I follow Maangchi and these recipes are based on hers. I have found her the easiest to follow, and with the best results. These are my favorite Korean dishes of all time, and ones that I cook at home just for myself. I have made some changes to suit my tastes, but all credit is due to her for the recipes.
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Korean Food
Although geographically close to China and Japan, Korean food is uniquely their own (1), due in part their isolating geography, but also climate, and strong traditions. These days Korean food includes deep fat fried chicken, pizza, instant and very hot Ramen noodles, to unique incorporation of Western foods. But there is a deep, traditional food history that came from the need to preserve food, and utilization of in-season foods that surrounded them.
My love of Korean food comes from the sense of ”comfort food” I get when presented with any one of the dishes I write about here. I love the color and spice forwardness of their dishes, and their willingness to combine ingredients I do not usually think of using together. The all-in-one-pot stew with lots of little options (banchan) is also something to enjoy. I just find this a great way to eat and I have never left a table unsatisfied or still hungry.
- SpruceEats: The most common spice and sauce ingredients used in Korean cuisine are: Sesame oil. Chili pepper paste (kochujang) Chili pepper flakes (kochukaru) Soybean paste (daenjang)
The food is often some of the most healthiest as well, due to the simple cooking techniques, less reliance on fried, baked, or processed foods. Their cooking techniques tend to be: fermenting, boiling, blanching, seasoning, or pickling. They also grill meats, and these days that includes the non-traditional beef.
- Ling-App: South Korean cuisine is explosively flavorful, blending fermented, preserved, and pickled flavors with scorching bursts of chili, creative vegetable preparations, and, of course, the grilled flavors that are distinctive from Korean cuisine.
Also, if you paid careful attention, there is generally no desert to end a traditional meal. I tend to always have a cup of tea at the end, to sooth my mouth and aid digestion. But never have I thought of desert after a Korean meal. (That is not to imply Korean food does not have sweet things, cakes, cookies, etc.)
But also, I tend to have certain eating patterns and quirks, that I have picked up over my lifetime of traveling and living around the world. These eating-related habits of mine fit well within the traditional Korean cuisine.
- I like having little bits of food to taste, which makes each meal unique and fits my mood at the time. Banchan is a perfect approach to my way of eating.
- I love rice, which is served with each Korean meal.
- As everyone knows, I am also very fond of soups and stews, another staple of Korean meals. Additionally, I like all-in-one-dish casseroles and meals, which the food below is all about.
- Another quirk I have is to not drink while eating, preferring instead to utilize a soup or broth to satisfy any drinking need. I prefer ending or starting with a drink, but focus on the food when mealtime begins. This fits the traditional Korean meal, which tended to do the same.
- Finally, I like fermented foods, hot and sweet (but not too hot), salty and sweet, sweet and sour. All of which are abundant in Korean meals.
The one area I do differ, is that I cannot take food too hot. At a certain point I do not find pepper-hot pleasant enough to consume and have walked away from a dish just too plain hot for me to consume. Korean food can get hot, not as hot as Indian-hot, but enough that I will not eat.
But let’s get specific now, below are some of my personal favorites for Korean meals.
Tteokbokki
The first printed tteokbokki recipe appeared in Siuijeonseo, a Korean cook book that appeared in the late 1900s; the author is unkown, but assumed to be a lady of the yangban class in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province.
However, tteokbokki might have existed before then in some form as the ingredients rice cakes and fish cakes have been known a long time. What is sure, is that modern tteokbokki was first made by the restaurant Mabokrim, who has sold tteokbokki with gochujang since 1953.
While high in potassium, this dish is not known for its healthiness for it is also high in carbs and fat. What it is however, is Korean comfort food and a “dump dish” that can have untold variations.
Jeukseok-tteokbokki
Tteokbokki sauce is made up of gochjang, gochugaru, soy sauce, sugar, and garlic; this is a large dish of yum, that is both a bit sweet, garlicky and spicy. In the sauce are small, log-shaped rice cakes and flat, rectangle-shaped fish cakes. In some variations, there will also be noodles, scallions, eggs, and other ingredients.
In restaurants, a large pot is delivered to the table containing all these foods and sauce, placed on a stove and it starts bubbling away. No double dipping from main pot! The process is dip in main pot with ladle and dump into your bowl. Switch utensil and eat from your bowl only.
For me at home I make a batch and find I often eat a rather large portion of this stew myself. It it is so tasty, I find it hard to stop.
For leftovers, since the leftover noddles will soak up any remaining sauce, I add some more water and a bit of red kimchi sauce to add in and heat the dish on the stove. I will often cook another egg, and add some ingredients I may need, but then finish the dish off.
- Prepare
- Soak 1oz dangmyeon (seet potato starch noodles) per person and soak before use per package instruction
- Ingredients layered in large cooking pan or wok
- Sliced green cabbage, I cut into bite size so I make less of a mess
- 1 sliced white onion, slice halves so the onions are moon shaped and not completely round
- 2-3 diagonally cut scallions in bite sizes
- 1 also diagonally sliced carrots
- Garaetteok (tube-shaped rice cake) fresh rice cakes cut in half
- Add the soaked dangmyeon noodles
- OPTION: Any chopped sausages, on average one per person
- OPTION: Fried dumplings, 1-2 per person
- OPTION: Hard boiled eggs, one per person
- OPTION: ~1 fish cake per person, cut into bite-sized chunks
- OPTION: Can add slices of provolone cheese if you want
- OPTION: Add the packaged Yamyeon noodles to the bubbling dish
- Sauce
- 2 smashed + minced garlic
- The powder packets from Korean Ramyeon instant noodles
- ¼C gochu-garu (Korean hot pepper flakes)
- ¼C gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)
- 1T chunjang (black bean paste)
- 1-2T sugar
- Stew broth
- 5 cup water
- Serve with raw pickled diakon, been sprout salad, cold seaweed salad
Directions: Layer the veggies into a large pot or wok, then top them with all the concentrated sauce, add the water and mix so the sauce infiltrates the water to make a great stew sauce. Cook over medium heat so that it simmers.
