689 recipes. Page 25 of 29
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Mussels simmered in their shells give off a briny, sweet liquor that becomes the soup. At the drinking table the broth is sipped between glasses, and the mussels are fished out and dipped in chogochujang, a sweet-sour chili sauce. Plump winter mussels make the sweetest broth.
Because the eye of round is boiled first and its strained stock becomes the braising base, the soy glaze carries a meaty depth rather than just salt and sugar. Quail eggs simmer in the same liquid and turn brown from the outside in, then keep absorbing seasoning as everything cools. Once fully cold, the braising liquid firms up into a thin coating around the beef and eggs, and a night in the fridge drives the seasoning deeper. If it tastes too salty, 2-3 tablespoons of water and a brief return to the boil bring it back in line. The beef is torn into long shreds along the grain, the classic jangjorim texture for spooning over rice from a container in the fridge.
A whole chicken simmers with dried astragalus root (hwanggi), jujubes and garlic until the meat falls from the bone, and the clear amber broth smells earthy and herbal. Unlike samgyetang, the bird is not stuffed with sticky rice.
In this braise the radish matters as much as the beef: thick rounds go into a soy broth that has already simmered with brisket and drink up its meaty flavor as they turn translucent at the edges. Trimming the sharp corners of each piece keeps them whole through the long, low braise. Serve the radish with a spoonful of the salty-sweet liquid over rice.
The potatoes are cut 0.7 cm thick, enough to hold their shape while their edges fray slightly and give the clear pollack broth a little body. Wring the pollack shreds hard before toasting them, or they steam instead of turning nutty.
Beef head meat spends at least three hours in cold water and gets a short first boil that is thrown away before the real simmer in fresh water with scallion, garlic, ginger, peppercorns and soju. Because skin and lean meat are layered together, slicing while hot makes them slide apart. Let it cool until you can hold it firmly, then cut thin, even slices for the platter.
Pollock left on racks in Gangwon-do through the winter, freezing and thawing over and over until it dries, becomes hwangtae. Its chewy strips and wisps of soft egg end up in the same spoonful of this clear soup, which is made for hangovers and for ordinary breakfasts alike.
Firm tofu is soaked briefly in salted water, then pan-fried until golden with firm edges that let the slices keep their corners through the spicy braise. Onion and green onion cook on top of the tofu and add sweetness to a sauce of soy sauce, gochugaru and a little sugar. The heat goes off while some sauce still pools at the bottom of the pan, enough to spoon over the tofu and a bowl of rice.
The pollack shreds are not soaked, only swished briefly in cold water. A long soak would wash their savoriness away.
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.
In southern Aomori this soup was served at Bon, New Year, weddings, and other celebrations, and its name comes from golden sea urchin in clear broth looking like wild strawberries seen through morning mist. The roe is heated only until its surface sets; a hard boil breaks it apart and dulls its aroma.
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.
Salmon fillet with skin and bony parts, milt, and loosened roe all go into one pot of kelp stock seasoned with miso in this Hokkaido-style nabe. It is said to come from fishermen near the mouth of the Ishikari River, who dropped fresh salmon pieces and bones straight into miso soup to celebrate a big catch. Root vegetables, konnyaku, tofu, and rolls of blanched spinach wrapped in napa cabbage are arranged in sections around a mound of miso in the center. A final dusting of sansho pepper over the whole pot adds a tingling lift to the miso broth.
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.
Because the eel is poached first and picked off the bone, the soup can be eaten by the spoonful without worrying about bones. Koreans make a point of eating it in the hottest stretch of summer, and some add perilla seed powder or extra chili to change the broth.
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.
The abalone guts are fried with the radish in a little sesame oil before anything else, and they are why this otherwise clear soup turns faintly green and smells strongly of the sea.
Shallow cuts in the thickest part of the rockfish let the sauce reach the center and help it cook at the same pace as the thinner flesh. The radish simmers first until its edges turn translucent, because radish that is still hard when the fish is added stays firm while the fish dries out.
Because this soup goes on the table for ancestral memorial rites, even the way it is cut matters. Brisket, radish and tofu are sliced into neat squares of the same thickness, and the fat that rises is skimmed off to keep the broth clear.
Napa cabbage and paper-thin beef brisket (usamgyeop) are stacked in layers, cut to the height of the pot and stood on end, and when the lid comes off the cross-sections line up in rows. The thick white part of the cabbage, rather than the leafy tops, is what lets the stacks hold that shape. Nothing seasons the broth itself, which is just cabbage water and beef juices, and each piece is dipped in a soy, vinegar and garlic sauce at the table. That puts the saltiness in each person's hands rather than in the pot. Packing the bundles tightly, with cabbage scraps in any gaps, stops them toppling as the pot steams.
The first things in the pot are 8 tablespoons of oil and firm tofu crumbled by hand. Once the tofu has broken into loose crumbs, daikon, burdock, zenmai, warabi and butterbur are fried with it, and only after that are the dashi and light soy sauce poured in. There is no meat.
Searing the salmon pieces for about a minute per side firms the surface before the soy sauce goes in, so the soft flesh holds together while the sauce is spooned over it. Ginger powder and cooking wine keep the soy flavor light, and a spoon of rice syrup gives the sauce a thin sheen. Sliced onion under the fish sweetens the sauce and keeps the fillets off the pan.
Thin bulgogi-cut beef and ripe kimchi are fried in sesame oil until red oil starts to gather in the pot, and that is when the water goes in. The tofu is added late but still gets ten more minutes, enough to soak up the kimchi broth all the way through.
Freshly cooked rice, pounded until about half the grains break, is pressed around skewers and browned, then cut into pieces that soak up chicken broth and turn chewy, much like rice cake. Kiritanpo comes from Akita Prefecture, where the rice is traditionally wrapped on cedar skewers and grilled over charcoal; this version browns the sticks in a dry pan instead.