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The
Food on Seolnal
Foods prepared and served on the New Year’s Day are altogether
called ‘New Year’s Food’ or ‘Food for treating
New Year’s guests’, and liquors served on the New Year’s
Day are called ‘New Year’s liquor’.
Rice cake soup of New Year’s Day is known to
be the 1st seasonal food for the New Year’s
Day season. Basic material for the rice cake soup
is sticks of rounded rice cake and “Dongguk
Se-si-gi (Dongguk Record on Seasonal Events)”
described about rice cake soup in detail. “Non-glutinous
rice powder is steamed, the steamed rice powder is
put on the pounding board and it is pounded many times
to make it in long stick form. This is called white
rice cake. This white rice cake is sliced, put into
clear beef and pheasant soup and boiled. And then
put some pepper powder on it. This is called rice
cake soup and this is being sold in marketplace as
a seasonal food.”
Eating rice case soup in New Year’s Day seems
to be originated from the ancient faith of worship
to sun. As the New Year’s Day is the first day
of New Year, rice cake in white color was used to
express brightness and the reason why rice cake is
in rounded shape seems to be pictograph for the round
shape of sun.
Tteokguk –Recipe
Rice cake soup is the food we take on the first day
of New Year. People think that a person gets one year
older when the person ate one rice cake soup. Materials
to make the soup of rice cake soup are brisket of
beef, cow leg bone, chicken or anchovy. But sometimes
half and half for meat and anchovy are used. On the
top of rice cake soup, decorative shredded eggs are
put usually but sometimes minced beef, sliced beef
or shish-kebab is put as decorative seasoning.
Materials:
500g of white rice cake(sliced ones), 300g of brisket
of beef, 1 piece of cow leg bone, 3 big spoons of
clear soya sauce, 4 liters of water (20 cups), 200g
of beef and 2 eggs.
Seasoning for beef: 2 big spoons of soya sauce, 1/2
big spoon of sugar, 1 big spoon of minced green onion,
1/2 big spoon of minced garlic, 1 big spoon of sesame
with salt, 1/2 big spoon of sesame oil and 1/2 small
spoon of pepper.
How to cook:
1) Wash cow leg bone and boil it in water for considerable
amount of time. Pour out the boiled soup and boil
it with new water again two more times. Then cool
it down and take away hardened fat.
2) Put brisket of beef into the poured out cow leg
bone soup and boil it to make clear beef soup. Cut
the boiled beef chunk into slices.
3) Cut the stick of rounded rice cake into slices
in slanting way, wash the rice cake slices in water
and take out from water.
4) Pan-fry beef with seasoning after shredding or
mincing.
5) Put sliced rice cake into the clear beef soup and
boil it up until the white rice cake becomes soft.
6) When the rice cake is floating up to the surface,
put egg and stir it. Put the rice cake soup in a small
brass bowl and put topping of fried minced beef. Put
some pepper powder on it.
Manduguk(Dumpling
soup)
Skin of dumpling is made of kneading of flour and
stuffing is made of minced meat, bean curd and boiled
and seasoned vegetables. Stuffing is wrapped with
dumpling skin to make dumpling. Dumpling is boiled
in clear beef soup and it is dumpling soup. Dumpling
is known to be originated from China. There are two
kinds of dumpling, one with stuffing in it and one
without stuffing. In China these days, flour cake
which was steamed without stuffing in it is called
dumpling and the one without stuffing is called ‘gyo-ja”
which is another name for dumpling. In Korea, usually
the one with stuffing in it is called “dumpling”.
Manduguk – Recipe
Dumpling soup is a representative food which comes
to our mind in cold weather. People liked to take
dumpling soup in New Year’s Day as well, and
especially in Gangwondo, Hwanghaedo and Pyeongando
region people liked dumpling soup more than rice cake
soup. In general flour dough is knead in thin
sheet form and dumpling is made by putting stuffing
in the dumpling skin. There is a difference in the
name of dumpling between China and Korea. In China
the one which is called the dumpling is called “gyo
ja” and what they call ‘dumpling’
is fermented thick flour dough without stuffing in
it.
Materials:
Dumpling skin –200g of flour, salt, 7 big spoons
of water.
