Online Korean Cuisine Class: Summer Dessert

For your summer cooking inspiration, the KCCUK presents an online Korean cuisine class looking at the summer foods.

In the summer the weather can be hot and tiresome and these desserts can cool one down nicely. Boknal (복날) refers to the 3 hottest days of summer, which occur between mid-July to mid-August. On these dates, many Koreans eat hot stew, especially samgyetang (ginseng chicken stew) but also Koreans enjoy thirst-quenching, cold desserts too, such as hwachae (fruit punch) and bingsu (shaved-ice dessert).

The instructor, Da-Hae West is a cookery teacher, consultant and author of K-Food. Da-Hae is an authority on Korean food, having worked behind the scenes on TV shows Gizzi Erskine’s Seoul Food and John Torode’s Korean Food Tour, as well as personally appearing on the BBC’s One Show and The Travel Channel’s Footie Shorts.

During this class, Da-Hae will introduce some of Korea’s best summer foods and show you how to make them at home. The event also features a demonstration of how to make Subak Hwachae, a traditional watermelon punch, using shop bought ingredients that you can follow along to. It’s simple and can make with any fruits you like. The Met Office has predicted that a heatwave is set last from 2 - 16 August, so why not beat the heat with some Korean flavours?

Introducing Hwachae

Hwachae is a summer dessert, made with various fruits or edible flower petals. There are many variations, and one of the most popular versions is subak hwachae, which is made with watermelon. Traditionally, the punch was made from fruit, sugar and ice. These days, there are loads of variations that bring much more creativity to the bowl.

Event Details

• Date: Wednesday 11 August 17:30 – 18:30 (BST)
• Venue: ZOOM (Online)
• Entrance Free - Booking Essential
• Apply to info@kccuk.org.uk with your name, email by 8 August 2021.

The event is free of charge, but booking is essential.

* Privacy policy: This event will be audio and video recorded through ZOOM. By attending this event, you are consenting to being recorded.

Ingredients

1/4 watermelon (about 600g)

¼ mango (can use extra watermelon or substitute for kiwi)

For the juice:

100ml water

100g caster sugar

⅛ (approx 300g) watermelon, roughly chopped

Ice

For the rice cake “tteok” balls (optional)

4 tablespoon glutinous rice flour (sometimes known as sweet rice flour)

4 tablespoon boiling water

1 teaspoon sugar

Pinch salt

To finish (optional)

Sparkling water

You will also need:

Chopping board

Kitchen knife

Melon baller (optional)

Kitchen scales

Saucepan

Wooden spoon or spatula

Colander

Blender

Sieve

Tumbler glasses or small bowls to serve

Mixing bowl x 2