Korea’s Barugongyang Buddhist Temple Restaurant with Monk-Chef Dae-Ahn Sunim

From the Buddhist

temple

of Baru, where

monk

and

chef

Dae-Ahn Sunim shows us traditional Korean

temple

cuisine and a lotus-themed lunch. I'm here with Dae-Ahn Sunim. He is a

monk

and Buddhist food

chef

. It is very important to achieve balance, in terms of cooking method, ingredients... ....and having seasonal ingredients, which is good for you. Also, to maintain the proper amount of food, do not eat too much. It is very important, which she recommends. She does not own this

restaurant

. So, this

restaurant

is owned by a temple. So, yes, she develops the entire menu and works as a chef here.

So, this is a bamboo shoot salad. We put a little micrograss on top and of course, lettuce. And in June, bamboo shoots are fresh and pleasant... That's why they bring it from Chungcheong province, in the southern part of Korea. So they have a lot of bamboo trees there. And it's all mixed together like Bibimbap. Koreans don't use a single ingredient. It's all mixed with zucchini and yes... ....fresh seasonal ingredients, yes. This is a pine nut dressing with a little bit of mustard in here. So here we have two different types of pancakes. The darker, chocolate-colored pancake is seasoned with Gochujang, Korean red pepper paste..... ....and Korean soybean paste.

That's why it looks darker. And here are fresh seasonal leaves. So, you have chopped zucchini, chopped bell pepper and. And the green one is a long leaf, it is blanched and then mixed with dough..... ....with a little dark soy sauce and it is just flour based dough. This is, yes, she is saying it is a Mandu Dumpling. This is that it has no skin, but this is a kind of dumpling called.... Potato, round potato dumpling... ....with all the vegetables and it is steamed. This is Korean green tofu. So, everything is made from scratch. That's why it looks green.

This is a Korean pickle, made with , which is a tuber. And this is another one: yellow is colored with our fruit. And it also has a pickle: gherkin. A pickle made with mountain vegetables. Korean pickles are called in Korean "jangajji"... And they must be seasoned or fermented in the sauce for at least six months. So, the dipping sauce... So, the sauce... ....is soy sauce and she grated some Asian pear into it. And then we chop a little red pepper, green pepper and.... Mm-hmm. So, she made it a week ago, so that all the flavors of the vegetables, the fruits, come in and taste good... the sauce.

This sauce is for mandu, for the potato dumpling, and it is not necessary to dip it in the sauce because it is already seasoned on top. So, all the different types of tofu... There's a huge variety and, uh... For monks it's very important because they're not supposed to eat anything... The easiest way to get protein from food. It's tofu. They use soy in many different ways, so they are never short of protein. So this is wild burdock. One of the tubers that Koreans love. So, wild fruits with pine nut sauce. That's why the sauce looks a little creamy.

And it is cooked – roasted – in the oven. It is not oil, but since it is pine nut, it has a good oil, quite oily, it is quite creamy and pleasant. And he thinks burdock combines very well with pine nuts. And black is... black sesame. And also to give it texture, it has a little bit of pine nuts, chopped pine nuts. So, this is four-year-old mountain ginseng from the mountains of Chile. And it is served with a little bit of yuzu sauce. And this is a little bit of honey. So yes. It is not artificially grown, so it is grown naturally for four years.

So if you want to fold this, use your hands like this and then... A little bit bitter. The root part is quite bitter, but the leaves are soft and pleasant. The flavors are great. This is a lotus root pickle with chestnut strips served with miso sauce, okay. Yes, then you can pour little by little over each lotus root. So, this is him. Korean mushrooms pickled in soy sauce. Then, you season the rice and lotus using the pickle on top. And as you can see, the Lotus is filled with sticky rice. It has a natural color with green tea, fruit...

