683 recipes. Page 25 of 29
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Young rapeseed greens, a spring vegetable in Korea, keep a crisp stalk and a faint sweetness after blanching. They're dressed with doenjang (Korean soybean paste), worked in over a few rounds once the squeezed greens have been pulled apart.
This version has ground pork in it, and only a little gochujang, so the sour tang of well-fermented kimchi leads. Made with long-aged kimchi (mugeunji), it gets noticeably deeper.
It is called a stir-fry, but for the first few minutes the lid stays on. Bean sprouts laid on the bottom let out enough water to keep the gochujang from scorching, and a final blast of heat reduces that liquid into a thick sauce that coats the octopus.
Ground beef and pork are combined two to one and worked in one direction for more than three minutes, until the mix sticks to the hands and turns smooth; that stickiness gives the thick patties their firm bite. The onion is minced fine and pressed lightly, leaving it a little moist rather than wrung dry.
Lotus root braised in soy sauce gets a handful of raw peanuts in the same pot, so the crisp slices come with soft, mealy peanuts in between. It is kept in the fridge and eaten cold, and the jocheong (Korean rice syrup) added at the end keeps it glossy even then.
Mozzarella is lined up in a single row down the middle before rolling, so every slice shows a white stripe at its center. Around it sit kimchi, stir-fried until no liquid is left in the pan, and yellow pickled radish. Sliced cheese, which melts easily, can stand in for the mozzarella.
The seasoning is just a teaspoon each of chili flakes, soy sauce and sugar, and the fish cake's own savory saltiness comes through first. A quick dip in boiling water to rinse off surface oil helps that small amount of seasoning soak in rather than slide off.
Udae galbi, thick plate-shaped beef ribs on the bone, carries more fat than ordinary galbi. Lightly scored and marinated in pear juice and soy sauce for at least 30 minutes, the ribs are browned dark over medium-high heat, then brushed with thin coats of marinade at medium. Doneness is checked by pressing the meat beside the bone: little or no red juice means it is ready.
Five minutes in a hot pan turns sour, wet kimchi into something sweeter and more savory, as the moisture cooks off and the edges darken. The pan has to be hot enough that the kimchi sizzles on contact; otherwise it steams in its own liquid.
The cucumber here is cooked, but only until it is warm and glossy, never soft in the middle. Soup soy sauce and a little chili flakes are the only seasonings, giving a faint red tint with no real heat. The tofu is browned on its own and folded back in at the end.
Doenjang, Korean fermented soybean paste, gets mixed with a little gochujang, garlic and honey and spread over rockfish fillets in a coat thin enough to see the flesh through. Any thicker and the paste and honey burn before the fish is done. Laying the fillet skin side down and leaving it alone keeps it from curling.
Ground pork and chopped kimchi are fried in sesame oil until the oil turns red before the rice is added, which gives this porridge a meatier backbone than kimchi alone. Over a 30-minute simmer the chili's sharp edge fades and the fermented tang spreads evenly through the pot. Chop the kimchi smaller than bite size, since big leaves stay stringy in soft porridge. Cubes of tofu stirred in make a soft, filling addition.
A shallow crosshatch scored on the inside of the squid body opens up as it cooks, curling each piece and letting the gochujang sauce work into the cuts. Score too deep and the body tears apart; the knife should only graze the surface.
The soy marinade gets its sweetness from grated pear and onion juice as much as from sugar. With honey in there too, the ribs catch easily, so this is not something to walk away from while it cooks. The batch serves four, sized for a holiday table or guests.
Slippery strips of acorn jelly (dotorimuk, a firm, mild starch jelly) sit over rice in an ice-cold broth of kimchi juice and water, with chopped kimchi in the middle for crunch. Sesame oil tossed through the rice and a scattering of seaweed flakes give a nutty, toasty note that cold broth would otherwise lack. Apart from the rice, nothing needs cooking, which makes it a summer bowl.
Jumulleok means meat kneaded by hand with its marinade, but thin duck slices tear if squeezed, so here the gochujang sauce is folded through them gently. Perilla leaves add their scent to the spicy coating.
Doenjang mixed with honey and lemon juice coats the rich salmon in something salty, sweet and faintly tart. A third of the glaze is set aside before any of it touches the fish, then spread on thinly with a clean spoon once the fillets are turned.
Pork belly cut into 1 cm pieces renders enough fat to fry the kimchi and rice, so no cooking oil is added and every grain tastes of pork. That only works if the pork gets 4 to 5 minutes, until the edges are golden and the fat coats the pan.
Osam takes its name from the first syllables of squid (ojingeo) and pork belly (samgyeopsal). The pork belly is cooked first until plenty of fat has rendered, and the squid and gochujang sauce go into that fat, so no extra oil is needed.
The lotus root is cut 0.7 cm thick and browned in a pan first; the soy and rice-syrup glaze only goes on for the last minute or two. It is far crunchier than Korean braised lotus root, which simmers in soy for a long time. Once cool, the glaze that has run into the holes sets and stops being sticky.
Half sheets of seaweed are spread with a very thin layer of rice and rolled tightly around just three fillings: yellow pickled radish, spinach, and carrot. The result is a slim roll that cuts into small coins, each one a single bite. Carrot is stir-fried only until it wilts so it keeps some crunch and sweetness, and the spinach is blanched briefly, squeezed dry, and dressed with sesame oil.
How much liquid ends up in the pan depends on how dry the washed spinach is before it goes in. The only seasoning is a teaspoon of soy sauce, with sesame oil and sesame seeds stirred in after the heat is off.
In spring, when cockles are in season, their meat goes into this bowl with raw water parsley (minari) and a gochujang dressing. The cockles come out of the boiling water after 30 seconds; any longer and they shrink and turn rubbery.
The broccoli's thick stems are cut smaller than the florets and blanched with them for just 40 seconds to a minute, and after joining the beef it gets only about another minute in the pan, finishing before the green turns yellow.