brine shrimp

Mung beans

I ordered a 5-pound bag of mung bean seeds. They’re supposed to show up tomorrow and I can’t help being excited. (UPDATED: They’re here! They’re here!)

I bought a new strainer to grow these babies in. (Maangchi grew soybeans in a strainer she kept on her kitchen counter. I saw her do it on her site, Maangchi.com. It only took a week or so before she was cooking them and eating them.) It’s bright red with black handles.

I’m already thrilling about all the beansprouts we can eat. (Sadly, there were no soybeans in my price range.)

mung/soybean sprouts
sesame oil
salt
green onion (optional)
white onion (optional)
carrot (optional)
spinach (optional)
mushroom (optional)
-You can choose whatever mix of vegetables you like. It’s the sauce that makes them taste so good. Once you get the right blend, you can have some awesome banchan going. Or you could throw all the vegetables with some bulgogi and cellophane noodles for some chapchae.
-You can blanch the mung beansprouts–dip them for a minute in boiling water–and stir fry them in sesame oil and seasonings. A good mix is sesame oil, garlic powder, julienned onion, and salt.

These sprouts are your base. You add them to other recipes or you can eat them just like this. It’s very tasty, very fresh; I eat them cold right from the fridge.

Add crushed red pepper flakes, green onion, soy sauce, spinach salad[1], sugar (optional), julienned pickled carrot (optional), julienned pickled garlic (Pickled in soy sauce with maybe some whole jalapenos or onions; optional), and raw julienned onion to a bowl; mix together without mashing. Enjoy with rice as a side dish, or turn it into a star by adding it to a soup[2].

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1. Spinach salad — clean, rinse, and blanch your fresh spinach to desired level of doneness. (Get a nice green color without going to mush by immediately draining and rinsing the spinach with cold water to stop the cooking process.) Add a dressing of sesame oil, garlic, onion, green onion, and salt.

SUBSTITUTIONS: For another dressing idea, you can use sesame oil, garlic, onion, green onion, soy sauce, and sugar.

ADDITIONS: Add julienned carrot, white onion, daikon radish, zuchinni, cucumbers or beansprouts with the spinach. You might have to boil them longer for a more desired doneness, so throw them in the pot of boiling water and set your timer to 5 minutes. When it gets to how long your spinach needs to cook, add it to the water. Drain everything into the same strainer and rinse.

That’s like five vegetables right there. And vegetable-haters will be eating the heck out of them when you make chapchae, kimbap, veggie pancakes, scrambled eggs, soup… anything. Spinach salad is delicious with anything, even if you can’t afford the spinach.

2. Spicy clam soup is the best. Though I’m in love with any miso/bonito based soup. I’ll throw anything into the pot and it’ll come out delicious.

Soup base: water, bonito (fish bouillon), garlic, onion, sugar, and soy sauce heated to boiling.
-ADDITIONS: tofu cut into chunks; clams in the shell or rinsed from the can; potato; beef; chicken; pork; shrimp; zucchini; carrot; radish; brussels sprouts; asparagus; bok choy; beansprouts; jalapenos; celery; cabbage; kimchi; udon noodles, napa cabbage; torn noodles; octopus; crab; lobster; fish; wontons or mandu; meat raviolis.
-ADDITIONS: you can add gochujang (hot pepper paste) to your broth, though people usually either like a little bit or a lot; not in-between. Still, the right mix of vegetables, gochujang, and bonito will blow your mind.
Soup closer: stir in the miso in the last couple of minutes or just before you turn off the heat.
-OPTIONAL: With the soup in the serving dish, garnish with green onions, seaweed flakes, fish flakes, dry squid or fish pieces. Or eat as is.
OPTIONAL: When it’s still boiling, add an egg before turning off the heat. You want to let the white cook a bit before popping the yolk. It keeps them from merging, and also lets the yolk solidify a bit before it mixes with the broth.

Eat the soup by itself or as a side dish with rice,

Remember: when choosing your vegetables, things like celery and radish have strong flavors. Only add a little bit of them. And with things that can fall apart or break into small pieces like broccoli and cauliflower, maybe cook them separately and add to the soup just before it comes off the stove. Same thing when you choose your noodles–maybe pour the soup over them in the bowl or add them at the last minute.
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I also think it will be cool to watch the mung beans grow. I’m not sure if the plants will thrive in my yard, but I want to at least try.

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Brine shrimp

The Kid was talking about bringing home a hydra from his science class. So I ordered some brine shrimp with which to feed them.

He forgot the hydra. It’s winter break, so they’re all going to be dead by the time he gets back to school. The project didn’t require that all of them live (I think that’s a kinda cruel way to handle things, but that’s nature.) and the teacher isn’t going to keep feeding them. Which is a bit wasteful, since I’ve heard it’s hard to get hydra outside of classroom settings, but it’s her prerogative.

Now I have a vial of brine shrimp eggs and no carnivorous aquatic plant(?) to feed them to. I wonder how long they’ll stay viable. (UPDATED: It seems that they stay good for YEARS. That’s good information to know.)

I wasn’t very enthusiastic about him bringing the hydra home, but now that I think on it, I wish he hadn’t forgotten.

Research has suggested that hydra are difficult to purchase, though you can find them in nature. So if you grew your own in a tank and created whole ecosystems for them to breed in, you can sell healthy hydra to pet owners. Make a whole set/kit, like the old ant farms, and sell them at affordable prices. People would buy it.

I want to buy it. Or at least have a kit gifted to me. Raising hydra seems like a fun home-science experiment to do with the Kid.

From what I understand, hydra are more interesting than brine shrimp, but not as messy as fish and lizards. I’m thinking you can grow both hydra and brine shrimp in the same tank if you plant the hydra in one corner. I even heard something about daphnia too.

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DIY Google Cardboard VR

The Kid chose this as his Christmas gift. I’m not quite sure what you do with these, but he’s very enthusiastic about them.

He’d a bit worried that his phone won’t be compatible with the goggles, so I’m hoping that they work.

The product description: “The DIY Google Cardboard VR mobile phone 3D glasses headset, instantaneously transforms your Smartphone into a VR headset.” -AMAZON

They cost $12.99, and I’m not sure if that’s a deal or not. We might just Mod Podge these up so he can use them longer.