689 recipes. Page 19 of 29
As an Amazon Associate, we may earn from qualifying purchases.
No stock goes into the pot: plain water plus 3 tablespoons of salted shrimp (saeujeot) carries all the savory depth. The radish is cut into thin julienne and tossed with the shrimp and chili flakes before cooking, so the seasoning is already in the strands when the water goes in. The broth comes out clearer and more lightly spicy than doenjang or kimchi jjigae.
Whole garlic cloves and rice wine come to a boil before a mix of clams is added, giving the broth they release a slow, mellow garlic note. With the clams bringing their own salt, the measured salt is stirred in only after tasting, a little at a time. Green onion and cheongyang chili steam for just half a minute at the end to perfume the broth; any longer and the clam meat shrinks and toughens. Purging the clams in salted water beforehand matters as much as the cooking, because any sand ends up in the bowl. Clams that stay shut are thrown out, and the leftover broth makes a base for noodles or porridge.
Bonito flakes steeped off the heat in a chicken and kombu stock add a layer of smoky fish aroma on top of the chicken. For a clear stock, the bones are blanched and scrubbed first, and the pot is kept below a hard boil with frequent skimming. Seasoning comes from a tare of soy sauce and mirin warmed only until it bubbles at the edges, spooned into each bowl before the hot stock is poured in. Narutomaki with its pink swirl, menma, and a soft-boiled egg sit over noodles cooked slightly under the package time so they hold their firmness in the soup.
Boneless mackerel means you can pour the doenjang broth straight over rice without picking out bones. Siraegi (dried radish greens) simmered until the stems are tender makes the broth deep and earthy, and the chili-seasoned fish gives it a little bite.
Kongbul, short for kongnamul bulgogi, piles soybean sprouts onto spicy gochujang pork so every bite of meat comes with a crunch. The sprouts only get about a minute over high heat, so the pork sauce has to be reduced to a thick glaze before they go in, or the water they release leaves everything soupy. It is served spooned over rice.
Pacific saury is pounded in a mortar until sticky, mixed with miso, egg and sake, and shaped into balls that go into plain water first. The miso and fish in the balls turn that water into broth, and daikon, carrot and tofu follow.
A whole pollack roe sac (myeongnan) sits in the pot intact, so the outside firms up while the eggs inside stay separate and pop when you bite them. The heat drops to low as soon as the broth returns to a boil; a hard boil breaks the roe apart and dulls that texture. Since the roe is already salty, the stew often needs nothing more, and the broth with pieces of roe is good spooned over rice.
Yellow croaker has fine, tender flesh that separates into neat flakes under chopsticks, and the soy sauce seasoning seeps along deep scores in its sides. The fish stays put in the steamer from start to finish, and the few spoonfuls of liquid left underneath are poured back over it to eat with rice.
Dried radish greens, called siraegi, bring an earthy, faintly bitter note to an anchovy and kelp broth seasoned with doenjang, Korean fermented soybean paste. Rinsing the precooked greens again and squeezing them hard keeps any stale smell out of the pot. Tough stems are sorted out and simmered 2 to 3 minutes ahead of the rest so they are tender by the time the noodles are done. The paste is pressed free of lumps with a spoon so the broth is not muddy or salty in spots, and since brands differ in saltiness, soup soy sauce makes the final adjustment. Onion and zucchini soften the paste's saltiness as they cook, and perilla seed powder stirred in at the end gives the soup more weight.
Soy-marinated beef lines the bottom of the pot, the rice is layered over it, and siraegi (boiled dried radish greens) tossed with doenjang and perilla oil crowns the rice as it cooks. The beef seasons the lower layer while the greens season the upper one. A gentle stir at the end brings the two together.
Soybean sprouts pick up the beefy richness of thin-sliced brisket (chadolbaegi), because the fat the brisket renders is the only oil used for the chili sauce. Brisket this thin browns in a minute or two and the sprouts should stay crunchy, which makes the whole cook brief and fast. Blot off only the excess fat; wiping the pan dry leaves nothing to fry the paste in.
