157 recipes. Page 5 of 7
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With butter mellowing kimchi's sourness and adding a rich, nutty aroma, a splash of soy sauce is all the udon needs. The sharp tang softens once the kimchi, spread out in the pan, cooks down its juices until the edges darken. A soft-boiled egg on top breaks into a creamy sauce, with crumbled seaweed and chives for fragrance, and the whole dish comes together in about 12 minutes.
A dish from Oita's fishermen: sashimi-grade yellowtail rests for just ten minutes in a cold marinade of toasted sesame, soy sauce, sugar, and sake. One story says the recipe was learned from fishermen from Okinawa (Ryukyu); another says the name drifted from rikyu-ae, a sesame dressing. It goes to the table cold, or over hot rice, sometimes with tea poured on as ochazuke.
The pollock roe never goes over a flame. When the rice is done, the heat is turned off, the lid comes up just long enough to add the roe and a knob of butter, and the residual heat of an 8-minute rest warms them through. That keeps the eggs from tightening, and they still pop. The gamtae seaweed is crumbled over with the scallions once the rice has finished resting.
Minuh, a Korean brown croaker, has enough savory depth that coarse salt and white pepper are all it needs. With a whisper of flour and left undisturbed skin side down, the skin crisps lightly. It is at its best in July and August, but frozen fillets grill up the same way.
As dongchimi ferments, the clear brine around chunks of radish turns cool, tangy and faintly fizzy, with a soft fruitiness from pear and a clean finish from ginger. The radish is cut large, 4 to 5 cm, because small pieces go soft once the kimchi ripens, and a firm, medium-sized radish holds up better than a small one. Keeping every piece under the brine stops stray microbes, and the jar moves to the fridge once small bubbles appear. In winter the chilled broth becomes a base for cold noodles or is ladled alongside rich, fatty meat. Strained, the ripe broth tastes cleaner, and it keeps refrigerated for 2 to 3 weeks.
Tofu, shiitake and thick udon all cook in one pot of kimchi broth that goes to the table as is, nabe style. Frying the sour kimchi in sesame oil first takes off its raw sharpness and leaves the anchovy-kelp broth spicy yet rounded. Tofu pressed dry with a paper towel keeps the broth from clouding, and it simmers while broth is spooned over it, since stirring hard breaks it apart. Only half the soup soy sauce is added early because kimchi varies in saltiness, and the rest is added bit by bit once the noodles are in. Once the udon has soaked up the soup it is ready, and any broth left in the pot can take a scoop of rice to finish.
The mackerel has its pin bones pulled before grilling, so you can break it up with a spoon and stir it straight into the rice and onion soy sauce. A little minced ginger in the sauce keeps the oily fish tasting clean.
King oyster mushrooms stay firm and chewy even when cooked, enough to stand in for meat on the plate. A shallow crosshatch on the long cut faces gives the butter soy sauce somewhere to cling as it thickens. Wipe the mushrooms with a damp paper towel instead of washing them.
Tearing steamed eggplant by hand along its grain, instead of slicing it, leaves ragged surfaces that pull the chili, garlic and fish sauce dressing deep between the fibers. There is no fermentation, so it is eaten the day it is made, ideally in summer when eggplant is in season and a quick extra side dish is needed. Spooned over cold rice and mixed, it becomes a simple meal on its own, with soft eggplant and spicy dressing coating every grain.
Sweet-savory simmered tofu pockets sit on a clear dashi broth and slowly release their syrup, and the soup grows a little sweeter as you eat. The broth starts out lightly seasoned to leave room for that sweetness and should not taste salty before the tofu goes on. Simmer the tofu until a little liquid remains and it stays moist, and making it a day ahead lets the flavor sink in further. Scallions and shichimi pepper add fragrance and a touch of heat.
Black-eyed peas are not black beans or kidney beans; they are pale, each with a single dark spot. They simmer with smoky ham, green pepper and scallions, while the rice cooks in a separate pot. Dried peas that have been stored a while soften unevenly, and keeping the rice apart lets them cook as long as they need without it turning to paste. Plan on a twelve-hour soak in the fridge.
