636 recipes. Page 11 of 27
Everyday Korean side dish recipes
Fresh oysters and soaked miyeok seaweed share one batter, and a single bite brings a crisp outside, slippery seaweed, and an oyster full of briny juice. Plump winter oysters suit it best. Each oyster gets pressed down into the batter with a spoon, since any that pokes above the surface cooks less than the rest.
There is no salting the eggplant to draw out water. It softens on its own under the lid, in the same pot as browned pork shoulder, and picks up the rendered fat along with the soy and chili, which makes it far richer than eggplant braised alone.
Carrot brings its own sweetness to this soy and vinegar pickle, so each bite reads as three clear notes: sweet, salty and sour. Cutting the sticks to an even 0.5 cm keeps every piece pickling at the same speed, which is what gives the jar a uniform crunch. Onion, whole garlic and a halved Cheongyang chili (a hot Korean green pepper) season the brine. The jar is ready after about 24 hours in the fridge and works as a sharp, crunchy foil to fatty grilled meat.
In the five-color namul set for Chuseok and Seollal ancestral tables, bellflower root is the white one. The torn root is rubbed hard with salt to draw out its bitterness and rinsed until the cloudy water runs clear, then dressed with gochujang, vinegar, and sugar. Since it is never cooked, it stays crunchy long enough to be made ahead.
Young spring mugwort is mild, with little bitterness, and lean chicken breast leaves its grassy scent clear. The seasoning is kept light with soup soy sauce and cooking wine, and the mugwort, tough stems picked out, goes in last and comes off the heat while still bright green.
Songhwa mushrooms get a thin coat of perilla oil and soy sauce, then a sprinkle of ground perilla seed just before the heat goes off, layering the same nutty aroma twice. Their caps are thick, and generous slices hold together in the pan.
Mu-jeon sits on the Chuseok and Seollal jeon platter next to hobak-jeon and gaji-jeon. The radish has to be sliced an even 3 mm: thicker pieces keep a raw, acrid center, and thinner ones break apart in the pan. A little rice flour goes into the batter with the pancake mix, and a soy-vinegar dip comes alongside.
The eggplants are steamed whole, then torn by hand along the grain instead of sliced. The torn surface is rough, and the soy dressing clings to it. It is a summer side dish for when eggplants are everywhere, and it can go to the table chilled.
No soy sauce goes into this pickle: deodeok, a mountain root prized for its fragrance, sits in vinegar, sugar and salt alone, leaving its own aroma in front. Pounding the split roots flat with the back of a knife loosens the dense fibers and lets the brine work its way between them, and a day of chilling turns the texture pleasantly chewy. Chili flakes and sesame oil go on only at serving time, which keeps the red bright, and the dish is served cold.
In this Chungcheong-style method the smelt are packed around the pan with every head pointing to the center, and as they fry they fuse into one crisp disc. The oil is poured off only after the disc has set firm, and the gochujang glaze is brushed on thinly, so the underside keeps its crunch. It goes to the table in the pan, scattered with green and red chilies.
Dallae, Korean wild chives with small white bulbs, join the gochujang pork only once the meat is fully cooked. They get a single minute over the flame and finish wilting in the residual heat after it is turned off. Their sharp, pungent scent is strongest at the white bulb end.
Sliced sora, a Korean sea snail, stays chewy, with the gochujang sauce cooked right down onto it and no liquid left in the pan. A weak flame lets water pool and turns it into a stir-fry, so the pan goes on high. Trim off the tough innard end while slicing.
The shrimp are only halved and roughly chopped, which leaves them with some bite among the julienned radish after frying. A little potato starch in the batter makes the pancake slightly chewier.
The eggplant goes into the simmering soy sauce cut side down and is left alone for the first two minutes, long enough for the spongy flesh to drink in the sauce.
Pouring the soy brine over deodeok while it is still hot sets the outside of the root quickly and leaves the center firm and chewy. A short soak in lightly salted water first draws out the root's raw, astringent edge, and splitting each root only in half keeps enough thickness to stand up to the heat. Garlic and ginger simmer in the brine, layering a sharp warmth over the strong root fragrance. Give it at least 3 days in the fridge before serving with rice.
The sauce never goes near the stove: soy sauce, chili flakes, chopped scallion, garlic, and sesame oil are stirred together and spooned straight over thick slices of tofu fresh from the pan. Only the scallion softens a little in the heat coming off the tofu. Every household mixes it differently, some easing off the chili flakes, others adding a fresh hot chili.
The deodeok, a fibrous mountain root, goes into the pan ahead of the eggplant and onion, because eggplant cooks far faster. Its earthy bitterness is toned down beforehand with a short soak in salted water.
Firm tofu is cut into thick slabs, pan-fried until golden, and served with a dipping sauce of soy sauce, chili flakes, chopped green onion and sesame oil. Left unmoved until the bottom of the first side firms up, the slices hold together when the wide spatula goes under them.
Shepherd's purse, an early-spring wild green, is added roots and all, bringing a faint bitterness that the salted, softened napa cabbage balances with sweetness. The greens need only a thin coat of batter, and heavy mixing crushes the tender leaves before they reach the pan.
Soft, collapsing eggplant with springy shrimp in between. Oyster sauce goes in with the soy sauce, which makes it more savory than a plain eggplant braise, and with only a pinch of chili flakes it tastes salty and a little sweet rather than spicy.
Chili flakes stirred into the brine and never strained out leave flecks of red through the pale, cool broth of this clear spring water kimchi. Shredded Korean pear sweetens the liquid gently, and 8 to 12 hours at room temperature give it a light, refreshing tang. Sedum, a small succulent spring green, gets only a quick swish in cold water, since long washing makes it grassy. It joins the jar last and is folded rather than pressed so its tiny leaves stay crisp. Because the ferment is short, the broth and greens are best eaten cold within a day or two, ladled over rice.
Cheongyang peppers, the hottest everyday chili in Korea, carry this raw soy dressing, and keeping or scraping out their seeds sets how sharp it gets. The tofu needs a hot pan and high heat until the underside turns deep brown; drop the heat and the tofu releases water and steams, losing the contrast between crust and soft center.
Deodeok root and thin bulgogi beef share one sweet-spicy gochujang sauce, but not at the same moment. Two thirds of it marinates the beef for just 10 minutes, short enough that the meat does not turn too salty, and the rest goes straight onto the deodeok later in the pan. The root is pounded lightly to loosen its fibers, yet left thick enough to hold together when tossed.
Bellflower root soaks in salt water for ten minutes and blanches for just one, enough to soften its bitterness while keeping its firm crunch. Coated in gochujang, it grills in a pan or over an open flame, and the open flame gives a stronger smoky note.