Stuffing for dumpling –100g of minced beef,
100g of minced pork, 1/3 piece of bean curd,
100g of bean sprouts, 100g of kimchi and 2 each of
Pyogo mushroom
Soup –200g of beef(brisket of beef), 1 egg,
1 piece of big green onion, soya sauce for soup, minced
garlic, pepper and sesame oil
Seasoning sauce – Salt, minced green onion,
minced garlic, salted sesame, sesame oil and pepper
How to cook:
1) Knead flour with salted water and flatten to make
dumpling skin in round shape with 8 cm diameter. Pile
up the dumpling skins after putting flour in between
the skins.
2) Shred Soak Pyogo mushrooms into slices after soaking
in water and get rid of water from minced beef and
pork and bean curd using dry dish towel and crash
them.
3) Slightly boil bean sprouts in salted water and
shred them while mincing kimchi and getting rid of
water from minced kimchi. Bean sprouts and kimchi
are mixed with Pyogo mushroom, beef, pork and bean
curd. Put seasoning sauce in these materials for stuffing
and then stuffing is completed.
4) Put stuffing in the dumpling skin and make dumpling
in half moon shape or by puckering up both ends of
dumpling.
5) To make soup, boil brisket of beef in water and
get rid of oil on the surface. Put soya sauce and
minced garlic for seasoning and put dumplings in the
soup when the soup is boiling.
6) Dumplings are floated up to the surface when it
is well done. Then take out dumplings from soup and
put them in a dish and serve with decorative seasoning
of shredded fried egg.
7) Sometimes vinegar soya sauce is served in a small
bowl separately.
Dasik(Pattern
pressed honey cake)
Materials which cannot be taken in raw state such
as grain powder, Chinese herb powder, seeds, nuts,
pollen and animal nature are fried and powdered. Honey
is put into this powder and is patterned using honey
cake mold. Kinds of Dasik are as follows:
-Dasik made of grain powder – Starch Dasik,
Wheat flour Dasik, Glutinous rice Dasik
-Dasik made of Chinese herb powder – Ginger
powder Dasik, “Sing-geom-cho” Dasik, Longan
Dasik, Arrowroot Dasik, Jute root Dasik
-Dasik made of nuts – Chestnut Dasik, Various
fruit Dasik, Acorn Dasik, Date Dasik, and Pine nut
Dasik
-Dasik made of seeds – Black sesame Dasik, Bean
Dasik, Sesame Dasik
-Dasik made of pollen – Pine pollen Dasik
-Dasik made of animal nature materials – Dried
pheasant meat Dasik, Dried slice meat Dasik, Dried
flounder Dasik
Dasik - Recipe
There are a variety of Dasik such as Pine pollen Dasik
which is made by putting honey into pine pollen, kneading
and pattern-pressing, Black sesame Dasik which is
made ob by putting honey into black sesame powder,
kneading and pattern-pressing and Maximowiczia Chinensis
starch Dasik which is made by putting honey and Chinensis
juice into starch, kneading and pattern-pressing.
Dasik stands out with its colors especially on the
festive table as it creates many different beautiful
colors.
Pine pollen Dasik
Materials:
1 cup of pine pollen, 4 big spoons of honey, 2 big
spoons of grain syrup and 1 big spoon of sesame oil
How to cook:
1) Put honey and thick grain syrup into pine pollen
and properly mix and knead.
2) Apply a little bit of sesame oil to pattern-press,
put right quantity of pine pollen dough in the pattern-press
and press it using thumb.
Bean Dasik
Material:
1 cup of yellow bean powder, 4 big spoons of honey,
1 cup of green bean powder, 4 big spoons of honey
and 1 big spoon of sesame oil
How to cook:
1) Wash green beans and yellow beans separately and
parch them separately. Then pound them in a mortar
slightly and winnow them to eliminate the skins of
beans.
2) Put the bean (without skin) into the mortar again
and pound thoroughly to get fine powder. Pass the
powder through a sieve to get fine bean powder.
3) Put honey into the two kinds of bean powders respectively
and knead them. Apply a little bit of sesame oil to
pattern-press, put right quantity of pine pollen dough
in the pattern-press and press it using thumb.
