The month of Ramadan has arrived, it's time to look for recommendations for varied iftar and sahur menus so you can eat the latest food offerings. If you are bored with ordinary food, maybe you can try serving Korean food for meals at dawn and iftar.
Like some of the Korean foods below which are very easy to cook even for people who are not good at cooking, so it doesn't take long to serve them, so they are perfect for breaking fast and sahur. What kind of food huh?
Pajeon
Pajeon is a type of Korean pancake, but the pancakes here are not the pancakes that are often served in restaurants and have a sweet taste. Korean pancakes are more directed to dough mixed with vegetables, a bit like bakwan in Indonesia, but the difference is that the pajeon is flatter and bigger than bakwan.
Jeon itself is a savory pancake made of eggs and flour and added with several other ingredients. Actually, there are many types of jeon in Korean food, but the easiest to make are pajeon or scallion pancakes.
Where to make it, you only need to prepare flour, eggs, and scallions. Meanwhile, how to make it is to make a dough from flour and eggs with a slightly runny consistency, then just pour the mixture over the rows of scallions that have been arranged in the frying pan.
Wait a while until the dough changes color, and don't forget to flip the pajeon so that it cooks evenly, after that just lift it. Pajeon is the right choice if you are looking for food that you want to eat quickly.
Japchae
Japchae is the most appropriate food to eat when breaking the fast because of its shape and texture similar to vermicelli, where vermicelli is a typical food for breaking the fast in Indonesia.
Japchae is indeed a food that looks very simple, but has a very rich taste. Japchae itself is a noodle made from sweet potato flour, which is stir-fried with various vegetables and meats, and is the most popular banchan or side dish in Korea.
The hardest part about making japchae is simply chopping the vegetables, where all the vegetables needed have to be cut into matchstick-sized pieces for easy eating.
However, after cutting the vegetables, the next step is very easy and only takes a short time to make it to completion.
bulgogy
If you mention Korean food, it's not valid if you don't mention this one food, namely bulgogi. This meat-based Korean specialty is very synonymous with Korea and is the representative food of this country after kimchi.
Bulgogi is a marinated beef stir fry, perfect for people who love meat. The most difficult part of making bulgogi is the process of making the marinade, and although it is a bit of a hassle, the effort to prepare these ingredients is worth the taste of this one dish.
Bulgogi has a savory and sweet taste that is guaranteed to make people addicted to eating it.
Dak Gomtang
Breaking the fast and sahur are not appropriate without consuming soupy foods that warm the body, and Korean food has many types of soupy foods such as soups and stews. One of the Korean soup foods that you can try to eat at iftar or sahur is dak gomtang or chicken soup.
Dak gomtang is a type of chicken soup made from garlic, shallots, spring onions, and whole chicken. This food has a light and refreshing taste, suitable for consumption when breaking the fast when the body is already weak due to running out of energy.
At first glance, this dish is similar to samgyetang, but dak gomtang is easier for people living outside of Korea to make because of its simpler ingredients.
Kimchi Bokkeumbap
Fried rice is one of the simplest and quickest menus to eat at dawn when you don't have much time or don't know what to eat at dawn.
Indonesian fried rice might be a little boring, the solution can be to try making Korean fried rice, namely kimchi fried rice or kimchi bokkeumbap.
Using the most popular Korean food, namely kimchi, how to make this dish is very easy, you know. All you have to do is prepare kimchi, which can now be purchased online, rice, eggs, and any other ingredients you want to add, be it vegetables or meat.
How to make it is also very easy, which is the same as how to cook fried rice in general.
Jjigae (Kimchi Jjigae/ Sundubu Jjigae)
In addition to dak gomtang, if you want to eat a soup, you can also make jjigae or stew. In Korea itself there are many types of jjigae that can be made, generally the jjigae that are widely consumed are sundubu jjigae and kimchi jjigae.
Kimchi jjigae is a kimchi stew that generally uses aged kimchi as the main ingredient, and can add sliced meat (beef or pork) and various vegetables. This dish can be an alternative meal for sahur because the way to make it is very easy and you can use makeshift ingredients. It can also be a great solution for those who have kimchi but don't like bokkeumbap.
Next, there is sundubu jjigae, which is a Korean stew or soup made with very soft tofu as the main ingredient. Generally, sundubu jjigae has many ingredients in it, from soft tofu, meat or seafood, to vegetables like zucchini, some people also add mushrooms.
At first glance, the appearance of these two foods is very similar, because the ingredients used to make them are also almost the same, the difference is the type of tofu used. In kimchi jjigae, the tofu used is usually firmer and in the form of a block, while in sundubu jjigae the tofu is very soft like silken tofu. Both are very suitable to be served as a meal for breaking the fast and sahur.
Those are the six recommendations for Korean dishes that can be used as dishes when breaking the fast or at dawn, where in addition to having a delicious taste, the way to make it is also very easy. Of the six dishes above, which one do you want to make your iftar and sahur menu for?
