168 recipes. Page 5 of 7
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Bitter balloon flower root (doraji), hot ginger, then the sweetness of pear and jujube come through one after another in this simmered tea. Doraji, ginger and jujubes go first for 20 minutes; the pear joins only for the last five, and the heat goes off as it turns slightly translucent.
Sweet autumn persimmon and crisp blanched lotus root alternate in every bite of this salad. Crumbled feta brings a salty, tangy edge that makes the fruit taste sweeter, and a dressing of only lemon juice, olive oil and honey leaves the main ingredients uncovered.
The rice cake is optional. Small pieces of it soften in the oven into chewy pockets, but even without them, the toasted soybean powder in the dough carries the injeolmi flavor all the way through, with a warm, nutty smell plain-flour scones lack.
Misugaru, a roasted multigrain powder, is whisked smooth into milk, folded with whipped cream and frozen, and at a full 100g it gives the ice cream a heavy, nutty grain flavor. The freezer does not do all the work: the surface has to be scraped with a fork once an hour, three times, to break up the ice crystals, which makes this one for a day spent at home. Black bean misugaru makes it nuttier still.
Dried Solomon's seal root gives a clear brown tea with a nutty, rooty aroma. Licorice root and pear simmer along with it and sweeten it enough that honey is optional, and unlike coffee or black tea, it has no caffeine. It is drunk hot in winter and fully chilled over ice in summer.
Napa cabbage cut into fine shreds and crisped in cold water tastes clean and refreshing, and Korean pear cut to the same width adds a clear sweetness. The pear is sliced only at serving time to avoid browning, and the soaked cabbage is drained well so it does not blur the dressing. The dressing is plain yogurt with rice vinegar and honey, creamy but light enough not to hide the produce. Toasted black sesame goes on at the very last moment so the seeds stay dry and pop with nutty flavor when bitten. With only a pinch of salt, it makes a good palate cleanser after a rich main dish.
A baguette is cut almost to the base and every slit is filled with garlic butter before baking. Plenty of minced garlic goes into that butter along with condensed milk and honey, which makes this Jeju-style manong baguette sweet as well as garlicky. An air fryer at the same temperature can stand in for the oven.
Roasted soybean powder and green tea powder, bound with honey and rice syrup and pressed into a patterned mold, melt softly on the tongue: nutty soybean first, then a light green tea bitterness. The right dough just holds together when squeezed hard. Too dry, it cracks as it leaves the mold, and too wet, the pattern smears.
Persimmon vinegar has a deeper, fermented-fruit aroma than ordinary vinegar, and orange and lemon juice layer citrus over that tang. The honey has to dissolve fully into the vinegar and juice before the sparkling water is added, or the sweetness ends up uneven between glasses.
Pomegranate seeds burst with tart juice between soft slices of roasted eggplant. Salted first to draw out surface water, the eggplant browns at the edges in the oven instead of steaming.
Ground perilla seed, a nutty seed flour common in Korean cooking, goes into both the batter and the tops of these muffins, so its toasty smell comes through first when they leave the oven. Honey and brown sugar share the sweetening, and neutral oil stands in for butter, so there is nothing to melt or cream before mixing. The batter fills one 6-cup muffin tray.
Puffed rice, toasted brown rice, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and black sesame are bound with rice syrup and honey, so each piece mixes grains that shatter lightly with ones that take a firmer chew. The mix has to be pressed into the tin within a minute of adding the syrup for the cut edges to come out even.
Licorice root and pear do most of the sweetening in this simmered tea, and only a little honey is stirred in at the end. Licorice turns cloying in larger amounts; about 3g per person is enough. The pear goes in late and cooks only until it turns translucent.
Thin wedges of pumpkin come out of the oven browned at the tips and soft through the middle. Cut thicker than about 7 to 8 mm, they dry out on the surface before the center cooks through. Crumbled feta lands salty and tangy on that chestnut-like sweetness, and toasted pumpkin seeds add crunch. Laid on the spinach while still warm, the pumpkin wilts the leaves just slightly and the parts come together instead of sitting separately on the plate. The leaves need to be shaken or blotted very dry, since wet spinach thins the lemon and honey dressing and flattens the taste.
No tart pan is used: the dough is rolled into a round, topped with the filling, and its bare 4 cm border folded up over the edge. The filling combines steamed sweet potato, cream cheese, honey and cinnamon. A drier, chestnut-type sweet potato keeps the base from going soggy and bakes up crisper.
Finely ground toasted sesame mixed with honey and dark brown sugar goes inside, and as the half-moon cakes steam, the filling loosens into a moist, nutty-sweet paste. Pine needles lining the steamer leave a faint resinous scent on the surface. Songpyeon are shaped by families sitting together for Chuseok, and an old saying holds that whoever makes pretty ones will have a pretty daughter.
Persimmon leaves never reach a hard boil here; they steep gently in water held just short of boiling. A rolling boil, or squeezing the leaves when straining, makes the tea astringent and cloudy. Thin slices of unpeeled pear steep along with them, and the dried tangerine peel is kept to a small pinch.
Searing smoked duck briefly renders the surface fat, and what richness remains gets cut by the nose-tingling heat of mustard and a splash of vinegar. Korean chives, cabbage, and bell pepper give it crunch and a garlicky green aroma, while honey and sesame oil round off the soy dressing. Toss the duck with the vegetables while it is still warm, when the meat feels most tender.
Skin-on sweet potato, cut into 1 cm cubes and glazed in butter, honey and sugar, goes half into the batter and half on top, and chunks of it show in every slice. Ground almonds and black sesame are mixed into the batter too. One 20 cm loaf pan makes a cake that cuts into eight pieces.
Sesame oil is rubbed into the flour first and the dough is folded and rolled twice, so a fried yakgwa breaks open in layers. It fries low until cooked through, then the oil goes up to crisp the outside, and the pastries sit in honey and cinnamon syrup for two hours or more. Ginger juice in the dough leaves a slight bite after the sweetness.
Sliced ginger simmers in water for ten minutes and is strained out before the milk goes in. Because the ginger never sits in the milk, there are no fibers to catch on the tongue, and its heat comes through as warmth rather than a sting. Honey is added off the heat, with a dusting of cinnamon on top.
Thin slices of strawberry and a honey-balsamic dressing lay sweet and tart notes over tender baby spinach. Toasted walnuts and very thin red onion keep the salad from tipping into dessert, one with crunch and the other with a sharp bite.
Frozen croissant dough is spread thinly with a paste of glutinous rice flour, milk and sugar, folded and pressed in a waffle iron. The flattened butter layers go crisp, and the rice paste makes the inside stickier and chewier than a plain croffle. Honey and a dusting of cinnamon finish it.
Glutinous rice dough mixed with makgeolli, a cloudy rice wine, is cut into sticks, dried for at least two hours, and fried twice, first low and then hot, until it balloons into a hollow puff that shatters at the first bite. A coat of rice syrup and honey holds puffed rice to the outside. Yugwa sits on the ancestral rites table at Seollal and Chuseok and is often given as a holiday gift.