What you’ll need:

Serve with garlic mash.

- Pressure cooker

- 1 can white peaches (called 백도 in Korean)

- 400-500g beef tenderloin

- 4 cups leeks, chopped

- Red wine (I used a Chilean merlot)

- Salt and pepper

- 2 tsp. balsamic vinegar

1. Place a small amount of grapeseed oil in the bottom of the pressure cooker. Place pot on medium heat. Meanwhile use paper towel to dry the beef. When the oil warms, place the beef in the pot to brown and season the beef with good salt.

2. Once you’ve browned the meat, remove it and add a 1/4 cup of wine into the hot pan and stir with wooden spoon for a minute. Kill the heat, add the beef back in and drizzle on the balsamic.

3. Drain most but not all of the liquid from the canned peaches and pour them on top of the beef.

4. Add the chopped leeks and pour in about 1.5 cups of wine. Give the pressure cooker a shake and look inside the pot to make sure it’s not too full and that there’s enough liquid.

5. Secure the top onto the pressure cooker and fire it up. Count 20 minutes after the chugging begins from the steam valve.

All that’s left to do is eat (assuming you’ve turned off the heat and let the pressure cooker rest and thereby skipping the journey to the ER).

Serve with red wine.

A garlic mash goes nicely as a side. Don’t worry about what appears to be too many chopped up leek bits. They melt right down. All you get is their flavour blended with the sweetness from the peaches balanced by the wine and balsamic vinegar.

Grind pepper after plating.

Enjoy.

Pork and Leek Stew

What you’ll need:

- Pressure cooker

- Pork (cheap stuff, rump cut’ll do), 500g (enough for two)

- Grapeseed oil (for browning the meat)

- Good salt (buy French)

- Good freshly ground black pepper (1/4 tsp)

- Good ground white pepper (3/4 tsp)

- Apple Juice (10oz)

- Leeks (3 to 4 cups…clean well)

- Potatoes (2…or more depending on pressure cooker size)

Bon Appe-leek!

1) Chop off tops (flowery bits) and very bottom ends of the leeks. Clean and dry. Take a sharp knife and cut from where the white turns to green and slice 3/4 through all the way to the flowery end of the leek. Pull open gently and run under cold water to get out the dirt. Pat dry, then cut the leek into four pieces. Repeat for all.

2) Coat the bottom of the pressure cooker with grapeseed oil. Just enough, not too much. Too much and the meat won’t brown.

3) Turn the stovetop heat on low with the pressure cooker on top. While the oil heats, cut the meat roughly into four pieces. Don’t worry about trimming too much fat off.

4) Take paper towel and squeeze the meat dry. Looks weird, but as Julia will tell ya, the meat won’t brown if ya don’t.

5) Place the meat into the oil, waiting two minutes on each side for it to brown. Sprinkle the salt on the meat, to taste.

6) Just as the meat has finished browning, add the ground white pepper.

7) Kill the heat. Add potatoes (leave them whole with skins on, but washed) and leeks.

8 ) Add apple juice.

9) Shake contents to settle in the pan. Cover and heat until pressure cooker chugs along at a steady pace. Once it does, turn the heat to low and set a timer for 18 minutes.

10) Once timer rings, kill the heat. Wait a minute or two, then push valve to the side to release the steam. When the red indicator drops, remove the cover, take in the sweet smell of pork, apples and leeks. Grind black pepper on top. Ladle into bowls and enjoy.

I normally like white wine with pork, but this went nicely with a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon (Long Country, 2010).

Maybe you’ve perused a wine aisle and thought–what do I buy? Why is this so expensive? In the States, Yellowtail runs under ten bucks…in Australia…

Got wine?

Most of what you see in terms of price is tax. But don’t be discouraged, just be smart.

Rule #1: High prices don’t mean good wine. If you bought wine back home take a moment of reflection before you purchase Gato Negro.

Rule #2: Beware of bottles that have only a Korean label on the back or worse… the only English/French/Spanish is the wines’ name. Put it back it’s not to be trusted.

Rule #3: Avoid sweet wines (aka don’t buy them). Now, you might say…”I LIKE sweet wines.” If you do, you shouldn’t be drinking wine in the first place, at least in terms of red wine.

Rule #4: Buy at Homeplus. This chain of Korean stores is owned by Tesco out of the UK. They have far and wide the best selection of Korean wine closest to you. They also have Tesco wines that are an easy pick if you can’t make up your mind or don’t know what to choose.

Rule #5: Price isn’t everything. There are plenty of good wines under $10 or 10,000KRW. Shop and shop often and you’ll find good sales.

But if you are in Korea and see that large plastic bottle of extra virgin olive oil on sale for 5,000won, please step away and distract yourself in the wine aisle.

As we’ll discuss later, one can purchase staples made or bottled locally. But for the following, buy the imported kind (I would do this living in the States just as I do in Korea).

Your first essential shopping list:

Good olive oil, Italian, Spanish or Greek (your choice). I usually buy Italian like a Carapelli Extra Virgin http://www.carapelli.it/prodotti/nel-mondo/gamma-resto-del-mondo.aspx.

A variety of dry herbs. Here you really should not buy the Korean brands. Herbs differ depending on where they grow and are meant more than likely for that type of food (i.e. California VS. French bay leaves). On a budget, buy Tesco brand mixed herbs, basil, rosemary to start. If you’re lucky to have good friends and family back home, have them send you these and more. For those of you in Korea, Tesco products can be purchased at Homeplus. Lotte Mart usually offers a selection of McCormick brand pepper grinders. These are good. If you have a little time and money, visit Hannam Market in Hannam-dong Seoul or pop into the grocery area of a nearby Galleria.

