683 recipes. Page 17 of 29
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Chopped fish cake crisps slightly at the edges in hot oil, and its salty, savory flavor spreads through every grain of rice. Because the fish cake is already seasoned, the soy sauce stays modest and any extra salt waits until after tasting.
Briny fresh oysters go into the pan with minari (Korean water parsley), a strongly grassy herb, and are stir-fried with chili flakes and soup soy sauce for a little heat. The oysters are barely cooked, so they stay plump.
Shrimp and squid are brushed with a thin layer of doenjang sauce and grilled. There is only half a tablespoon of gochujang in it, so it tastes more savory than hot. You know it is done by smell: once the sauce turns deep brown and smells toasty, it comes off the heat, and a little longer brings a burnt note.
Instead of being stir-fried, shishito-style peppers are dusted with a thin layer of flour and steamed, which keeps their mild sweetness and soft bite. During steaming the white coating turns translucent, forming a thin film that the dressing of soy sauce, gochugaru, garlic and sesame oil clings to.
Thin slices of boiled octopus sit on chilled buckwheat noodles dressed in chogochujang, gochujang loosened with vinegar and sugar into a sweet, sour, spicy sauce. Already cooked, the octopus mainly needs patting dry so the sauce clings instead of sliding off. Shredded cabbage and perilla leaves under the noodles add crunch and an herbal note, and only half the sauce is tossed in at first so the rest can season the bowl just before eating.
Yuzu syrup, sweet and fragrant with citrus peel, coats chewy-crisp lotus root and makes a bright side for rich main dishes. Thickness decides the texture: even 3 mm rounds stay pleasantly chewy after blanching, while slices cut too thin lose their crunch. A quick rinse in cold water right after blanching stops the cooking while the cut faces are just turning translucent. The rinsed slices are then spread out to drain so leftover water does not dilute the dressing. A rest of about 5 minutes and one more toss let the dressing reach the hollow channels. If the yuzu syrup tastes too sweet, a drop more vinegar brings it back into balance, and the dish is chilled before serving.
Braised dried pollock comes out soft and moist; this version tosses the dry shreds straight into a gochujang, vinegar, and oligosaccharide syrup dressing and keeps them chewy. With no stove involved, it takes about 15 minutes when a side dish is needed in a hurry.
The pan goes on until it smokes, and scallions fry for 30 seconds to make a scallion oil. The eggs come last: once the rice is fried, it is pushed to the edges and the eggs are scrambled in the cleared center before everything is mixed. Leftover ham, kimchi, shrimp or canned tuna can go in too.
One zucchini and a spoonful of salted shrimp (saeujeot) are about all this side dish needs. The shrimp brings a savory saltiness, so extra salt is rarely needed.
Pork jowl goes into the pan with no oil at all. Its own fat runs out within moments, and the doenjang marinade sizzles in it and browns onto the meat. The doenjang starts at a single tablespoon and goes up only after tasting.
Each bean ends up with a clear, glossy shell of soy and sugar syrup, salty first and then nutty as you bite through. Known in Korea as kongjorim or kongjaban, it works with black seoritae beans or yellow soybeans. The beans are soaked and boiled until soft before they ever meet the sauce. That keeps the braising short while the seasoning still reaches the center. Kept in a sealed container in the fridge, it is a classic make-ahead banchan for rice bowls and lunch boxes.
Myeongi jangajji (wild garlic leaves pickled in soy) is sliced into the bowl, and its pickling liquid loosens the gochujang into a sauce for chilled udon. The garlicky smell of the leaves comes through the heat, and shredded cucumber and tuna go on top.
Shredded daikon, carrot and cucumber are fanned out in rings with raw salmon in the middle, and everyone tosses the platter high with chopsticks just before eating. Plum sauce and lemon make the dressing sweet and tangy, and sesame seeds add a nutty finish. Pregnant people, children, older adults and anyone with weakened immunity should skip it, because the salmon is eaten raw and even fish sold for raw eating carries some risk.
The sprouts get no chili and no soy sauce; jayeom does the seasoning. This traditionally made salt has more savory depth than refined salt. It goes on before the other seasonings so it can reach the thick stems.
Minced crucian carp and root vegetables simmer in a sweet-salty dashi with two kinds of soy sauce, and the hot soup is ladled generously over rice, then topped with sliced green onion and torn nori. The dish grew up around the reclaimed land of Kojima Bay in southern Okayama, where rice paddies, canals, rivers, and Kojima Lake held plenty of winter carp. Its other names, tontoko-jiru and tontoko-meshi, echo the rhythmic chopping of fish on a board.
Cut into thin julienne rather than half-moons, the zucchini mixes evenly through rice when this namul goes into bibimbap. The decisive step is squeezing the salted strands hard with both hands; water left behind makes the stir-fry soggy and the bibimbap wet. With only salt, garlic and sesame oil, the pale green color stays bright, and it works warm or cooled.
Green onion cut into thick 5 cm lengths cooks beside the pork jowl, left mostly alone and then charred lightly over high heat at the end. The pork gets only 15 minutes in the soy marinade; past 20, the salt works too far into the meat.
Tender raw soybean leaves are stacked two or three at a time with a thin spread of soy and chili seasoning between them, steamed briefly, then peeled off one by one to wrap around a bite of rice. Steaming softens the coarse veins, and green plum syrup rounds off the saltiness of the soy so the grassy taste of the leaves still comes through behind the garlic and chili. It works warm or cooled as a side dish; the seasoning stays put between the layers.
Blanched spinach, soybean sprouts, and julienned carrot are tossed with thin somyeon in a soy, vinegar, and plum syrup dressing that is salty, tart, and faintly sweet, with no chili paste involved. The spinach and sprouts are blanched separately and squeezed hard, because leftover water thins the sauce and makes the noodles swell and clump as they sit. Dry-sauteing the carrot without oil for a minute brings out a sweetness raw carrot lacks. Dressing the noodles before adding the vegetables seasons every strand instead of letting the sauce cling only to the greens. The garlic is stirred until evenly dispersed so no single bite turns sharp, and half a tablespoon of gochugaru makes a spicy version.
Sweet citrus from yuja (Korean citron) marmalade and the nose-tingling heat of Korean mustard share one dressing, which coats shredded chicken breast and thin-cut vegetables served cold. The chicken is poached without salt, so all the seasoning comes from the dressing.
A tablespoon of mayonnaise goes into the gochujang dressing. Its oil coats the dry squid strips, letting the dressing cling softly and making the squid less tough to chew. The finished dish is nearly dry, and in a lunchbox the sauce stays put instead of creeping into the next compartment.
Eggplant and ground pork are stir-fried in green onion oil, then piled, oil and all, on top of the soaked rice, so the eggplant cooks with the rice while soaking up the pork fat and onion aroma. Cut it thick, about 1.5 cm, and pull it off the heat before it goes limp, or it collapses once the rice is done. Soy sauce splashed onto the hot edge of the pan adds a slightly smoky note.
Only soy sauce, cooking wine and garlic season it, and lightly, so the sweetness of Korean zucchini (aehobak) and the shrimp come first. It holds up well at room temperature.
The hwangtae, a Korean dried pollack, is not soaked; it is only dampened front and back with wet hands, which keeps it chewy rather than soggy once grilled. The gochujang glaze goes on in several thin layers over low heat, and it is done when the surface turns sticky and glossy.