Cycle 12 – Item 340
11 (Sat) December 2021
Köttbullar in Truffle Gravy
3.5
by me
at home
-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-
with the Family, LHS
Korean-Swedish Culinary Exchange (21) (see all posts at KSCX)
LHS dropped by for dinner, out of the blue. It was initially a bit disturbing in these socially-distanced times, but the randomness was ultimately so refreshing. With ingredients on hand, and in consideration of LHS’s fondness for western foods, Swedish was the way to go.
Meanwhile, on GK’s end, with ingredients that I’d sent him in a care package, he made AHQFGT (my At-Home, Quick-Fix, Go-To meal) – the dish that had given rise to KSCX.
BY ME
IKEA Korea now sells gravy powder packets (just mix with water + heavy cream), though they don’t appear to be produced by IKEA.
I added some (non-IKEA) black truffle paste.
In contrast to my entry at #1, made entirely from scratch, every component here was an IKEA-based shortcut: meatballs, potatoes, gravy.
BY GK
[The comments below are GK’s own words, with minor typographical edits from me.]
I made AHQFGT recently (mostly because you noted that since I hadn’t used “real” SPAM the first time I made it, this whole exchange “started with a lie” 😉
So far, I haven’t found SPAM in a store here, but maybe I should be looking in the bigger Asian grocery stores.
To sum it up, I did like it, though I didn’t feel that big of a difference between “real” spam and the “generic” one. Maybe I would need to do a taste test?
CONCLUSIONS
By beautiful coincidence, this exchange #21 – the 1st in what I hope will be another 20 exchanges to come – features the same dishes on either side as exchange #1 (sort of).
On my effort:
-
- Among the European cuisines that I cook at home, Swedish has become my go-to, second only to Italian, somewhere near French, more than Spanish – köttbullar med potatismos & sås is now a family staple (though not so much these days, in light of my reduced meat consumption).
- Wondering if Swedes ever add black truffle paste to their gravy.
On GK’s effort:
-
- Recently, I was devastated to learn that GK had not used real SPAM in our first exchange, rather a different brand of luncheon meat – KSCX was born out of a lie.
- The kimchi, presumably from the batch of pogi kimchi a while back, looks great – I love the neat symmetry in the slices.
- I can’t understand how the SPAM was cut to turn out in such uneven shapes.
- I’m noticing just now GK uses Korean chopsticks, along with what appears to be a Thai spoon, and Japanese bowls.
NEXT STEPS
Gravlax, as soon as I can get a whole salmon fillet.
(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)
(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)