My First-Ever Korean Table

I have long enjoyed Korean cuisine, but have never attempted to make it myself. Like Indian cuisine, it always seemed rather daunting, even though the ingredients are fairly common (unlike Indian spices). Recently, I decided to make a full-Korean meal for members of my family, including banchan and dessert. I was somewhat trepidatious, as I generally like to test recipes on myself before inflicting them on others. :-)

It was a long, arduous undertaking, but I did it, and most everything was well received. I waffled between making little dishes of banchan myself or buying it, but in the end the things I wanted were simple enough, and only ended up buying the kimchi (I'm not sure I'll ever come to a point where I'll feel I need to make THAT myself).

One learning that came from this experience is that it's well worth taking the time to make the main courses, but maybe not so much the banchan unless I'm feeding a lot of people over the course of several days. The banchan dishes I chose, while very simple to prepare, are nevertheless time consuming, especially when preparing a bunch of other dishes, as I did.

Here, then, are the various dishes I made, along with a few cooking notes and how each was received.

Kimchi, the only dish not made from scratch. It was okay.  I have yet to find a brand of store-bought kimchi that I really like. The kind served at Korean restaurants tend to be much better than what I can find at the grocery store (even H-Mart, a Korean grocery store).

Sigeumchi Namul, or seasoned spinach, made by dropping the spinach into hot water for 1 minute, then seasoning with sesame seeds, sesame oil, and salt. Very good and simple, but quite a bit of work due to all the washing that's required.

Kong Namul, or seasoned bean sprouts, made by steaming the sprouts (in this case, mung bean sprouts, though traditionally it is made with soy bean sprouts) for a few minutes, then seasoning with scallions, sesame seeds, sesame oil, and salt. Very good and simple, but a bit time consuming.

Oi Muchim, or spicy cucumber salad. Small Persian or Kirby cucumbers are sliced, then mixed with scallions, sesame oil, cider vinegar, and gochujang. This was only okay, even though it's usually one of my favorite banchan. The problem was that the gochujang I used was WAY too spicy, so that I wasn't able to put much of it in. That made the cucumbers under-seasoned.

Sangchu Kutjuri, or mixed simple salad, which I've found to be ubiquitous during Korean barbecue meals. However, I'm not sure how traditional it actually is, as it was actually difficult to find a Korean cookbook that had a recipe for it. It's red-leaf lettuce, hand shredded, with thinly sliced scallions and a simple dressing that's sweet, savory, and sour all at once. It's wonderful. My version was pretty good, but not nearly as good as I've had at restaurants. More experimentation is a must!

Jap Chae, or glass noodles with beef and vegetables. This went down like gangbusters. Everyone loved it. It was delicious, and very authentic tasting. The glass noodles are made from sweet potato starch, and turn translucent when stir fried. The noodles are mixed with seasoned beef, matchstick carrots, onion, shitake mushrooms, and spinach (which I added a bit late, so it's kind of clumpy in the dish). Really wonderful, well worth the time it took to make.

Bulgogi, or the well-known sweet and savory "barbecued" beef that's thinly sliced. This was an incredibly simple and delicious dish -- all that's needed is for the beef to mature in the marinade. Also a hit with everyone.

Saenggang Jelly, or ginger jelly. Most decidedly NOT a hit with everyone. First you have to really, REALLY enjoy the taste of ginger. Then you have to enjoy the heat in your mouth after a few mouthfuls of this super strong dessert. It creeps up on you, and just isn't very pleasant. Even those among us who enjoy ginger a lot couldn't handle eating all of it. Granted, we didn't drizzle it with dark corn syrup as the recipe indicated (because we didn't have any), so I don't know if that would have made a big difference. Honestly though, I can't remember EVER having a Korean dessert in a restaurant setting, and recipes for them in cookbooks seem very sparse; maybe dessert just isn't a forte of the cuisine.

