1421 recipes. Page 40 of 60
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Octopus (nakji), beef small intestine (gopchang), and shrimp (saeu) give this Busan-style hot pot both its name and three distinct chews under one spicy sauce. With only 200ml of stock, it cooks down to a thick, saucy stew rather than a soup, and once the glass noodles have soaked up the seasoning it is meant to be spooned over rice.
Each piece of mackerel gets a 20-second dip in hot water to set the outside white, then goes in a single layer over aged kimchi (mukeunji) lining the pot. By the end, the kimchi has soaked up the fish fat and turned glossy.
Whole cucumbers sit in a hot salt brine and then age, refrigerated, for at least five days, turning into strongly salted pickles meant to be sliced thin and used a little at a time. Only 2 to 3 mm is trimmed from each end, since deeper cuts let brine rush in and soften the flesh. The slices go into side dishes or chilled Korean soups.
Ssamjang, the thick soybean and chili paste served with Korean lettuce wraps, forms the base of this sauce instead of plain gochujang. Resting the sauce for about ten minutes before tossing softens the heavy note of the ssamjang. Squid rings blanched for just forty seconds stay springy against the medium wheat noodles, and gochugaru, vinegar, and syrup add heat, tang, and sweetness. The cooked noodles are rubbed under cold water to strip their surface starch so they do not stick together. Julienned perilla leaves and paper-thin onion on top bring an herbal scent and a sharp crunch.
Button mushrooms spread out in a wide pan over high heat give up their liquid and then brown, and that concentrated moisture becomes the savory base before the cream is added. If liquid pools in the pan, a brief pause in stirring lets the bottom dry and the browning start. Before the mushrooms, shallot cooks for about a minute to bring out its sweetness, while garlic gets only a brief turn until fragrant so it stays mellow in the rich cream. The broad, flat tagliatelle ribbons hold a thick sauce well. A small drizzle of truffle oil at the end adds an earthy aroma without taking over the mushrooms.
Fine, tangled parae hides a lot of sand, and it is washed through five or more changes of water until nothing settles at the bottom of the bowl. Ten seconds in boiling water is all the cooking it gets. The gochujang, vinegar and sugar dressing goes in over two or three additions; pour it all at once and the thin strands clump.
Thinly sliced beef and onion, glazed in a sweet soy and garlic marinade much like bulgogi, go over rice with whatever sauce is left in the pan. Unlike a brothy Japanese gyudon, this one is stir-fried hard and fast so only a small pool of glossy sauce remains to soak the rice.
The doenjang is thinned with three tablespoons of water before it goes in, because boiled gondre (a wild mountain green) comes in tangled strands. Thinned paste can work its way between them. Tofu, browned separately in perilla oil, joins at the end.
Each kkwari pepper gets poked once or twice with a fork, then rolled around a dry pan for about 3 minutes until the skin wrinkles and spots brown. The doenjang sauce goes in only after that, for 2 minutes of tossing. As it cools, the seasoning tastes stronger.
Three potatoes, anchovy stock and a spoonful of doenjang are all it takes, which makes it a standby when the fridge is running low. Starch from the potatoes thickens the soybean-paste broth slightly as they cook.
Ninety grams of scorched rice, broken into chunks rather than crumbs, is added for the last three minutes. It is served while the edges have melted into the broth and thickened it but the centers still have some bite. Seasoning waits until the rice has swelled and the stew has thickened.
The radish is half-cooked on its own beforehand, so it is seasoned all the way through in the short time the mackerel takes. With just half a tablespoon of gochujang, the soy sauce leads and the heat stays gentle.
Salting firms the squid flesh enough to keep a pleasantly chewy bite after it is coated in the red seasoning. Starch syrup gives the gochugaru paste a gloss and a little sweetness that keeps the salt from standing alone. The squid should be frozen at -20°C or below for at least 24 hours and thawed in the fridge before cleaning, with any visible parasites removed. Hot rice is the usual partner.
Beef brisket simmered for about twenty-five minutes gives this warm noodle soup a light, clear stock, strained of fat before it meets thin somyeon. Soup soy sauce is added gradually so the broth stays pale. The simmered brisket does double duty, torn along the grain and laid on top with thin egg ribbons and scallion. Since the noodles are rinsed cold, the broth comes back to a rolling boil before pouring so the bowl arrives hot.
Ground beef is first browned with soy sauce and sugar for the sweet-savory taste of tteokgalbi, Korean grilled short-rib patties, before tomato puree and gochujang are added and simmered. Gochujang, a fermented chili paste, adds savory depth rather than just heat and sets the sauce apart from a standard meat sauce. Pulled from the water two minutes early, the ziti finish in the 200-degree oven without going soft. Gochujang brands differ in saltiness, and the sauce is tasted only after it has reduced.
Ground perilla seed turns into a thin, nutty coating on each strand of bracken fern. The perilla oil is split in two: half goes into the raw seasoning so the soy and garlic soak into the chewy fibers, and the other half carries the green onion's aroma in the pan.
Ground beef and rice are toasted in sesame oil before the water goes in, and a tablespoon of soup soy sauce does the seasoning. The 160 g of rice in the ingredient list is its weight after soaking and draining; starting from dry rice adds about 30 minutes of soaking.
Oily mackerel and boiled gondre, a rustic, grassy Korean thistle green, share one gochujang and soy glaze. The mackerel is pan-browned separately and added near the end, so it is still in large flakes on the plate.
Half-dried pollock, kodari, is chewier than fresh pollock and much less fishy. It soaks in cold water for 10 minutes, both sides are seared plain, and only then does the soy, gochujang and syrup glaze go on, a thin coat at every turn.
Doenjang and chili flakes go in together, turning the pork bone broth red but earthy, and the spine, halved potatoes and dried cabbage greens cook down in it. Two tablespoons of ground perilla seed go in near the end, and leaving them out changes the stew a great deal.
Mackerel or beltfish both work for this spicy fish stew. The radish gets a five-minute head start, then the fish pieces are laid in a single layer and simmered with the lid slightly open to let the fishy steam escape.
Gondre, a soft mountain thistle green, soaks up seasoning readily, and steamed with ground perilla seed and perilla oil it turns deeply nutty. It is kept a little moist and often spooned over rice and mixed in.
Whole stalks of green onion ferment into this kimchi, and time turns their sharp, raw bite mellow while the white stems go supple. A shallow slit down the thick white part lets salt and paste reach inside rather than sitting on the surface.
Wide rice noodles, chicken thigh, garlic, fresh chili, and Thai basil hit a smoking-hot wok together in this spicy Thai stir-fry, also called drunken noodles. The noodles soak only until pliable, keeping a firm core so they hold their shape over high heat. Fish sauce brings briny depth, and dark soy sauce colors the noodles and adds a hint of sweetness.