The sardines are ground in a mortar until no grain is left, then mixed with grated mountain yam, egg and miso into a sticky paste for the dumplings. The miso seasons the dumplings themselves, so the broth needs only a little soy sauce.
Winter oysters, plump at this time of year, share a doenjang broth with bitter-edged shepherd's purse. The base is kelp stock and radish, and the paste is held to 1.5 tablespoons, light enough that the oysters still taste of the sea.
After an hour and a half of slow braising in soy sauce, pork trotters develop glossy, sticky skin over meat soft enough for a chopstick to slide through. Onion, garlic, ginger and whole peppercorns in the braising liquid carry the soy flavor into the layers between skin and meat. The braising liquid is not wasted: strained and reduced, it becomes the glaze spooned over the slices. Jokbal is eaten wrapped in lettuce with salted shrimp sauce or ssamjang, often late at night with drinks.
Raw Pacific cod roe gets squeezed straight from the sac into simmering soy sauce, sake, and mirin, then cooked down with shirataki until each grain clings to the noodles. This Akita preparation uses true cod roe, not the pollock roe sold as tarako or mentaiko.
With 180 g of king oyster and shiitake mushrooms to 200 g of beef, there is nearly as much mushroom as meat in every bite. The mushrooms are wiped clean rather than washed, added to beef already browned in butter, and stir-fried hard until they wilt before soy sauce goes in around the edge of the pan.
Even boiled butterbur stems often keep tough outer fibers on the thicker pieces. Snap each one, and if strands come away with it, peel them off then and there. The ground perilla seed goes in while a little broth still covers the pan bottom, so it wraps the stems in a thick coat instead of clumping in one spot.
Each piece is stretched so its edges go thin and tender while the center stays slightly thicker and springy, giving two textures in one bite. Hittsumi comes from southern Aomori, and the name points to the pulling and pinching of dough rather than rolling and cutting noodles. The rested bread-flour dough is torn straight into dashi with chicken, burdock, carrot and green onion.
Octopus (nakji), beef small intestine (gopchang), and shrimp (saeu) give this Busan-style hot pot both its name and three distinct chews under one spicy sauce. With only 200ml of stock, it cooks down to a thick, saucy stew rather than a soup, and once the glass noodles have soaked up the seasoning it is meant to be spooned over rice.
Perilla leaves, brushed thinly with soy and chili seasoning and stacked, braise gently into soft, dark green sheets that still peel apart one at a time. Draped over a spoonful of rice, each leaf brings its strong herbal aroma and the salty sauce together in one bite. Leftover rinsing water is what usually goes wrong, since it dilutes the seasoning and leaves the stack bland. Alternating the stem direction as the leaves are stacked evens out the thickness on both sides. Spooning the liquid from the bottom over the top midway lets every layer take on salt, and a day in the fridge evens it out further.
Soft tofu spooned in large pieces stays in tender curds within the anchovy broth, sliding down alongside the knife-cut noodles. It is added only after the noodles are done and barely stirred, since any real stirring breaks it into small bits. The broth tastes clean and mild, seasoned only with soup soy sauce, garlic and salt and no chili. A minute of simmering after seasoning takes the raw edge off the garlic, and skimming the foam keeps the broth clear. The noodles are loosened by hand and scattered in rather than dropped as one mass. Zucchini half-moons cook for just 2 minutes to keep their shape and color.
Beef head meat simmers with radish, scallion and garlic for two and a half hours until the broth turns milky. The meat is then lifted out, pulled along the grain or sliced thin, and returned to the strained broth with salt and black pepper. Before all that, it is soaked in cold water and blanched for five minutes, and that first water is thrown away.
Covered and cooked in a little soy-seasoned water, the radish strands turn translucent and bend easily around a chopstick. Made with winter radish, the dish comes out noticeably sweeter.
Horse mackerel, cut in half on the bone, simmers with napa cabbage in a thin, strained doenjang broth in this Jeju soup. The pieces are left alone because stirring breaks the flesh, and the soup keeps cooking past the point where the cabbage softens until the fish is opaque at the center.