240 recipes. Page 2 of 10
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Chwinamul (aster greens, a Korean wild herb) is dressed with soup soy sauce, sesame oil and garlic before it goes on top of the rice, so the rice comes out seasoned and needs no sauce on the side. Lift the lid and the first thing you notice is the herb's slightly bitter scent.
The sheet fish cakes (eomuk) start with 20 seconds in boiling water to rinse off their surface oil. Skip it and a stale, oily taste lingers after the stir-fry is done. Once the fish cake joins the onion and carrot, it is all over in about three minutes.
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.
Drumettes have plenty of collagen around the bone, and fully cooked, the layer under the skin turns pleasantly sticky. The soy and honey glaze sets dark brown only in the last few minutes, after the oven is turned up, and it can tip into burnt fast, so stay by the oven.
This is just the broth for mulhoe, Korean raw fish in an icy, spicy soup, made on its own ahead of time. Six tablespoons of vinegar and some plum syrup go into the gochujang base, and the 100ml of soda is stirred in last and slowly so the fizz survives. It can rest in the fridge for a day, then move to the freezer an hour or two before serving to turn slushy.
Bugeo is pollack dried through the Gangwon mountain winter, freezing and thawing over and over, which leaves the flesh loose and spongy. Soy and gochujang seasoning works its way into those gaps, and the flavor deepens over the few days it keeps in the fridge. Soaking should stop at 20 minutes, or the flesh goes mushy.
The soy and vinegar brine goes into the jar only after it has cooled completely, because wild chives lose their sharp, garlicky bite quickly when heated. After one day in the fridge the pickle is ready to eat, and by the third day the brine has reached the small bulbs and the flavor turns rounder and deeper. Slices of hot green chili and a scattering of sesame give it an edge, and it is at its best next to grilled meat in spring, when dallae is in season.
Dongchimi, a mild radish water kimchi, gives this Gangwon-style buckwheat noodle bowl its broth, chilled in the freezer until almost slushy so the clean, lactic tang comes through at its sharpest. There is almost no fat in the bowl, making it a natural follow-up to rich pork dishes like samgyeopsal or boiled suyuk.
Napa cabbage seared hard on its cut sides turns smoky-sweet on the surface while the core stays crisp. Gamtae, a fine, hair-like Korean seaweed sold in dried sheets, is crumbled over the warm wedges for a delicate ocean aroma, and the salad is best eaten while the cabbage is still warm and the seaweed still crackles.
The frying is over in seconds. Almost all the time goes into drying the paste-coated seaweed until it is stiff right to the edges. Because glutinous rice paste is spread on, the sheet folded, and the top coated again, it puffs up far thicker than a single sheet in the hot oil, with sesame seeds set into the crisp shell.
The deodeok browns in butter, but half the butter is held back and melted into the soy and rice syrup sauce just before the heat goes off. The root is peeled first, then pounded and torn along its fibers.
Young bok choy leaves spend just over a minute on high heat, enough to char the tips lightly. The garlic goes in first over low heat to scent the oil, and the flame jumps up the moment the greens hit the pan.
Crushed instant noodles, fried crisp and tossed in a sticky gochujang, ketchup, and corn syrup glaze, taste like the snack sold outside Korean stationery shops near schools in the 1980s and 1990s. If deep-frying is a hassle, 5 minutes in a 180-degree air fryer does the job. Keep the seasoning packet aside and add a little if the glaze tastes flat.
Drumsticks marinated in soy sauce, gochujang and honey roast in the oven. With bone running through a thick piece of meat, clear juices and skin color are not trusted as signs of doneness; a thermometer goes into the thickest part, away from the bone, and the center has to hold at 75°C or above for at least a minute.
Glossy braised kelp should have a springy, almost jelly-like bite that snaps cleanly. That spring is decided at the soaking stage: take the kelp out when it bends easily rather than by the clock, because kelp left too long in the water goes soft.
Wild chive stems should only just bend after salting, which takes eight minutes and leaves their green, oniony scent intact. The roots are left long because the root end carries the aroma this kimchi depends on.
Crumbled gamtae, a fine seaweed closer to green laver than to roasted gim sheets, releases a sharper, rawer ocean aroma the moment it lands on the noodles. A minimal dressing of toasted sesame oil and soy sauce takes a thin, even coat on well-drained, cold-rinsed somyeon, carrying the seaweed rather than competing with it.
Thick slices of dotori-muk (a mild, faintly bitter acorn jelly) are folded into lettuce, perilla leaves and cucumber dressed with soy sauce and vinegar. Chilled before slicing, the jelly has a firmer bounce.
Amaranth greens, their tough stem ends snapped off one by one with the fingers, are blanched for under a minute, squeezed hard and dressed with doenjang, soup soy sauce and perilla oil.
Stir-fried deodeok root sits beside raw cucumber, carrot, and lettuce, so each bite mixes a cooked, gochujang-coated root with cool, crisp vegetables. Most of the sauce goes into the pan with the deodeok; the rest is added when the bowl is mixed.
Chamnamul, a Korean mountain green, smells a little like parsley or celery leaves, only cleaner and stronger. Stir-fried with soy-marinated beef, its fresh scent sits clearly on top of the heavier meat.
Rice cakes and cocktail sausages take turns on the skewer, and the glaze has more ketchup than gochujang, so it tastes sweet and tangy more than hot. The glaze goes on only when the skewers are nearly cooked, with sesame seeds scattered over at the end.
The texture comes down to pounding the peeled deodeok root flat with a mallet or rolling pin. Once the fibers loosen, the gochujang paste seeps into the gaps, and the grilled root chews pleasantly instead of turning stringy. Honey in the paste scorches quickly, and medium heat with a close eye on the color keeps it from burning.
Deodeok, a mountain root with a bitter, faintly resinous aroma, mellows as the soy and rice syrup glaze soaks in, though the inside stays firm and chewy. The roots are lightly pounded and then torn by hand, and those rough surfaces take on a lacquered coat of sauce.