52 recipes. Page 2 of 3
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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.
Sweet potato, carrot, onion, squid, and shrimp share one pot of oil here, and they cook at very different speeds. Slicing the dense vegetables thin lets their centers soften before the coating darkens, while dry seafood spits less in the oil and carries a lighter batter. Cold water and a brief stir give a light, shattering shell, and the platter goes to the table with a small dish of soy sauce instead of salt.
Whole sea bream, turban shells, squid and shrimp are salted and roasted under a tight lid in a horaku, an earthenware pot lined with heat-proof gravel and pine needles, with no water added. An Imabari specialty in Ehime, it is tied by tradition to the victory feasts of the Murakami naval forces of the Muromachi period and is also called pirate cuisine. Hard-boiled eggs, sweet potato and ginkgo nuts are tucked around the fish, and the whole pot comes to the table for five. If the pine scent turns burnt or the smoke thickens, the heat comes down at once. To keep the cold pot from cracking, it starts on low heat before the covered roast.
Blue crabs go in shell and all, turning red as they cook and flavoring the radish broth, and with cheongyang chilies for heat the pot goes in the middle of the table for everyone to dip into.
The batter is pancake mix stirred loosely with cold water. Scallions go into the pan first, then squid, shrimp and thin slices of red chili, and the batter is poured over; the scallions touching the oil turn sweet and give off the smell that makes pajeon what it is. It comes to the table with makgeolli.
Gochujang alone seasons this squid stew, giving the red broth a sweet, rounded heat, and one whole squid goes in as rings and tentacles. Scoring the inside of the body makes the rings curl as they cook and pulls the sauce in between the layers. The squid joins only after the zucchini and tofu have had about five minutes, and two or three minutes is all it takes.
Thick-cut onion and green onion line the pot so the squid sits above the bottom while a gochujang and chili-flake sauce steams it from the top. Gochujang gives a thick heat that clings to each piece, and the flakes add a sharper spiciness over it. Compared with stir-fried squid, there is no oil, and the moisture the vegetables release loosens the sauce enough to spoon over rice. Because squid toughens quickly, the whole cook stays around ten minutes, ending when the flesh turns opaque and the edges curl slightly. Cutting the vegetables thick and spreading the squid out without overlapping pieces is what lets both finish properly in that short window.
Shrimp and squid take over from meat, bringing two textures to the glass noodles: a springy snap from the shrimp and a firmer chew from the squid. Scoring the squid makes it curl in the heat and leaves a pattern on the surface. Patted dry before they meet a very hot pan, the shrimp and squid sear instead of boiling in their own liquid. The moment the shrimp turn pink and the squid curls, they come out of the pan, rejoining the noodles only at the end. Glass noodles soaked thoroughly before boiling take up the seasoning evenly and turn glossy. Korean holiday tables sometimes swap this in for beef japchae.
Shrimp, squid and mussel meat hit the hot pan first, followed by carrot, egg and cold rice in turn. Soy sauce and oyster sauce are measured in teaspoons, enough to season without covering the seafood. Sesame oil goes in only after the heat is off, for its aroma.
Once the pan is hot, the heat stays high until the end. Pork goes in first, then shrimp and squid, then the vegetables, roughly a minute apart, with no gap for chopping or drying anything, which is why everything is prepped and lined up beside the stove. There is no starch at the finish: oyster sauce and water boil for 2 minutes and leave only a thin coat.
Sliced into rounds after grilling, each piece of this stuffed squid shows rings in cross section: chewy squid outside, sticky glutinous rice, then soft tofu. Soaked rice swells as it cooks, so the tubes are filled only 70 to 80 percent. Packed full, they split on the grill.
The radish simmers alone for more than 8 minutes to sweeten the broth, and the squid goes in afterwards for only 4 to 5. The rings are right when they turn opaque and begin to curl; any longer and they toughen fast. No chili flakes go in.
Radish and squid cook at very different speeds, so the radish half-moons simmer in soy broth until nearly tender before the squid rings go in for a brief final braise. Chili flakes and gochujang give a clean, peppery heat, while the radish softens it with its own sweetness. What's left in the pan is a small amount of thick, spicy sauce that tastes of both squid and radish, good spooned over rice.
Manila clams opening in the pot release a briny liquor that does most of the seasoning work in this knife-cut noodle soup. Kelp pulled out before the water boils leaves a clean mineral base, and the wide wheat noodles shed a little starch as they cook, giving the broth a soft natural body. Shrimp and squid go in only briefly so they stay tender, and zucchini and scallion add a fresh, mildly sweet finish.
As soon as the clams start giving up their liquid, the oyster sauce and soy go in, and thirty seconds later the cornstarch slurry. Cook it any longer and the squid toughens while the shrimp dry out. Thickened like this, the sauce sinks slowly into the rice instead of running straight to the bottom.
Shrimp, squid, bamboo shoots, shiitake and bok choy are bound in a clear, glossy sauce made with chicken stock, oyster sauce and starch. The seafood's first sear stops as soon as the surface turns opaque, because it keeps cooking once the stock is poured in.
Squid and pork belly share one gochujang marinade, but only the pork goes into the pan at first. After five or six minutes it has given up its fat and the sauce has turned glossy; the squid follows and cooks in three or four, soaking up pork-enriched sauce as it goes.
Squid bodies are packed with a filling of glass noodles, ground pork and the chopped tentacles, steamed, then left to cool a little before being cut into thick rounds. Each slice shows a white ring of squid around a dense mosaic of noodles, chives and carrot.
Two noodles share the wok in this Singapore dish: springy yellow wheat noodles and softer rice noodles. A splash of prawn stock goes in near the end and is cooked down until the noodles have drunk most of it, so the seafood flavor ends up inside the strands rather than in a pool on the plate. Squid and shrimp are seared briefly and set aside first so they do not overcook while the noodles finish.
Daegu's junghwa bibimbap, a Chinese-Korean rice bowl, piles pork, squid, shrimp, and cabbage, stir-fried over high heat until no loose liquid is left, onto rice and tops it with a runny-yolked fried egg. Once the burner is on high there is no time to stop, and the chili powder, oyster sauce, soy sauce, and garlic are measured out beforehand.
Instead of ladling sauce over a bowl of noodles, platter jjajang tosses the cooked noodles right into the pan with the black bean sauce and serves everything on one large plate to share. Squid and shrimp join the pork and cook only until the squid turns opaque and the shrimp curl pink.
A shallow crosshatch on the inside of the squid makes each piece curl into a thick, bouncy roll the moment it hits the heat, and the opened cuts give the gochujang sauce more surface to grab. Onion and cabbage go into the pan first to cook off their water so the sauce stays glossy.
Scallion-infused oil, a hot wok and a quick toss of chili flakes give this red seafood soup its smoky, spicy base. The flakes stay in the oil only briefly, since even a little scorching leaves the whole pot bitter. Chicken stock carries the broth while squid and mussels add their own savoriness, and soy sauce ties the seasoning together and darkens the soup to a reddish brown. Wilted cabbage and onion soften the heat with sweetness. Seafood toughens with long boiling, so once the broth comes up to a boil it is ladled straight over chewy wheat noodles cooked in a separate pot.
The rice takes seafood stock a ladle at a time, and saffron soaked in a couple of spoonfuls of that stock goes in partway through to turn it yellow. Shrimp and squid wait until the rice is nearly done and come off the heat before they curl up tight.