282 recipes. Page 3 of 12
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The skewered fish cakes start in a dry pan with no oil. Driving off their surface moisture is what lets the soy and gochujang glaze stay put instead of running off. After brushing, a short second spell over the heat melts the sugar into a shine, and sliced green onion and sesame seeds go on top.
Breast, thigh and wing each get their own seasoning here and end up side by side on one plate. Salt alone keeps the breast mild, gochujang gives the thigh heat and charred edges, and soy with garlic makes the wings savory. Because fat and muscle differ by cut, the breast comes off first while the other two stay on longer.
The flavor of this broth comes from the innards packed in the crab's top shell. That is why the shells go into the pot with the radish before the bodies, so the innards can be stirred loose into the gochujang broth. It sits on a tabletop burner, and as it cooks down, a little water goes in so everyone can keep eating to the bottom.
Boiled radish greens and blanched loach simmer in anchovy stock seasoned with doenjang and gochujang, and three tablespoons of perilla seed powder at the end thicken it to something close to porridge. More radish greens push it toward bitter and chewy; more perilla powder makes it nuttier.
Cod is lean and mild, so it gets a punchy sauce of soy, gochujang and chili flakes. The radish under it soaks that sauce up and ends up as good as the fish.
Jjolmyeon noodles have a rubbery, teeth-resisting chew, and topping them with tender soy-and-sugar marinated beef sets up a sharp contrast in texture. The gochujang and vinegar sauce adds spicy, sour notes that cut the bulgogi's sweetness. Shredded cabbage and carrot bring crunch, while a halved boiled egg tempers the chili.
Each lasagna sheet is spread with filling and rolled up rather than stacked, and the rolls come out of the oven as neat single portions. The eggplant is roasted first to drive off moisture that would otherwise thin the ricotta, then split between the filling and the top, while a tomato sauce seasoned with gochujang gives the mild cheese some heat.
Chickpeas roasted at 200 degrees until crisp play the part of croutons in this bowl of kale, red cabbage, carrot and cucumber. The gochujang dressing, rounded out with maple syrup and rice vinegar, brings heat, sweetness and acidity at once and covers the grassy taste of the raw vegetables. Massaging the kale by hand for a minute softens its tough fibers and takes the edge off its bitterness.
In this Chungcheong-style method the smelt are packed around the pan with every head pointing to the center, and as they fry they fuse into one crisp disc. The oil is poured off only after the disc has set firm, and the gochujang glaze is brushed on thinly, so the underside keeps its crunch. It goes to the table in the pan, scattered with green and red chilies.
Mozzarella melted over gochujang-glazed chicken thigh pulls into long strands and softens the chili heat. A pan that is not hot enough lets the cabbage and onion release water, and the sauce ends up thin instead of clinging.
Deodeok root and thin bulgogi beef share one sweet-spicy gochujang sauce, but not at the same moment. Two thirds of it marinates the beef for just 10 minutes, short enough that the meat does not turn too salty, and the rest goes straight onto the deodeok later in the pan. The root is pounded lightly to loosen its fibers, yet left thick enough to hold together when tossed.
Rolled around a pan, garaetteok develops a thin, dried-out skin while the inside turns even softer. The soy, gochujang and honey glaze waits until the rice cake has browned, then goes on in two thin coats over low heat.
The texture comes down to pounding the peeled deodeok root flat with a mallet or rolling pin. Once the fibers loosen, the gochujang paste seeps into the gaps, and the grilled root chews pleasantly instead of turning stringy. Honey in the paste scorches quickly, and medium heat with a close eye on the color keeps it from burning.
Cod and pollock are soft-fleshed fish, so once the pieces are in the pot they are never turned; the spicy broth is just spooned over them. That is how the pieces stay whole all the way to the table. Swap in clams or shrimp and it becomes a seafood maeuntang.
Tang usually signals soup, but there is little broth here: it cooks down until the red sauce clings, glossy, to the chicken and potatoes. The big potato chunks, still holding their shape, get spooned onto rice along with the sauce.
Long cooking turns the skin and cartilage of chicken feet chewy and sticky, and that texture is the whole reason to eat them. Once the red sauce coats them in a glossy layer, they go out with rice or a cold beer. Adjust the heat with the amount of chili flakes.
Chewy and clear, sweet-potato glass noodles grab the gochujang-soy sauce tightly and bring a vivid sweet-spicy hit with every lift of the chopsticks. The dish comes from street food sold in Busan's markets, and it is quick: boil the noodles, then toss them with briefly stir-fried vegetables, fish cake, and the sauce. Fish cake adds a soft savory note against the springy noodles, while cabbage and carrot, cooked only until just bent, keep some crunch.
Gochujang stirred into cream and milk, with no tomato involved, makes an orange sauce where the heat arrives slowly behind the cream. Brands of gochujang differ in saltiness, so start small and taste before adding more.
Springy canned sea snails (golbaengi) are tossed with cucumber, onion and scallion in a hot, sour and sweet sauce of gochujang, chili flakes, vinegar and sugar, a classic drinking snack in Korea. A 5-minute soak in cold water takes the harsh edge off the onion so it blends into the sauce. The snails drain well in a sieve first, as leftover brine from the can thins the sauce until it no longer clings. The plate goes to the table right away: once dressed, the salt starts drawing water out of the vegetables. Spooned over thin somyeon noodles, it becomes golbaengi somyeon, with the noodles soaking up the dressing.
Tofu gangjeong began in temple cooking as a meatless stand-in for meat gangjeong, and these days it also shows up as a drinking snack. The potato-starch crust on the pan-fried cubes lasts about 10 minutes once the gochujang, ketchup, and oligosaccharide glaze goes on; after that it soaks up moisture and the crunch is gone. It gets glazed only when it is ready for the table.
No cheese on this one. The chicken thigh is stir-fried in gochujang sauce alone, and it lands on the rice along with soft, sweet cabbage.
Balloon flower root has a sharp, bitter edge, so the torn strands are rubbed hard with salt and rinsed twice before they meet the pan. The sauce is gochujang sweetened with oligosaccharide syrup and sharpened with chili flakes, cooked only until it clings to each strand in a thin, glossy layer. Brief cooking keeps a firm bite in the root.
Under a sticky, shiny gochujang and honey glaze, the potato starch crust on these chicken pieces still crunches. They go into the sauce right before serving.
In spring, when dureup is in season, the blanched aralia shoots are rolled up in thin pork belly, threaded onto skewers, brushed with gochujang paste and grilled. The shoots get only 20 seconds in boiling water to keep their crunch and bitter, green aroma.