I also made something else that I neglected to take a picture of, that everyone absolutely loved: Kom Tang, or beef bone soup. I actually don't even know how Korean it was, since I made a lot of adjustments, especially toward the end when I was running out of time. The recipe calls for beef knuckles, but I couldn't find it at either H-Mart nor 99 Ranch, so I ended up using beef neck bones instead. That right there might make it un-Korean, I don't know. I was also supposed to cut the meat and cartilage from the bones and drop the former but not the latter back into the soup; I skipped this step entirely. We're used to eating meat from bones in soup, after all. I also did not remove the carrot and onion, again due to time contraint. I used daikon, which I had on hand, which I'm not sure if that can be considered "Korean radish" (the recipe does not get more specific than that). Finally, I neglected to add all of the ingredients that I was supposed to at the end, because I just plain forgot, lol. Yet, as I said, everyone LOVED the soup!

I wanted to make "purple rice," which seems to be pretty standard at Korean restaurants, but it turns out that you have to soak black rice (a bit of black rice mixed with white rice is what turns the rice violet in color) for hours and hours before it softens enough to be cooked with white rice, which I didn't realize. So we just had regular sticky white rice.

All in all, a big success, and a few of these dishes will likely find themselves in my permanent repertoire!

Jap Chae (recipe adapted from The Korean Table)

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp Sweet Soy Base Sauce (recipe follows)
• 1 tbsp minced green onion
• 1 tsp dark sesame oil
• 1/4 lb sirloin tips or ribeye steak, cut into matchstick strips
• 5 oz dried Korean vermicelli noodles
• 1/2 lb spinach
• 2 tbsp canola or other neutral oil
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 carrot, peeled and cut into matchstick strips
• 8 dried shitake mushrooms, reconstituted in water and cut into matchstick strips
• 1 tbsp dark sesame oil
• 5 tbsp Sweet Soy Base Sauce
• 1 tbsp roasted sesame seeds
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. In a small bowl, add the beef and the first 3 ingredients to make the marinade. Toss the beef strips until thoroughly coated. Let the beef marinate while preparing the other ingredients.
2. Place the dried noodles in a large heatproof mixing bowl. Pour about 4 cups of boiling water over the noodles and let soften, about 8 minutes. Drain the noodles. If they get sticky just give them a quick rinse with warm water.
3. Fill a medium saucepan halfway with water and bring to a boil. Add the spinach and cook for 1 minute. Drain and set aside.
4. In a large skillet, add 1 tbsp of canola oil and place over medium heat. Stir-fry the onion, carrot, and mushrooms separately, seasoning each with a pinch of salt. Add additional oil to the skillet as needed. Place each vegetable, when done, into a large serving bowl.
5. In the same skillet, add the beef and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add to the serving bowl.
6. To the skillet, add the 1 tbsp of sesame oil and the 5 tablespoons of Sweet Soy Base Sauce. Bring to a boil. Add the softened cellophane noodles and mix well. The noodles will become transparent over the heat.
7. Add the noodles to the serving bowl along with the cooked vegetables and beef. Toss until the ingredients are evenly distributed. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed.

Sweet Soy Base Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup water
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 6 thin slices of fresh ginger, peeled
• 1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed
• 1 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup red or white wine

Method

1. Combine water, garlic, and peppercorns in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Add the soy sauce, brown sugar, and wine. Turn the heat to high and boil for 2 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat and let it cool to room temperature.
4. Strain the sauce through a sieve into a large mixing bowl. Discard the solids.

Bulgogi (recipe adapted from The Korean Kitchen)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs boneless rib steak, cut into very thin slices 5-6 inches long by 2 inches wide
• 4 tsp sugar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed or chopped fine
• 3 scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp Korean sesame oil

Method

1. Mix the beef and sugar together. Let it rest for 2 minutes, then add the soy sauce, garlic, scallions, pepper, and sesame oil. Toss the mixture well to integrate all the flavors, and let it stand at room temperature for a minimum of 1 hour (or overnight in the refrigerator) to allow the meat to mature.
2. Preheat a large, heavy skillet over moderate heat for 2 minutes. Add the beef slices, along with any remaining marinade, to the skillet. Stir fry, without oil, for 2-3 minutes, until done.