White sesame Dasik
Materials:
1 big spoon of sesame (white sesame) and 3 big spoons
of honey
How to cook:
1) Soak white sesame in water and get rid of skin.
Then parch it, pound it and pass the powder through
a sieve to get fine sesame powder.
2) Put honey into white sesame powder and mix them
well. Put it in a china ware inside a steam pot and
steam it. After steaming it, put it in a mortar and
pound it up until a lot of oil is produced. Then put
honey and knead to make a dough.
3) As white sesame Dasik itself contains a lot of
oil, sesame oil is not applied to the pattern-press.
Black sesame Dasik
Materials:
1 big spoon of black sesame and 3 big spoons of honey
How to cook:
1) Soak black sesame in water and get rid of skin.
Then parch it, pound it to get fine powder.
2) Put honey into the pounded black sesame powder
and mix them well. Put it in china ware inside a steam
pot and steam it. After steaming it, put it in a mortar
and pound it up until a lot of oil is produced. Then
put honey and knead to make a dough.
3) As black sesame Dasik itself contains a lot of
oil, sesame oil is not applied to the pattern-press.
Jeon
gwa(Fruits boiled down in sugar)
Whole root, stem or fruit or its slice is boiled
down in honey or sugar.
Jeon gwa - Recipe
Jeon gwa is made by putting honey to whole root or
stem of a plant and boiling it down in honey or sugar.
Hard fruits such as citron, Chinese quince and apricot
are mainly used to make jeon gwa but sometimes roots
of plants such as lotus root, horse radish, carrot,
ginseng, balloon flower and ginger are used. And instead
of honey the mixture of starch syrup and sugar with
half and half is used.
Ginger Jeon gwa
Materials:
200g of ginger, 100g of sugar, 2 big spoons of honey,
1/2 small spoon of salt and 4 cups of water
How to cook:
1) Peel off skin from gingers, cut them into thin
slices and put them into boiling salted water for
a short while. Cool them down in cold water and take
out.
2) Put sugar and water into slightly boiled ginger
and boil it using strong fire.
3) By the time when sugared water is almost boiled
down, put honey and boil it down again for a while.
4) Take out ginger pieces one by one and cool down
each piece of ginger separately. Put the completely
cooled down ginger in a bowl and serve it.
Citron Jeon gwa
Materials:
100g of citron, 2 big spoons of sugar, 2 big spoons
of honey and 2 cups of water
How to cook:
1) Put sugar in sliced citrons and shred them in the
size of 1cm wide.
2) Put sugar and water into the shredded citron and
boil it using strong fire for a while. Weaken the
fire, put honey and boil it down some more.
3) Take out citron pieces one by one and cool down
each piece of citron separately. Put the completely
cooled down citron in a bowl and serve it.
Sikhye(Fermented
sweet rice drink)
In the water in which malt powder was soaked out,
steamed rice used for brewing rice wine (glutinous
rice or non-glutinous rice) is put in. The water with
the steamed rice in it is kept for a certain number
of hours maintaining warm temperature and is cooled
down. We drink it together with the grains of steamed
rice in it. “Sikhye” is a kind of drink
which has much of sweet taste and some sour taste
as well, the kinds of which are ‘Steamed rice
Sikhye’, Lotus leaf Sikhye’ and ‘Andong
Sikhye’.
Jok
pyeon(Leg gelatin)
Materials which contain a lot of collagen such as
cow leg, cow skin, ox tail, pig skin, fish skin or
cow tripe are boiled in water for a long hours to
make a gelatin soup. Put salt in the soup as seasoning
and cool down the soup. Then jelly is formed. We slice
the jelly and take it with mustard and soya sauce.
Pyeon
yuk(Sliced boiled meat)
Fully boiled meat is called “Sook yuk”
which is boiled meat chunk, the thin slice of which
is “Pyeon yuk” or ‘pieces of boiled
meat chunk’.
Jeon(Pan-fried
food)
Pan-fried means to boil down or to pan-fry. Pan-fried
food is generally made of meat, vegetable and fish.
The materials are thin sliced, are coated with egg
and flour and both sides are pan fried in flat form.