And cactus fruit, yes... And the black one is the largest stone ear mushroom. And thinly sliced ​​chestnuts, julienned and of different colors, like... Black like Estonian mushrooms, cucumber, just the skin of the cucumber to make it green... And, of course, carrot. It is a Korean mushroom steamed with fermented mountain herbs. With a little bit of vegetable broth made with shiitake, daikon….. Shiitake, daikon…. Kelp. Seasoned with dark soy sauce made here. And you eat the soup and then you drink this. Helps digestion. So, first the hot soup. And then the tea made from the root of namu, which is a tree.

So, hot and cold. Bitter and soft. Balance: She emphasizes balance in terms of temperature, texture and flavor. So, the concept is brown rice cooked with pork and adding the bacillus fungus. And then wait 30 days. Naturally it will grow like this. And you just cut the mushroom. And you can eat fresh. It's a little strong. But it has a very decent flavor, very pleasant. And I love the texture. It's a very interesting texture that I can't express in a word. This in front of me is Bean Bulgogi. "Bulgogi" in Korean means "Korean barbecue." This is Bean Bulgogi with Pickled Myeong-yi.

Koreans call it Myeong-yi Namul, which could be used as Ssam. And you put... So, you put the barbecue, that is, the bean barbecue, on the Myeong-yi leaf, and you make a Ssam. It is a slice of fried chestnut. And this is the sunflower seed. And then you want to roll it and do a Ssam. Well, some do Ssam like this. This is a Korean mushroom called Songyi. Similar to... Mm-hmm. So, this is a stone ear mushroom with finely julienned chestnuts on top. So, this is sesame oil with bamboo salt. So, this mushroom goes very well with bamboo salt.

MMM. So the reason you need to eat separately is, of course, that each flavor is very different... ....and if you eat together at the same time, it doesn't look good. But, if you eat separately, one by one, they will taste much better in your mouth. So that's your recommendation. So, these are fried shiitake mushrooms, lotus root with sweet and sour apple sauce on top. So, the shiitake mushroom, um... This is fresh shiitake. Because normally in Korea we like to dry off and then rehydrate most of the time. But this is fresh, fried shiitake. And then bittersweet.

She didn't add... It doesn't have sugar... To give it sweetness, she grated a little apple into the sauce. Now we have the last part of the meal, so... ...these are all Banchan. So, various side dishes, Banchan, including temple kimchi... ....and then the seasonal mixed salad called "namul". This is also Namul, the lotus stewed in soy sauce. So, no garlic, of course. No fish sauce. Freshly made with a vegetable. And if. Normally Koreans also add a little fish sauce for flavor, but she says she added dark soy sauce to flavor the kimchi. So, this is a tofu pickle.

So, it doesn't look like tofu, but yes, it is tofu pickled in a special soy sauce, aged soy sauce; It must be pickled and fermented for three months to give it flavor. And then, as a starch, we have rice with lotus leaves. Yes, it is wrapped in... Sticky rice is cooked in a lotus leaf wrapper. And the rice is mixed with jujubes, gingko nuts, pine nuts... It is very important to use the leaves correctly, otherwise... you know, the taste is not good. And it also has lotus seeds, which is interesting... And the soup, of course, the Miyeok Guk, which is a Korean miso soup. ....with Korean soybeans.

With a little bit of tofu. MMM. And that's how Koreans usually eat at home... Not, you know, big plates or pretty plates, but Banchan with rice and soup. This is the Korean staple food. She says that in the temple, monks usually eat just this with five different Banchan (seasonal Bachann) with rice and soup. So, we have dessert here. And this is a summer tea, it's a cold tea... ....made with cinnamon and ginger. So, the chef says that in summer you sweat a lot, so... ....this ginger and cinnamon tea is very good for you. And this is all seasonal.....? ....dry fruits.

Like sweet potato. You can see sweet potato.... Lotus..... Orange. This is orange. And this is dried nori or black seaweed. So this is for a crunchy texture, it's all sweet. And the last one, this one is also made with red beans, a traditional Korean dessert. Therefore, red beans combine well with tea and seasonal fruits. Thus, we have fresh, dried and then finely brewed tea, and also tea. So again, everything is balanced and a combination of texture, color and flavor.