230 recipes. Page 6 of 10
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The hairtail pieces sit in lightly salted water for five minutes and are then patted completely dry. A dry surface is what lets the chili and soy sauce sink into the fish.
Cubes cut to an even 1.5 cm take in the hot soy brine at the same pace, and after three days in the fridge they turn slightly translucent and salty-sweet to the center. The brine goes into the jar right after it comes to a full boil, because longer boiling drives off the sharpness of the vinegar. A single dried chile tucked among the cubes adds a gentle warmth. It sits comfortably beside gimbap, bibimbap or a bowl of gukbap.
Donko, a Miyagi name for ezo isoaine and chigo cod, firms up and develops a rich liver from autumn into winter, and this soup uses the whole fish: flesh, head, bones and liver. The fish's wide mouth and tapering tail made it a lucky symbol, money flowing in and not slipping out, so around Kesennuma families hung donko at the household altar for Ebisu observances before turning it into soup. It is still served to warm winter guests.
Kodari, pollock dried only partway, has a dense, chewy flesh that keeps its grain through a long simmer. It can still break if flipped, so it sits on the bed of radish and gets the broth spooned over it two or three times instead. Rice-rinse water forms the broth and tones down any fishy smell.
Skate flesh is threaded with soft cartilage, which gives it a pleasant chew. It braises in a gochugaru and soy liquid over heat low enough that the surface barely moves, almost steaming.
Between bites of greasy fried chicken or pork cutlet, a cube of this sweet-sour radish resets the palate. The balance comes down to vinegar against sugar: more vinegar and the sourness takes over, more sugar and it starts tasting like candied fruit. It is ready to eat 30 minutes after the hot brine is poured over, but the flavor only reaches the center after a night in the fridge. Leaving the turmeric out changes only the color, since the bright yellow of chicken-shop radish comes from gardenia or turmeric. Thin slices turn soft, while evenly chunky pieces, sealed and chilled, stay crisp for more than two weeks.
Radish and shiitake simmer first, and the broth is seasoned only with soup soy sauce, so it stays clear and mild with no chili at all. Scoop the tofu in with a spoon instead of cutting it, and the rough edges soak up more of the broth.
Bite into a sea squirt and the little sac bursts, releasing a salty, briny juice. To keep that, the radish and zucchini are cooked through first and the sea squirts get only three or four minutes over high heat at the very end. In April and May, when they are in season and full of juice, the broth itself tastes different.
Two mackerel are cooked whole, with only the heads and innards removed. Deep scores along the back open up in the heat and let the spicy sauce run into the flesh instead of sitting on the skin.
The broth, not the vegetables, carries this water kimchi: it is meant to be spooned up and sipped cold. Gochugaru is steeped in a cheesecloth bundle so the water turns clear red without powder clouding it. Radish and napa cabbage are sliced into thin flat squares and salted only briefly, so they keep some crunch in the liquid. A day at room temperature brings a gentle tang, and a few more days in the fridge round it out. A spoonful next to spicy dishes cools the mouth, and in summer it drinks almost like naengmyeon broth.
For when you miss the fish cake broth from a street stall, this needs only square sheets of eomuk (Korean fish cake) and radish. Rinse the fish cakes once in hot water to strip off the frying oil, and the broth stays clear to the last spoonful.
Only half a tablespoon of gochugaru goes in. The broth stays clear and tastes mostly of clams. Minari and a Cheongyang chili are added after the heat is turned down and cook for just a minute. With the clams purged ahead of time, the cooking itself takes about ten minutes.
Mackerel is oily and strong enough that a sauce built on both gochujang (Korean chili paste) and chili flakes does not bury it. A little ginger juice in the sauce takes the edge off its fishiness.
Daikon split at an angle into thick, rough chunks soaks up sweet amazake, a thick, lightly fermented rice drink, while the center stays crunchy. Everything stays at 4°C or below from the first salting through storage. Mold, an off smell or unusual sliminess means the batch is discarded without tasting.
Fish cakes of assorted shapes simmer with shiitake in a kelp and radish broth and come to the table in the pot, seasoned lightly with soup soy sauce so their own flavor stays in front.
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.
The radish is half-cooked on its own beforehand, so it is seasoned all the way through in the short time the mackerel takes. With just half a tablespoon of gochujang, the soy sauce leads and the heat stays gentle.
Finely cut seisai, a Yamagata mustard green, is mixed with daikon, carrot, sunchoke, salted shiso seeds and yellow edible chrysanthemum petals into a colorful, finely chopped relish. It comes from the Murayama, Mogami and Okitama areas of Yamagata. The green liquid released during the overnight pre-salting is poured off and the vegetables squeezed hard, which keeps the soy, mirin and zarame sugar marinade from being diluted. Mildly salted and soy-seasoned, it is spooned over rice or mixed into rice balls, ochazuke or fried rice. That low salt also means it stays refrigerated and is eaten within about two weeks.
Skewered fish cakes and thick slices of radish simmer in anchovy and kelp broth, a soup Koreans set out alongside drinks. The kelp comes out the moment the water starts to boil, which keeps the broth from turning slick.
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.
Once the shells go red and the doenjang (Korean soybean paste) broth has worked its way into every crack, the crab meat gets picked out and eaten over rice. The radish lining the bottom of the pot soaks up the crab too, so it is worth fishing out alongside.
Big chunks of radish and plenty of cool, tangy brine make seokbakji a natural partner for rich bone broth soups like seolleongtang. Salted shrimp does more than season the chili paste; it lays down a fermented, savory base. A day at room temperature followed by two days in the fridge turns the water drawn from the radish into a refreshing, lightly sour brine. The salted radish is drained but not rinsed, so the salt it holds seasons the kimchi from inside.
In Chungcheong, eotang starts with whole freshwater fish simmered for more than forty minutes until even the flesh dissolves into the broth, which is then strained twice through a fine sieve or cloth to catch the small bones. Radish and doenjang go into that broth for a second simmer, and chili flakes and green onion give it a sharp finish.
Mackerel or beltfish both work for this spicy fish stew. The radish gets a five-minute head start, then the fish pieces are laid in a single layer and simmered with the lid slightly open to let the fishy steam escape.