Kom Tang (original recipe; my notes on what I changed, after)

Ingredients

• 8 cups water
• 3-5 beef knuckles with meat and cartilage attached, well rinsed
• 1 carrot, halved lengthwise
• 1 medium-size onion, halved
• 1 Korean radish, peeled and cut into a 4-inch piece
• 1 tsp salt, or to taste
• 5 scallions, sliced thin
• 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
• 1 tsp hot chili powder
• 1 tsp chopped fresh ginger

Method

1. Bring the water, bones, carrot, onion, and radish to a boil over high heat for 20 minutes. Skim off and discard the foam. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for at least 2 hours, which should be sufficient to tenderize the ingredients.
2. Remove the bones from the broth; cut off the meat and cartilage and cut into 1/2-inch cubes. Discard the carrot and onion.
3. Slice the radish into thin 1-inch squares. Add to the hot broth with the meat pieces, salt, scallions, sesame seeds, hot chili powder, and ginger. Mix briskly and serve immediately.

My Changes

1. I used beef neck bones.
2. I used Daikon radish, and sliced it into 1-inch pieces from the outset.
3. I skimmed the foam at the beginning and at the end.
4. I did not remove the meat/cartilage from the bone and instead served with the bones intact.
5. I did not remove the carrot or onion.
6. I did not add the ingredients from the scallions onward, at the end.
7. I ended up simmering the soup for 4-5 hours, as I was preparing the rest of the meal.

Noodle Soup

After making dinner last night, I had a large pot of leftover chicken broth. While there are plenty of recipes that use chicken broth, I was in the mood to have it straight up -- after all, there are few things better in life than a hot bowl of pure chicken essence.

While I could have easily enjoyed the soup plain, with no enhancement, I was also realistic. While delicious, a bowl of broth will only fill me for so long. So I turned to a staple in Chinese households: noodle soup.



There are thousands variations to this hot, filling, comforting meal, and this is just my take on it this particular day. But there are two basics that provide the foundation and never change: soup and noodles. What else you put in can and probably will change, depending on what you have on hand. And that's why I love making noodle soup so much: as long as you have a base for soup (even water + soy sauce will do, if you're really pressed), you have noodle soup. Everything else is an improv, and depending on the maker can be teeming with meat and vegetables, or an austere experience, with few if any additions.



Since not everyone is fortunate enough to grow up with a mother who made noodle soup fairly consistently on a weekly basis when they were young (as I did), it might not be second nature to quickly and efficiently whip up this delicious meal. But once you have the right equipment and ingredients on hand -- and it doesn't take much -- I guarantee any feelings of hesitation or intimidation will go away, and you'll make it all the time.

Here are some of the basics.

1) You need a soup base. This can be leftover homemade stock, canned/boxed stock, a water-based sauce mixed with water, a quick broth made from boiling shrimp shells, or even, as mentioned before, water mixed with some soy sauce. Heck, you could even rip open a package of ramen and use the soup base from that. Use your imagination; it doesn't take a lot to create a usable stock for a bowl of noodles. Of course, the higher quality the soup base, the better your soup noodles will taste. :-)

2) You need noodles. I like soft noodles with medium thinness, somewhere between spaghetti and capellini. But you need the Asian kind, not Italian pasta, in order to make proper noodle soup. You wouldn't make pasta with Asian noodles, and the reverse is true as well. If you go to an Asian supermarket (such as 99 Ranch), the variety of noodles -- both dry and fresh -- can be overwhelming (rice, egg, flour, round, flat, thick, thin, everywhere in between). You can try each one, of course, to find your favorite, but as a quick recommendation for those who don't want to bother, this is the one I'm currently using and like it quite a lot:


Asian Taste Shandong Ramen (Thin), 5lb box

I like the size and consistency, as well as the simplicity of the ingredients: wheat flour, water, salt.



Sometimes I like much thinner noodles to have in broth, in which case I turn to these Japanese dried noodles, which has the same simple ingredients as the one above:


Japanfood Tomoshiraga Somen, 3lb box.

3) You may want to add additional ingredients to the noodle soup to liven it up a bit. The possibilities here are endless, but the key is that you want ingredients that cook fast: leafy vegetables, shrimp, sliced fish, mushrooms, fish balls, tofu, thinly sliced meat, cooked leftovers from previous meals (you'll have to use your judgment), or even crack a whole raw egg in (an excellent standby, as nearly everyone has eggs in the fridge).

