Kookin' in Korea: Hummus

Happy spring vacation to me! Yep, that's right. I'm on vacation again. For those who do not know, South Korea's academic school year is different than the United States. Back home we typically start school in August and end in May/June giving us a little over two months of vacation in the summer. Where as in Korea, the academic school year begins in March and ends in February giving two weeks of vacation (spring vacation) between each school year. They also get a month long vacation in the winter and another month during the summer; this is on top of any public holidays we also get off. Point. I make out like a bandit when it comes to paid days off!

Hummus with a splash of lemon: 

I actually made this a month ago, but just haven't had time to sit and actually write this post. Hope you enjoy!

Things you need

2 cups chickpeas (hard find, but sometimes sold at local marts)

5 tbsp lemon juice

4 garlic gloves (3 tbsp)

1/4 cup olive oil (Costco and local marts)

1 1/2 tbsp tahini

pinch of salt
cumin (rare find, but sometimes sold in small marts)

Before you can actually make the hummus you must soak and cook the chickpeas and also make the tahini.

1. Preparing Chickpeas - pour 2 cups of dried chickpeas into a colander and quickly rinse. Once peas are rinsed pour into a bowl and cover with water. You do not need a lot of water. Just enough to cover all peas. Soak peas overnight or ~12 hrs. After soaking in water the peas will almost double in size. After soaking, rinse one more time and remove the discolored peas. Once you've sorted through the peas pour in a pot and boil for 1 1/2 hours or until the peas can be easily mashed with a fork. Once peas  have fully cooked set aside and let cool.

           Rinse                                                              Soak                                                  Boil

                   

2. Making the Tahini - the recipe does not call for a large amount, but it's nice to make more than necessary for other recipes. Tahini can be easily stored in a plastic or glass jar in the fridge. To make, first toast sesame seeds for about 8 minutes on the stove top. No need to use oil. Seeds should turn a darker brown; not too brown though! Be careful not too burn the seeds, you just want them to become a little darker.

Left: uncooked sesame seeds. Right: toasted sesame seeds. I personally think I overcooked the seeds. Shoot for a slightly lighter color.

Time to make tahini paste! Blend the desired amount of toasted sesame seeds and olive oil. Here I used 1 cup toasted seeds and 1/4 cup olive oil. Remember, I made more than the recipe requires.

A food processor may work better, but it's Korea. Who has a food processor here?! A small blender worked perfectly fine for me.

You may also have to add additional olive oil to achieve the desired consistency. Note - the tahini paste here is darker than I would have liked, but that's due to me over toasting the seeds. If your tahini paste is this dark you may want to think about adding less to your hummus. 

3. Hummus time - Once the tahini is finished. Add ingredients to the blender. First...

tahini, more olive oil (1/4 cup) and lemon juice. I used a combination of fresh lemon juice and bottled lemon juice. Fresh is preferred for a better flavor.

Now add garlic...

salt...

...and cumin. Blend.

Add the chickpeas. Blend. If hummus is too dry add water and maybe even a little more olive oil. Play with the recipe to find the consistency you prefer.  

4. Enjoy! Hummus is great with a variety of vegetables and of course BREAD!

You may also like to top with a little more olive oil, paprika, red pepper flakes, a squirt of lemon juice, etc. Play around with the recipe and see what you like!

Valentine's Day, not only a day for couples

This holiday can be tricky. Some find it to be extremely obnoxious while others absolutely love it and live for the typical pink heart decor, cheesy Valentine's Day cards and of course the not so tasty heart candy with messages. But, the day would not be complete without a special someone to share it with. And like society has shown us, that special someone of course must be a significant other right? WRONG. Let's just say my mama didn't raise me like that! I grew up in a house where Valentine's Day was a reminder day (not the only day) to tell all loved ones how special they are to you. So to all my loved ones...you're special and I heart you!

I want to dedicate this Valentine's Day to my aunt Michelle and my cousins Tee and Kimberly. Aunt Michelle I'm so sorry I can't be at your benefit this weekend, but Byron will be there in Texas to represent our family. I love you all and kick cancer's ass!

OCD or the way things should be?

Today was my first day back on the saddle and by saddle I mean work and by work I mean an unexpected day of desk warming. Prior to starting the first day back and also while enjoying vacation forgetting what working in a Korean school entails I stopped and asked myself, Angel, why are you always cranky at work? I thought about this and decided it's me just being irritable and the only way to make a happier classroom and work environment is to CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE. I'm pretty sure I've written about this phrase before. I was first introduced to this pick-me-up in undergrad when working for admissions at my university; and for the most part it worked. Now I'm older, much wiser and less patient. Because of these personality changes and my experiences living abroad I've had to adjust to a new motto, I can't. I actually picked this up from my friend MaryKate and it can be said with an eye roll if no one is looking or a slight head shake of disappointment. It also has various meanings. I can't...deal with this now, I'll deal later. I can't...even get angry about this, it's Korea. I've also been known to use I don't get it. Which has mentally gotten me through a lot of weird situations such as random people stroking my hair, I don't get. A man walks by and nearly spits on my feet without hesitation, I don't get it. 

Today I walked into school for the first day back from winter vacation excited to see my students and instead my day was filled with I can't and I don't get it moments. Read below.

