636 recipes. Page 10 of 27
Everyday Korean side dish recipes
Lotus root stays crisp even when fully cooked, and here a thin layer of seasoned ground beef is pressed onto each slice, giving one bite two very different textures. The slices go into the pan beef side down first, letting the meat set onto the root.
Lean pork tenderloin pulls apart after boiling into long, even strands that take up a soy reduction along every fiber. It tastes better fully chilled than straight from the pot, since the seasoning keeps settling into the meat as it cools. Whole garlic cloves braise alongside and soften enough to eat with the pork.
Two days in a soy and vinegar brine take the raw sting out of large green onions and leave only their mellow onion fragrance behind. The recipe leans on the white and pale green sections, which stay crisp after pickling.
The kelp strips soak in cold water for 10 minutes to lose some salt, then get just 20 seconds in boiling water before going straight into a cold rinse. Tossed with seeded cucumber strips in a gochugaru, vinegar and soy dressing, they chill for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Perilla oil goes in twice, once to heat the pan and again after the heat is off, so its nutty smell sits on top of the slightly bitter chwinamul, a wild aster green. The boiled greens are squeezed only until they stop dripping, and whatever water is left cooks off in the pan with the soy sauce.
King oyster mushrooms stay firm and chewy even when cooked, enough to stand in for meat on the plate. A shallow crosshatch on the long cut faces gives the butter soy sauce somewhere to cling as it thickens. Wipe the mushrooms with a damp paper towel instead of washing them.
With butterbur stem pancakes, preparing the stems takes far longer than frying them. The fibrous skin is peeled off, the stems are blanched, soaked in cold water for an hour and squeezed hard by hand, and only then chopped small and mixed into the batter. They are fried as bite-size rounds, and a slice of red chili set on top just before flipping sticks to the browned face as a garnish.
Shallow scores on both sides of the flounder let the chili broth seep in, so even this thin fish is evenly seasoned. When the flesh turns white and flakes easily, it is served with the radish and plenty of the red broth.
Long 6 to 7 cm lengths of green onion get a coat of gochugaru (Korean chili flakes) and anchovy fish sauce, and every bite carries the onion's sharpness together with salty, fermented depth. Glutinous rice paste holds that seasoning on the smooth onion surface. Without it, the paste would slide to the bottom of the container as the kimchi ripens. It goes beside pork belly or boiled pork, or folded into a lettuce wrap, and it is a good way to use up a bundle of older green onions.
Peeled deodeok root, pounded five or six times with a mallet, flattens and opens along its fibers, then tears by hand into rough, ribbon-like strips. A thick gochujang and vinegar dressing is rubbed in. For bitterness, the strips soak in cold water for 5 minutes; taste one, and soak longer only if it is still sharp.
Big 5 cm lengths of green onion carry as much weight as the meat in this soy-glazed pork neck. Kept apart from the onion, they go in only once the sauce has turned glossy on the pork, so their edges soften while the centers keep their shape.
King oyster mushrooms sliced 0.7 cm thick lengthwise are laid in butter in a single layer and browned on both sides, and only then does the soy glaze go in around the edge of the pan to reduce for about a minute. Finished with green onion and sesame, the salty butter-soy flavor works next to rice or with drinks.
Water parsley, cut into 5 cm lengths, gives this pancake a cool, herbal smell and stems that snap against the soft batter. Heat fades minari's fragrance fast, so the pancake comes off the pan as soon as the edges crisp.
Gochugaru and fresh cheongyang chili together make the broth properly hot. The radish is already half cooked when the flounder goes on top, and it ends up absorbing the fat that seeps from the fish as well as the seasoning.
The soy and vinegar brine goes into the jar only after it has cooled completely, because wild chives lose their sharp, garlicky bite quickly when heated. After one day in the fridge the pickle is ready to eat, and by the third day the brine has reached the small bulbs and the flavor turns rounder and deeper. Slices of hot green chili and a scattering of sesame give it an edge, and it is at its best next to grilled meat in spring, when dallae is in season.
The first thing you taste is ground perilla seed (deulkkae), which clings to the sprouts in a pale, nutty coating. The sprouts steam in a little water under a lid rather than boiling, so they stay crunchy and hold less water.
A mild soy and garlic glaze, browned onto chicken, carrot, and onion, makes a stir-fry with no chili that sits well over rice. Breast or thigh both work, but cut the pieces to an even thickness so the thin ones do not dry out before the thick ones cook through. An opaque surface says little about the center, but cutting into the thickest piece before the pan comes off the heat shows whether it is done.
Spanish mackerel belongs to the mackerel family yet smells less fishy and has softer flesh. After ten minutes under salt and pepper, it gets a dusting of flour shaken off until the grain of the fish shows through, then goes into an oiled pan over medium heat.
Spring water dropwort (minari) is cut into long pieces, stems and all, and fried with shrimp. The stems still crunch after frying, and it comes with soy sauce sharpened by a few drops of vinegar.
No meat goes into this braise, only eggplant and tofu sold for pan-frying; the eggplant drinks up the soy and chili sauce and turns silky, while the tofu, browned first, keeps its shape around it.
Wild chive stems should only just bend after salting, which takes eight minutes and leaves their green, oniony scent intact. The roots are left long because the root end carries the aroma this kimchi depends on.
Bite into a plump, jade-green stonecrop leaf and a grassy, faintly tart juice bursts out. Heat ruins the leaves, and so does sitting in the dressing too long, which is why they are never blanched and get tossed only just before eating.
Think of it as a close cousin of teriyaki: the same sticky sweet-salty shine, but with garlic and ginger fried in the oil first so their sharpness comes through more directly. Patting the boneless thighs dry matters, since a wet surface colors slowly even over high heat.
On a flat, thin fish like tongue sole, the chili marinade sits evenly on the surface and seasons the flesh quickly. Maesil cheong, a green plum syrup, takes the pasty edge off the gochujang and, with the sugar, caramelizes into a glossy brown coating.