1421 recipes. Page 56 of 60
As an Amazon Associate, we may earn from qualifying purchases.
Whole loaches are boiled until the bones soften, ground, and pushed through a sieve, and the resulting broth clings heavily to the spoon. Radish greens tossed in doenjang and some perilla powder go in too, and ground sancho pepper is sprinkled on a little at a time just before eating.
Taro stems are long and fibrous, and in this dish they soak up a creamy perilla-seed broth between their strands, bending softly when you bite and releasing that nutty liquid. With only soup soy sauce for seasoning and onion and garlic softened in perilla oil for a gentle sweetness, the dish ends up mild rather than spicy or salty. The sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon and sits well over rice.
Beef and bell pepper are cut into strips of about the same width, and one pinch of the chopsticks brings up both. The seasoning is only soy sauce, sesame oil and garlic, and the peppers go in once the beef's marinade starts to bubble in the pan.
Seven hundred grams of clams, a spoonful of rice wine and water make up nearly the whole pot. Once the shells start opening the soup is minutes from done, and the chilies, green onion and garlic should all be cut before the heat goes on.
Fat and juices from boneless chicken thighs melt into the soy braising liquid, and the burdock root that soaks it up turns sweeter and saltier the longer you chew. A short soak in vinegared water takes the astringency out of the burdock, leaving a nutty root flavor instead of an earthy one. Thin diagonal slices of burdock cook through far faster than thick pieces. Some of the fatty chicken skin is trimmed away and the meat sits briefly in cooking wine and ginger juice, which keeps the sauce clean and free of any gamey smell. Tender thigh meat and chewy, slightly crisp burdock end up glazed together as an easy side for rice.
Ketchup sets a sweet base and half a spoon of gochujang adds only a mild heat, giving these cocktail sausages a sticky glaze that settles into shallow scores and sits well in a lunchbox. Once the ketchup and syrup start to thicken they stick fast to the pan, so nothing stays still after the sauce is poured in.
The water used to soak the dried neungi mushrooms is not poured away; it becomes part of the hot pot broth. So much of the aroma has already moved into that water that the broth smells deeply of mushroom without any meat at all.
With no meat at all, this braise relies on texture: thin slices of burdock stay crisp and chewy while konjac, a firm jelly made from konjac yam, stays bouncy. The konjac is blanched and then dry-toasted in an unoiled pan for 1 minute, which takes away its distinctive smell. Burdock absorbs the seasoning faster the thinner it is sliced, and after its vinegar-water soak it is drained well so the braising liquid is not watered down. Holding back the syrup until the soy liquid has reduced by about half lets it add gloss at the end instead of scorching. Sesame oil and seeds stirred in off the heat finish it.
Square fish cake sheets are blanched for 20 seconds before frying to shed surface oil, which lets the gochujang glaze cling more cleanly. No water is added; the onion goes in first, and the moisture it gives off loosens the sauce on the pan floor.
The neungi mushrooms join the pot only for the final 15 minutes, after the chicken has spent 50 minutes making its stock. Boiled from the start, they would lose their aroma and leave something close to an ordinary chicken soup.
Thin strips of beef and burdock start together in plain water rather than a hot oiled pan. Skimming the foam then keeps the liquid clear, and the beef stays tender. Soy sauce, sugar, cooking wine and garlic go in only after the meat changes color, and the beef's savoriness rounds out the earthy burdock. Leaving a shallow layer of sauce in the pot keeps the strips moist, and once cooled and settled, it packs well for lunch.
Bulgogi-style beef marinated in soy sauce and pear juice gets ssamchu, a leafy cabbage, at the very end, stems first and leaves a minute later. That split leaves crunchy stems next to leaves that have only just wilted, and any longer in the pan would drain the greens of their sweetness and moisture.
On a hot day this takes the soup's place on the Korean table. Thin cucumber slices sit in a sharp broth where vinegar leads, and ice goes in right before serving so it arrives very cold.
Burdock root goes into a beef shank broth that has already simmered with soy and garlic, then steams under the lid until the meat juices reach its center. The aromatic, woody note of burdock cuts through the heavy beef flavor and gives the braise a second layer of flavor. The liquid is reduced to less than half, glossy and spoonable over rice, and finished with sesame oil and toasted seeds.
Crown daisy is slightly bitter and oyster mushrooms are mild, and the two stay distinct on the plate. The mushrooms are torn along the grain and cooked dry in a wide pan first; the crown daisy goes in right before the heat is turned off.
The radish simmers alone for more than 8 minutes to sweeten the broth, and the squid goes in afterwards for only 4 to 5. The rings are right when they turn opaque and begin to curl; any longer and they toughen fast. No chili flakes go in.
Blanched outer leaves of napa cabbage are thinner than dried radish greens and, once tossed with doenjang (Korean soybean paste) and covered, soften in under twenty minutes. Trimming off the stringy stems and thick ribs first is what makes the texture even; left in, they stay fibrous among the tender leaves. The seasoned leaves are stir-fried in perilla oil before any water is added, laying a nutty base under the salty bean paste. If the liquid cooks off too quickly under the lid, a splash more water is needed before it turns salty or catches on the bottom. Ground perilla seeds scattered in at the end thicken the liquid so it clings to the greens, giving a mellow, nutty side dish for rice.
Doenjang (Korean fermented soybean paste) does most of the seasoning, with only a little gochujang, so the pork comes out savory and salty rather than hot. The crown daisy goes in after the meat is cooked and comes off the heat just as the leaves wilt, keeping its slightly bitter scent.
Olgaengi is what people in Chungcheong Province call the small freshwater snails known elsewhere in Korea as daseulgi. Their tiny meat cooks with mallow leaves in a doenjang broth, and a spoonful of ground perilla seed leaves it slightly thick.
Beef trotters carry far more skin and tendon than meat, so they need a 90-minute low simmer before the skin gives under a chopstick. Soy sauce and sugar go in only after that, and as the liquid reduces for another 25 minutes, gelatin from the skin turns it glossy and thick. The long soak, blanch and scrub at the start clear any off smell from the bone crevices before it reaches the sauce.
The bean sprouts are not pulled after 30 seconds but cooked through, which makes this a soft stir-fry rather than a crunchy one. The oyster mushrooms are torn along the grain instead of cut, and the seasoning is soup soy sauce and salt.
A 1.5 kg duck is stuffed with soaked glutinous rice and simmered in water already steeped with a Korean herbal pack of astragalus and eumnamu. By the end the rice inside has turned to porridge, served together with the meat. Duck is tougher than chicken and needs more than an hour and a half.
A whole rockfish cooks in a broth of soy sauce and gochugaru (Korean chili flakes), and each spoonful takes some of the spicy liquid, the white flesh and a piece of radish that has soaked up both.
Once the beef is in the pan this is done in a few minutes, so the onion, garlic and soy sauce are lined up next to the stove before the heat goes on. The bean sprouts come off while their stems are still white and crisp.