115 recipes. Page 2 of 5
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Instead of stirring the pollock roe into the eggs, this version lays it in a single line before rolling, so each slice shows an orange stripe in the middle of the yellow. Bite in and the roe pops with salty little beads against the soft egg. Roe varies in saltiness, so there is no added salt, and low heat keeps the omelette from cracking.
The beef is braised once as a whole piece, torn along the grain, then braised a second time with quail eggs. Over rice, it gets a heavy crumble of dried gamtae, a thin winter seaweed, added only at the last moment because the braising liquid softens it quickly.
Chamnamul, a Korean mountain green, smells a little like parsley or celery leaves, only cleaner and stronger. Stir-fried with soy-marinated beef, its fresh scent sits clearly on top of the heavier meat.
Brushed thinly with doenjang and grilled, the cod forms a thin, dark-brown skin of paste on top while the white flesh below stays moist and breaks into thick flakes. Sliced scallion or perilla leaves go alongside.
The cod is patted thoroughly dry first so the sauce clings instead of sliding off. It cooks covered on a bed of radish and onion and gets turned just once, gently, at the end so the underside picks up the sauce too.
These are the steamed pork ribs that come in little dishes at dim sum. Coarsely chopped douchi, salted fermented black beans, keeps its salty, funky smell through the steaming and ends up in the juicy meat.
The squid comes out of the boiling water after 2 to 3 minutes, once the flesh turns opaque white and curls a little. Left in a pile, it keeps cooking in its own heat and toughens, which is why the pieces are spread out to cool. The body is cut into rings and served with chogochujang (vinegared chili paste) before it gets too cold.
The pollock roe never goes over a flame. When the rice is done, the heat is turned off, the lid comes up just long enough to add the roe and a knob of butter, and the residual heat of an 8-minute rest warms them through. That keeps the eggs from tightening, and they still pop. The gamtae seaweed is crumbled over with the scallions once the rice has finished resting.
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.
With fat running between the muscles, chicken neck meat never turns dry the way breast does; it chews springy and savory. It gets a short toss in soy sauce, mirin and garlic, a hot sear until a brown crust forms, and green onion stirred in for the last 30 seconds.
The wingettes brown in a dry pan, skin side first, before the soy sauce mixture goes in to reduce. By the time the sauce is nearly gone, the meat pulls easily off the bone.
The white fish is pan-fried until golden, then braised in soy sauce, sugar, ginger, green onion, and cooking wine until the sauce turns glossy. The sauce is poured in around the edge of the pan, not over the fish, to keep the seared crust from lifting off.
The mackerel has its pin bones pulled before grilling, so you can break it up with a spoon and stir it straight into the rice and onion soy sauce. A little minced ginger in the sauce keeps the oily fish tasting clean.
Chicken gizzards have a springy, chewy bite, and peeling off the silver membrane and any off-smelling bits, then a quick blanch, keeps their flavor clean. They toughen when cooked too long, yet the thickest one still has to reach 74°C at the center, and that reading, not the reduced sauce, decides when to stop.
Drumettes have plenty of collagen around the bone, and fully cooked, the layer under the skin turns pleasantly sticky. The soy and honey glaze sets dark brown only in the last few minutes, after the oven is turned up, and it can tip into burnt fast, so stay by the oven.
Long cooking turns the skin and cartilage of chicken feet chewy and sticky, and that texture is the whole reason to eat them. Once the red sauce coats them in a glossy layer, they go out with rice or a cold beer. Adjust the heat with the amount of chili flakes.
The seasoning is in the meat rather than the coating: boneless thighs marinate in soy sauce, mirin, ginger juice, and garlic. A thin dusting of potato starch and a second fry keep the crust crisp even after it cools.
Open the lid and pieces of mackerel sit on a bed of gondre (Korean thistle greens), its oil and the greens' earthy aroma having soaked into the rice as it rested. The crust at the bottom gets a splash of water and is eaten as sungnyung, a toasted rice drink.
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.
Coarse chili flakes stand in for gochujang, so the wings bake into a rough, spicy crust with the flakes stuck right into the skin. For more heat, swap part of the flakes for hotter cheongyang chili powder.
Short ribs braise in a soy broth sweetened with Korean pear juice, which softens the meat and leaves a faint fruit sweetness through to the end. The dish takes the galbi jjim served at Korean holidays and birthdays and adds kabocha, which softens only at the edges and thickens the sauce naturally.
A spoonful of yuzu marmalade goes into the soy marinade, so when you bite through the crust the chicken underneath tastes faintly sweet and of yuzu.
Soy-braised beef, torn along the grain, goes over rice with whole shishito-style peppers (kkwari gochu) and enough of the glossy braising liquid to mix through. The peppers simmer whole for just 6 minutes, long enough to wilt without going limp, and keep a mild heat.
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.