114 recipes. Page 5 of 5
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Bacon cooked slowly over low heat gives up smoky fat, and that fat becomes the base for stir-frying the garlic scapes, with little or no extra oil needed. Since bacon is already salty, the soy sauce is scaled back to taste, and a spoonful of syrup leaves a thin glossy coat that balances the salt with sweetness.
Sliced sora, a Korean sea snail, stays chewy, with the gochujang sauce cooked right down onto it and no liquid left in the pan. A weak flame lets water pool and turns it into a stir-fry, so the pan goes on high. Trim off the tough innard end while slicing.
King oyster mushrooms soak up the soy broth and turn light brown, giving this quail egg braise a meaty chew alongside the soft eggs. The mushrooms braise first until they wilt and soak up plenty of seasoning, while the eggs join later and never simmer long enough to toughen. Mushrooms sliced at least 1 cm thick hold on to that chew. With no chili at all, just garlic and black pepper, it stays mild, and a spoonful of syrup at the end adds shine and rounds off the saltiness. Stored in the fridge with its remaining broth, both mushrooms and eggs stay moist, which makes it an easy side to portion into packed lunches.
Garlic scapes taste of garlic without the sharp bite of the cloves, more sweet than pungent, and even people who shy away from garlic tend to keep reaching for them. Their season runs from spring into early summer, when the stalks are at their most tender.
Chicken thigh pieces cook skin side down under a lid until the fat runs and the edges darken. Shallow cuts in the thick parts, no deeper than half the thickness, let the marinade in without the meat splitting open.
Pork belly and big chunks of radish braise together in soy sauce, and by the end the radish has absorbed as much of the rich, salty liquid as the meat. The belly is blanched briefly and rinsed first; skip that and the surface impurities and porky smell end up in the sauce. The radish is cut large because small pieces fall apart over the long simmer. Covered at first and then uncovered, the pot moves from gentle braising to reducing, which leaves the pork and radish coated in a glossy soy glaze rather than sitting in thin broth. It holds up well when made ahead, because cooling and rewarming drive the seasoning in further.
Ketchup sets a sweet base and half a spoon of gochujang adds only a mild heat, giving these cocktail sausages a sticky glaze that settles into shallow scores and sits well in a lunchbox. Once the ketchup and syrup start to thicken they stick fast to the pan, so nothing stays still after the sauce is poured in.
Bellflower root soaks in salt water for ten minutes and blanches for just one, enough to soften its bitterness while keeping its firm crunch. Coated in gochujang, it grills in a pan or over an open flame, and the open flame gives a stronger smoky note.
With no meat at all, this braise relies on texture: thin slices of burdock stay crisp and chewy while konjac, a firm jelly made from konjac yam, stays bouncy. The konjac is blanched and then dry-toasted in an unoiled pan for 1 minute, which takes away its distinctive smell. Burdock absorbs the seasoning faster the thinner it is sliced, and after its vinegar-water soak it is drained well so the braising liquid is not watered down. Holding back the syrup until the soy liquid has reduced by about half lets it add gloss at the end instead of scorching. Sesame oil and seeds stirred in off the heat finish it.
Square fish cake sheets are blanched for 20 seconds before frying to shed surface oil, which lets the gochujang glaze cling more cleanly. No water is added; the onion goes in first, and the moisture it gives off loosens the sauce on the pan floor.
The lotus root is cut 0.7 cm thick and browned in a pan first; the soy and rice-syrup glaze only goes on for the last minute or two. It is far crunchier than Korean braised lotus root, which simmers in soy for a long time. Once cool, the glaze that has run into the holes sets and stops being sticky.
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.
Soy sauce with mirin and a little oligosaccharide syrup gives it a faint sweetness. The chicken breast never cooks through on its own: as soon as the outside turns white the lotus root and onion go in, and that timing is what keeps the chicken from drying out.
Thin, even slices of lotus root end up with a thin brown soy glaze outside and a crisp, lacy bite inside. Cutting every slice to the same 0.5 cm is what lets them all cook to the same point in the same time. A quick blanch and a rinse in cold water before braising take off the surface starch and astringency, and skipping it leaves that rough edge under the glaze. A tablespoon of vinegar added with the rice syrup near the end keeps the sweetness light despite all that shine. Cooled completely and refrigerated, the slices keep drawing in seasoning and taste more even the next day.
Lotus root is dense and soybean sprouts are delicate, and cooked for the same length of time one of them gives out. The lotus root gets a head start, and the sprouts go in only once the soy glaze is bubbling, for a short final toss.
Smoked duck gives off a lot of fat as it cooks, and all but a thin film is poured off. The duck brings plenty of salt of its own, and soy sauce waits until a taste just before serving.
Wet lotus root and shrimp give off water instead of frying, and that water thins the soy glaze. Lotus slices are done when the edges are translucent and the middle still crunches; cooking longer to soften them only overcooks the shrimp.
The 2.5 tablespoons of soy sauce are split: one seasons the beef up front, and the rest goes in with syrup at the end to glaze the lotus root as well. Only a thin cut of beef will cook in about the same time as the lotus.