1880 Korean recipes. Page 68 of 79. Compare ingredients and cooking times. Korean Grilled Tteokgalbi Patties, Korean Sea Squirt Soybean Paste Soup.
Ground beef and pork are combined two to one and worked in one direction for more than three minutes, until the mix sticks to the hands and turns smooth; that stickiness gives the thick patties their firm bite. The onion is minced fine and pressed lightly, leaving it a little moist rather than wrung dry.
Mideodeok, a small sea squirt, holds a pocket of briny liquid inside its tough skin, and it bursts in your mouth when you bite down. To keep that liquid in, the stems are left uncut and the sea squirts get only three minutes in the pot, and the doenjang is dissolved in rice-rinsing water rather than anchovy stock. Around Tongyeong and Geoje on Korea's south coast, it is everyday home cooking.
Unlike the spicy, raw-dressed dried radish salad, this version braises rehydrated radish strips with thin slices of lean beef eye of round in a soy broth until chewy and lightly sweet. Drying concentrates the radish's sugar, and the strips drink up the braising liquid as they simmer. Soaking them in cold water for at least 20 minutes, until they spring back, sets up the right final texture.
Each sheet of gim (roasted seaweed) is cut into four, and the rolls come out about the size of a finger, filled with little more than carrot, spinach and a strip of egg. The seasoning comes from a dip of mustard, soy sauce, vinegar and sugar, and the sharp kick of the mustard keeps hands reaching for one more.
The octopus is already boiled, so the pan only has to warm it through and coat it in gochujang sauce. The heat goes off the moment it starts to visibly shrink, and the onion and carrot are left a little underdone so they keep some crunch.
Udae galbi, thick plate-shaped beef ribs on the bone, carries more fat than ordinary galbi. Lightly scored and marinated in pear juice and soy sauce for at least 30 minutes, the ribs are browned dark over medium-high heat, then brushed with thin coats of marinade at medium. Doneness is checked by pressing the meat beside the bone: little or no red juice means it is ready.
Tofu and water dropwort (minari) are nearly all there is in the bowl, so the anchovy broth stays clear and light. The minari is pulled off the heat while its stems are still crisp and bright, and the soup goes straight into bowls.
Holding the whole octopus by the head and dipping it into boiling water two or three times makes the legs curl inward into a neat shape for slicing and serving. Before that, coarse salt is rubbed firmly between the suckers to strip the slime; without that step an off smell lingers after cooking. It cooks for only about 15 minutes over a bed of radish and green onion, then rests under the lid, which keeps it chewy without turning tough. The water is kept at a quiet simmer the whole time, since a rolling, splashing boil makes octopus tougher. Instead of a spicy dipping sauce, slices are dipped in sesame oil mixed with salt, letting the octopus taste of the sea, and the plate works just as well with drinks.
The sea squirt goes on last, over rice already topped with cucumber and lettuce, and everything is turned over with the vinegared gochujang only a few broad times right before eating. The longer it is mixed, the more of its briny aroma is lost. Even drying the rinsed sea squirt is gentle: a paper towel pressed on top, never rubbed.
King oyster mushrooms are firm and meaty while oyster mushrooms pull apart into soft strands, so cooking both together keeps the texture from being one note. Broccoli and carrot brighten it up, and soy and oyster sauce do the seasoning.
Doenjang, Korean fermented soybean paste, gets mixed with a little gochujang, garlic and honey and spread over rockfish fillets in a coat thin enough to see the flesh through. Any thicker and the paste and honey burn before the fish is done. Laying the fillet skin side down and leaving it alone keeps it from curling.
This is the dried pollack soup Koreans often make the morning after drinking, with a handful of spring water dropwort (minari) added. Pollack strips toasted in sesame oil give the broth its base, beaten egg drifts through it in soft ribbons, and the grassy minari lightens the whole heavy bowl.
Made from the same tiny dried anchovies as crunchy myeolchi-bokkeum, this braise goes the other way: the fish soak up a soy and sugar syrup and stay moist and tender inside. The heat drops further near the end so they never dry out and turn hard, and as it cools, the glaze thickens around each anchovy.
Butterbur leaves are steamed for 4 minutes rather than blanched, which leaves them pliable enough to fold. Their bitterness softens once each bite also holds sesame-oil rice and a salty ssamjang of doenjang and gochujang.
Tiny dried anchovies end up glossy, sweet-salty, and crisp once the glaze sets as they cool. After they go back into the bubbling syrup, 30 seconds to a minute of tossing is all they need; chasing every last bit of sauce on the bottom only makes the coating hard and clumpy.
Thick onion rings soak up butter and rendered pork belly fat until they turn soft all the way through, with browned undersides. They cook slowly at medium-low and are flipped as little as possible, which is what gets the thick centers tender. A spoonful of soy sauce poured around the edge of the hot pan at the very end sizzles into a toasty aroma; let it reduce for long and the dish turns salty.
Brisket simmered for about 25 minutes gives a clear, light brown broth. The cooked beef can be torn along the grain and returned to the soup, or lifted out and dipped in a seasoned soy sauce.
A couple of fork pricks in each shishito pepper keep them from bursting in the hot pan and let the soy and syrup glaze seep inside. The peppers are stir-fried on their own until glossy and lightly wrinkled, while the anchovies are toasted dry and only tossed back in for a quick glaze. You get nutty, salty anchovies against the mild green taste of the peppers.
Minari (Korean water parsley) and clams are both at their best in spring, which is when this porridge gets made. Each spoonful starts with the clean savoriness of the clams, followed by the green scent of barely wilted minari.
With no gochujang, only soy sauce and starch syrup for the glaze, these anchovies are sweet-salty with no heat at all, which is why they turn up so often in children's lunchboxes. Turn the heat down as soon as the syrup bubbles once, or the glaze sets hard as it cools. Once cool, the anchovies cling together loosely, just right for picking up a small clump at a time.
This is the cumin-and-chili flavor of a Korean lamb skewer bar, where you roll each skewer through a dish of spice, made at home in a pan or on a grill. Here the cumin and chili flakes are mixed and scattered straight onto the meat as it finishes cooking. If cumin is new to you, a little curry powder in the mix makes it less foreign.
No meat and no stock, just plain water. Seaweed fried in sesame oil and doenjang (Korean soybean paste) give the broth its flavor, and tofu takes the place the beef would usually hold. It is lighter than beef seaweed soup, and the doenjang leaves the broth slightly thick.
Pollock roe is loosened with egg and water, spread thinly over slabs of firm tofu, and steamed until it sets like a soft savory custard. Firm tofu holds its shape in the steamer, and pressing out only the excess water, leaving the surface moist, keeps the slabs from cracking. Green onion and red chili go on near the end so their color stays bright.
Bulgogi-cut beef is seared in the pot just until it changes color, then the soaked rice and water go in on top and cook with it. Water parsley and the last of the soy sauce are laid over after the heat is off, and the parsley is still green when everything is stirred together. A heavy-bottomed pot leaves a layer of scorched rice as well.