Recipes with coarse salt

69 recipes. Page 1 of 3

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Atama Ryori (Blanched Large Fish Head and Offal Platter)

Cheek meat, fin meat, skin, stomach, liver and roe from one large white-fleshed fish are each blanched or boiled separately, then arranged together on a big platter with seasonal vegetables such as cucumber. This feast dish comes from Taketa in Oita Prefecture, where large sea fish were scarce and nothing from one was wasted. Kabosu, a tart Oita citrus, is squeezed into vinegar-soy sauce for dipping, and each part brings its own texture in turn. Each part needs its own cooking time, which is why nothing shares a pot.

Prep 120min Cook 90min 12 servings

Baking Medium

Salt Bread

Each roll of milk dough hides a cold piece of butter inside, with coarse salt scattered over the top. The butter is cut into 8 pieces and kept chilled right up until shaping. Give the baked rolls just 10 minutes on a rack and serve them warm.

Prep 150min Cook 18min 4 servings

Side dishes Medium

Changnan Jeotgal

Pollock innards are salted for 30 minutes, then mixed with gochugaru, garlic, ginger and fish sauce and left in the fridge for at least three days to become jeotgal, a Korean salted relish. Most of the work is in the first wash: the innards are rubbed in cold water again and again until the rinse water runs clearer and the surface is less slick.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 35min 0 4 servings

Street food Easy

Korean Roasted Sweet Potato

Roasted whole in the skin for a long time, sweet potatoes turn sticky and honey-like just under the skin. Pumpkin sweet potatoes (hobak-goguma) come out moister, and a day or two at room temperature before roasting makes them sweeter still. Butter, honey and cinnamon can go on top once they are done.

Prep 5min Cook 40min 2 servings

Grilled Medium

Korean Garlic-Grilled Skirt Steak

Inner skirt has coarse muscle fibers with tough sinew running between them, so the first job is snipping that sinew out with scissors and slicing across the grain. Its beefy flavor is strong enough that the soy marinade gets only 20 minutes. Halved garlic cloves cook slowly in the pan first, then the same pan goes to high heat for a quick sear of the beef, and the garlic is plated alongside.

Prep 25min Cook 10min 2 servings

Steamed Medium

Korean Steamed Octopus (Whole Salted Radish Broth)

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.

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Prep 20min Cook 25min 4 servings

Kimchi Medium

Korean Napa Cabbage Kimchi

Salting decides the texture of this napa cabbage kimchi: under-salted leaves weep liquid and turn mushy during fermentation, while over-salted ones bury the seasoning. Blooming the gochugaru in sweet rice paste before the fish sauce goes in gives a heavy paste that clings to each leaf instead of sliding off. Spread it thinly between the layers, since too much filling makes the kimchi salty and soft. Fresh-tasting at first, it grows deeper and tangier after about a week, and well-soured kimchi is the one to use for kimchi-jjigae or stir-fried kimchi.

Prep 50min 0 4 servings

Pasta Medium

Cheongyang Chili Carbonara Spaghetti

Cheongyang chili, a sharp Korean green pepper, cuts through a classic cream-free carbonara of egg yolks, Parmigiano, and Pecorino, leaving a cleaner, brighter finish. Sliced chili and garlic fry for just 30 seconds in the rendered pancetta fat, long enough for the heat to spread through the oil but short of scorching the garlic. That oil then emulsifies with the cheese and egg base, and the starch and salt in the pasta water help the sauce coat each strand evenly. Grating the cheese finely ahead of time keeps the sauce smooth. The usual failure is a pan that is still too hot: the yolks scramble instead of turning silky, so the heat is cut and the pan rests a few seconds before the eggs are added.

Prep 10min Cook 18min 2 servings

Western Medium

Pulpo a la Gallega (Galician Boiled Octopus with Smoked Paprika)

Thick coins of octopus sit on slices of boiled potato, finished with nothing more than olive oil, smoked paprika, and coarse salt. With so little seasoning, texture carries the dish: a hard boil tightens the flesh, so the octopus rests in its hot water after the heat goes off and softens gently.

Prep 15min Cook 50min 2 servings

Asian Hard

Iwashi no Unohana-zuke (Vinegared Sardines with Okara)

Small sardines cured first in salt and then in vinegar are opened flat and filled with sweet-sour okara, the soybean pulp left from tofu making, with a thin coat on the skin side too. The okara, cooked dry with carrot and dried chili and then brightened with yuzu zest and juice, comes across soft, citrusy, and tangy against the firm, vinegared fish. This Ibaraki dish is eaten the day it is made, and only sardines sold for raw eating after commercial freezing will do, since salt and vinegar do not kill anisakis.

Prep 35min Cook 12min 4 servings

Side dishes Medium

Chonggak Muchim

Chonggak radishes are cut into thin diagonal slices, salted briefly and dressed with gochugaru and fish sauce, then eaten crunchy the same day rather than left to ferment. If the tender greens are still attached, they go in too.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes 🏠 Everyday

Prep 20min 0 4 servings

Grilled Easy

Korean Salt-Grilled King Prawns

The prawns go shell-on onto a bed of hot coarse salt. The salt is there less to season than to spread the heat, and the prawns cook in their own moisture until the flesh is springy. Garlic butter and lemon juice go on only once they come off the heat.