Then add the rice cakes, noodles, and all the optional food. (Note that while I write OPTIONAL, for authenticity these foods should be added.) After cooking the rice cake will the soft, the noodles ready, and the cheese melted.
Kimchi-jjigae
Another stew meant to be center at the family table, with everyone ladling portions into their own bowls for eating.
- Ingredients
- 1# chopped kimchi
- ¼C kimchi brine
- ½# pork shoulder or belly
- 3 scallions
- 1 medium sliced onion
- 1t kosher salt
- 1-2T sugar
- 2t gochugaru
- 1T gochujang
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- Sauce
- 2 cups of anchovy stock (or chicken or beef broth)
- Serve with cooked white rice
Directions: Layer the ingredients in a large pot, then add 2C broth on top and mix the ingredients. Cover and let simmer for ~10min, then layer the sliced tofu on top, cover and cook for another 10min. Finally mix the broth as best as possible and add anything else for toppings, cover and cook for final ~10 minutes and serve with rice.
Kimchi-bokkeumbap
I love eating rice, even plain or with a little sprinkling of dried Bonio flakes; but this dish is so tasty it is hard for me to resist. Here is how I make it at home for myself (my son likes this do, but spouse does not.)
- 1-2T vegetable oil in skillet
- 1-2C chopped aged kimchi (depends upon my mood + need for spiceness)
- 3C cooked white rice, should be room temperature and need not be a day old, fresh cooked rice will do so long as it is cool
- ¼C kimchi juice straight from the container
- ¼C water
- 2-3T gochujang
- 1T toasted sesame oil
- 1 chopped scallion, both white and green parts
- 1-2T roasted sesame seeds
- OPTIONAL: 1 sheet cut seaweed
- OPTIONAL: fried egg
Directions: Put oil in skillet or wok, heat it up and add the kimchi. After a minute or two, add rice, kimchi juice, water, and gochujang. Cook up to 7-10 minutes, all the while mixing so the ingredients are fully integrated. Then sprinkle on the sesame oil and remove from the heat. (Remember I do not cook with sesame oil, it is a flavoring oil and does not tolerate heat well.) Mix well.
Then add the scallion and sesame seeds. Optional, is to cut up a sheet of seaweed and use that as a topping as well. It is now ready to eat. If I am eating this for breakfast I like to add an over-easy egg (or 2) on top.
Bibimbap
I have been informed that this dish was specifically created as a ”dump dish”, or said a nicer way, as a way to use up rice, and any leftovers you have in the fridge or pantry. The center of the bowl starts with rice, and then there are little portions of things all over the top. It can have veggies, pickles, meat, fish, seaweed, and all sorts of toppings. For me this is one of my favorite mixes.
- 1C white rice
- 1 hard boiled egg
- 1C red kimchi
- Sukjunamul a mungbean sprout dish
- This dish is made with the sprouts, plus kosher salt, sliced garlic, scallion, cucumber, sesame seeds and oil
- Sliced carrots slightly salted
- Slice using a vegetable peeler
- Place in a bowl and lightly salt, mix and then place in food bowl
- Steamed spinach and garlic
- I clean baby spinach, mince one garlic, and chop one shallot
- Put some oil in a skillet that has a lid and let it get hot
- Add the scallion and garlic and quickly give it a stir
- Then add the spinach mixing all the while until wilted
- Then I add ~1/4 cup water to the hot skillet and place a lid on it
- This steams the food, turn off the heat and squeeze the water from the cooked greens and place in the bowl
What is so fun is seeing the colorful bowl arrive at the table, then mixing all the food up before eating. Usually there is meat in this bowl, but I prefer a vegetarian version and go with that.
Gimbap
Basically, I view this as sushi but without raw fish – the tuna gimbap is made from canned tuna for instance. But it is more than that, Japanese use seasoned vinegar with their rice, Koreans use sesame oil. Japanese primarily make raw fish-based food, Koreans will use almost anything in their version. Japanese serve their sushi with sides of soy sauce and wasabi, while Koreans will serve kimchi, and lots of little, additional platters of food.
Gimbap features the dried seaweed (gim) sheets covering rice (bap) with a touch of sesame oil, and in the center will be veggies, cooked meat, or even cheese or eggs.
Ramyun
Ramyun is is the Korean version of instant Ramen soup. People who know me also know that I like ramen instant soups, with adding my own stuff to the soup to make it tasty and healthier of course. For Ramyun, minimally I will add an egg and chopped scallions. But often I will also add leftovers here like broccoli, cabbage, leeks and so on.
Instant soup is not really the best nourishment to take in, no matter what I add to it so I do not eat it often. But do find I may have a bowl of instant soup a couple times a month.
—Patty
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