Saturday , 16 January 2021
*****
In my latest book, TOXIC, the main character gathers the ships rag-tag mercenary crew and cooks a meal that isn’t just a pile of synthetic jello. It’s a pivotal scene. After all, food is so central to bringing people together. It’s comfort and nourishment and love.
Since Hana is of Korean ancestry, her mother tried to infuse Korean culture into her lonely and isolated upbringing. So it was natural that she wanted to make something soothing and homey. Granted—on board a living biosynthetic ship, there isn’t a lot of fresh food. Today, we’re going to pretend she had everything she needed to make a real, authentic Korean meal from scratch.
Seolleongtang (beef bone soup) is the soup that she makes. It’s a bone-based broth, with delicious noodles. Korean meals are severed with a smattering of banchan—side dishes of many varieties.
If you want to cook these, you’ll need access to a good Asian grocery store (better if it’s a Korean grocery).
For this meal, I made home made seollongtang (recipe to follow), as well as these banchan:
Here’s the meal at presentation. So much work for one meal! That’s Korean food. It’s worth the effort! And now, for the seollongtang recipe. This is adapted from the Koreanbapsang.com website. I’ve tested several of her recipes and they’re spot on. Also, she looks like my mom so I trust her. 😀
Seollangtang (serves 4+)
Ideally, I cook this over two days.
Ingredients:
3-4 pounds of beef bones (I used a combination of oxtails and beef bones, both purchased at my regular grocery store)
1-2 pounds of beef brisket
Thin noodles (white colored wheat-based, not rice. And not buckwheat, either)
scallions for garnish
sea salt
Day 1
Day 2
There you go! A traditional Korean meal, soup to nuts LOL. Enjoy!
*****
Hana isn’t supposed to exist. She’s grown up hidden by her mother in a secret room of the bioship Cyclo until the day her mother is simply gone—along with the entire crew. Cyclo tells her she was abandoned, but she’s certain her mother wouldn’t leave her there to die. And Hana isn’t ready to die yet. She’s never really had a chance to live.
Fenn is supposed to die. He and a crew of hired mercenaries are there to monitor Cyclo as she expires, and the payment for the suicide mission will mean Fenn’s sister is able to live. But when he meets Hana, he’s not sure how to save them both.
As Cyclo grows sicker by the day, they unearth more secrets about the ship and the crew. But the more time they spend together, the more Hana and Fenn realize that falling for each other is what could ultimately kill them both.
January 24, 2019
December 3, 2018
November 28, 2018
November 2, 2018