115 recipes. Page 4 of 5
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Green onion cut into thick 5 cm lengths cooks beside the pork jowl, left mostly alone and then charred lightly over high heat at the end. The pork gets only 15 minutes in the soy marinade; past 20, the salt works too far into the meat.
The konjac is blanched for two minutes first to get rid of its faint limey smell. Shallow crosshatching on both sides lets the soy glaze settle into the grooves, and once it is done it cools completely before serving, which evens out the seasoning.
Kohlrabi is firm and a little sweet, and even stir-fried it still crunches between pieces of springy shrimp. The red bell pepper is there more for color than flavor.
In the Iya area of Tokushima, river trout, tofu, konjac and vegetables were traditionally cooked over a layer of sweet miso on a heated flat stone called a hirara. Here a lidded electric griddle stands in for the stone, and chicken thigh, potatoes and shiitake join the trout, enough for four on one plate.
On drying racks in Gangwon-do, pollock freezes and thaws dozens of times over the winter to become hwangtae, and the flesh ends up full of sponge-like pores. Braised in soy sauce with gochujang, it takes the salty-sweet seasoning in through those pores, all the way to the middle rather than just on the surface.
Pork shoulder is browned until its fat runs, then seaweed stems join it for a quick toss. The roasted taste of the pork mixes with a smell of the sea, and the stems keep their snap.
The eel is seared skin side first to draw out its fat, then glazed over low heat with soy sauce and rice syrup spooned over it again and again. Some of the rendered fat is poured off before the sauce goes in. Laid over rice, it makes an eel bowl, with the sauce soaking down into the rice.
Yellow croaker has fine, tender flesh that separates into neat flakes under chopsticks, and the soy sauce seasoning seeps along deep scores in its sides. The fish stays put in the steamer from start to finish, and the few spoonfuls of liquid left underneath are poured back over it to eat with rice.
Pork loin and green pepper are cut into matching thin strips so they cook together in a few minutes over high heat. Slicing the loin across the grain means even the long strips bite cleanly instead of turning chewy and stringy.
Grilling starts only after the slick film on the skin has been scraped off with the back of a knife. The soy glaze goes on in two or three thin coats rather than one, and each coat leaves the eel a shade darker. On a grill instead of a pan, it picks up more smoke.
Rolled around in a soy, sugar and mirin braise, the small quail eggs brown evenly and take on salt almost to the yolk. Added once the liquid has reduced by about half, the shishito peppers soften without bursting and keep their green, slightly grassy taste. A couple of toothpick holes in each pepper let the sauce inside and keep the skins from splitting. The braise should end with a little syrupy liquid still in the pot rather than a dry pan, giving each egg a shiny coat. Refrigerated, it keeps for three to four days as a ready side dish.
Crown daisy is slightly bitter and oyster mushrooms are mild, and the two stay distinct on the plate. The mushrooms are torn along the grain and cooked dry in a wide pan first; the crown daisy goes in right before the heat is turned off.
Abalone scored in a fine crosshatch goes into garlic butter for a minute a side, gets a splash of soy sauce, and comes off the heat right away. The innards can be minced and melted into the butter too. The cooked meat goes back into its scrubbed shell to serve.
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.
Hijiki toughens with long cooking. The shrimp go in first, and the seaweed joins when they are about 70 percent done and is mixed through within 2 minutes. Perilla powder is scattered over low heat so that it clings to the hijiki instead of clumping.
Two horse mackerel sit in a yuzu-soy marinade for just 10 minutes before going onto a grill pan. The bits of yuzu in the marmalade burn easily, which is why half the marinade is held back and brushed on only in the last minute. Sesame oil and scallions go on after the heat is off.
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.
Soy sauce with mirin and a little oligosaccharide syrup gives it a faint sweetness. The chicken breast never cooks through on its own: as soon as the outside turns white the lotus root and onion go in, and that timing is what keeps the chicken from drying out.
Busan-style kkomjangeo, or hagfish, is cooked fast over high heat. Leave it too long in the marinade or the pan and it weeps water and loses its springy chew. The scallions go in just long enough to wilt.
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.
Squid beaks in butter take so little time that another plate can go out in the middle of a drinking session. They are tossed with garlic in butter over high heat for about three minutes, then soy sauce and mirin are cooked down onto them.
Radish and squid cook at very different speeds, so the radish half-moons simmer in soy broth until nearly tender before the squid rings go in for a brief final braise. Chili flakes and gochujang give a clean, peppery heat, while the radish softens it with its own sweetness. What's left in the pan is a small amount of thick, spicy sauce that tastes of both squid and radish, good spooned over rice.
Honey and soy sauce cook down into a dark, glossy glaze on this duck breast, while the cold-pan start renders enough fat from under the skin that no oil is added. The portion of marinade for the final brushing is set aside before any raw duck touches it.
Duck releases a steady stream of fat as it steams, so skimming the surface every 10 minutes during the 30-minute cook leaves a clean sauce rather than a greasy one. Garlic chives are laid on top only at the end and wilt just enough to stay pungent, cutting through the richness of the meat.