1421 recipes. Page 39 of 60
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Poached chicken breast, pulled into fine shreds, turns up in every spoonful. The savory depth of the porridge comes from siraegi (boiled dried radish greens) and garlic sauteed in sesame oil before the rice goes in.
Done right, the gochujang sauce does not pool in the pan but clings to every piece of fish cake with a shine. The square fish cakes are dipped briefly in boiling water first to rinse off their surface oil.
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.
Potatoes and ground perilla seed cook in anchovy broth until it turns an opaque ivory. There is no doenjang and no seaweed, and no oil either; the body comes from potato starch and the perilla itself. It rarely appears on restaurant menus and belongs to winter meals at home.
The shepherd's purse goes in roots and all, because the roots carry its earthy, bitter spring scent. The trade-off is cleaning: soil has to be scraped off with a knife tip and the greens swished through several changes of cold water. Doenjang brands differ in saltiness, and the paste is adjusted half a tablespoon at a time.
Two mackerel are cooked whole, with only the heads and innards removed. Deep scores along the back open up in the heat and let the spicy sauce run into the flesh instead of sitting on the skin.
Hot soy brine sets only the outer surface of the cucumber while the center stays crisp even after several days of chilling. Whole garlic cloves slowly release their aroma into the liquid and hot green chilies leave a faint heat at the end of each bite, giving more depth than plain soy pickles. Because the half-moons are cut a thick 1 cm, they need about two days of chilling before the soy and vinegar reach the middle. The first pour is hot, but when the brine is drained and boiled again to keep the slices crisp for longer, it goes back on only after cooling. Serve it over rice or next to gukbap, a Korean rice and soup dish.
Blanched spinach, soybean sprouts, and julienned carrot are tossed with thin somyeon in a soy, vinegar, and plum syrup dressing that is salty, tart, and faintly sweet, with no chili paste involved. The spinach and sprouts are blanched separately and squeezed hard, because leftover water thins the sauce and makes the noodles swell and clump as they sit. Dry-sauteing the carrot without oil for a minute brings out a sweetness raw carrot lacks. Dressing the noodles before adding the vegetables seasons every strand instead of letting the sauce cling only to the greens. The garlic is stirred until evenly dispersed so no single bite turns sharp, and half a tablespoon of gochugaru makes a spicy version.
Ssamjang, the thick soybean-and-chili paste served with Korean lettuce wraps, gets whisked into milk instead of fried, which keeps its savory fermented flavor while softening its pasty edge. Browned chicken thigh, onion, and garlic give the sauce some sweetness underneath. Each ear-shaped orecchiette cups a little sauce, and spinach goes in only during the final minute or two so it stays green. Parmesan melts in once the burner is off.
Ogeurakji is North Gyeongsang dialect for dried radish shriveled and curled up, and the name covers the seasoned side dish made from it. Jocheong (grain syrup) stands in for sugar, which makes the chili dressing cling heavy and glossy, and anchovy fish sauce with soy sauce does the salting. It needs a hard kneading by hand or the seasoning just slides around. Eat it right away, or give it a day in the fridge for the red to reach the center of each strip.
Boneless mackerel means you can pour the doenjang broth straight over rice without picking out bones. Siraegi (dried radish greens) simmered until the stems are tender makes the broth deep and earthy, and the chili-seasoned fish gives it a little bite.
Mayonnaise stirred in after the heat is off keeps the dried squid strands soft and moist even once the dish cools. The pan comes off the heat as soon as the strands start to clump together, since a sauce cooked any longer scorches and turns bitter.
Split blue crab grills shell side down first, then gets turned so the cut meat can take brushing after brushing of butter, garlic, soy sauce and lemon whenever it dries. Crabs vary in size and any time given is only a guide. The crab is done when the thickest meat reaches 63°C (145°F) and looks pearly and opaque.
The clams spend an hour purging in salted water in the fridge, which rules this out as a last-minute soup. No stock goes in; thin potato slices shed a little starch into the clam broth and soften it.
Winter oysters, plump at this time of year, share a doenjang broth with bitter-edged shepherd's purse. The base is kelp stock and radish, and the paste is held to 1.5 tablespoons, light enough that the oysters still taste of the sea.
Mackerel is oily and strong enough that a sauce built on both gochujang (Korean chili paste) and chili flakes does not bury it. A little ginger juice in the sauce takes the edge off its fishiness.
The cucumbers are stored whole, split lengthwise into quarters with the red chive filling poking out, and only cut into bite-size pieces at the table. Bite into one and the cucumber juice and the seasoning come out together.
Squid takes the place of beef in this version of japchae, the Korean glass noodle stir-fry, tossed with spinach, carrot, and onion in a soy and sugar sauce. Scoring the inside of the squid in a crosshatch lets the seasoning reach more surface and keeps the cooked pieces tender. The squid gets only about a minute over high heat, since any longer turns it rubbery and leaks water that leaves the noodles soggy. The spinach is blanched separately and squeezed hard for the same reason. Boiled for no more than 6 minutes, the glass noodles stay springy and hold together in the pan.
Butter, garlic, cream, and Parmesan make up the whole sauce, and the truffle aroma comes entirely from oil stirred in after the heat is off. The garlic warms in butter over low heat and stops before it browns, since browned garlic leaves a harsh edge in the cream. The cream simmers for only about two minutes, until a spatula leaves a brief trail; reduced further, it turns too heavy to coat the fettuccine thinly. Parmesan melts in over lowered heat with steady stirring so it does not clump. Plates go to the table straight from the pan, because the sauce keeps tightening and the truffle scent fades as it cools.
Oiji are cucumbers put down in brine for a month or more in summer, when cucumbers are everywhere, and they come out with a firm, chewy crunch nothing like a fresh one. Straight from the brine they are too salty. The slices soak in cold water for about 30 minutes, though a bite of one slice tells you more than the timer.
Soy-marinated beef lines the bottom of the pot, the rice is layered over it, and siraegi (boiled dried radish greens) tossed with doenjang and perilla oil crowns the rice as it cooks. The beef seasons the lower layer while the greens season the upper one. A gentle stir at the end brings the two together.
Peeling is most of the work here: the thin outer skin has to come off the whole length of each stem, because leftover fibers stay stringy no matter how long they cook. Peeled and blanched, the sweet potato stems turn a clear olive green, and ground perilla seed added at the end thickens the little pan liquid into a nutty, clinging coat. The last step stays brief because that coating sticks to the pan quickly.
Gochujang paste goes onto the cut faces of the crab and into the gaps in the shell, and it rests 15 minutes at room temperature. It grills shell side down over medium heat first; after the turn, more paste is brushed on the cut side and runs down into the shell over the meat. Whatever collects inside the shell ends up as a dip for the meat.
Pressed out with both thumbs as it is torn, each piece of dough ends up thin at the rim and thicker in the middle, chewy and tender in one bite. Potato thickens the broth as it cooks, and with crumbled laver on top the bowl is a whole meal, no rice needed.