99 recipes. Page 4 of 5
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Pulling radishes in autumn, at kimchi-making time, leaves a pile of radish greens. Dried, they become siraegi; boiled and dressed right away, they become this namul. It is seasoned with doenjang and soup soy sauce and finished with ground perilla seeds, which thicken it.
Peeling is most of the work here: the thin outer skin has to come off the whole length of each stem, because leftover fibers stay stringy no matter how long they cook. Peeled and blanched, the sweet potato stems turn a clear olive green, and ground perilla seed added at the end thickens the little pan liquid into a nutty, clinging coat. The last step stays brief because that coating sticks to the pan quickly.
Ground perilla seed turns into a thin, nutty coating on each strand of bracken fern. The perilla oil is split in two: half goes into the raw seasoning so the soy and garlic soak into the chewy fibers, and the other half carries the green onion's aroma in the pan.
The doenjang is thinned with three tablespoons of water before it goes in, because boiled gondre (a wild mountain green) comes in tangled strands. Thinned paste can work its way between them. Tofu, browned separately in perilla oil, joins at the end.
Samnamul, deer fern shoots with stems and leaves still attached, gets a one-minute blanch and is cut into 4 cm lengths. Soup soy sauce and perilla oil season it, and a scatter of salt after everything is mixed sets the final balance.
Oily mackerel and boiled gondre, a rustic, grassy Korean thistle green, share one gochujang and soy glaze. The mackerel is pan-browned separately and added near the end, so it is still in large flakes on the plate.
Siraegi, dried radish greens soaked back to softness, still carry a tough outer skin on their thick stems, and peeling it off stem by stem is what makes them pleasant to chew. The greens are tossed with doenjang (Korean soybean paste) and perilla oil first, then braised in a splash of water so the paste works its way into the stems. Ground perilla seed added at the very end blends with the remaining liquid and leaves a creamy sheen on the surface.
Bracken fern is first coated in perilla oil and then simmered briefly in soy-seasoned water, so it ends up tender and seasoned all the way through. That second stage is closer to braising than frying, and stopping while a little liquid remains keeps the ferns moist. Use bracken that has already been soaked and boiled; dried or raw fern should not go straight into this pan. Splitting the thick stems by hand evens out the seasoning.
Pumpkin leaves get tougher and more fibrous as they grow, so this uses young ones picked in summer. The stringy fibers are peeled from the stems, and the leaves are blanched, squeezed dry and stir-fried with shrimp in perilla oil, seasoned with soup soy sauce.
Perilla oil and shredded perilla leaves make this smell much stronger than the usual potato stir-fry. The soy sauce is poured into an empty spot in the hot pan and allowed to bubble before it is stirred through, and in that moment it picks up a faintly scorched, toasty smell that carries over to the potatoes.
Smoked duck comes already seasoned, so the soy sauce is kept light, and no oil is added because the duck's own fat is enough to cook the onion and sauce. The sauce is gochujang with maesil-cheong (green plum syrup), and two cheongyang chilies go in with the onion.
Perilla sprouts are far more tender than perilla leaves and smell only faintly of perilla, and here they are tossed with browned tofu in thinned doenjang (Korean soybean paste). Thickly shredded perilla leaves can stand in when sprouts are hard to find, though the scent gets noticeably stronger and the bite tougher.
Even boiled butterbur stems often keep tough outer fibers on the thicker pieces. Snap each one, and if strands come away with it, peel them off then and there. The ground perilla seed goes in while a little broth still covers the pan bottom, so it wraps the stems in a thick coat instead of clumping in one spot.
Blanched and dressed straight away, butterbur stems keep a clear bitter edge; simmered and stirred with soup soy sauce and water for five minutes or more, they turn much milder. In spring it appears on mountain-village tables next to gondre and chwinamul greens.
Where most seaweed stem stir-fries finish with sesame oil, this one is cooked in perilla oil and coated in plenty of ground perilla seed, which pushes the nutty flavor right to the front. The salted stems soak in cold water for at least 15 minutes to draw out salt, but leave them much longer and the taste of the sea goes too.
Snappy seaweed stems and springy shrimp end up in the same bite. Soup soy sauce is the only seasoning, with the rest of the salt coming from what is left in the stems, and the ground perilla seed is scattered over right after the heat goes off.
Stir-fried in perilla oil, julienned radish loses its raw, peppery sharpness and turns gently sweet. It is one of the basic namul, used for bibimbap and set out on Korean ancestral-rite tables.
Mild, pan-browned tofu breaks up the sharp sourness of aged kimchi in every bite. The finishing oil is perilla rather than sesame, drizzled once the heat is off so its nutty aroma survives and smooths out the kimchi's fermented intensity.
The shepherd's purse comes off the heat the moment it starts to wilt, so its bitter spring scent is still there. Perilla oil is used twice: half to brown the tofu, the rest drizzled on with sesame salt after the heat is off.
Because the pan runs on high heat, perilla oil is not used alone but mixed in equal parts with neutral oil. The king oyster mushrooms are cut lengthwise into long strips that keep their grain, and ground perilla seed goes in over low heat for the last minute to thicken the little bit of soy broth.
Saltwort (sebalnamul) grows by the sea and is salty on its own, which is why the soy sauce is used sparingly. It is stir-fried with torn oyster mushrooms, and perilla powder and perilla oil are mixed in once the heat is off.
No doenjang goes into this siraegi (dried radish greens). They are tossed with soup soy sauce and garlic, fried in perilla oil and finished with ground perilla seed loosened in water, which tastes lighter and nuttier than a doenjang-braised siraegi.
It starts in perilla oil and finishes with ground perilla seed, so that toasty perilla aroma shows up twice. Taro stems are long and stringy by nature; even after soaking up the soy broth and going soft, you can still feel the fibers when you chew.
Three full tablespoons of ground perilla seed turn the broth thick and creamy. Even pre-boiled taro stems have a tough outer layer to peel, and the thick ones are split lengthwise; prepared that way they bend softly and keep a little chew.