I was chatting with a friend of mine a few nights ago, and the topic turned to food. I asked her for her favorite Korean recipe, and she pointed me toward this web site. I talked to her a bit more and picked this recipe because of its simplicity (and also because she said it was delicious). While it only has a few ingredients, half of them were things I had never cooked with before so it was quite an adventure. If you don't have access to an Asian grocery store, you probably won't be able to make this recipe. It's worth the trip though, even if you get as disoriented as I do in a grocery store where you can't read most of the labels or recognize most of the food.
삼계탕 (Samgyetang/Ginseng Chicken Soup)
Ingredients:
- 2 Cornish game hens
- ½ cup sweet rice
- 15-20 cloves of garlic
- 1 bunch green onions
- 12-15 jujubes (red dates)
- 2 small ginseng roots
- Water
- Salt and Pepper
Directions:
- Soak sweet rice in 1 cup of water for 1 hour.
- Wash and rinse the two game hens in cold running water.
- Stuff each hen with a couple spoonfuls of sweet rice, a ginseng root, a few jujubes, and 3-4 cloves of garlic. Place them side by side in a dutch oven.
- Pour water into the pot and cook over high heat for 20 minutes.
- When it starts boiling, skim off any foam and fat that rises to the surface, then pour in more water, the rest of the garlic, the rest of the jujubes, and the rest of the sweet rice and cook over medium heat for 40 minutes.
- Add chopped green onions. Remove the skin from the hens and cut meat into pieces. Remove bones and ginseng root.
- Serve with salt and pepper to taste.
Notes:
You don't have to remove the ginseng before serving, but it has a fairly bitter taste so I took it out.
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