Next is the matter of salt. Don’t skimp on the money here. I buy French salt (a grey sea salt). Buy what you like but remember where salt comes from and what food it’s traditionally used for. Geoffrey Steingarten has a very nice essay on this (and tests all the major world salts). If you’ve ever had a so called pasta here and wondered what was wrong… one clue would be use of the wrong kind of salt (oil and herbs too, but let’s keep this cheery).

Finally is the matter of wine (but I will save this for another time)…

Big deal, right?

First off, let’s discuss living conditions.

In Korea, most single folk live in one room apartments. These are sometimes referred to as studios, but the Western studio apartment and Korean one room are not the same beast. In a Korean one room you could sit on your futon get a beer from the fridge and rest your leg on the toilet (to exaggerate slightly).

I live in an “office-tel” which is a bit larger than the one room and has a narrow stairway leading up to a loft (but don’t stand up).

But let’s get into how this relates to cooking.

Counter space? Next to none.

Oven? Nope. There’s a washing machine where that should be.

Basic Equipment

The kitchen:

A gas range (3 burners)

1 toaster oven

1 pressure cooker

And the rest? Imagine living on a boat. Hooks hold the pots and pans and ladles and cutting board to the walls. No counter space or cupboard space to do anything else.

The following recipes, triumphs, disasters, etc. will concern:

- How to cook with very limited space

- How to cook with limited funds

- How to cook for a small number of people, or one (as you can guess from the description of Korean living arrangements, having many guests is not the most convenient option)

- How to cook with limited equipment (no oven, no microwave)

- And finally, how to cook with the ingredients available.

I think this last one is the tricky factor in all of this.

Koreans primarily eat Korean food which means that the ingredients readily available and easy on the wallet are Korean made or grown (MUCH more on this later).

But there are options available, some good some great many to be avoided (also more on this coming).

Limitations aside, great food will come. Whether you’re living here in Korea and love cooking, hate cooking or can’t do it at all—or somewhere else living in some closet—this will be that step…the one where you slowly back away from the speed dial for fried chicken and do something far better on your own.

Until then, start washing down the counters and cupboards. There’s cooking to be done.

The longer I live abroad the more I miss certain memories of home. Multiple magaritas and the bike ride back to the little house, KW bocce nights, Karoke Thursdays at the Pub, tonic by river, great food every night made by my dad.

Of these things I have only pictures and memories… until I make it home again.

But the food, though I can’t bring my dad over (though several mates here have suggested doing so to begin a cookie/pie/bread shop) I can do what he has, many years later, inspired me to do.

Cook great food.

La râpe

When I begin writing for this site I told of the many wonders and surprises of South Korea. Not to say I’m not surprised any more, any reader could say that content has been lacking (fall apparently was a quiet time in my life).

From now on the subject of this blog will be that of cooking in Korea–cooking Western foods with the ingredients available here, and trying out some (gasp) fusion Korean-Western (outside the realm of bulgogi burgers, hot dogs with kimchi, etc.) that others already do.

Stayed tuned and as the great legend herself said, bon appetit!

A cross between old Korea and a drawn-out American military presence, Songtan is a small, Air Force suburb of Pyeongtek. Songtan’s main artery extends from the front of the base, with side-streets selling tailored clothing, heels, coffee and pilfered pantry goods from the commissary.

Gin Anyone?

By no means a tourist destination, Songtan businesses cater to the locals, both Korean and American. A foreigner in most of Korea draws stares, but not here. There is an indifference that gives one the impression that the locals have seen it all before.

Songtan is old and seedy and safe. Military patrols, children shopping with their parents. Shops selling underwear that looks like string or ones with holes in all the wrong (or right) places. There’s a few strip clubs and a church or two. Street markets selling dried squid and vendors pushing now in theatres films on DVD.

A Brasilian steakhouse, a meat buffet, Korean bar, English pub, a bank.

Girls with skirts too short arm and arm with off-duty soldiers.

Grandmothers grilling hamburgers–a competitive business–Famous Mrs. Lee’s Burgers, and Mrs. Kim.

Mexican food, oh the Mexican food. Spinach enchiladas, tacos…my God the tacos. Cheese and beef and veg with spices and juices dripping.

Been too long.

Cheap cocktails with quality booze. Places to sit and watch people pass.

This is the place I imagine Itaewon was before the fast food chains, clothing stores and soaring real estate prices.

There’s no sign of change in Songtan. No Starbucks ready to move in. No crackdown on the underground sale of box wine and lemonade powder.

Nothing beautiful to see, but there is a feeling. A feeling of something outdated that holds on for only one reason: people like it. Old, tasty, boozy, sleazy, simple.

Songtan.

Aussie wine, Dutch cheese, Korean organic tomatoes

In the meantime, guess I’ll be forced to deplete what remains…

Two great years getting to know great people, and Americans no less.

Cheers.

I’ll still be here amongst the cabbages and torrential rain, but I wish all of you safe travels back to the land of the red white and blue.

The winners...

And I’m glad that a nearby pizza shop has a van… can’t quite imagine what 24 pizzas and 24 1.5 litres of cola would look like on the back of a delivery bike.

For 20 minutes you could only hear lip smacking. Though this was a joyous occasion, everyone was very serious about evening dividing up the winnings.