636 recipes. Page 13 of 27
Everyday Korean side dish recipes
The hairtail pieces sit in lightly salted water for five minutes and are then patted completely dry. A dry surface is what lets the chili and soy sauce sink into the fish.
Tearing steamed eggplant by hand along its grain, instead of slicing it, leaves ragged surfaces that pull the chili, garlic and fish sauce dressing deep between the fibers. There is no fermentation, so it is eaten the day it is made, ideally in summer when eggplant is in season and a quick extra side dish is needed. Spooned over cold rice and mixed, it becomes a simple meal on its own, with soft eggplant and spicy dressing coating every grain.
Simmered until the liquid is nearly gone, the fish cakes keep a sticky, sweet-salty shine and turn even chewier as they cool. It has been a school lunch and lunchbox side for a long time, usually made in a big batch to last several days.
Seasoned with nothing but soy sauce and sesame oil, it has no heat at all. On the plate, golden pan-fried tofu sits among orange carrot and green pepper.
Butterflied flat along the belly, the shrimp cook evenly and hold a thin flour-and-egg coat better than whole ones would. The trap with saeu-jeon is color: the coating turns pale gold and the surface turns pink well before the thickest shrimp are opaque at the center. Translucent flesh in the middle means more time in the pan, while firm, opaque shrimp should come out right away so they do not toughen. Lemon wedges on the side add a bright finish.
The square fish cake sheets (eomuk) are cut into triangles small enough to pick up together with a cube of potato. The fish cake goes in only when the potatoes are half done; any earlier and it turns soggy.
Mustard greens (gat) carry a nose-tingling mustard bite that is harshest right after mixing and settles over 2 to 3 days of ripening into something rounder and tangier. This style comes from the southern Jeolla region and has a much sharper kick than napa cabbage kimchi.
Eoseuri, a wild mountain herb picked in spring, smells of celery and parsley with a medicinal edge, and it is noticeably more bitter than spinach or bean sprout namul. A blanch of 30 seconds or less leaves the stems with a slight bite.
The sourer the kimchi, the better this turns out. It fries with the pork for a good while, until it deepens to a dark red and picks up the taste of the meat.
Chopped shiitake, crumbled tofu, carrot and scallion go into one batter, which is spooned into small, flat rounds. Chopping the mushrooms a little coarser gives them more chew. A sauce of soy, vinegar and sesame seeds goes on the side.
Despite the name, gamja-jjim is not steamed: potato cubes simmer in soy sauce, sugar and garlic until almost no liquid is left and a glossy film coats each piece. Cubes cut to one size take the seasoning to the center at the same pace, and no piece ends up bland inside. Scallions and a little sesame oil finish it with a fresh, nutty note.
Swiss chard has two textures in one leaf: thick, crunchy stems and soft greens that wilt fast. The stems go into the brine first and the leaves join later; salted together, the leaves turn mushy before the stems are seasoned. Firm, thick-stemmed bunches keep their crunch longest after salting. The paste is built on cooled glutinous rice porridge with plum syrup for a soft sweetness, and half a day on the counter before chilling helps it ripen.
Taro corm, boiled until soft to the core and pounded with small additions of water, turns into a smooth paste that falls slowly from a spoon. Poi is a Hawaiian staple, and this version is eaten fresh, with no fermenting or resting at room temperature. Smaller taro will mash too, but it does not give the color or stretch of the varieties grown for poi.
Chewy squares of Korean fish cake (eomuk) are mixed with crisp onion and carrot. Soy sauce and oligo syrup give a sweet-salty glaze, and a cheongyang chili tossed in at the end adds a little heat.
Siraegi, dried radish greens that have been boiled and stripped of their tough skins, still show their fibers after frying, a rustic chew unlike softer vegetable pancakes. The batter starts with doenjang (soybean paste) dissolved in cold water, plus some buckwheat flour, which makes it look a little rough; that is how it should look. The paste brings enough salt that none is added.
Instead of small whole potatoes, this version peels ordinary ones and cuts them into bite-size chunks. The corn syrup waits until the potatoes are nearly tender; added that late, it stays a thin shine instead of turning into a sticky syrup. Serve it warm or fully cooled.
Pouring boiling soy brine straight over whole green peppers lightly blanches the skins to a brighter green while the flesh inside stays raw and crisp. Toothpick holes in each pepper let the brine past the thick walls to the seeds. The finished pickle tastes salty, gently sour and still hot, since the capsaicin mellows in the brine but never disappears, and two or three peppers are enough to carry a bowl of plain rice. Cheongyang chilies make a sharper version, and kkwari peppers give a milder, more tender one.
Bone-in pieces of flounder ferment with foxtail millet rice, thick radish strips and chili flakes until the whole mix turns tangy and salty. This version leaves out glutinous rice and fish sauce, so the millet grains stay visible between the fish, and after mixing it still needs 4 to 5 days in a cool place.
Thick 1 cm half-moons of eggplant get a seared face before they are turned, so the pieces hold their shape and only the centers go soft, unlike limp versions of this banchan. Stirring too early stops the browning, and stirring too long makes the slices collapse.
Four shiitake, finely chopped, go into the ground beef, and the mushroom's grain turns up in every mouthful of meat.
In the same soy broth, the potato soaks up seasoning to the center while the peeled quail eggs only brown on the outside. It has long been a familiar lunchbox side for Korean children, and it is seasoned without any heat.
Thick-skinned green chilies hold their crunch through salting and a short ferment, and the heat concentrated around the seeds bursts out when you bite down. Only about half the seeds are shaken out, and the pods are best eaten within 2 to 3 days while still crisp.
Steamed eggplant, cooled and torn along the grain, comes apart in silky, slippery strands. They are dressed with soy sauce, rice vinegar, and chili flakes and kept cold, and the more dressing you use, the closer it gets to a chilled salad.
Eggplant in summer drinks oil readily. Here the cut pieces are salted briefly and patted dry, which cuts down how much they soak up, then stir-fried with pork in a salty soy and oyster sauce.