Just an update on the job search for anyone who may or may not care (i hear whispers of my brother yelling "shut up" from the bathroom, jk). So far i've interviewed for six jobs. Two at Columbia medical center, two at the Aaron Diamonds Research Center, and two for MIT over the phone. I've already be rejected for one at Columbia, and told by the other five that they were interested in hiring me if I make a two year commitment. So two year commitment it is! For goodness sakes I do need a job and I would like it soon so I can write on my applications that I am actually doing something worthwhile in my spare time.
In any case, I've got and have been working (thinking about) my secondary essays and whatnots and will hopefully finish those soon. Oops, the housecat is here. Time to go. More updates later.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Happy
Korean Thanksgiving! Or Autumn festival whichever one you chose to follow. Go eat songpyeon and/or mooncakes and have a blast. Its and excuse to eat and do whatever you feel like.
Last night my brother and I made songpyeon actually. It was interesting because we've never made it without my mom before. In essence, I was extremely worried about messing everything up and/or the mung beans (yellow sweet beans) getting messed up as well. Because of this I wanted my brother to do the beans and I would work on the dough (I thought that maybe I knew how it felt better than my brother would). Anyways, my brother added sesame oil to the mung beans which made them more wet than needbe, however, everything ended up fine. The dough came together after it sat for a few minutes and the mung beans were quite tasty if I do say so myself. I'm listing the recipe below which I got from mangachi but added a few notes in case you wanted to try it yourself.
Ingredients:
Frozen Rice Flour
White Sugar
Dried Skinned Mung Beans (split ones are nice)
Salt
Water
1. Dump your dried mung beans into a bit of water to let them soak.
2. Set 2 cups of water to boil.
3. Sift the flour through a strainer or sifter to weed out some of the coarser grains.
4. Add 3 table spoons of the boiling water and a pinch of salt for every 1 cup of flour.
5. Knead the dough until it sticks together well and doesn't have too many cracks.
Note: If it keeps cracking and is hard to keep together in once piece after 15 minutes of kneading then add a half a tablespoon of water.
6. Cover the dough in saran wrap and turn your attention to the mung beans!
7. Drain the water from the soaked mung beans and add the equivalent amount of water (1/4 cup of mung beans = 1/4 cup of water) to the pot.
8. Set the mung beans to simmer, but remember to stir often.
Note: The beans might look a little dry but that's fine. Just leave it and keep stirring.
9. Allow the pot to simmer for 25 - 30 minutes before removing from heat, crushing the beans with the back of a spoon, and adding the equivalent amount of white sugar.
10. After the filling is mixed, start making songpyeon!
Note: If the dough is STILL to dry or breaks apart really easily when you try to knead it again add another 1/2 tablespoon of water and knead that in.
11. Take a ping pong amount of dough and work it gently with your hands. It's usually a little cracked, but if you have inconsistencies in the dough at this point then you will have more trouble when you steam it.
12. Make a small indent with your thumb in the middle of the ping pong ball and keep depressing the spot until you have a small cup.
13. Fill the cup with filling (but not too much) and seal the top by pressing the two edges together.
Note: Seal this properly otherwise all the filling will fall out while steaming.
14. Set water to boil in a large pot with your steamer over it.
15. Wet a cheeseclothe or paper towel or new, clean rag and put it at the bottom of the steamer rack (not in the water, in the thing with holes!)
16. Stick your songpyeon in here for 25 - 30 minutes to steam.
17. Rinse the finished sonpyeon quickly in cold water with a little bit of sesame oil dripped in and then enjoy!
Last night my brother and I made songpyeon actually. It was interesting because we've never made it without my mom before. In essence, I was extremely worried about messing everything up and/or the mung beans (yellow sweet beans) getting messed up as well. Because of this I wanted my brother to do the beans and I would work on the dough (I thought that maybe I knew how it felt better than my brother would). Anyways, my brother added sesame oil to the mung beans which made them more wet than needbe, however, everything ended up fine. The dough came together after it sat for a few minutes and the mung beans were quite tasty if I do say so myself. I'm listing the recipe below which I got from mangachi but added a few notes in case you wanted to try it yourself.
Ingredients:
Frozen Rice Flour
White Sugar
Dried Skinned Mung Beans (split ones are nice)
Salt
Water
1. Dump your dried mung beans into a bit of water to let them soak.
2. Set 2 cups of water to boil.
3. Sift the flour through a strainer or sifter to weed out some of the coarser grains.
4. Add 3 table spoons of the boiling water and a pinch of salt for every 1 cup of flour.
5. Knead the dough until it sticks together well and doesn't have too many cracks.
Note: If it keeps cracking and is hard to keep together in once piece after 15 minutes of kneading then add a half a tablespoon of water.
6. Cover the dough in saran wrap and turn your attention to the mung beans!
7. Drain the water from the soaked mung beans and add the equivalent amount of water (1/4 cup of mung beans = 1/4 cup of water) to the pot.
8. Set the mung beans to simmer, but remember to stir often.
Note: The beans might look a little dry but that's fine. Just leave it and keep stirring.
9. Allow the pot to simmer for 25 - 30 minutes before removing from heat, crushing the beans with the back of a spoon, and adding the equivalent amount of white sugar.
10. After the filling is mixed, start making songpyeon!
Note: If the dough is STILL to dry or breaks apart really easily when you try to knead it again add another 1/2 tablespoon of water and knead that in.
11. Take a ping pong amount of dough and work it gently with your hands. It's usually a little cracked, but if you have inconsistencies in the dough at this point then you will have more trouble when you steam it.
12. Make a small indent with your thumb in the middle of the ping pong ball and keep depressing the spot until you have a small cup.
13. Fill the cup with filling (but not too much) and seal the top by pressing the two edges together.
Note: Seal this properly otherwise all the filling will fall out while steaming.
14. Set water to boil in a large pot with your steamer over it.
15. Wet a cheeseclothe or paper towel or new, clean rag and put it at the bottom of the steamer rack (not in the water, in the thing with holes!)
16. Stick your songpyeon in here for 25 - 30 minutes to steam.
17. Rinse the finished sonpyeon quickly in cold water with a little bit of sesame oil dripped in and then enjoy!
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