Korean cuisine

Overview¶

Korean cooking has a small but intensely used palette. Its foundation is jang — fermented soybean products: soy sauce (ganjang), soybean paste (doenjang) and chilli paste (gochujang). On top come garlic, ginger, spring onion, toasted sesame oil and seeds, and gochugaru, the Korean chilli flake. These combine in yangnyeom, a general term for seasoning mixtures, which are adjusted for every dish.

Chilli is so identified with Korean food that it surprises people to learn it arrived only around the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, probably via Japan (see how-chillies-spread-around-the-world). Early kimchi was salted and seasoned with ginger, garlic and other spices; the red kimchi familiar today developed over the following two centuries. Plenty of Korean dishes remain unspiced — white kimchi, clear beef soups, japchae, and much temple food.

The core palette¶

• gochugaru: sun-dried red chilli, flaked or ground, fruity, slightly smoky and moderately hot. Coarse flakes go into kimchi; fine powder into gochujang and sauces. There is no good single substitute — see the gochugaru page.
• gochujang: fermented chilli paste made with glutinous rice, soybean powder, gochugaru and salt. Sweet, savoury, hot.
• Doenjang: fermented soybean paste, like a funkier, chunkier miso, for stews.
• garlic: used in quantities that surprise cooks from elsewhere — whole cloves in stews, raw slices with grilled meat.
• ginger, spring onion and daepa (large Korean leek).
• sesame: toasted sesame oil to finish, and roasted seeds, often crushed in the hand as they are added.
• Perilla (kkaennip): a close relative of Japanese shiso, with a minty, anise-like flavour; the leaves wrap meat and are pickled; perilla seed powder and oil are used in soups and namul.
• Others: black pepper, Korean mustard (gyeoja), and salted fermented seafood (jeotgal) in kimchi.

Regional differences¶

Traditionally, the south (Jeolla and Gyeongsang provinces) cooks saltier and spicier food, partly because warmer weather demanded stronger preservation; Jeolla is famous for lavish tables of banchan. The north, including the cooking of what is now North Korea, is milder: Pyongyang naengmyeon (cold buckwheat noodles in a clear broth) and Hamhung naengmyeon are well-known examples, the latter dressed in a spicy sauce. Seoul's royal court cuisine favoured balanced, refined, less fiery dishes. Jeju island has its own cooking based on seafood, pork and barley. Buddhist temple food (sachal eumsik) traditionally avoids garlic, onion, spring onion, chives and leeks, the "five pungent vegetables".

Key techniques¶

• Kimchi-making (gimjang): the autumn communal making of winter kimchi. Salted napa cabbage is coated in a paste of gochugaru, garlic, ginger, spring onion, fish sauce or jeotgal and sometimes rice porridge, then left to ferment. See fermenting-chillies for the chilli side of fermentation.
• Muchim and namul: vegetables blanched or raw, then seasoned by hand with sesame oil, garlic, salt or soy, and seeds.
• Jorim: braising in a soy-based sauce, often sweet and garlicky.
• Gui: grilling, often at the table, with ssamjang (a mixture of doenjang and gochujang) and lettuce or perilla leaves for wrapping.

Landmark dishes¶

Baechu kimchi and kkakdugi (radish kimchi), kimchi jjigae, doenjang jjigae, sundubu jjigae (soft tofu stew), bibimbap with gochujang, bulgogi, galbi, samgyeopsal with ssamjang, tteokbokki, japchae, dakgalbi, naengmyeon, jjimdak, and yukgaejang (a fiery shredded beef soup).

Stocking the cupboard¶

1. gochugaru — coarse for kimchi, fine for sauces; store in the freezer
2. gochujang
3. Doenjang
4. Korean soy sauce (guk-ganjang for soups, regular jin-ganjang for everything else)
5. Toasted sesame oil and roasted sesame seeds
6. Plenty of garlic and fresh ginger
7. Spring onions
8. Fish sauce or salted shrimp for kimchi