480 recipes. Page 3 of 20
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The batter is mixed with cold sparkling water instead of plain water, plus a little gochugaru. It gets only a light stir so the bubbles survive and is used right away, and the eggplant is salted ahead to draw out water. Once fried, the eggplant inside turns creamy.
The texture comes down to pounding the peeled deodeok root flat with a mallet or rolling pin. Once the fibers loosen, the gochujang paste seeps into the gaps, and the grilled root chews pleasantly instead of turning stringy. Honey in the paste scorches quickly, and medium heat with a close eye on the color keeps it from burning.
Rice-rinsing water gives this doenjang broth a faint starchy body and takes the edge off the paste's saltiness. Spring cabbage (bomdong) supplies the sweetness at the center of the bowl. Its stems should keep a little bite, while the leaves only need to wilt.
Enoki pulled apart strand by strand and only filmed with batter fry into a loose, lacy round, crisp as tempura at the rim and chewy in the middle. A dip of soy sauce with vinegar and a pinch of chili flakes comes with it.
In this budae jjigae, a spoonful of baked beans sits in the middle of the pot with the gochujang paste on top. As it boils the beans break down, thickening the broth a little and leaving a faint sweetness. The liquid underneath is anchovy stock, not plain water.
Monkfish stomach has a dense, springy chew that ordinary fish fillet lacks, and each bite releases more of the spicy-savory glaze. Most of the work is in the cleaning: if the slime is not scrubbed off with salt and flour, the blanching water smells strong and so does the dish. With only a little water in the pot, the gochugaru sauce reduces to a thick red coating.
Halved Brussels sprouts hold their structure through salting, and each bite gives a firm crunch and a little sweetness. Score the stem ends no deeper than 5 mm or the leaves fall apart, and give strongly bitter sprouts an extra 5 minutes in the brine.
Gochujang heat, the sweetness of maesil plum syrup, and a sharp hit of vinegar land together in each mouthful of these cold somyeon noodles. A thorough cold-water rinse strips off surface starch, so the thin wheat noodles turn bouncy and the sauce coats them evenly instead of clumping. Torn lettuce and cucumber strips bring crunch, and the little moisture they release loosens the thick sauce just enough.
Italian sausage, slipped out of its casing and torn into rough pieces, browns in the pan and leaves behind fat that becomes the base of a tomato and cream rosé sauce. Tearing rather than slicing gives the meat more ragged surface to brown. When the sausage throws off a lot of fat, blotting some away keeps the finished sauce from turning greasy once the cream is in. Gochugaru, Korean chili flakes, gets only about 20 seconds in the oil, enough for a mild warmth without a burnt edge, and the grooves of the fusilli catch both sauce and crumbled sausage.
Springy canned sea snails (golbaengi) are tossed with cucumber, onion and scallion in a hot, sour and sweet sauce of gochujang, chili flakes, vinegar and sugar, a classic drinking snack in Korea. A 5-minute soak in cold water takes the harsh edge off the onion so it blends into the sauce. The snails drain well in a sieve first, as leftover brine from the can thins the sauce until it no longer clings. The plate goes to the table right away: once dressed, the salt starts drawing water out of the vegetables. Spooned over thin somyeon noodles, it becomes golbaengi somyeon, with the noodles soaking up the dressing.
Buhari Hotel in Chennai is usually credited with introducing this South Indian fried chicken in 1965. Stories about the name point to a 65th menu item, among other theories, and none is settled. Thigh pieces marinated in yogurt, chili, garlic, and ginger get a sticky coat of egg and cornstarch and are fried twice, which gives a firm, deep-golden outside and a juicy inside. It spread across India as a bar snack with beer. Many restaurants finish it with fried curry leaves, but this version skips that step.
Chonggak radishes are cut into thin diagonal slices, salted briefly and dressed with gochugaru and fish sauce, then eaten crunchy the same day rather than left to ferment. If the tender greens are still attached, they go in too.
No cheese on this one. The chicken thigh is stir-fried in gochujang sauce alone, and it lands on the rice along with soft, sweet cabbage.
Canned saury goes into a soy-seasoned stir-fry of oyster mushrooms and cabbage, and a teaspoon of lemon juice just before the heat goes off takes down the fishy smell. The fish is already cooked, so it waits until the vegetables have dried out again and is folded in gently to keep the pieces large.
Said to have started at snack shops outside Seoul schools in the 1970s and 80s, this tteokbokki has no broth at all. The rice cakes brown in oil one side at a time, then the heat drops and a chili flake and soy paste goes in to coat them thinly. Warmed in the oil, the chili flakes smell toasty before they taste hot.
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.
Tuna from the can is tipped in along with all its oil, giving the broth a savory richness. The kimchi brine is held back at the start and used at the end, after tasting, to make up whatever salt and sourness the pot still needs.
The brisket is seared first to render its fat, and the gochujang and chili flakes are fried in that fat to build the base of the broth. The minari, cut into 5 cm lengths, waits on the side until just before the heat goes off, then goes in only long enough to wilt.
Dotted gizzard shad (baendaengi) has fine, soft bones that soften further in the braise, so the fish is eaten bones and all. It is layered with onion over a bed of radish and braised in a gochujang and soy sauce for close to half an hour.
Beets cut into 2 cm cubes get dressed like kkakdugi, the cubed radish kimchi, but this batch is eaten fresh rather than fermented. Whatever is not served right away goes into a lidded container and straight into the fridge at 4°C or below rather than sitting out at room temperature. A kimchi meant for long fermentation needs its own tested ratios and instructions, not this one. The salted cubes are drained well first, because any water they carry thins the paste.
The gochujang sauce grips tough, springy naengmyeon noodles rather than sliding off, and every strand carries the spicy-sour coating. Mixing the sauce 10 minutes ahead gives the sugar time to dissolve and the flavors time to even out. The noodles cook in well under a minute over high heat, and lifting them out the moment the strands separate keeps them from going soft. Rubbing them under cold water to strip the starch, then squeezing them hard, stops leftover water from thinning the sauce. Cucumber and Korean pear, crisped in ice water, cool the heat with crunch and light fruitiness, and half a boiled egg softens the chili's edge.
A roux-and-milk cheddar sauce made on the stovetop, with the macaroni stirred straight in, keeps this loose and creamy rather than baked and set. Well-fermented kimchi brings sourness and heat, crisped bacon adds salt, and together they cut through the weight of the cheese. The kimchi is fried with the bacon first so its moisture cooks off before it meets the sauce.
Octopus that has already been boiled goes into a very hot pan for 2 to 3 minutes without turning, picking up a charred edge while the inside stays pleasantly chewy. The vinegar dressing, with gochugaru and garlic, starts sour and finishes with gentle heat. Minari, Korean water parsley, brings a cool grassy scent and a green that stands out against strips of red pepper.
This fried fish started at stalls in the lanes around the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, and spread across North India as something to eat with beer. The batter is besan, chickpea flour, mixed with rice flour; it clings more thinly than wheat flour and stays crisp longer. Ajwain seeds in the batter bring a smell close to thyme.