Korean Rice Porridge | The Vegetarian

By the time the twelve magnificent courses were over, my wife had eaten nothing but salad and kimchi, and a little bit of squash porridge. She hadn’t even touched the sticky-rice porridge, as they had used a special recipe involving beef stock to give it a rich, luxurious taste.
The Vegetarian
Han King

It’s getting closer to spring and the days are still freezing. Most of my week has been spent in an office, hearing the rain outside and eagerly looking forward to the walk back to the station with headphones in and a good podcast playing.

I’ve been doing a slow reread of The Vegetarian this last week, snatching brief moments of time in my day before and after work to get through a few pages. The Vegetarian is a novel that is always horrifying to me every time I read it - I’m not exactly sure why. Han Kang manages to create such amazing visuals with her writing style, a style that left me shuddering a little at some descriptions. My cook for this week was the

While my parents were both great cooks when I was growing up - we never really ventured into any Asian style cooking at home. And I was never that adventurous later in my life, I feel like most of my culinary choices were somewhat basic, with any Asian influences limited to Pad Thai or fried rice. There are numerous amazing sounding dishes mentioned throughout The Vegetarian, and I chose to go with one that is (surprisingly) no vegetarian. This recipe was created to be plant based and is but can easily be adapted to one that is not.

Note: I used some leftover faux beef chunks I had. Because they aren’t really raw meat, I just shredded them into pieces before I marinated them. If you’re using real meat, I would slice into shreds and ensure you cook them well. This recipe can also be made with already cooked meat.

Korean Beef Rice Porridge
Serves 3
Ingredients
1 cup rice
8 cups of beef stock + 2 cups extra if needed
200g beef *see note
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 garlic cloves, minced
Spring onion, thinly sliced for garnish

1. Slice up whatever type of beef you’re using and cover with 1 tbsp the soy sauce and minced garlic. Leave to marinate for about 10 minutes.

2. Leave the rice to soak in water for at least an hour and then rinse off until the water comes clear.

3. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and add the marinated beef in once the oil is hot. Cook briefly until the meat is cooked through, add in the rice and the beef stock.

4. Leave on high until boiling, and then lower the heat so it is just simmering. Add in the remaining soy sauce.

5. Leave to simmer for around 30 minutes, adding in the extra stock if necessary. You want to keep quite a bit of liquid in the final product. Once the rice has reached the right consistency, quite creamy, serve straight away with the spring onions for garnish. Enjoy!

Katsudon | Kitchen

I peered through into the darkened windows of souvenir shops and I spotted the light coming from a small eatery that was still open. Through the frosted glass door I saw it had only one customer, who was sitting at the counter. I opened the door with a sense of relief and went in. I craved something heavy and filling, so I ordered deep-fried pork in broth over rice. ‘Katsudon, please,’ I said.
Kitchen
Banana Yoshimoto

An incredibly amount of influence into the books I read come from recommendations. Whether it be a book that a friend mentions casually, one that has a glowing review in a local paper or the multiple of recommendations that flood through the wonder that is instagram.

This month, I’ve been drawn quite heavily into Babbling Books' Women in Translation Month. When perusing both her and others suggestions for the month I came to the realisation that I already had a number of translated books in my shelf already - I just had no idea that they were. I picked a couple off the shelves and dedicated the week to a reread for inspiration of a dish to make and my attention rarely was drawn away from Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. There are so many mouth watering dishes that are described in detail throughout the story - much of what ties into the beautifully written tale. I think for the month of August, most of my literary inspired meals will be done within the realm of Babbling Books' Women in Translation challenge.

Katsudon was the main item that wouldn’t disappear from my mind, however. The above quote from the book just installs a sense of comfort and warmth with the dish - of a hearty and filling meal that is bound to bring a sense of satisfaction to anyone, eaten late at night in a tiny, empty store. When I first moved to Melbourne, I would eat the same dish, in a particular tiny storefront buried somewhere within China Town late at night after a long shift at the restaurant I worked at. After giving up meat I hadn’t thought of it in years until my reread of Kitchen when the urge to recreate the dish would not leave my mind.

It was everything I remembered about the dish from years ago, and myself and my housemate greedily devoured it while the rain poured outside and we clustered around the tiny heater in the lounge.

*Note: So, I used soy steaks that I sourced from a local Asian grocer. Pressed tofu would also work wonderfully for this I believe. Otherwise, it can be made with pork chops of course - I would recommend using a mallet or rolling pin to gently pound the meat thin if you do choose to use this.

Katsudon
Serves 2
Ingredients
2 x meat of choice *see note
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
1 tbsp corn flour
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp plain flour
1 small brown onion, finely sliced
1 cup sushi rice
2 cups chicken stock
1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
3 tsp mirin
2 tsp white sugar
2 tbsp finely chopped nori
1 3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp olive oil
1 spring onion, finely sliced

1. Mix together the corn flour and water well, so no lumps are remaining. Set into a wide bowl, and do the same for the plain flour and panic breadcrumbs. You essentially want three seperate bowls for prepping the katsu.

2. Heat your oil in a shallow frying pan on a medium head until it reaches approx. 170C. You can test by dropping a few breadcrumbs in it - if they bubble and spin the oil is ready.

3. Dip each fillet (whatever you are using) into the flour first, followed by the corn flour mix and then the breadcrumbs, ensuring that it is well covered.

4. Drop each breadcrumb covered fillet into the oil, cooking each side for approx. 2 minutes or until a nice golden brown. Remove and sit on a piece of paper town to drain the excess oil.

5. Once they’re a little cooler, slice each piece into slices that are around 1 inch wide.

6. Now is a good time to get the rice ready. Since the sushi rice off to remove the excess starch and place into a saucepan with 1 1/2 cups of the chicken stock. Cook on a medium heat until ready and place to the side. It should be ready around the time as everything else to be brought together.

7. Time to prepare the sauce. Combine the remaining 1/4 cup of chicken stock, nori, sugar, mirin and soy sauce in a pan and cook until lightly simmering. It should thicken slightly.

8. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and cooked the finely sliced brown onion until soft.

9. Place the slices of katsu on top of the onion in the pan - drizzling the sauce over the top, cooking it all in the pan for around 2 minutes.

10. Split the rice between two bowls and carefully divide the katsu between the two, along with the remaining sauce and onions from the pan. Scatter with the sliced spring onion and enjoy!