1421 recipes. Page 45 of 60
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Coated thinly in gochujang and syrup, small octopus needs only a minute and a half on a grill rack or pan, two minutes at most. Snipped into bites with scissors, it goes into perilla or lettuce wraps or over a bowl of rice.
With oysters and big cubes of tofu in a clear kelp broth, the salt from the oysters seasons the soup more than you might expect. So the salt goes in only after the oysters, a taste at a time.
The grassy bitterness of spring mugwort (ssuk) sits on top of a nutty perilla seed broth made with rice-rinse water. Tough stems are pulled off and mostly the leaves are used, cooked for just the final 2 minutes to keep their green color and scent.
Gizzard shad, a small fish at its fattiest in autumn, stays moist even when braised in a soy and gochugaru sauce. Three deep scores along the back let the sauce reach the thick part of the fish without a long cook. Thick slices of radish packed across the bottom of the pot keep the fish from scorching and turn sweet as they soak up the sauce; the thicker the slices, the sweeter they get. Basting with a spoon takes the place of flipping, which would break the delicate flesh apart. The reduced sauce left in the pot is spooned over steamed rice.
Starting with sliced lotus root boiled in vinegar water helps remove bitterness while keeping the vegetable pale and crisp. The seasoning combines gochugaru, minced garlic, and anchovy fish sauce with the addition of fresh pear juice. This pear juice provides natural sugars and necessary moisture so the chili paste coats each slice evenly without becoming dry or clumping. Even after the fermentation process begins, the lotus root maintains its signature firm and crunchy texture. Sliced scallions are tossed in to add a fresh aromatic quality that balances the spicy garlic paste. One full day of refrigeration allows the flavors to settle into the flesh before serving. Because the seasoning gets trapped inside the characteristic holes of the root, the paste should remain thick rather than watery to ensure consistent flavor. When left to ferment for a few more days, the developing acidity helps cut through the richness of grilled meats or fried dishes.
Turmeric turns the broth a bright gold, and galangal and lemongrass give the chicken stock a warm, citrusy perfume. Unlike a plain chicken noodle soup, the aromatics are ground into a paste and fried in oil before the chicken and water go in, which gives this Indonesian soup its earthy depth. Rice noodles, boiled eggs, and mung bean sprouts sit in the bowl first, and the hot broth poured over them warms everything through. A squeeze of lime at the table cuts through the turmeric.
Bean sprouts go limp if they linger in water that is barely simmering. The pot needs a hard boil, and the sprouts come out the moment their stems turn translucent, under 30 seconds, straight into cold water. Green onion and sesame seeds are not tossed in but scattered over the top once the sprouts are in the bowl.
Chewy wild rice is tossed with red cabbage, carrot and edamame in a soy and brown rice vinegar dressing, with seaweed chips on top. The chips go soft as soon as the dressing touches them, so they are added on the plate right before eating.
Dried shredded squid (jinmichae) is usually done in gochujang; this version uses butter and soy sauce, so it comes out rich and sweet-salty. There is only a pinch of chili flakes, so it is not spicy.
Broad, thin sheets of sirloin cut across the grain give this neobiani a tender bite, and the beef stays in whole slices instead of being minced into patties. Grated onion and sugar in the soy marinade brown fast and scorch before the beef does, so the slices are laid in one layer without the leftover marinade.
The broth gets its base from radish, cooked until translucent before the oysters go in. That is why the radish is sliced an even 0.3 cm thin, and no tofu or separate stock is used.
Wheat dough is torn by hand into thin pieces and dropped into the clam broth. Each piece comes out a slightly different thickness, and each one chews a little differently. The clams go in once the dough floats up translucent, the lid goes on, and the stew goes to the table right away, since sujebi swells quickly.
As the soy-based liquid reduces, glass noodles (dangmyeon) soak it up and turn chewy, while big chunks of potato go fluffy and take on the salty-sweet sauce. The dish traces back to the chicken shops of the old market in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province. Timing the noodles is the key move: added too early they drink all the liquid and go limp, so they only join once the potatoes are about half done. With no chili in the pot, the flavor is pure soy, sugar and garlic, and the glossy sauce is made for spooning over rice.
The only cooking in this salad is poaching a chicken breast, since soy protein noodles are ready once drained of their packing water and rinsed. The dressing of soy sauce, vinegar and olive oil gets its sweetness from allulose instead of sugar, which keeps it sharp and light. Baby greens go on last and stay perky as long as they are not tossed in early.
Fresh tot (hijiki) turns from brown to bright green the moment it hits boiling water, and it has a pleasant snap. It's tossed with thin slices of onion in a sour-spicy dressing of equal parts gochujang and vinegar.
The chicken flavor comes in twice: breast meat poached separately with green onion and ginger, then shredded, and a full pot of chicken stock as the cooking liquid. Lotus root is minced only a little larger than the rice grains, enough to give a slight bite inside the smooth porridge without feeling like separate chunks.
The chili sauce looks too thick, but no water goes in: the octopus releases its own liquid as it cooks and loosens it. The pork belly is browned in the pan first, and the octopus joins it over high heat for just a minute or two.
The skin of the sea bass fillets is dried twice: once while trimming, and again five minutes after the coarse salt and pepper go on, when fresh moisture has come up. The frying oil is olive oil warmed over low heat with crushed garlic and thyme, and after the flip it gets spooned over the flesh.
This is Korea's birthday seaweed soup made with oysters in place of beef. Between November and January, when oysters are fattest, the broth takes on the most of their creamy sweetness.
Brisket simmered in plain water, with the foam skimmed off, makes a clear broth that a spoonful of gochugaru turns spicy. The 250 g of mung bean sprouts go in at the very end for two minutes at most, which keeps them crisp against the soft beef. It is ladled hot over rice.
Baby octopus, at its best in spring, spends only a short time in a gochujang and gochugaru marinade before steaming on a bed of cabbage and onion. Ten minutes is enough to coat the pieces before they start giving up water. As the vegetables soften, their juices mix with the marinade into a small pool of spicy sauce at the bottom. The cabbage keeps the octopus off the steamer and takes the edge off the heat. The steamer should be at a full boil before the octopus is added, and the lid stays shut so the steam stays strong. The window between springy and rubbery is narrow, and the moment the pieces curl up plump is the moment to stop.
The slightly bitter scent of crown daisy, ssukgat, cuts through the nutty weight of perilla seed powder and keeps this soy-dressed somyeon lively without any chili heat. Plum syrup and vinegar add a light sweet-sour lift, and cold cucumber strips crunch between the thin noodles. Holding back part of the sauce before tossing leaves room to adjust once you see how much water the noodles carry.
Unlike soy-brined crab that sits for days, this version coats quartered raw crab in a thick chili paste and is ready after half a day in the fridge. Because the paste does not cook anything, the crab must be sold for raw consumption and stay at 4°C or below from cleaning through marinating.
Perilla oil is the only source of aroma. Shiitake, carrot, the rice and the lotus root are all sautéed in it before cooking, so the grains come out glossy, with thin slices of lotus root staying crisp throughout.