689 recipes. Page 1 of 29
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The name echoes the loud sizzle the batter makes when it hits a hot, oiled pan. In southern Vietnam this turmeric-yellow crepe, crisp and lacy at the edges, is torn into pieces, wrapped in lettuce with mint and perilla, and dipped in nuoc cham.
Perilla powder goes in last, after the boiled napa cabbage has been dressed with doenjang. It soaks up the water left on the leaves, so the seasoning clings to each strand instead of pooling in the bowl. One tablespoon is enough; more turns the dish pasty.
Bacon started in a cold pan renders slowly, and that smoky fat replaces cooking oil for the whole fried rice. Well-fermented sour kimchi is fried until its edges brown, which rounds its sharp tang into something toastier. Pressing the rice against the pan builds a light crust on the bottom, the cue to turn off the heat. A runny-yolk fried egg goes on top and gets broken into the rice like a sauce.
Thin slices of pork shoulder, green asparagus and red bell pepper share one pan. Peeling the lower part of each spear lets the thick end cook as fast as the tip. The pork comes off the heat when the thickest slice reaches 63°C at the center, then rests for 3 minutes.
Inside the pork casing, soaked glutinous rice swells as it steams and binds the glass noodles and pork blood into a dense, sticky filling. That swelling is why the casing is filled only about 80% of the way and why any puffed spots get a quick needle prick during steaming.
The soy and honey glaze goes on in two rounds, so the bollak, a small Korean rockfish, comes out with a dark, glossy brown skin. The fish is lean and dries out quickly, so keep the grilling short.
The zucchini is cut into thick half-moons, so it keeps its shape in the soup and releases a little sweetness when you bite into it. For more of a kick, slice in a cheongyang chili, a sharp Korean green pepper.
Ground mung bean batter, mixed with kimchi, bean sprouts and pork, is fried in small rounds the way market stalls do it, with no holding back on the oil. Well-fermented kimchi gives it a sour edge, and it is dipped in soy sauce cut with vinegar.
Gochujang toasts in rendered pork fat before any broth goes in, and that spicy red oil gives the stew more body than simply boiling everything together. Zucchini half-moons simmer for 6 minutes, enough to take on seasoning without collapsing into mush.
Finely chopped salted shrimp loosened in water seasons this zucchini side dish instead of soy sauce, a habit handed down from country tables where salted shrimp was the main seasoning. Cooking it covered over medium-low heat lands somewhere between steaming and braising, and the zucchini softens without going mushy.
Napa cabbage salted for just 20 minutes and tossed straight into a gochugaru dressing gives kimchi with no sourness at all: the red pepper heat and the savory anchovy fish sauce come through cleanly. The short salting bends the thick ribs slightly while keeping them much crisper than fermented kimchi. Sesame oil and sesame seeds are added at the very end, so a nutty aroma sits over the chili. Geotjeori, as this fresh style is called in Korea, is served alongside grilled pork belly or doenjang-jjigae (fermented soybean paste stew), and it fills in when the jar of aged kimchi runs empty. It is best right after mixing, and leftovers keep a day or two chilled.
With dried anchovies, kelp and somyeon noodles on hand, this bowl comes together even when the fridge is nearly empty. There is no chili and no fermented paste; the clear anchovy broth simmers for 15 minutes and is seasoned with soup soy sauce and salt. The thin wheat noodles cook in a separate pot and are rinsed, so their starch does not cloud the broth.
There is no cream here and no added salt; the butter sauce is seasoned with doenjang, a Korean fermented soybean paste, and Parmesan. Most of the flavor comes from button mushrooms left alone in the pan until their edges brown.
Charred until deep brown, Korean daepa (a thick green onion similar to a leek) loses its sharp bite and turns soft and sweet inside. With tender potatoes and a dressing of doenjang, lemon juice, and honey, it makes a salty, earthy potato salad with no mayonnaise in sight.
Soft mashed potato gets flecks of cabbage, blanched for just 3 minutes so it keeps a little crunch, and the mild bite of scallion. In Ireland it was traditionally eaten at Halloween, sometimes with a coin hidden inside for luck.
Yeast-raised wheat dough wraps a filling of ground pork, cabbage and scallion seasoned with soy sauce and sesame oil, and the soft, light skin holds in the juices. The pleats at the top do more than shape the bun: they keep those juices from leaking out during steaming.
Eye round is simmered for 20 minutes, and that broth, seasoned with soy sauce, becomes the braising liquid, so the beef flavor stays under the salt. The meat is torn by hand along the grain rather than sliced, then cooked down with peeled quail eggs until the liquid has halved. A night in the fridge evens out the seasoning.
Dig in and the melted mozzarella stretches away to reveal chicken breast fried rice turned red with buldak sauce, the fiery Korean chicken sauce. The sauce goes onto the chicken and onion before the rice.
The shrimp are scored along the back, seared for just 30 seconds and set aside on a plate. They go back in only after the cabbage is done, so the shrimp stay springy and the stems keep their crunch. Soy sauce with a little fish sauce does the seasoning.
Part of the gochujang sauce is set aside the moment it is mixed. The rest marinates the chicken thigh, while the reserved portion never touches raw meat and goes on as a final glaze near the end of grilling. Each skewer holds two or three pieces of chicken for every piece of green onion, and they cook until the edges just char.
Grated Korean pear does two jobs in this marinade: its enzymes soften the thin slices of sirloin, and its sugars meet the soy sauce to form the sweet, salty gloss that bulgogi is recognized by. Whether that gloss forms depends on the pan. When all the beef goes into the pan at once, the temperature drops and the meat stews in its own liquid, turning gray and chewy instead of browning at the edges. Onion and scallion marinate alongside the beef and soak up the same seasoning. Spoon it over rice or wrap it in lettuce.
This is the spicy monkfish soup Koreans go looking for the morning after, made at home. Monkfish flesh is soft and breaks apart easily, so once it is in the pot it barely gets stirred. If you can get the liver, adding it separately makes the broth deeper.
The egg itself replaces the dumpling wrapper, setting around a filling of cabbage, scallion and glass noodles in palm-sized rounds. It follows the flat egg mandu sold as a market snack, and no flour goes into it at all. The noodles are cut short to make flipping easier.
Mallow leaves turn this doenjang broth silky: their natural mucilage thickens the liquid so it clings to the spoon. Peeling the stringy stem skins and kneading out the green juice keeps the leaves from tasting grassy.