877 recipes. Page 7 of 37
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The batter is mixed with cold sparkling water instead of plain water, plus a little gochugaru. It gets only a light stir so the bubbles survive and is used right away, and the eggplant is salted ahead to draw out water. Once fried, the eggplant inside turns creamy.
The orange sheen of Bacolod-style grilled chicken comes from annatto oil, brushed on thinly every time the pieces are turned. In Bacolod a street called Manokan Country holds dozens of inasal stalls, and the dish is often simply called Bacolod chicken. A sour marinade of vinegar, lime juice, lemongrass, and garlic needs at least 2 hours and ideally a night in the fridge to reach into the thighs. Set aside annatto oil that never touches raw chicken for basting, and throw out the used marinade. In the Philippines it comes with garlic rice.
Each piece is stretched so its edges go thin and tender while the center stays slightly thicker and springy, giving two textures in one bite. Hittsumi comes from southern Aomori, and the name points to the pulling and pinching of dough rather than rolling and cutting noodles. The rested bread-flour dough is torn straight into dashi with chicken, burdock, carrot and green onion.
Lotus root stays crisp even when fully cooked, and here a thin layer of seasoned ground beef is pressed onto each slice, giving one bite two very different textures. The slices go into the pan beef side down first, letting the meat set onto the root.
Oyster, shiitake and enoki mushrooms differ in thickness and density and cook at different speeds even under the same steam. The firmer shiitake and oyster mushrooms go underneath, the quick-wilting enoki on top, and the dish comes off the heat before the enoki go limp.
Pouring the soy brine over deodeok while it is still hot sets the outside of the root quickly and leaves the center firm and chewy. A short soak in lightly salted water first draws out the root's raw, astringent edge, and splitting each root only in half keeps enough thickness to stand up to the heat. Garlic and ginger simmer in the brine, layering a sharp warmth over the strong root fragrance. Give it at least 3 days in the fridge before serving with rice.
Cao lau belongs to Hoi An, where the noodles were traditionally made with water from an old Cham well and lye from the ash of trees on the nearby Cham Islands, giving them a dense chew; at home, thick rice noodles stand in. It is not a soup: only a few spoonfuls of the sticky soy and sugar pan glaze are poured over the noodles, so the bean sprouts, herbs and crumbled fried wonton skins keep their own textures.
Chickpeas roasted at 200 degrees until crisp play the part of croutons in this bowl of kale, red cabbage, carrot and cucumber. The gochujang dressing, rounded out with maple syrup and rice vinegar, brings heat, sweetness and acidity at once and covers the grassy taste of the raw vegetables. Massaging the kale by hand for a minute softens its tough fibers and takes the edge off its bitterness.
Soy sauce and cane vinegar reduce together into a dark, tangy sauce scented with garlic, bay leaves, and whole peppercorns, and the chicken thighs braise right in it. In the Philippines some cooks braise first and fry afterward, but this version sears the skin side at the start to render fat and build color. The vinegar goes in without stirring and is brought to a hard boil first, which drives off its sharpest smell.
Tofu gangjeong began in temple cooking as a meatless stand-in for meat gangjeong, and these days it also shows up as a drinking snack. The potato-starch crust on the pan-fried cubes lasts about 10 minutes once the gochujang, ketchup, and oligosaccharide glaze goes on; after that it soaks up moisture and the crunch is gone. It gets glazed only when it is ready for the table.
Like the cup rice sold at Korean snack shops, it is warm rice topped with tuna mayo and a heap of crushed seaweed. The tuna is first cooked with onion, scallion, soy sauce and sugar, and the mayonnaise goes in only after the heat is off, which keeps it from separating.
The liquor the hard clams release as they open is the base of the sauce here; no stock goes in. A little soy and oyster sauce is added, and the chives are cooked only until they wilt, so they are still bright green on the plate.
Soy sauce and sugar replace the usual red gochujang, so the rice cakes taste like Korean soy-marinated galbi rather than spicy street tteokbokki. The marinated boneless pork rib is seared hard first, then water lifts the browned glaze off the pan and carries the meat flavor into the sauce.
Tofu is browned on both sides, then a soy sauce with chopped hot green chili, garlic and a little sugar is spooned over and reduced for a minute or two. The tofu itself stays mild; the salty gloss and the sharp chili bite all come from the sauce.
On Korea's east coast, seaweed soup for new mothers is sometimes made with a whole flounder instead of beef. The seaweed is stir-fried in sesame oil before the water is poured in, and the flounder, blanched briefly to take away any fishiness, joins it whole, seasoned with soy sauce and garlic.
Spring water dropwort (minari) is cut into long pieces, stems and all, and fried with shrimp. The stems still crunch after frying, and it comes with soy sauce sharpened by a few drops of vinegar.
This recipe uses only pufferfish sold already cleaned by professionals for eating, never fish you prepare yourself. The lean fillets sit on a wide bed of bean sprouts and steam in a gochujang and chili flake sauce, and the sprouts soak up the spicy liquid while keeping their crunch.
Bellflower root (doraji) carries a pronounced bitterness, tamed by rubbing the roots hard with salt until sticky foam appears and then rinsing several times. The roots are torn by hand into thin strips; thinner strips take the brine faster, but crumbled pieces lose their chew. Ginger steeps in the hot soy brine for 10 minutes and is lifted out, leaving only its scent. The pickle is ready after 2 days of cold storage and is not meant to sit at room temperature.
Translucent rice sheets come out of the steamer soft enough to roll around chopped shrimp, then get a lightly sweet soy sauce poured over the top. Hong Kong dim sum tables rarely go without them, and street carts there steam them to order, filling them with char siu or beef instead, or rolling them plain. This version uses rice flour with cornstarch rather than tapioca, and because the starch settles fast, the batter needs a stir before every pour. Too thick a layer makes the roll heavy and doughy, while too thin a layer tears during rolling. The shrimp are done only when firm and opaque all the way through, not when the sheet turns translucent.
Smoked duck brings fat and smoke, and this salad answers with a sharp soy-vinegar dressing spiked with chili oil plus thin slices of Korean pear that burst with juice. The duck gets only 3 minutes over medium heat, skin side down, to render its fat without drying out the meat. Gosari, the bracken fern Koreans usually eat as a seasoned side dish, is blanched for just 1 minute so it loses any off flavor but keeps its chewy bite. The pear is tossed with a little dressing as soon as it is sliced, which slows browning, and meets the greens only at serving time. Red chard and finely shredded cabbage give the plate a crisp base.
The dish began in Yamaguchi Prefecture when an elementary school nutritionist collected home recipes to widen the lunch menu, and it spread from schools to homes and restaurants. Chicken thigh and burdock root are coated in potato starch, fried, and tossed with edamame in a sweet dashi-soy sauce.
Braised in the same pot, the tofu turns soft enough to break under a spoon while the shrimp curl up firm and springy. A little of the braising liquid is left in the pan on purpose, for spooning over rice.
No stove needed: drained canned tuna stirred with mayonnaise is spooned over a bowl of warm rice, with soy sauce, sesame oil and crushed seaweed on top. Press the tuna in a sieve until no more oil drips, then break up the big flakes with a fork so the mayo coats it evenly.
The garlic chives are split into white stems and green leaves and go in separately. Shrimp cook in oil already scented with sliced garlic, the stems join with the soy and oyster sauce, and the leaves go in last and are done within a minute.