poor (wo)man’s cure

Man, I miss college when I used to wake up feeling like a champ and running to class no matter how late I stayed up the night before. I miss pigging out late at night on carne asada fries and Jack-in-the-Box and drinking a ton of beer and not having to really worry about getting fat. I miss having my biggest worry being having to orchestrate maximum procrastination and minimum class attendance. I miss those days of no blacking out and no hangovers.

Those days are long, long gone.

Woke up this morning feeling haggardly.

Opened my CPA book and wanted to shoot myself in the foot.

Girl’s gotta eat.

I opened my fridge to a barren, whitewalled tundra. I see green onions. Anchovies. Eggs. Yogurt. Cheese. Jam. Fifty persimmons. Luckily, at least got some dumplings in the freezer. I really need to buy some freaking groceries.

I kind of just eye-balled everything. Mandoo-guk is pretty much the easiest thing in the world to make. This is just one serving. Man, cooking for one is sad sometimes.

Mandoo-guk (Korean dumpling soup)

Dried kelp (dasima) about 1 leaf(?)
5 big dried anchovies
1 stalk of green onion
1 egg
1-2 teaspoons soy sauce to taste
3-6 dumplings (I used 3 huge kimchi mandoo)

In a pot over medium heat, lightly saute the anchovies for about a minute. Add about 3-4 cups of water and bring to a high boil over medium high heat. Once the water is at a high boil, lower the heat to medium-low, add the dasima and soy sauce, and boil for about twenty minutes to make the broth.

While the broth is cooking, diagonally slice the green onion. Separate the egg yolk from the egg white and beat both. Over medium-low heat, pan fry the separated eggs like a thin omelette. Slice thinly and put aside.

After the broth has been cooked, remove the anchovies and dasima and throw away and bring broth to a rolling boil. Add dumplings and boil until fully cooked, about 3-5 minutes depending on what kind of dumplings you use. Just use the instructions on the package. Add the green onions 1 minute before the dumplings are done. Serve topped with the eggs.

EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEEZY!

You can always add garlic, rice cakes, seaweed, sesame seeds, pepper, etc. but since this is all that I have, poor man’s version of mandoo guk. I miss my mom’s cooking. She makes it look so easy.

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