Carnival of Fire: cooking popular Korean national dishes

National Korean cuisine is a serious test even for strong-minded gourmets. It’s not about the outlandish exotic delicacies that confuse many Europeans. Koreans are crazy about spicy food and are not used to saving on burning condiments. What comes out of this, we suggest you find out right now.

Sparks in cabbage

Kimchi snack is the hallmark of Korean national cuisine. Traditionally, it is prepared from radishes or cucumbers. But tourists are closer to the cabbage version. Cut into 4 parts a head of Peking cabbage, pour the leaves with salt and pour water for 4 hours. Using a blender, we make a paste of 2 heads of garlic, an onion and a piece of ginger root. Dilute in 500 ml of water 60 g of rice flour, 2 tbsp. l. sugar, cook until thickened. Cut the carrots and 6-8 stalks of green onions into strips.

Combine the vegetables, garlic dressing and rice “jelly”, season with red pepper flakes and fish sauce to taste. The right spices can be found in the Asian departments of supermarkets.  We rub each cabbage leaf with the dressing. Do this only with rubber gloves! It remains to put the cabbage in a plastic container and keep it in the refrigerator for exactly a day. Koreans eat kimchi non-stop, just adding it to different dishes.

You’ll be full of grass

Fern salad will be a discovery for lovers of interesting snacks. Koreans use the shoots of a special type of bracken for food. They are eaten with an appetite in fresh form, fried in batter, dried and marinated.

Chop slices of 150 g of fresh asparagus, and 3 stalks of leek-circles. Wash 300 g of canned fern and cut into strips. Combine all the ingredients and add salt to taste.

Heat 3 tablespoons of sesame oil in a frying pan, add 25 ml of rice vinegar, a pinch of cumin, coriander and black pepper. Pour the dressing over the salad and leave it in the refrigerator overnight. If you want it to be more satisfying, add slices of fried pork or chicken fillet.

Everything was mixed up in the plate

Colorful dish pibimpal, in fact, a set meal in one plate. After all, it includes a variety of vegetables, boiled rice, pieces of meat and scrambled eggs.

Soak 7-8 shiitake mushrooms in water for half an hour, dry them and cut them into strips. Fry them in oil with 2 cloves of garlic and remove from the pan. Spread here 100 g of carrots in Korean with 1 tsp. grated ginger, browned until golden brown. Cut the zucchini, cucumber and sweet pepper into long strips, passeruem on high heat until the zucchini is ready. Season the vegetables with soy paste kochhujan with 1 tbsp sugar.

In addition, we need to cook 200 g of long-grain rice and fry 400 g of veal strips until golden brown. At the bottom of the ceramic mold, pour out the rice, lay out the vegetables and meat in segments in a circle, carefully break the egg and put it in the oven at 200°C so that it is baked. Sprinkle the dish with sesame seeds — a hearty Korean dinner is ready!

Stew with a royal flourish

Chapche, which means “royal stew” — is a national dish of Korean cuisine, which is always put on the festive table. In the Middle Ages, it was included in the menu of Korean court cuisine, and today every hostess in the country must be able to cook it.

Put in a deep bowl 500 g of beef strips, salt and pepper, add 2 tbsp soy sauce, 3-4 crushed garlic cloves and 2-3 shiitake mushrooms straws. Do not forget to soak the mushrooms in water in advance. While the meat is marinated, we chop the carrot, 2 sweet peppers, 200 g of mushrooms with a thin long straw. Fry the vegetables in oil until softened.

Cook according to the instructions 150 g of “glass” noodles, fill it with 1 tsp soy sauce, 2 tsp sesame oil and 1 tsp sugar. Now it’s time to fry the beef in the marinade. We spread all the ingredients on a plate with a slide and sprinkle with chopped green onions. Serve this stew in a warm form.

Under the sign of the fiery cow

Koreans love beef with all their heart and assign it the main roles in many recipes of national Korean dishes. Pulkogi, or “fire meat”, is particularly popular. In restaurants, it is served in a special roaster, and if desired, the visitor can even participate in the preparation.

