recipe. I made Shikhye a few days ago and decided, finally, to post a recipe since it was just so good that I felt I had to share this sweet drink with others.

When I became a vegan, I found myself eating Korean food more and more often, partly because they are so healthy and you can make delicious dishes without milk, egg, butter, meat, etc.

*Shikhye is a traditional Korean drink made with barley malt. There are two types of malt - coarse and powdered. I'm going to post a recipe that calls for malt powder since it's easier to make. It's sweet and good for digestion. It's easy to make, but does take a while so I suggest you start out at night - you'll find out why. Here's the recipe - you can make your own now!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Shikhye (or Shikeh) makes approx. 5-6L

Ingredients

• 1 package malt powder (usually 400-450g; make sure you buy powdered malt)
• 24 cups (or 6L) of lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups of sugar (adjust to taste)

To make rice

• 1 1/2 cups of rice
• 1 cup of water
• 1 Tbsp of sugar
  

Steps

1. Get a big, big bowl out - since you'll need to pour in 6L of water; I actually used two bowls. Mix malt powder with lukewarm water. Mix it well. Set aside for 2 hours until powder sinks to the bottom.
   
   
2. Cook rice using your rice cooker. If you have time, you can soak your rice in water for 1 to 2 hours so that the grains are plumpy and fluffy when you cook them - but it's not a must.
   
   
3. Mix cooked rice with a tablespoon of sugar. Keep rice in the rice cooker.
   
   
4. After 2 hours, slowly pour the malt powder+water mixture into rice cooker, making sure the sediment at the bottom does not go in. The mixture won't all go in since rice cookers are not all that big, so pour some into a big pot and set aside. In summer, you might need to keep the pot in the fridge so that it doesn't turn sour. Throw away the sediment.
   
   
5. Set the rice cooker to "keep warm" (not "cook") and wait for around 7-8 hours, or until you see several rice floating. This is why it's better to start out at night, so you can sleep while your yummy shikhye is digesting starch into sugar.
   
   
6. When it's ready, transfer into the big pot that was set aside earlier, strain rice, and bring to a boil. Get rid of foam when it starts boiling, for 5 minutes
   
   
7. Turn off the heat and let cool. Wash the strained rice, put it into a bowl, soak it with filtered water, and keep it in the refrigerator.
   
   
8. Pour the cooled shikhye into a pitcher and keep it in the fridge. When serving, add 3-4 teaspoons of soaked rice and let it float, like the picture on top. Now drink up your shikhye!
   

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .