877 recipes. Page 14 of 37
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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.
Salmon frozen solid and sliced thin without thawing gives a first bite that is hard and icy, then softens on the tongue and releases its oil. The Hokkaido method is tied to Ainu foodways that kept salmon in snow through severe winters. Its name is usually traced to the Ainu words ru, meaning to melt, and ipe, meaning food. Horseradish and soy sauce are served alongside.
Blood cockles (kkomak) are blanched only until the shells crack open, then tossed in a soy, garlic and Cheongyang chili sauce for just 5 to 6 minutes. Short cooking is the whole point, because these chewy little clams turn rubbery fast.
The eggplant goes into a very hot pan, spread out in one layer and browned only lightly on the outside. Left over low heat, it soaks up oil and turns heavy. Once seared, it is pushed to one side, ground pork and garlic are fried in the space beside it, and both are glazed together with soy sauce and sugar.
A mild soy and garlic glaze, browned onto chicken, carrot, and onion, makes a stir-fry with no chili that sits well over rice. Breast or thigh both work, but cut the pieces to an even thickness so the thin ones do not dry out before the thick ones cook through. An opaque surface says little about the center, but cutting into the thickest piece before the pan comes off the heat shows whether it is done.
Modeled on convenience-store cup tteokbokki, this one adds mala sauce to the gochujang for a tingle on the tongue. Chili flakes raise the heat, and more mala sauce raises the numbness. Brands of mala sauce vary a lot in saltiness, though, so start with a single tablespoon.
Thin slices of sirloin are laid on a grill grate with their edges overlapping, so they cook as one wide sheet rather than as loose strips in a pan of juices. Cut 2 to 3 mm thick and kept in a single layer, the beef cooks fast and evenly, and the edges brown on the grate.
Beef and carrot browned in lard give this clear Okinawan soup a quiet richness beneath its bonito broth. On the islands, winter versions used chidekuni, a long, bright yellow island carrot, and heartier pots added beef offal. It has also long been cooked for local observances. Here a single block of lean beef round keeps the prep simple.
Long cooking turns the skin and cartilage of chicken feet chewy and sticky, and that texture is the whole reason to eat them. Once the red sauce coats them in a glossy layer, they go out with rice or a cold beer. Adjust the heat with the amount of chili flakes.
Tiny holes poked with a toothpick let the soy brine into each hollow shishito pepper, and the blanch stops as soon as the skins begin to slump, because fully limp peppers lose their bite. Once the hot brine is poured over, the peppers are split into shallow containers and head straight into the fridge, making this a chilled side dish rather than a pantry preserve.
Born in the Chinese immigrant community of Kolkata and now cooked across India, Hakka noodles keep their seasoning spare: soy sauce, a little vinegar and black pepper. Cabbage, carrot and bell pepper are cut into thin strips close to the width of the noodles, so each forkful picks up both evenly, and they spend only a minute or two over high heat to keep their snap.
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.
Whole crucian carp are wrapped tightly in kombu, tied with dried gourd strips, and cooked for about 10 hours in red-miso broth until the bones are soft enough to eat, in this dish from Kashima in Saga. River and creek carp supplied winter protein when Ariake Sea fishing slowed, and in Kashima the dish is offered to Ebisu on January 20.
In Seoul and Gyeonggi people mostly say maneuljong, and elsewhere often maneuljjong, but both mean the same curling flower stalk of the garlic plant. Tender spring scapes get just 20 to 30 seconds in boiling water before going into a gochujang, vinegar, and sugar dressing, and they stay bright green with a firm snap.
The short ribs marinate for over an hour in soy sauce with grated Asian pear and onion, then braise over low heat for another hour or more. When the meat slides off the bone at a touch of the chopsticks and the sauce has turned glossy, it all goes over rice. It is a long cook, but the pot does most of the work.
Think of it as a close cousin of teriyaki: the same sticky sweet-salty shine, but with garlic and ginger fried in the oil first so their sharpness comes through more directly. Patting the boneless thighs dry matters, since a wet surface colors slowly even over high heat.
Octopus turns rubbery quickly under heat, so both the blanch and the grilling are kept short. A slice of ginger in the blanching water tames the fishy smell, and the glaze of gochujang, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, and sesame oil goes on in thin layers as the skewers cook.
Halved and scored in a grid, the eggplant cooks cut side down under a lid, and the trapped steam turns the inside creamy while the skin keeps a little bite. The soy and garlic sauce is spooned into the cuts while the eggplant is still hot.
Nanbu wheat crackers broken by hand into a soy-seasoned broth of chicken, burdock and vegetables soften at the edges as they drink up the liquid, while their centers stay chewy. In the Hachinohe area of Aomori, crackers have long gone into soup this way. Snack crackers tend to dissolve, and the ones sold for soup are used instead.
Drumettes, potato and onion all go into the pot raw with the gochujang sauce and braise under a lid, with no searing or frying beforehand. As they cook, the meat around the bone turns firm and chewy and holds on to the thickening sauce. With a little extra time, browning the drumettes in a pan first deepens the color and flavor.
The kohlrabi is pickled raw, without blanching, in soy brine that has simmered 2 more minutes with garlic and dried chiles and then cooled. Every fibrous layer under the skin comes off during peeling, since those fibers stay tough in the pickle, and from the third day a few cubes are served alongside meat.
Ice-chilled ramen noodles topped with neat stripes of egg crepe, ham, cucumber and tomato get a tangy soy-vinegar dressing poured over instead of a broth. Because the sauce is a drizzle, not a soup, each topping keeps its own flavor and color. Cutting the egg, ham and cucumber to the same thin width makes the plate look tidy and lets every bite pick up a bit of everything, and the dressing goes on only at the table so the noodles stay springy.
Paper-thin cucumber and wakame soak in a sweet rice vinegar dressing, and the result is cool, tangy, and very light. Unlike many cucumber salads, it carries no garlic or chili, so the vinegar and the clean taste of cucumber come through on their own.
Takuan pickled the year before, by now salty and sour, gets sliced thin and boiled several times in fresh water before a gentle simmer in dashi, soy sauce, and mirin. Because a perfectly edible pickle is given extra work to become a new dish, it is also called zeitaku-ni, the luxurious simmer. Red chili and white sesame finish this Fukui side, which goes with rice, sake, or ochazuke.