Korean Temple Food with Go Korea
Hey guys!
So I had the pleasure of being invited to participate in a Go Korea event during lockdown, and one of the challenges was to recreate the delicious Temple Food displayed on the website. I chose to pick three of my favourite dishes and create my own spin, because we love vegan food and I thought it was an awesome way to challenge my cooking!
I chose these three delicious dishes and they’re super simple, clean eating and packed full of gorgeous ingredients. I switched up all the things I couldn’t find and modified them to things I like, so let me know what you think.
Ingredients
Courgette (1 half)
Eggplant (1 half)
Himalayan Salt
Light Soy Sauce
Toasted Sesame Seed
Coconut Oil
Chives
Spring Onions
Sushi Vinegar
Ginger
Garlic
Mirin
Mushrooms
Chilli Pepper
Seaweed
Potato
One of my favourite dishes ever is eggplants in a sweet ginger marinade and I make this all the time, so for my first try of the temple dishes I chose to mix both my favourite with the courgette. I started by slicing and salting the vegetables for ten minutes, this removes any bitterness. Most eggplants are bred now to omit the bitterness, but the salty ness just helps the water pull out and they fry better and absorb flavour. In a hot pan with some coconut oil, add the vegetables and fry until they soften. Originally the recipe called for dried courgettes, but there was no issue using regulars.
In a separate pan, I wanted to create the stock that we’re using, so I sliced up some mushrooms, another couple of potatoes, a chilli pepper and brought to the boil. I let this simmer with some seaweed, salt, pepper and maintained a steady boil for about 20 minutes. This was how the chef created a flavour and there were specific steps to keep it a clear broth, but I didn’t have the exact ingredients like the radish, so I tried my best to allow it to get rich without being too starchy from the potatoes, and used this as a way to add moisture to the fried courgettes.
Then we add a crushed garlic clove, a tbsp of grated ginger, a tbsp of mirin, a tbsp of sushi vinegar, a tsp of dark soy and a tbsp of light soy. Then in the pan I started to spoon some of the broth we made earlier, with the marinade until the aromas are hitting the room and the vegetables are soft and full of flavour.I then served with some scallions, chives, and toasted sesame in a dish, and they are delicious!
Ingredients
Potatoes x 2
Mushrooms x 3
Chilli Pepper x 1
Light Soy Sauce
Dark Soy Sauce
Coconut Oil
Salt
Pepper
So these were amazing to try and sort of reminded me of fries, you slice up some potato, parboil them for about 7 minutes until they are soft but not collapsing, and add to some hot oil in a pan. Season with some salt and pepper, serve with soy sauce and some chopped scallions and they are amazing! I tried to follow the recipe as best I could but it was just amazing how easy it worked. You could make them super crispy by frying them longer too but I kept with the original.
Ingredients
Tofu
Sesame Seeds
Coconut Oil
Perilla Oil
Rice Noodles
Light Soy Sauce
Green Chilli
Stock (pictured above)
So in the original recipe from Go Korea, this was made with a type of root, which I couldn’t find despite how hard I looked. So I checked out something that I could create and made this almost like a crunchy tofu salad. I removed all the moisture from the tofu with kitchen towels, and heated up my pan with some coconut and perilla oil. I then popped them in the hot oil for about three minutes on each side until they turned golden. If you wanted to make them crunchy, you could coat with corn flour and it would give a slight batter. Then in a pot I threw in some rice noodles with a splash of sushi vinegar, salt, pepper and two tsp of light soy sauce. Then add some chives, sliced up green chillis and mixed them all together. I added some crushed chilli flakes on top and assembled, it was delicious!
So check out Go Korea here for the original recipes done wonderfully!
