683 recipes. Page 22 of 29
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Pan-fried tofu and thick-cut king oyster mushrooms share the same spicy soy and gochujang sauce but feel completely different to bite: one soft, the other springy. Browning the tofu slowly over low heat until the edges firm up gives the sauce a surface to cling to.
Every bite mixes two temperatures: warm, savory slices of egg-battered beef on top of cold, sweet-sour gochujang noodles. If the thin beef is floured while still damp, the egg coating lifts and slides off in the pan.
Fine, tangled parae hides a lot of sand, and it is washed through five or more changes of water until nothing settles at the bottom of the bowl. Ten seconds in boiling water is all the cooking it gets. The gochujang, vinegar and sugar dressing goes in over two or three additions; pour it all at once and the thin strands clump.
The mussels are boiled first, the meat set aside, and the strained cooking liquid becomes the water for the rice. That is why the grains themselves taste of mussel. The meat goes back on top of the finished rice, along with some minari, a Korean water dropwort.
The shishito peppers stay in the oil until a few dark blisters appear on the skins, which is where their slightly bitter aroma comes from. The tiny anchovies are toasted separately in a dry pan beforehand until crumbly, and they only rejoin the peppers when the heat is lowered and the syrup goes in.
Garlic scapes stay tough if they go into the pan raw. So they spend just 30 seconds in boiling water, get rinsed in cold water right away, and then cook with the gochujang sauce in a pan for about 3 minutes. Done, they bend easily but still snap when you bite.
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.
Shiitake cut into thick slices soak up a soy and syrup glaze until the outside turns glossy brown and the inside stays chewy. The braise stops before the pan goes dry, while the sauce still coats a spoon lightly; reduced all the way, it starts to scorch. Sesame oil goes in after the heat is off, and a few minutes of cooling lets the glaze soak in further.
The water the mussels cook in becomes the broth for this porridge, strained through a fine sieve or cloth to catch sand and bits of shell, so the whole pot tastes of the sea without a separate stock. Mussels are sorted twice for safety: discard any with cracked shells or that stay open when tapped before cooking, and any that stay shut after cooking.
Kohlrabi is firm and a little sweet, and even stir-fried it still crunches between pieces of springy shrimp. The red bell pepper is there more for color than flavor.
The octopus is already cooked, so all the pan has to do is reduce the gochujang sauce onto it. Over high heat, it is done the moment the sauce darkens at the edges and turns glossy.
Chicken wings have plenty of skin, and in the final reduction the soy and sugar liquid clings to it in a thin, shiny lacquer. The wings first cook covered so the meat turns tender in the broth, and only then does the lid come off to boil the sauce down around them. Shallow cuts in the thick parts let the seasoning reach past the surface, and a teaspoon of sesame oil stirred in off the heat adds a toasted aroma.
The king oyster mushrooms are torn by hand along the grain instead of sliced, then steamed. The soy, vinegar and chili flake dressing seeps into the torn fibers, and with no oil in the pan the mushroom stays clean-tasting.
Hwangtae (dried pollock) is toasted in sesame oil before the water goes in, which turns the broth milky and savory. There is no chili here, so it is not spicy, and the bean sprouts and radish give it a clean, refreshing taste.
The ingredients match the usual boiled-and-dressed soybean sprout side dish, but here the sprouts go straight into an oiled pan and pick up a faint smoky note. The lid never goes on. Covering the pan traps steam, which turns the cooking into steaming and keeps the raw, beany smell in.
Coated thinly in gochujang and syrup, small octopus needs only a minute and a half on a grill rack or pan, two minutes at most. Snipped into bites with scissors, it goes into perilla or lettuce wraps or over a bowl of rice.
Firm tofu is soaked briefly in salted water, then pan-fried until golden with firm edges that let the slices keep their corners through the spicy braise. Onion and green onion cook on top of the tofu and add sweetness to a sauce of soy sauce, gochugaru and a little sugar. The heat goes off while some sauce still pools at the bottom of the pan, enough to spoon over the tofu and a bowl of rice.
Saeujeot, tiny salted shrimp, supplies every bit of salt in this side dish; the chili flakes, garlic, scallion, and sesame oil only round it out into something eaten a little at a time from a small bowl. Jars vary a lot in how much brine they hold, and too much liquid leaves the seasoning sliding around in a puddle. Coloring the shrimp with chili flakes first, then folding the rest in from the bottom up, keeps the little shrimp whole instead of mashed.
Brisket and thin slices of radish are stir-fried in sesame oil before any water is added, which lays a nutty base under the chili-red broth of this market-style beef soup. Blanched outer cabbage leaves (ugeoji) soak up the broth and turn silky over the long simmer.
Soybean sprouts pick up the beefy richness of thin-sliced brisket (chadolbaegi), because the fat the brisket renders is the only oil used for the chili sauce. Brisket this thin browns in a minute or two and the sprouts should stay crunchy, which makes the whole cook brief and fast. Blot off only the excess fat; wiping the pan dry leaves nothing to fry the paste in.
Broad, thin sheets of sirloin cut across the grain give this neobiani a tender bite, and the beef stays in whole slices instead of being minced into patties. Grated onion and sugar in the soy marinade brown fast and scorch before the beef does, so the slices are laid in one layer without the leftover marinade.
Simmered slowly in soy sauce, whole peeled garlic loses almost all of its raw bite and turns soft and fluffy inside, while corn syrup gives the outside a shiny glaze. High heat for too long only toughens the surface. After the first boil, the pot drops to medium-low and stays uncovered. Once tender, the cloves crush easily, which is why they are turned only once or twice.
These are not fresh soybean leaves but leaves that have been fermented in brine, so the first job is soaking out their strong funk and excess salt before any seasoning touches them. Rather than tossed loose, they are stacked a few at a time with the fish sauce and chili dressing brushed between the layers, then packed into a container and chilled.
Pine nuts ground smooth with water turn plain rice porridge rich and silky. That pine nut liquid goes in after the rice has simmered on its own for about 10 minutes, and salt is the only seasoning. A few strips of jujube on top add a little sweetness and color.