683 recipes. Page 15 of 29
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Rice pressed into a hot stone pot keeps sizzling at the table, turning crisp and toasty at the bottom, which is what sets dolsot bibimbap apart from the regular bowl. Scraping up the crust while mixing is part of the meal.
Garlic goes into melted butter, then the shrimp, and as soon as they turn pink the soy sauce, sugar and cheongyang chili go in for a thirty-second finish. There is no time to measure anything in those thirty seconds, so the seasoning is set out before the burner goes on.
Each sheet of laver is brushed thinly with sesame oil, sprinkled with salt, and laid in a pan over low heat, one at a time. Within about ten seconds the dark sheet turns bright green and the edges curl a little, and that is the moment to flip it. Brown spots mean it has already gone too far, and the next sheet gets a lower flame.
Beef brisket is browned in sesame oil, then water and napa cabbage go in. Guk-ganjang, the Korean soy sauce for soups, turns the broth a clear light brown, and a thin film of sesame oil from the beef floats on top with a nutty smell. The stems go in before the leaves; the stems keep a little bite while the leaves turn soft and full of broth.
On drying racks in Gangwon-do, pollock freezes and thaws dozens of times over the winter to become hwangtae, and the flesh ends up full of sponge-like pores. Braised in soy sauce with gochujang, it takes the salty-sweet seasoning in through those pores, all the way to the middle rather than just on the surface.
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.
A brief dip in boiling water firms the surface of acorn jelly, which helps the soft slices survive being tossed in a soy, vinegar and chili dressing. Mixing them takes a few gentle lifts from the bottom rather than stirring, as they still break easily.
Keep the heat at its lowest and keep lifting the seaweed so it never sits still, then turn the heat off when a piece crumbles between your fingertips. Spread it on a wide plate until completely cool before it goes into a sealed container. Laver covered while still warm goes soft again quickly.
Slice a roll and a wide band of breaded pork fills the middle, with shredded cabbage and tonkatsu sauce tucked beside it. Let the cutlet cool completely on a rack before rolling, or the breading goes soft.
Dried tofu cut into thin strips does not break up in the pan; it lifts on the chopsticks in strands, like noodles. Carrot, green pepper and onion cut to the same width make it colorful.
Chicken thighs go into a gochujang marinade, ideally overnight. On the day, the skin side is pressed into the pan first to render the fat, then the pieces are flipped and covered so the thick meat cooks through. The glaze only turns glossy at the very end, in the last 2 minutes over high heat with the lid off.
Thick-cut button mushrooms get 10 minutes in the pot, long enough to chew almost like meat, while the enoki join only for the last 3 minutes and barely wilt.
Steamed in the shell with only green onion and ginger beneath it, abalone keeps its sea-sweet aroma, with seasoning limited to a little soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil spooned over afterward. A shallow crosshatch on the thick side lets heat reach the center so the edges do not toughen while the middle catches up.
Chilled buckwheat noodles get tossed with fine shreds of cucumber, red cabbage, and carrot that outweigh the noodles, and the result eats more like a salad than a noodle bowl. The dressing is gochujang thinned with vinegar, soy sauce, and a little sesame oil: spicy, sour, and savory at once. Rubbing the cooked noodles under cold water strips their surface starch, which keeps them from clumping and stops the dressing from pooling at the bottom of the bowl. The toss happens right before serving and the bowl spends only 5 minutes in the fridge, because buckwheat softens quickly once dressed. It makes a light meal on a hot day.
Searing smoked duck briefly renders the surface fat, and what richness remains gets cut by the nose-tingling heat of mustard and a splash of vinegar. Korean chives, cabbage, and bell pepper give it crunch and a garlicky green aroma, while honey and sesame oil round off the soy dressing. Toss the duck with the vegetables while it is still warm, when the meat feels most tender.
Lightly toasted gim is torn into big pieces and tossed with a soy and sesame oil dressing and thinly sliced scallion. Big pieces matter, because some of the edges stay crisp even after the dressing goes on. The seaweed drinks up liquid within minutes, and only what will be eaten right away gets mixed.
Left undisturbed while it browns, the tofu firms up on the surface and holds together when the egg and soy glaze go into the same pan. Seaweed flakes and sesame oil go on last, over the tofu and egg on the rice.
Through the doenjang-fried pork comes the faintly earthy smell of Swiss chard. The leaves go limp as they cool, so it is eaten straight from the pan, spooned over rice.
Pear juice makes up close to half of the marinade for these gochujang pork ribs. It is what makes them tender, and it is also why they scorch so easily. The ribs marinate for an hour or two, cook over medium heat, and get the leftover sauce brushed on only at the very end.
Seasoned with soup soy sauce, the clear brown broth doubles as the base for tteokguk, rice cake soup. The radish should simmer until a spoon slides through it easily; only then does its sharp bite give way to sweetness.
Baby octopus, at its best in spring, spends only a short time in a gochujang and gochugaru marinade before steaming on a bed of cabbage and onion. Ten minutes is enough to coat the pieces before they start giving up water. As the vegetables soften, their juices mix with the marinade into a small pool of spicy sauce at the bottom. The cabbage keeps the octopus off the steamer and takes the edge off the heat. The steamer should be at a full boil before the octopus is added, and the lid stays shut so the steam stays strong. The window between springy and rubbery is narrow, and the moment the pieces curl up plump is the moment to stop.
Equal measures of soy sauce and vinegar give this Gangwon-style dressing its sour edge, with gochugaru for heat and a little sugar to round it off. Finely chopped kimchi clings to the noodles instead of sitting in clumps, adding fermented tang and crunch to every bite. With little gluten to hold them together, buckwheat noodles snap apart when boiled past the package time or pressed down while mixing. The dressing is folded in by lifting from below. Several rinses in cold water wash off the surface starch that would make the strands stick together. Water left on the rinsed noodles thins the dressing fast, which makes thorough draining as important as the chill.
Raw crown daisy leaves are bitter and fragrant, and a yuzu marmalade dressing wraps them in sweet citrus while browned tofu adds a mild, savory base. Because the greens stay uncooked, hot tofu wilts them on contact and dulls their aroma; let the tofu cool briefly first. Soy sauce, lemon, and sesame oil balance the sweetness of the marmalade, and gentle folding keeps the seared cubes whole.
Leaves picked from pepper plants after the chili harvest make this namul, and they are at their most tender in August and September. They keep a slightly bitter, green aroma even after blanching, and the chili flakes are kept to an amount whose heat does not bury it. The thin leaves take the seasoning almost at once and go to the table as soon as they are mixed.