Cook Up A Storm with CJ CheilJedang

Let me start the Year 2011 with an interesting post which I had delayed in putting up for awhile. Sometimes in early Dec 2010, I was invited to a special hands-on cooking session at Cookyn with Mervyn Home Cooking Studio where we experienced incorporating Korean fares into local cuisine by using CJ CheilJedang products. Interesting right? I accepted the invitation right away. Most Singaporeans including myself are no strangers to Korean food culture, thanks to the "Hanryu" (Korean) wave that swept Asia by storm and also hundreds of Korean restaurants including food court stalls all over Singapore. I like Korean as much as Japanese cuisine and been cooking it pretty often at home but has never cross my mind to use these sauces in Singapore-style cuisine like Chicken rice and Rojak. Sound interesting right!

CJ CheilJedang is Korea No 1 food company and has more than 57 years of experience on the Korean instant foods industry. It carries a wide selection of instant food products ranging from convenient sauces such as Bulgogi BBQ sauces to frozen foods such as rice cakes and dumplings. Recently they even came out with ready-made snacks like the roasted chestnuts. In May 2010, this Korean food giant has entered into one of our local largest supermarket chains - NTUC Fairprice. Now you can easily find their products in all NTUC Fairprice outlets island wide at more reasonable prices where it used to be much more costly in speciality Korean grocery store. I believe most of you have seen them by now. The representative of CJ CheilJedang in Singapore told us that they plan to grow into a ubiquitous and must have brand for local homes. Glad to know that the sauce we were using that day are all trans fat free and with fruit puree. Enough is said about them, let's me take you through the free style cooking session I had with other bloggers and see how local fares are infused with Korean sauces at Mervyn's cooking studio.

Menu for the day:
Homemade Chilli Sauce
Popiah
Rojak
Braised Pork Belly served with Kimchi
Chicken Rice

Homemade Chilli Sauce
CJ products: CJ BBQ Sauce (Pork marinade)

We started the session by making our own chilli sauce which will compliment the rest of the dishes later. Very simple and super spicy! Pound fresh chilli, ginger, garlic and lime juice together. Lastly add in BBQ sauce to season which replace the sugar.

Popiah with CJ Vermicelli Filling
CJ products: CJ Bulgogi Sauce (beef marinade), BBQ Sauce, Sesame Olive Oil & Vermicelli (sweet potatoes glass noodle)

What a great and refreshing idea to replace the usual turnip to this fantastic glass noodles that are made with 100% sweet potatoes. Love the chewy texture. Plus it's easy to prepare, just soak for awhile till it softened. Place it in a pan and add in 1 bottle of bulgogi sauce and some shredded carrot and dried shrimp. Cooked till the sauce was all adsorbed into the noodle. Add some sesame oil for fragrant. Used the cooked noodles for Popiah filling and replace the sweet sauce with Spicy BBQ sauce. You will be surprised that it worked pretty well...

Rojak
CJ products: Bulgogi Sauce

A lighter version of rojak that I preferred more than the actual one. A mixture of cucumber, turnip, pineapple, you tiao, ginger flower and some assam water. Lastly replace the prawn paste with Bulgogi sauce. Served it with grounded peanut so refreshingly appetizing and delightful!

Braised Pork Belly served with Kimchi
CJ products: CJ Bulgogi sauce and Kimchi

This was a rather fusion dish prepared by Chef Mervyn and served it to us. Another crowd pleaser and everyone gave thumb up for this. The belly was well braised and flavourful, the kimchi complimented it really well. Instead of braising the pork with soya sauce and Asian spices, replace it with bulgogi sauce, sweet vegetables like onions, celery and garlic. So simple and impressively delicious.

Chicken Rice served with Kimchi
CJ products: CJ Kimchi & Sesame Olive Oil

By the time the chicken rice was served, most of us were already full. However I still tried some as it was prepared by the chef too. Chicken rice served with kimchi, also went pretty well like the acar. The sauce for the chicken, used CJ sesame oil with some soya sauce. Ate it with the chilli we made earlier, tasted homey and nice.

Finally the 3 hours plus workshop was coming to an end. It's such an enjoyable session of cooking and eating that times passed by real fast without noticing it. All of us went home with a full tummy and a goodie bag that contains a bottle of BBQ sauce, a pack of Toppoki sauce and chestnut snack. I will definitely made full used of it. Thank you so much! I believe most of them had forgone dinner for the day but not for me as I still had a family dinner to attend.

Thank you Cheryl from Hill & Knowlton and CJ CheilJedang for the invitation. I really enjoyed myself and has a new perspective in using CJ products after this session.