282 recipes. Page 4 of 12
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Napa cabbage lines the bottom of the pot, and kimchi, blanched beef, tofu, enoki and frozen dumplings are arranged around it in separate blocks of color before anchovy stock with gochujang is poured over. A drop of perilla oil goes on just before it reaches the table.
It also goes by dak bokkeumtang, and although the name ends in tang, meaning soup, it is reduced for about 25 minutes until the sauce clings to the chicken. The chicken pieces are blanched for three minutes and rinsed of bone fragments before they go into the pot. Sugar in the sauce makes the sweetness as clear as the heat.
Drumettes, potato and onion all go into the pot raw with the gochujang sauce and braise under a lid, with no searing or frying beforehand. As they cook, the meat around the bone turns firm and chewy and holds on to the thickening sauce. With a little extra time, browning the drumettes in a pan first deepens the color and flavor.
Refugees who reached Busan during the Korean War began making these noodles from wheat flour in place of naengmyeon, and milmyeon became the city's summer noodle. The noodles are softer than naengmyeon, with a moderate chew; the usual way is to sip the ice-edged beef broth first, then cut the noodles with scissors. That chew comes from plunging them into cold water the moment they are drained and rubbing off the starch. The gochujang is loosened with a little cold broth beforehand so it spreads without lumps. Spooned into the center, it melts a spicy kick into the cold broth, and cucumber and Korean pear add crunch and sweetness.
Clams open in white wine, and the briny liquid they release becomes the sauce base for a spoonful of gochujang, the Korean fermented chili paste. The result tastes like vongole with an extra layer of savory heat rather than a red chili sauce. A small knob of butter at the end rounds off the spice and gives the sauce its gloss. Because that clam liquor goes straight into the sauce, the clams soak for 30 minutes first to purge any sand.
Jjokpa, a slender Korean green onion, is milder and sweeter than the thick daepa leek and can be dressed raw without much sting. That gentle bite cuts through the fat of grilled pork belly or grilled fish.
How long aralia shoots need in the water depends on their thickness, so the base, not the leaf color, decides when they come out: it should be tender enough to chew. Pull them early to save the aroma and the bases stay hard. The vinegared gochujang sits on the side instead of being mixed in.
Stir-fried deodeok root sits beside raw cucumber, carrot, and lettuce, so each bite mixes a cooked, gochujang-coated root with cool, crisp vegetables. Most of the sauce goes into the pan with the deodeok; the rest is added when the bowl is mixed.
Pork shoulder has enough fat running through it that a fast, very hot stir-fry in gochujang marinade does not dry it out. Color is a poor guide to doneness, though, and a thermometer should show the thickest piece at 75°C or higher for more than a minute.
Kelp-steeped water carries the gochujang and chili flakes, and the rice cakes simmer in it long enough to soak up the sauce rather than just wear it. Unlike stir-fried versions, this one should still have plenty of broth in the pot when the heat is turned off.
Blanching time decides the texture of pork skin, which is almost pure collagen: too short and it stays rubbery, too long and it goes limp. On the grill the skin buckles into ridges that trap the gochujang glaze, concentrating spicy-sweet flavor in every groove.
Pieces of catfish simmer in a gochujang broth, and thin pinches of flour dough go in partway through, so fish and sujebi dumplings come out of the same pot. Before cutting, the catfish is rubbed well with salt to strip off its slippery coating, which otherwise leaves a muddy taste in the broth.
In early spring, February to April, when wild chives are around, a handful goes on top of this clam and gochujang stew. Their sharp scent takes the edge off any fishiness from the clams.
Mackerel is oily and strong enough that a sauce built on both gochujang (Korean chili paste) and chili flakes does not bury it. A little ginger juice in the sauce takes the edge off its fishiness.
Hot, just-seared brisket lands on cold, chewy jjolmyeon, and every bite mixes warm beef fat with a tangy gochujang dressing. The brisket goes into a dry pan and only browns at the edges, which keeps the marbling in the slices instead of rendering it away. Jjolmyeon are dense, elastic wheat noodles that hold a sticky sauce well, but any water left on them or on the soaked cabbage and cucumber thins that coating fast.
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.
Slicing cooked octopus thin and wide with the knife laid at a low angle shortens its tough fibers, so each piece chews easily. Cho-gochujang, gochujang sharpened with vinegar and sugar, coats it in a sour heat, while minari (Korean water dropwort) adds a fresh, herbal aroma and cucumber and onion bring crunch.
Eoseuri, a wild mountain herb picked in spring, smells of celery and parsley with a medicinal edge, and it is noticeably more bitter than spinach or bean sprout namul. A blanch of 30 seconds or less leaves the stems with a slight bite.
Rice pressed into a hot stone pot keeps sizzling at the table, turning crisp and toasty at the bottom, which is what sets dolsot bibimbap apart from the regular bowl. Scraping up the crust while mixing is part of the meal.
The potatoes here are cubed, not shredded, at about 2 cm. Their corners are browned first; then a gochujang, soy and sugar sauce goes in and cooks down until almost nothing loose is left in the pan. What remains is a red, glossy coat on each cube rather than sauce on the plate.
Store-bought jjondeugi, a chewy Korean snack sold in flat sheets, gets warmed in a pan and brushed with a thin sweet-and-spicy gochujang glaze. A plain, unseasoned product works better than one already coated in spicy seasoning, since the added glaze is easier to balance.
Deep crosshatch scoring makes the cuttlefish curl open like a flower over high heat, and every gap fills with a glossy red gochujang glaze.
The gochujang and vinegar broth goes into the freezer for about an hour and is poured over the bowl while still slushy. That keeps everything cold to the last spoonful without a pile of ice cubes thinning the seasoning. Raw flatfish sits on shredded pear, cucumber and cabbage, and with nothing here touching heat, the fish should be sold for raw eating, kept cold, and served the moment the bowl is put together.
The deodeok root is peeled, tapped lightly to open the grain, then sliced on the diagonal about 5 mm thick; cut thinner, it loses its scent. The broth is rice-rinsing water with a tablespoon of gochujang and half a tablespoon of doenjang stirred in.