1. The last day of school before winter vacation was Friday December 28th. Leading up to this day I kept hinting we should clean our classroom since it's very cluttered and I definitely did not want our classroom like this for the next school year. I think he agreed because by the afternoon the room was turned upside down from the cleaning process. Only one problem. He never actually finished. I left school with a pile of boxes, papers that needed to be thrown out, a vacuum, fan, etc in the front of the classroom. The next two weeks I desk warmed (getting paid to sit around) not knowing what to do with these things. Fortunately, during those two weeks my coteacher briefly came into work and I asked him if I should take care of the mess. He said, "of course not, I'll be back to clean before school starts." "Awesome" I thought. Today, Monday February 4th I walk in to see this. I felt my cheeks turning red from anger and had to calm myself down my repeating my new motto, I can't.

To be fair, we didn't teach today AND after mentioning the mess to him one more time I was informed that most of it was trash and our student's were coming to take it away after lunch. A few hours later our classroom now looks and feels awesome and clean! I don't remember the last time I've been so happy. There is still a fairly large pile of boxes filled with who knows what, but at least it's by the garbage can and not in the front of the classroom. I told a friend this story today and he says it's my OCD. I don't agree, it's just the way things should be or in this case the way things shouldn't be.

2. Came into school and was informed there would be no classes today. Once my computer was turned on I realized my keyboard wasn't working. I'm always having computer issues at work! Don't forget this was also immediately after seeing the mess that was left for a month. I sat and looked at my computer unable to type in my password and thought, I can't. How could I get through a day with nothing to do and no access to Internet. After wiggling the computer cords for twenty minutes I was finally able to work my keyboard and be on my way to surfing the net.

3. While waiting for our teachers meeting to begin my coteachers and I were chatting and the fact that my coteacher is probably leaving my school to work at another school somehow made it's way into our conversation. He did mention he may not teach English this year, but I had no idea he was leaving. Fair enough, I don't need to be told. I did ask when he would find out if he was leaving for sure and he answered probably February 15th. Let's put this into perspective. Yes, we did just have winter vacation. So my students were off for the month of January. Now, we are back in school for two weeks until February 15th and then we have two weeks of spring vacation. Our new school year does not start until March 4th, 2013. I most likely wont know who I will spend the next year teaching with until the first day of school. It is also likely I wont have books for prep until then as well. It is not my coteacher's fault he doesn't know so I sat with a smile and finished the conversation. But you better believe, I don't get it kept repeating itself in my head.

Club 27

It's official. I'm 27. I can no longer introduce myself as "Hi I'm Angel, I'm in my mid-twenties." There's no way around it. I'm required to now say "Hi I'm Angel, I'm in my LATE twenties" which don't get me wrong sounds weird. I'll have to focus on the "twenties" part. For the birthday I spent my day traveling to Seoul (technically Osan) to spend the weekend with a really great friend. Although she met me at the bus terminal once we arrived to her apartment she ran ahead of me. This is what I walked into:

I personally found this to be hilarious AND very thoughtful, but she kept apologizing. Since it is vacation time for most (if not all) schools, our friends are traveling the world or are back home visiting their family and friends. Thus limiting the number of party guest. I had no problem with this. I just wanted to spend the day with a really good friend and explore more of Korea; explore is what we did!

1. Dr. Fish.

I would definitely go back! I loved it. It was like a $2.00 pedicure without nail painting, but included free bread. This place is located in Gangnam, Seoul and was really easy to find. As you can see from the video it was extremely difficult to get used to. After about five minutes I was finally able to calm myself down and leave my feet in the water to feed the fish.

I did have the option between little fish (pictured above) and large fish (pictured below). I stayed with the small fish for obvious reasons.

 Something about the large fish just grosses me out. If they can eat your little toe I don't think it's safe to stick your feet in their home and taunt them. Not wise.

2. Vatos

I was too excited, restless and hungry to take pictures. Not realizing it was Friday and we didn't make a reservation there was an hour wait. We put our names down and headed out to do some converse shopping and grab a quick drink. One beer later we ordered another in a to-go cup (which they advertise) and headed back to Vatos to wait another hour. Two hours later we were seated, buzzed and had ordered our food. I'm not sure if Vanessa was having fun playing the wait game, but I went to Seoul with two things I wanted to accomplish 1. Dr. Fish 2. Eat Kimchi fries. Once we were seated and  had ordered our food came rather fast. The Kimchi fries were absolutely amazing! My mouth is watering just thinking about them. I would like to go back, but maybe next time I'll go for lunch.

Random photos from that weekend.

If you can't tell, this is a backpack. I do find it a little funny, but also disorderly. I think I would need a system to work with all of those pockets.

  Vanessa and I on the subway. This is why I probably wont ever live in Seoul and why I tend to have yelling fits when I visit. Granted this was during rush hour in a popular area.

Today is officially my last day of vacation and for the most part I've accomplished all I wanted to. Most goals included catching up on TV shows/movies I've missed, eating new foods, cooking and staying home laying in bed. I'm personally okay with that. I may have developed bed sores and a sleep disorder, but isn't that what vacation is for?

Happy February