Happy Chusok

Dear Korean friends, and readers from all over there in the internet.
I wish you a very Happy Chusok.

Korean cooking: Songpyeon

Chusok is coming. I have written at least 2 times about how Korean people spend their Chusok. But here I will give a glympse on what they cook.

The video above shows a detailed receipe on how to prepare rice cakes which are eaten very often in Korea, but they are especially done during Chusok.

Recipe Ingredients:

• 8 cups of rice flour (ssalgaru 쌀가루) this often is in the frozen section of a Korean grocery,
• but if you are somewhere in the West go to your oriental shop and they will give you rice flower over there. More and more often network chains also have it, like Euroshop or Real. 
• 2/3 tablespoons of salt
• 1 cup of hot water
• glug of sesame oil
• Sesame seed stuffing
• 1 cup of chamkae (roasted crushed sesame seed)
• 2 tablespoons of honey - if you are in Eastern Europe, you are lucky, real honey is exactly what you have not far from your home, unlike anywhere else in the world
• 14 tablespoons of salt

White bean stuffing - white bean paste can be served in variety of forms, but for this we need a sweet version:

• 1 cup of white beans (navy beans)
• 2 tablespoons of finely chopped walnuts
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• a pinch of salt

Recipe Steps:

• For the white bean stuffing, soak the white beans for 1 hr or longer and boil until it gets very tender. Strain, then crush it with a potato masher. Strain again to remove any liquid. Mix the mashed white bean with walnuts, salt and honey. Set aside.
• Make the sesame seed stuffing by crushing the roasted sesame seeds and mix with salt and honey. You can put this into a blender or food processor for a short burst. Set it aside.
• Slowly pour 1 cup hot water into 8 cups of rice flour and knead to make a smooth dough. Now you're ready to stuff the dough.
• Pull off a small piece (about 2 tablespoons) of the rice flour dough and roll it into a small ball. Push it down in the middle to make a small cave and put a teaspoonful of stuffing mix. Press down edges to close it, and make into a half-moon shape, or whichever shape you want to make it into. You can make half sesame seed stuff and half white bean stuffing.
• When you're finished stuffing, get a steamer pot ready. Fill water to reach about the half of the pot and bring to a boil. Place a damp cheese cloth on the tray of the steamer, and place the stuffed rice balls on the tray. Steam for about 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it sit for five minutes.
• Coat your hands with some sesame oil and then move each songpyeon (steamed rice balls) carefully to a serving dish. Serve warm or cold. It's best to eat songpyeon fresh. However, if you do have leftovers, you can store in the refrigerator (it will get hard). You'll need to resteam or microwave it to get it soft again.

Serving Size: 15
Preparation Time: 45 minutes

I will let you know how my rice cakes were soon :)

Chusok

It's Chusok now.
The most important holidays in Korea. It is on the 15th of 8th lunar month, so it is either in September or in October of the Gregorian solar calendar ( means the calendar we use globally).

The encyclopedia says that it is 2000 years old harvest festival in Korea. It is also sort of thanksgiving day, though not to the God as it used to be in the West, but to the ancestors.

It is a time of enormous traffic, as most of the inhabitants of Seoul are people who live here for  no longer than 50 years. Most of these modern nuclear families go to the countryside to visit their relatives and on the Chusok day pay respects at their ancestors graves.

The ancestors worship originates from primeaval Korean times, longer than confucianism, buddism taken altogether. It has it's roots in Shamanism, in times when harvest was crucial to survival of the group (clan) and ancestors were worshipped as the source of care and inherited group wisdom shared spiritually by all of the members of the tribal village. In ancient Korea there were several shamanistic influences both from the South and from the North, nevertheless with the similar characteristics in it.

Ancestor worship was digested by buddism and taken as part of the belief system, later confucianism also did not fight with this as it fell into the category of filial piety.

What is Chusok now? It is difficult for a foreigner to grasp. All we see is that buses are not that much crowded, on subway there are less people, less cars race down the streets. The lazy relaxed athmosphere is somehow in the air.

I have learnt from my Korean friends that Chusok requires lots of preparations. Ideally these are women of all generations gathering together for baking song pyun and cooking japchae. Song pyun are traditional rice cakes, very delicious, and japchae are friend brown noodles, something worth to try.

Sometimes guys help in these preparations as well, especially in the families where there are no girls. Chu Won, my ex- coworker, helps his mother a lot during Chusok and Sollal.

In the old times there used to be common gatherings and festivals in the villages, just like globally in the rural society getting together is an important thing.

Currently Koreans cook and eat, but they also play games or watch movies. Encyclopedias say that they also make their traditional dances in the evenings, but I haven't seen it in my own eyes.

Not everyone goes home though. Some troubled young people or those who quarelled with their families, go nowhere.

Chusok is a test of character for many. Together with Sollal, Chusok is also a time when couples suffer, cause no matter how much in love they are, usually both have big family assemblies. In the West, we would not invite someone casual, but a serious partner shares our family holidays. It's actually a test for the relationship, as to how serious it is. Here though, even if the relationship is serious, people are still parted for that time. I have no idea yet how is it with married couples, this is yet to discover.

And dear Iris, Doe Won, I will never forget your invitation for Sollal. Time which we, foreigners, could share with you and your family at your family table on the first day of Lunar New Year.

*****
Source of a photo: http://rice-cake.info/