"Korean" Harry Potter Roasted Hen

I got this simple roasted hen recipe from "The Unofficial harry Potter Cookbook" and I modified it by adding lemons and Korean hot red pepper flakes. The recipe called for cooking it for 45 minutes... But in reality it took about 3 hours.. O_O (*correction: that's because I used a frozen hen. Don't do that. Wait till it defrosts. I was too impatient;)

Ingredients:

- 1 pheasant or hen (I used a cornish hen)

- 1 onion, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick slices

- 2 celery ribs, cut into chunks

- 2 carrots, cut into chunks

- 1 potato, cut into chunks

- 4 cloves of garlic

- olive oil for brushing on the hen

- salt and freshly ground black pepper

- red pepper flakes

- 1 cup water

- 1/2 a lemon

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degree Fahrenheit. Lay the onion slices in a roasting pan and scatter the celery, carrots, potatoes, and garlic cloves on top.

2. Rinse the hen in cold water and pat it dry with paper towels. Place the pheasant in the roasting pan, breast side up, wings tucked under. Brush the olive oil over the hen and sprinkle it with the salt and pepper. Pour the water into the roasting pan.

3. Put the pan in the oven and roast for 45 minutes, or until the juices run clear. (AND then i saw that it wasn't cooked throughly so I flipped it over, stabbed into the meat everywhere so the juices would go inside, squeezed the lemons over the hen and layered them on top of it, basked the juiced over the hen, and continued to roast for another 45 minutes. I did this every 20 minutes for the next hour (so three times). And finally, at 4am (it was a night project) the roasted hen was complete and ready to eat. All of the flavors from the juices soaked into the meat- you could taste the celery, carrot, lemon, garlic, and the little hint of spice. It was delicious.

SOON DUBU JIGAE!! (Spicy seafood and tofu stew/soup)

This is by far one of my favorite dishes ever. Its tasty, spicy, seafood bitty, soupy and easy to make.

Ingredients:

- 1 cup (or more) seafood mix: I used one from the Korean store that included scallops, shrimp, mussels, and calamari ^___^)

- 2 1/2 tablespoons gojugadu (korean hot pepper flakes)

- 1 tablespoon dashida (powered beef stock)

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

- 2 tablespoon sesame seed oil

- 5 cloves of chopped/crush

ed garlic

- 1 green onion/scallion

- 1 large jalepeno

- 1 packet of soft tofu

- 1 cup of water

- 1-3 eggs

First put the seafood mix in water and soak for about 15 minutes. Chop up the raw ingredients such as the garlic, scallion, jalepeno, etc. Then in a hot-pot, (I used a stone hot-pot) add the sesame seed oil under high heat. After it starts to smoke, add the red pepper flakes and stir to make a deep red pasty mixture. Drain the seafood and fry the seafood bits into the red paste along with the garlic. After about 2 minutes, add water and bring to a boil. Add the dashida (beef and/or anchovy stock), salt, pepper, jalepenos and soft tofu. Let it all boil for about 4-5 minutes. Add the green onions/scallions. Turn off the heat and bring the entire pot to the table, then crack the eggs into the top. Swirl around the egg, (or let the eggs poach, whichever you prefer:)

And then you have delicious Soon dubu jigae. Serve with rice.

I stopped taking step-by-step photos because I got too excited chopping and cooking. But long story short, I served the soon dubu jigae along with saang-gilsal, pork-belly Korean BBQ. To add into the saam (lettuce wrap) I mixed chopped scallions with a little bit of sesame seed oil, soy sauce, sesame seeds, salt and red pepper flakes. (pictured last) YUMMMMMM ^_^