1421 recipes. Page 41 of 60
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Long simmering does nothing for the clams. Once the shells open, the job becomes keeping the meat moist: opened clams get pushed to the side of the pan while the spaghetti and a few spoonfuls of pasta water go in, and a minute of tossing over high heat binds the wine-scented clam liquid with the olive oil. The measured salt goes in gradually after tasting, with the already salty clam liquid in mind.
Shiitake cut into thick slices soak up a soy and syrup glaze until the outside turns glossy brown and the inside stays chewy. The braise stops before the pan goes dry, while the sauce still coats a spoon lightly; reduced all the way, it starts to scorch. Sesame oil goes in after the heat is off, and a few minutes of cooling lets the glaze soak in further.
Beef head meat simmers with radish, scallion and garlic for two and a half hours until the broth turns milky. The meat is then lifted out, pulled along the grain or sliced thin, and returned to the strained broth with salt and black pepper. Before all that, it is soaked in cold water and blanched for five minutes, and that first water is thrown away.
Blanched beef intestines (gopchang) go into a dry pan first and give up their own fat, and that fat, not cooking oil, is what the gochujang sauce and vegetables are fried in. The chewy gopchang carries a strong hit of chili from both gochujang and chili flakes.
Cut thin across the bones, each strip of LA galbi carries a row of small bone sections. It goes into a pear juice and soy marinade, and given a night in the fridge, the seasoning reaches the meat between the bones.
The shredded pollock is fried in sesame oil until golden before any water goes in, and that step gives this Gangwon version a nuttier smell than ordinary bugeoguk. It is a clear hangover soup with no chili, finished with beaten egg that sets into soft curds.
The blood curd (seonji) is cut in large pieces, so every spoonful catches a soft chunk, and the broth, with ugeoji (outer napa cabbage leaves) and soybean sprouts, is earthy and spicy. Haejang refers to easing a hangover, and this is what people reach for the morning after drinking.
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.
Mustard greens keep their sharp, nose-tingling heat even after a vinegar brine, and lemon juice added off the heat lays a fresh citrus note over it. The pickle is ready to eat after 12 hours in the fridge, but thick stems need about a day before the brine reaches their center. Next to fatty grilled meat, the spicy sourness clears the palate.
Wide rice noodles pressed against a hot wok for about 20 seconds pick up charred patches, and those toasty spots make pad see ew taste like more than soy-sauced noodles. Dark soy sauce does the coloring, turning the noodles deep brown alongside regular soy and oyster sauce, with a little sugar for sweetness. The wide strands tear easily, so they get lifted and turned in big motions rather than stirred. Kale provides the green, its stems going in ahead of the leaves.
Torn burrata slumps slowly over the hot spaghetti and runs into the juice of cherry tomatoes cooked until they burst. The tartness comes from yuja (Korean citron) marmalade and juice; the marmalade is sweet, so start with a little.
The king oyster mushrooms are torn by hand along the grain instead of sliced, then steamed. The soy, vinegar and chili flake dressing seeps into the torn fibers, and with no oil in the pan the mushroom stays clean-tasting.
Lettuce and perilla leaves each take a small spoonful of rice, a dab of ssamjang (a thick soybean and chili paste), thin slices of raw garlic and some chili, then get folded into a single bite. Wet leaves let the rice and paste slide right out; after washing, they stand in a sieve to drain and are patted dry.
Bracken fern is first coated in perilla oil and then simmered briefly in soy-seasoned water, so it ends up tender and seasoned all the way through. That second stage is closer to braising than frying, and stopping while a little liquid remains keeps the ferns moist. Use bracken that has already been soaked and boiled; dried or raw fern should not go straight into this pan. Splitting the thick stems by hand evens out the seasoning.
Frenched lamb chops come with a clean bone that works as a handle, so they are picked up and eaten by hand. A rub of rosemary and crushed garlic softens the gamey edge of the lamb, and the chops come off the heat at medium rare, still pink inside.
Nothing in the bowl looks like a loach. The fish is boiled, blended and pushed through a sieve before going back into its broth, and with siraegi and ground perilla seed the soup turns thick and earthy.
There is no chili anywhere in this tofu stew. Garlic and onion soften for a minute in a teaspoon of perilla oil, the stock goes in, and a tablespoon of soup soy sauce is all the seasoning it gets. Spinach is added at the very end, and the heat goes off while it is still bright green.
Crunchy bean sprouts and chewy squid and shrimp share one platter, all coated in a thick red sauce. It shows up often as a dish to go with drinks.
Skipping the usual long salting, raw napa cabbage goes straight into the chili seasoning and the leaves stay crunchy, cool, and full of juice. Green plum syrup brings a rounded sweetness that fermentation would otherwise supply, softening the salt of the anchovy sauce. Tossing stops as soon as the red paste coats the leaves evenly, because any water left on the cabbage, or too much mixing, thins the seasoning.
An orange shrimp sauce colored with annatto blankets thin rice noodles, finished with boiled egg and a squeeze of lime. Shell-on shrimp are worth buying, because the savory depth comes from a stock made with their shells and fish sauce.
Olive oil warmed with garlic and red pepper flakes picks up a sweet citrus edge from yuja marmalade in this light oil-based linguine. The shrimp sear for a minute per side but keep cooking while the wine reduces and the pasta is tossed, and past two or three minutes in total they turn rubbery.
Saeujeot, tiny salted shrimp, supplies every bit of salt in this side dish; the chili flakes, garlic, scallion, and sesame oil only round it out into something eaten a little at a time from a small bowl. Jars vary a lot in how much brine they hold, and too much liquid leaves the seasoning sliding around in a puddle. Coloring the shrimp with chili flakes first, then folding the rest in from the bottom up, keeps the little shrimp whole instead of mashed.
Butter-seared steak, sliced thin and fanned over rice, gets a soy, mirin and garlic glaze made in the same pan. With no stock of its own, the sauce leans on the browned juices left after searing, and a deep crust on the meat pays off twice.
Briny fresh oysters go into the pan with minari (Korean water parsley), a strongly grassy herb, and are stir-fried with chili flakes and soup soy sauce for a little heat. The oysters are barely cooked, so they stay plump.