The highlight of the recipe is the signature marinade. Combine 30 ml of soy sauce and plum juice in a bowl, 1 tbsp of balsamic, rice vinegar, sweet chili sauce and honey, 2 crushed garlic cloves and 2 tsp of grated ginger root. For a more intense flavor, you can add 1 tbsp. sesame seeds.

Half a kilogram of beef tenderloin is cut into strips and kept in the marinade for a couple of hours. Ideally, you should fry the meat in a grill pan without oil — so you will get as close to the original as possible. Add carrot strips and green onions to the meat. And to create the right flavor, serve pulkogi with brown rice or rice noodles.

Hand-built soup

The taste for hot seasonings in the national cuisine of South Korea is also felt in soups. For example, a mixture of peppers and spicy bean paste is put in the jukkejan.

Pour 3 liters of water 500 g of beef tenderloin, onion and 2-3 cloves of garlic. Cook for an hour, often removing the foam, remove the meat and filter the broth. Coarsely cut a bunch of salted fern and 5-6 stalks of green onions. Add 50 g of sprouted beans, 5-6 crushed garlic cloves, 2 tbsp red pepper, 2 tbsp sesame oil. We put this dressing in boiling broth and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes.

Now coarsely chop the carrots and onions, together with the whole bell pepper, bake in the oven at 180°C until softened. Peel the pepper and cut it into strips. Cut the beef into strips. The jukkejan is served as follows. The bowl is filled with broth, and two bowls are placed next to it-with meat and vegetables. Each guest “collects” his own soup.

Sea parade in a plate

The popular sundubu chige dish resembles a cross between a thick stew and a stew. It is based on abalone, oysters and mussels, which are adored by Koreans. Tofu cheese gives a special taste to the dish — it absorbs aromas and tastes like a sponge.

Mix 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of red pepper, a handful of chopped green onions, 2-3 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. We cut 2 squid carcasses into strips and rub the marinade together with 200 g of peeled shrimp. You can choose seafood at your own discretion.

Chop 500 g of tofu into cubes, pour a liter of water and cook over high heat for 5 minutes. Cut the red and green hot pepper into rings, pour it into a saucepan. After 5 minutes, we introduce seafood with marinade, simmer on low heat for a couple of minutes. To make the dish thicker and the taste richer, the Koreans put pieces of meat and serve rice.

Easy-to-lift pies

Pyanse pies are one of the most popular creations of Korean fast food. Traditionally, the filling for them is made from cabbage and minced meat, and is steamed.

Knead the dough from 500 g of flour, 300 ml of water, 1 tsp of dry yeast and a pinch of salt. We leave it warm until it doubles in size. Shred 300 g of white cabbage, squeeze with your hands, mix with 3 tbsp. l. soy sauce and 2 cloves of crushed garlic. While the cabbage is marinated, fry 300 g of ground beef with onions, season with a mixture of peppers to taste. Pour the cabbage here and mix.

From the dough, we make tortillas the size of a palm, spread the filling and tightly pinch the edges. Ideally, cook pyanse in a steamer or mantovark on cabbage leaves for about 45 minutes. Perfectly complement their pickled vegetables in Korean.

A mystery covered in rice

Koreans eat rice in any form, even for dessert. Ttok rice cakes are also a success among tourists. Knead a plastic dough of 125 g of rice flour, 125 ml of water, 700 g of sugar and a pinch of salt. We warm it up in the microwave at full power for a couple of minutes and knead it to a smooth consistency. In advance, we boil 150 g of red beans, pour 100 g of powdered sugar and 3 tbsp. l. corn starch, puree with a blender. From the dough we make small round tortillas, spread the bean filling in the form of balls, we make koloboks and send them to freeze in the refrigerator. Often these cakes are made colorful, tinting the dough. Do not tell the sweetmeats what the unusual delicacy is made of — let them try to solve this riddle themselves.

The gloomy, dank autumn is a great opportunity to get acquainted with the cuisine of Korea. Bright, burning, satisfying combinations warm and energize the best. The website “Healthy Food Near Me” contains a whole collection of recipes of Korean national dishes with photos. Here you will definitely find something that will appeal to the whole family.

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