1421 recipes. Page 3 of 60
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Fried chicken gets one firm press in a mortar, enough to crack the crisp skin but not shred the meat, and a coarse sambal of red chili, boiled garlic, salt, and lime juice goes into the cracks. That is the Javanese idea behind ayam penyet, smashed chicken. Because the legs are first simmered with garlic, ginger, and salt, the oil only has to blister and darken the skin.
The croffle, a café favorite, is made here from store-bought frozen croissant dough and finished savory with garlic butter and grated Parmesan. Left shut in the waffle iron too long, the pastry dries out hard, which is why the first one gets cut open to check for raw dough before the rest go in.
Paper-thin sheets of dried whitebait are dry-toasted until stiff, then coated thinly in gochujang, soy sauce and oligosaccharide syrup. Straight from the pan they look a little soft, but they crisp as they cool; there is no need to keep them on the heat longer.
All of the red comes from beet. It is pureed and stirred into the toasted rice, so every grain takes on a deep color. The rice goes into the pan unwashed to keep its surface starch.
In North Indian homes this potato dish shows up next to dal and rice on an ordinary weeknight, with methi (fenugreek leaves) bringing a bitter edge. Fresh methi is strongly bitter with an earthy smell that softens once it hits the hot pan, and it goes in only after the potatoes have cooked under a lid with cumin, turmeric and chili. When fresh leaves are hard to find, dried kasuri methi is rubbed between the palms and added at the end.
Instead of broth, these small boiled dumplings get a tangy dressing of soy sauce, vinegar and chili oil that clings to their thin wrappers. Mini dumplings tear easily, so the sauce is spooned on top and the dumplings are turned gently rather than tossed.
Instead of lettuce or perilla, this ssam uses napa cabbage leaves charred briefly on a grill, which pick up smoke and sweetness while the inner ribs keep their crunch. That crunch is what lets a leaf wrap around grilled pork belly without tearing. A doenjang-based ssamjang adds salty, fermented depth to the pork fat and cabbage sweetness, and a lightly grilled chili tucked in brings heat.
Altang uses fresh, unsalted pollock roe. Make it with cured myeongran and the broth turns salty on the same amount of soy sauce, so check the label for unsalted when you shop.
Mild green chilies split lengthwise are stuffed with ground pork, pressed tofu and garlic and fried filling side down, which browns the meat while the pepper keeps its fresh, gentle heat. Fill each half only about seventy percent of the way, because the filling swells as it cooks and an overstuffed pepper splits open.
No doenjang or gochujang goes into this stew, and napa cabbage and anchovy stock do nearly all the work. That is why the anchovies lose their heads and dark guts first and steep for no more than 10 minutes before straining; any longer and they turn the broth bitter.
Pollock roe and milt are braised together in a chili and soy sauce. They come from the same fish but cook in opposite directions: the roe firms up, each tiny egg popping under the teeth, while the milt turns soft as custard and breaks into tender curds. In east coast port towns, where fresh roe is easy to find during the pollock's winter spawning season, it has long been a winter dish.
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.
Tamarind gives this fish broth its sour backbone, with flaked mackerel and rice noodles underneath and cucumber and mint on top. A finely blended paste of onion, garlic, and ginger forms the base and carries the chili heat. The mackerel is cooked and boned before it goes into the soup, so the bowl is easy to eat. Cucumber and mint add a cool, fresh finish to the hot, sour broth.
Whisking black sesame paste (heukimja) into cream turns the sauce a dusky gray and gives it a heavy, toasty richness close to nut butter. Crisp bacon breaks up that richness with salt and smoke, and the wide rigatoni tubes fill with sauce so each piece tastes of sesame inside and out.
Sweet yuja citron syrup, balanced with soy sauce and a little garlic, turns plain chicken breast into something bright. Gently poached chicken breast, rested off the heat and torn along the grain, soaks up that dressing between its fibers instead of turning dry. Chamnamul, a slightly bitter Korean herb, keeps the citrus sweetness from tipping the salad toward dessert.
Shreds of salt cod and matchstick potatoes fried crisp are bound together by eggs cooked only to soft, creamy curds. Soaking the cod in cold water for 24 to 48 hours, with several changes, means starting a day or two ahead. Even after soaking it keeps some salt, which makes tasting at the end more reliable than salting along the way. Taking the pan off the heat before the eggs fully set and letting residual heat finish them keeps the dish moist rather than dry. Black olives go alongside when you have them.
Horse meat sold specifically for raw eating is sliced thin across the grain while still cold and fanned over shiso leaves and paper-thin onion soaked in cold water. Grated garlic and ginger go into sweet soy sauce for dipping. Only commercially processed meat labeled for raw consumption works here; freezing ordinary horse meat at home does not turn it into a substitute. Leftover raw slices are neither kept at room temperature nor stored again.
Hobak-bokkeum, the stir-fried Korean zucchini usually served as a side dish, goes onto buttery pie dough with the edges folded up roughly around it. Pea-sized bits of cold butter left in the dough make that folded rim bake up flaky, while in the middle mozzarella melts over the zucchini and onion. Top it with a fried egg for brunch, or cut it thin to go with a glass of white wine.
Bangpung grows on seaside cliffs and sandy shores and is picked along the coasts of Gangwon-do, Gyeonggi-do and Jeju from March to May. Its aroma is strong and celery-like. The seasoning stops at doenjang, garlic and sesame oil, and the greens get only a minute in salted boiling water.
Ground perilla seed goes in with the Parmesan at the end of this mushroom risotto, and the first spoonful smells nutty in a way anyone who knows Korean perilla noodle soup will recognize. There's no cream; the starch stirred out of the rice is what makes it thick.
The woody ends of the asparagus are snapped off by hand rather than cut. They break on their own right where the tough part stops. Chicken tenderloin, sliced thin against the grain, is stir-fried hard and fast in soy sauce and syrup, and the heat goes off while the asparagus is still bright green.
Breast or thigh both work, but thigh, with more fat, is the one that stays juicy over direct heat. The gochujang, soy and honey glaze goes on thin, two or three times, building up a sticky shine, and the skewers keep turning over medium heat because honey scorches fast.
Two kinds of salt meet in each shell here: the briny juice of the hard clam and the fermented saltiness of doenjang. That is why the paste goes on thin enough to let the clam meat show through; doenjang varies in saltiness from brand to brand, and a heavy coat buries the shellfish. Over high heat the doenjang surface scorches lightly and turns toasty, and the moment the liquid in the shell bubbles, the clams come off. Another minute and the meat turns tough.
Along Korea's west and south coasts, where mallow and clams are both easy to find, the two have long shared a pot of doenjang soup. The mallow is rubbed between the hands as it is washed, which gives the broth a little body, and the finished soup is usually eaten with rice stirred in.