Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Hindsight]

Need to make a pie crust?

Instead of graham crackers, use the Digestive (or Diget) crackers. It's the closest British (Korean imitation) equivalent.

[madtownhustl]

is there any places other than costco that has fajita or taco fixings? chili powder, sour cream and tortillas?

[prideofidaho]

Try substituting Denmark yogurt for sour cream. I haven't been able to find small containers of sour cream, so that's what I use. I buy the rest of the ingredients here in Itaewon, but I realise they may not be available everwhere.

Maybe it would help if you could include your location?

[madtownhustl]

homeplus, emart.. stores of that calibur.. mainly lookin for the tortillas

[pr1ncejeffie]

Hey guys, Christmas is almost here and decided to make cookies for the teachers in my school.

I was wondering if there are any molasses in Korean supermarkets like (home plus, emart. etc). If not, can someone please let me know where I can get molasses.

[Hindsight]

Yes, the big marts, like Lotte Mart, EMart, have molasses, but it is not labeled molasses. It is labeled caramel, in Korean. I believe this is the spelling: 캐러멜

I bought a bottle, and it is more bitter than any blackstrap molasses I've seen. So I don't know how far you want to go with it. Given the mistaken name, perhaps they use it for coloring, like for making bread look like whole wheat, not for flavoring. But perhaps I got a bottom of the barrel batch.

I believe you will find it in the section with the worscester sauce, mustard, etc. You know, the section with lots of miscellaneous bottles of stuff. Sometimes I can find it, sometimes not.

Perhaps someone could point you to a better online source.

Oh, and you do know that brown sugar is colored with molasses? So dark brown sugar has the most, and could be used as a molasses substitute.

[Hyeon Een]

I want to make pastry.

As you know, pastry has a lot of 'fat' in it. A lot of (British) recipes call for lard. Can I buy that here? If so, how do I order it?

If not, I need some other kind of fat. Such as butter. Now there are some CHEAP ASS Korean brands of "butter" but I think they are not made of anything to do with milk or cows. So I wonder, do they work in pastry? I think they are just some crazy corn-product with nothing to do with fat.

So, what's a good value way to make pastry? Bear in mind, I want this for savoury pies such as steak and kidney, steak and onion, steak and steak, steak and potato, beef and onion, beef and liver, and err.. anything involving cow as a filling.

So hook me up with a Korean pastry recipe, or a hookup for lard, or a hookup for a brand name for a butter which is acceptable for making pastry.

Thanks western cooks. I'll bake you a "thank you".

[blackjack]

This may work (haven't tried it

http://www.abc.net.au/local/recipes/2009/07/21/2632131.htm

125 ml sunflower or olive oil
125 ml warm water
1/2 teaspoon salt
350 grams plain flour

In a bowl mix the oil and water and salt and beat with a fork.
Gradually work in the flour stirring with the fork and then with your hands.
You may need to add a little more flour - you want it to be malleable but not too dry.
Roll out and use straight away.

[daeguowl]

[ajuma]

[Hindsight]

Thanks, kngr721, www.ehomebakery.com does look like a good site.

In answer to the earlier question of where's the molasses, here it is, mislabeled as caramel:

http://www.ehomebakery.com/src/products/products_detail.php?product_category_id=83&product_mst_id=142

This raises the question of what other sites are good for finding hard to find ingredients and supplies.

I looked at their spice section and did not find allspice. Trying to translate spices and other ingredients into Korean sometimes is difficult.
Some baking powder that doesn't have straight ammonia would be nice, too.

Here is another site for spices, with a bigger variety and cheaper prices on big bottles, World Spice.

http://www.gmarket.co.kr/challenge_eng/neo_seller_collection/seller_collection_main.asp?cust_no=DA4MR38TNDgxNA24NDgxMjc3NDl/Rw==&l_top_gd_no=101378924

A word of advice: Those weevils that arrive in your home on Korean grains will get into closed spice bottles and do yucky things. So putting them into locking top plastic containers is good.

[Tarma]

Does anyone know if dry milk powder is readily available? I've got a recipe for a cream soup base that needs dry milk.

[ajuma]

Yes, they have it at HomePlus. Look around where the flour is...or sometimes it's with the coffee...Most likely on a bottom shelf, or the next one up.

It comes in a bag, the kind sugar comes in. I've seen regular and low-fat powder.

It's pretty pricey though! Like 12,000 for a 1 kilo bag!

[Hindsight]

In the big stores they pretty much stick with the Seoul milk powder. Ajuma is correct about the price; I think the whole milk is about 10,000w and the non-fat is 12,000w -- the later makes thicker yogurt, but the former would be better for your cream soup. The price is important because there is "milk" powder at cheaper prices, often around the coffee, that is mostly casein. So stick with the expensive stuff.

Also, there are big bags of cream soup base available much cheaper. You can use this to make a cream soup out of whatever you want. Just put it in a tight sealing container after you open it to keep it fresh.

I find 1/3 cup of whole milk powder to 1 cup water is about right. The non-fat is denser, though. If you go into HomePlus look at the kitchen implements section and find one of those tiny mixers that works off of two AAs, the one that has a circle made of a sort of coiled spring that cost about 3000w. These work well for mixing powdered milk, at least in smaller quantities if you don't have a hand blender.

The lesson here: just because it is labeled "milk" doesn't mean it is all milk unless it says 100 percent milk. Same thing with "honey," "butter," and who knows what else in Korea. So be careful of stuff that is too much of a bargain.

Rant alert: As to the lard question, is some of the stuff that looks like pound blocks of margarine sitting around without refrigeration actually lard? Or perhaps hydrogenated lard? And what the heck is in that margarine? I never knew anything could taste so disgusting. It vaguely resembles cheap popcorn flavoring with sugar. You know, Korea sells certain things as "food" that never decay? Just leave some of their "cheese" or margarine sitting out and it remains unchanged for months. In your refrigerator it seems to be eternal (I have one slice of wrapped cheese someone gave me in the frig, in case you are wondering, that I put in after it sat in my desk drawer for about a week.)

[Hindsight]

For those of you who have been looking for an oven, here's some options:

http://english.gmarket.co.kr/challenge/neo_goods/goods.asp?goodscode=114756964

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fenglish.gmarket.co.kr%2Fchallenge%2Fneo_goods%2Fgoods.asp%3Fgoodscode%3D114756964&sl=ko&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8

http://english.gmarket.co.kr/challenge/neo_goods/goods.asp?goodscode=105536999

I don't won these models, but they look good and have been on gmarket for a while. Mine is similar to the cheaper one, but has an oven light.

Some observations on buying an oven:

Measure the rack size, if possible. This will determine what accessories you can put in it. With my 80,000w oven, I can insert a 12 cup muffin pan, but just. It's a nice heavy one from HomePlus.

It's nice to get one where you can turn the top element off, but rare.

It's nice to be able to use it on low, say around 100-120 Fahrenheit for yogurt, etc. The markings, however, are ostensibly in C. But my oven's readings seem to start in F on the low end and go to C on the high end. So the temperature markings may be meaningless. In general, thermostats in Korea seem to be questionable; a friend had an expensive gas oven and the thermostat was worthless. But mine, thankfully, is very consistent.

My oven doesn't get super hot. So the higher wattage models may help.

I'm on my third oven. The first two were junk, and one of them was a 180,000 won model from Costco (Korean Costco, of course -- a distant cousin of the quality control American Costco).

The rack on mine tips over when I pull it out. Moral: Ovens available in Korea may be poorly designed. All that you can ask for is that they work, that the thermostat is consistent, and that they don't burn up, as my first did.