The sky is the limit when it comes to personalizing your own bowl of noodles -- it will be delicious regardless of how much or how little you add to it. :-)

4) You may want to have additional condiments on the side, such as spicy chili sauce, seasoned tofu, pickled turnips, century eggs, again the possibilities here are endless. Roam the aisles of an Asian supermarket and you'll find a large selection to choose from. Again just to help you narrow things down if you're making this for the first time, here are my two staple condiments for noodle soup:



Some kind of chili sauce is essential to me, and I absolutely LOVE this one; I could eat it all on its own. Though I can and do eat very spicy foods, this particular chili sauce is fairly mild -- but it has a wonderful flavor. The pickled chili radish is also a favorite of mine, though again very mild.


Left: Kimlan Chili Radish; Right: Yonk Sing Chili XO Sauce

There's really not much to putting it all together.

First, boil a large pot of water. When the water's boiling, throw in some dried noodles. You can put just enough in for however many servings you're making, or enough for several extra servings if you have a lot of broth to use up. Generally I like to make extra, for the energy-saving benefit (you're boiling a pot of water either way) and also for the time benefit. Subsequent bowls of noodle soup will take half the time or less than it took to make the initial bowl.



When the noodles are soft and cooked through (about 6 minutes, or as instructed), turn off the heat and pour everything into a colander. The hot water will drain away and you'll be left with a bunch of hot noodles. Rinse the noodles with cold water to stop the cooking (you don't want them mushy), using your hands or chopsticks to move the noodles around to make sure they all get hit with cold water. Let that drain for a bit, then transfer the noodles to a large bowl. At this point, if you're ready to make the noodle soup, you can just portion out what you'll need, or if you're planning to make the meal later, stick the noodles in the fridge.



Regardless of what kind of noodles you choose, you should do this "wash." This step, though it might seem extraneous, is actually very important. Boiling the noodles washes out extra starch and any impurities, and perhaps more importantly, also reconstitutes the noodles, which soak up a lot of liquid. In this case, they'll soak up the water. If you throw dried noodles in with your soup base, they'll use that liquid to reconstitute, and you'll be left with no broth. When I was on my own and making this for the first time, I skipped this step, and the resulting bowl of noodles wasn't nearly as good as the ones my mother and grandmothers served. The initial boil-wash solved that. Also, it lessens the prep time for making subsequent meals if you've made extra noodles, as later on all you're doing is warming up the noodles in the soup rather than cooking them.

In a pot with plenty of room, start heating up enough broth to supply however many bowls of noodles you're serving. At this point I usually add ingredients that might take a little more time to warm through but that don't need to be cooked quickly (like raw eggs), such as large pieces of tofu, cauliflower, sliced fish, shrimp, fish balls, thickly sliced meat, mushrooms, etc., so that they're warming up at the same time as the broth.

When the broth comes to a boil, add items such as leafy greens, thinly sliced meat, or crack a whole raw egg or two into the soup. In this case, I used cooked chicken (from making the broth), cooked carrot (ditto), sliced mushrooms, and a few fish balls, all of which I added to the broth as it was warming up. Once it was boiling, I added a handful of spinach. Once you've made this a few times, you'll get a sense for when to add your additional ingredients. The one thing you want to avoid is adding too much at the end, after you've already included the noodles, because the longer the noodles cook in the soup (remember, they're already cooked), the softer they'll get and the more they'll soak up the liquid, which might leave you with a bunch of fat, mushy noodles and no broth.



Lastly, add the cooked noodles to your soup base. Bring it to a boil and let it simmer for a minute or two -- not much longer. Turn off the heat, portion out the noodles, ingredients, and soup, and you're done!

If you've made extra noodles, the next time you make this meal it will go even faster. Just start heating up the broth and any extra ingredients, and when it's boiling, take the cooked noodles out of the fridge and toss them in. Unless you've got some really complicated additions (but why would you? The beauty of this is how delicious yet fast it can be), it should take you 10 minutes tops to put a hot, steaming bowl of noodle soup on the table -- a meal that's filling, satisfying, and easy.



I should also note that adding ingredients and extra condiments to instant ramen noodles -- the kind you cook on the stovetop, not the kind you microwave -- is also a tried and true method for a fast and satisfying (though less healthy) meal. Ramen soup base is usually ideal for cracking in a raw egg once the soup is boiling -- you can then let it cook whole, or swish it around a bit and you've got an egg drop soup going.