683 recipes. Page 24 of 29
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Young mugwort, at its most tender in early spring, gives this abalone porridge a grassy bitterness that cuts through the rich innards and leaves a clean finish. Pull out any tough mugwort stems beforehand, because they stay stringy in an otherwise silky porridge.
Sour, long-aged kimchi and canned tuna are stir-fried together and spooned over hot rice. The tuna goes in last and is turned over just a few times in big folds, so it stays in chunks that take on the kimchi seasoning rather than breaking into flakes. Very sour kimchi can take about half a teaspoon more sugar, and canned mackerel works in place of tuna.
Beef, bell pepper and onion alternate on soy-marinated skewers that are turned every two minutes for six to eight minutes. By the time the pepper edges are lightly charred, the glaze has reduced to a shine. They rest until the handles are cool enough to pick up.
Unlike stir-fried bulgogi, this version spreads the marinated beef over a bed of cabbage and onion and steams it under a lid, letting the sweetness of the vegetables run into the soy marinade. The cabbage wilts to translucent and takes on as much seasoning as the meat, and enough broth stays in the pot to spoon over rice. One stir with chopsticks partway through breaks up the thin slices, which tend to clump while steaming, and helps them cook evenly.
Fresh tot (hijiki) turns from brown to bright green the moment it hits boiling water, and it has a pleasant snap. It's tossed with thin slices of onion in a sour-spicy dressing of equal parts gochujang and vinegar.
The pork shoulder marinates in gochujang for 10 minutes, then gets spread across a hot pan and left alone for the first 2 minutes. That pause is when the glaze touching the pan catches and browns at the edges.
The octopus is already boiled, so the pan only has to warm it through and coat it in gochujang sauce. The heat goes off the moment it starts to visibly shrink, and the onion and carrot are left a little underdone so they keep some crunch.
Sliced sora, a Korean sea snail, stays chewy, with the gochujang sauce cooked right down onto it and no liquid left in the pan. A weak flame lets water pool and turns it into a stir-fry, so the pan goes on high. Trim off the tough innard end while slicing.
A spoon of gochujang (Korean chili paste) in the soy sauce turns the lotus root a reddish brown and adds a low heat under the sweet-salty glaze. Pork shoulder, marinated briefly with ginger juice and browned with onion first, leaves its fat in the pot for the lotus root to soak up, which makes this heartier than a plain lotus root side. The crunch of the root against the tender pork is the whole point.
Unlike soy-brined crab that sits for days, this version coats quartered raw crab in a thick chili paste and is ready after half a day in the fridge. Because the paste does not cook anything, the crab must be sold for raw consumption and stay at 4°C or below from cleaning through marinating.
Bite-size pieces of webfoot octopus (jjukkumi, a small octopus) are scattered through rice stained red by gochujang sauce. The first sear stops the moment the pieces curl and turn opaque, because they keep cooking while the sauce and rice are stirred in.
King oyster mushrooms are firm and meaty while oyster mushrooms pull apart into soft strands, so cooking both together keeps the texture from being one note. Broccoli and carrot brighten it up, and soy and oyster sauce do the seasoning.
Chicken thigh pieces cook skin side down under a lid until the fat runs and the edges darken. Shallow cuts in the thick parts, no deeper than half the thickness, let the marinade in without the meat splitting open.
Thin, even slices of lotus root end up with a thin brown soy glaze outside and a crisp, lacy bite inside. Cutting every slice to the same 0.5 cm is what lets them all cook to the same point in the same time. A quick blanch and a rinse in cold water before braising take off the surface starch and astringency, and skipping it leaves that rough edge under the glaze. A tablespoon of vinegar added with the rice syrup near the end keeps the sweetness light despite all that shine. Cooled completely and refrigerated, the slices keep drawing in seasoning and taste more even the next day.
Young radish greens are so watery and tender that 10 to 15 seconds in boiling water wilts them. The stems keep their crunch while the leaves go soft and take up the soup soy sauce dressing. Thick-stemmed bunches get another 30 seconds.
As a whole butterfish simmers with rice for about 25 minutes, its lean white flesh breaks apart on its own and disperses through the porridge, lending a mild sweetness without heaviness. Salt and a teaspoon of sesame oil are the only seasoning, so the freshness of the fish decides almost everything. If the porridge thickens before the rice has softened, turn the heat lower and stir along the bottom more often.
Tiny dried anchovies end up glossy, sweet-salty, and crisp once the glaze sets as they cool. After they go back into the bubbling syrup, 30 seconds to a minute of tossing is all they need; chasing every last bit of sauce on the bottom only makes the coating hard and clumpy.
Firm tofu is cut into thick slabs, pan-fried until golden, and served with a dipping sauce of soy sauce, chili flakes, chopped green onion and sesame oil. Left unmoved until the bottom of the first side firms up, the slices hold together when the wide spatula goes under them.
Slices cut a full 1cm thick and cooked covered over low heat give this lotus root dish a chunkier bite than thin soy-glazed versions, with a core that stays crunchy. A soak in vinegared water right after slicing keeps the cut faces from browning. Jocheong, a Korean grain syrup, sweetens the soy instead of sugar and leaves a mellow malty note along with the gloss.
Too fragile to slice, silken tofu goes onto a flat plate as a whole block with the dressing poured over the top. Out of the package, it rests briefly on a paper towel to shed surface water before moving to the plate. The dressing is soy sauce with chili flakes, garlic, green onion, and sesame oil, and the tofu is served either cold or warmed for a minute in the microwave.
Rice seasoned with sesame oil, salt and toasted sesame is spread on plastic wrap, filled with tuna mayo and squeezed into a ball. A little finely chopped carrot and cucumber goes into the filling as well. These are eaten without reheating, which is why they go into lunchboxes and come along on picnics and school sports days.
With no gochujang, only soy sauce and starch syrup for the glaze, these anchovies are sweet-salty with no heat at all, which is why they turn up so often in children's lunchboxes. Turn the heat down as soon as the syrup bubbles once, or the glaze sets hard as it cools. Once cool, the anchovies cling together loosely, just right for picking up a small clump at a time.
Bellflower root soaks in salt water for ten minutes and blanches for just one, enough to soften its bitterness while keeping its firm crunch. Coated in gochujang, it grills in a pan or over an open flame, and the open flame gives a stronger smoky note.
Lotus root keeps a crisp, almost snappy bite even after braising, which sets it apart from soft soy-braised potatoes or burdock. Once the holes in each round have soaked up the soy sauce and the slices turn a translucent brown, a spoonful of syrup over high heat gives them a quick, glossy finish.