King oyster mushrooms sliced 0.7 cm thick lengthwise are laid in butter in a single layer and browned on both sides, and only then does the soy glaze go in around the edge of the pan to reduce for about a minute. Finished with green onion and sesame, the salty butter-soy flavor works next to rice or with drinks.
A good soak in salted water draws much of the harsh bitterness out of godeulppaegi greens. What stays in the finished kimchi is a gentle bitter undertone beneath the fermented tang. The roots stay chewy while the leaves turn soft, giving two textures in one stem. In parts of Jeolla and Gyeongsang provinces it is traditionally made in autumn and eaten through the winter. After at least 2 days of ripening it goes to the table as a side for rice.
Sour aged kimchi and canned tuna share a gochujang, vinegar, and syrup dressing in this quick pantry noodle bowl. The kimchi is shaken free of its seasoning and chopped fine so the sourness spreads through the noodles instead of landing in one bite. Both the tuna and the noodles are drained well, since leftover can liquid or rinse water loosens the sauce. Half the scallions go into the mix and the rest on top for fresh color and bite.
There is no separate sauce here. Unsalted butter melts into the hot rice, shredded jangjorim (soy-braised beef) goes on top, and its braising liquid is spooned over a little at a time until the seasoning tastes right. An egg yolk and crushed roasted seaweed finish the bowl, and with jangjorim already in the fridge it comes together in about 15 minutes.
Doenjang, Korean fermented soybean paste, is stirred into melted unsalted butter with garlic and lemon juice, brushed over large shrimp and grilled in a very hot grill pan. The paste already brings plenty of salt, which is why the butter is unsalted and any extra salt waits until the cooked shrimp have been tasted.
Sweet potato stems need their tough outer skin peeled away, a fiddly job, but it is what lets a 2-minute blanch leave them bright and pleasantly crisp. Plunging them into cold water straight from the pot, until no warmth remains, is what holds that color and snap. Mixing the glutinous rice paste into the other seasonings first helps it coat the stems thinly between the fibers. Thin onion and scallion round out the dressing with sweetness and fragrance. The stems snap easily, so the seasoning is worked in with fingertips rather than pressed, and even packing the container takes only a light touch.
Salted pollock roe, folded into a garlicky butter and cream sauce at the very end, leaves tiny eggs that pop against the soft coating on thick udon. Scraping the roe out of its membrane matters, since any large piece of skin left behind clumps in the sauce. The roe is added only after the heat is lowered and warms through on residual heat, because a long stint over high heat turns it dry and grainy. Soy sauce gives the cream a savory backbone, and the heat drops as soon as the edges bubble so the cream does not split. If the sauce tightens as it reduces, 2 to 3 tablespoons of the reserved noodle water loosen it. Seaweed flakes and scallion finish the bowl.
Mung beans soaked for 30 minutes alongside the rice break down with it in kelp stock, making this abalone porridge far thicker and creamier than the rice-only kind.
Songhwa mushrooms get a thin coat of perilla oil and soy sauce, then a sprinkle of ground perilla seed just before the heat goes off, layering the same nutty aroma twice. Their caps are thick, and generous slices hold together in the pan.
Red cabbage leaves are thicker and denser than napa and stay crunchy after salting, though salting them longer only makes them tough. During about 12 hours in the fridge the cabbage bleeds its purple into the chili paste, and the kimchi comes out a deep violet rather than the usual red.
Grated daikon gives the chilled mentsuyu a mild peppery bite and a cooling edge, with scallion, nori, and wasabi adding sharper notes. Thick udon is chilled all the way through in ice water after rinsing, which firms the starch and brings back its springy chew.
Two tablespoons of sesame oil take the minced abalone innards and garlic over low heat, and the oil picks up their briny aroma before any rice goes in. Keeping the heat low at this stage is what tames the fishy edge of the innards.
Chicken hearts take longer to prep than to cook. Each one is split open and cleared of vessels and clots, and after that the searing is over in about six minutes over high heat. Sliced scallion goes on top, and they are served as a drinking snack.