Prep 15min Cook 12min 2 servings

Kimchi Medium

Korean White Kimchi (Non-Spicy Napa Pear Fermented)

With no gochugaru at all, this white kimchi is mild, and its clear brine is eaten along with the cabbage. Pear, radish, garlic and ginger carry the flavor instead, and the pear adds sweetness while softening the fermented smell. The filling is tossed lightly with fingertips, because rough handling bruises the radish and pear strips, and everything is drained well to keep the brine from clouding. After half a day at room temperature it ferments slowly in the fridge for 2 to 3 weeks, until the liquid tastes clean, cool and gently sour, a good foil for fatty meat.

Prep 50min Cook 20min 4 servings

Side dishes Hard

Shime Saba (Vinegar-Cured Mackerel)

Salt first, vinegar second: the salt draws water out of the mackerel and firms it, and a short soak in rice vinegar with kombu turns the surface white while the center stays pink and rich. That pink center is how shime saba should look, which also means the fish is essentially raw. Vinegar and salt do not kill anisakis, so the recipe only works with fillets sold for raw eating with a parasite-control freezing history. Kept at 4°C or below from thawing to serving, it is eaten the day it is made, with perilla leaves and shredded ginger on the side.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 25min Cook 75min 2 servings

Grilled Easy

Korean Salt-Grilled Green Onion

Only the white part of the green onion is used, since the green tops burn before the inside cooks. Grilled hard, the outside chars deep brown and the inside softens until a chopstick slides in easily, turning sweet. Once plated, the onions get a little sesame oil, sesame seeds and lemon zest.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes

Prep 10min Cook 8min 2 servings

Kimchi Medium

Korean Bangwool Yangbaechu Kimchi (Brussels Sprout Kimchi)

Halved Brussels sprouts hold their structure through salting, and each bite gives a firm crunch and a little sweetness. Score the stem ends no deeper than 5 mm or the leaves fall apart, and give strongly bitter sprouts an extra 5 minutes in the brine.

Prep 30min 0 4 servings

Grilled Easy

Korean Domi Sogeum Gui (Salt-Grilled Sea Bream)

Sea bream fillets get nothing but coarse salt and pepper before they go in the pan. For a white fish, sea bream has a fair amount of fat, and that is enough to keep it from tasting plain. Minced garlic and sliced scallion go on top once it is cooked, with lemon alongside.

Prep 15min Cook 16min 2 servings

Kimchi Medium

Beet Kimchi

Beets cut into 2 cm cubes get dressed like kkakdugi, the cubed radish kimchi, but this batch is eaten fresh rather than fermented. Whatever is not served right away goes into a lidded container and straight into the fridge at 4°C or below rather than sitting out at room temperature. A kimchi meant for long fermentation needs its own tested ratios and instructions, not this one. The salted cubes are drained well first, because any water they carry thins the paste.

Prep 50min Cook 10min 4 servings

Grilled Medium

Korean Euneo Sogeum-gui (Salt-Grilled Sweetfish)

Sweetfish, a summer river fish with a delicate fragrance, is grilled under a thin scatter of coarse salt and no other seasoning. Left in, the innards give a bitter edge; taken out, the fish turns much milder. The tail and fins, which scorch before the body, get a thicker coat of salt.

Prep 18min Cook 14min 2 servings

Kimchi Medium

Beet Water Kimchi

Even a small amount of beet stains the broth red. The radish portion is kept the larger one, since a jar where beet outweighs radish turns muddy and dark. Both are cut into the same thin, flat pieces so a spoonful picks up some of each. The liquid drawn out during salting is added to the jar rather than poured away. Pear juice brings sweetness, sliced garlic and ginger bring aroma, and a cooled rice-flour porridge gives the broth body. A good stir after adding the salt water keeps that porridge from settling on the bottom. It sits out for a day before moving to the fridge.

At least 1 day 30 min 4 servings

Grilled Hard

Korean Grilled Beef Intestine

With beef intestines, the prep takes more work than the grilling. They are rubbed with coarse salt and flour, rinsed and briefly blanched to get rid of the smell, then cooked in a dry pan in nothing but their own rendered fat. Garlic chives go on the side, and soju usually goes with it.

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Prep 30min Cook 20min 2 servings

Kimchi Hard

Korean Stuffed Bossam Kimchi

Bo-kimchi wraps a filling of julienned radish, Korean pear, chestnuts, and blanched octopus in brined napa cabbage leaves, then ferments the bundles. After brining, check that the thick cabbage stems bend without snapping, and drain the rinsed leaves well, because wet leaves leave a watery pool inside each parcel. Overlap two large leaves so the filling is enclosed without gaps, and pack the bundles seam side down so they stay closed while they ferment. Blanch the octopus only briefly, since longer cooking makes it tough.

At least 3 days 17 hr 4 servings

Grilled Easy

Gwanja Recipe (Korean Yuzu Salt Grilled Scallops)

Scallops patted bone dry are sprinkled with coarse salt, seared hard, and finished with a few spoonfuls of basting butter. The yuzu marmalade and lemon sauce goes on after the heat is off. Bite in and you hit grains of coarse salt, with yuzu coming through between them.

Prep 15min Cook 10min 2 servings

Kimchi Medium

Korean Chamnamul Kimchi (Pimpinella Kimchi)

Chamnamul greens are salted for just 10 minutes and dressed without rinsing, letting the leftover salt season them. A gentle squeeze is enough, since wringing bruises the tender leaves and makes them slump during fermentation. Blended Korean pear and onion in the sweet rice paste round off the chili heat. With so much moisture in the greens, fermentation moves fast and the kimchi softens if kept too long. Small batches eaten within a few days work best.

Prep 30min Cook 5min 4 servings