Tag: Korean

Categories
Mains Recipes

Gochujang Lentil Roast

This week, my continuing search for comforting winter dinners has brought me to the Korean aisle in my local supermarket, to pick up a jar of Gochujang paste. I have used it before in a few recipes here on A Different Kitchen (Korean Pulled Pork Sandwich, Cauli Roast, Salmon Noodles) and am a real fan of its sweet and smoky taste.

Gochujang is a spicy condiment made from red chilli peppers and fermented soya beans, and is definitely worth a try if you haven’t come across it before. Find it in the Asian section of a reasonable-sized supermarket or in a specialist deli.

In this dish its magical spicy warmth is the base for a hearty lentil dahl-like stew with char-roasted winter veg.

Servings

4 adult portions.

Timings

30 mins to make.

You Will Need

  • a large roasting tray’s worth of chopped root veg – I used carrot, parsnip and sweet potato
  • 1 red pepper
  • oil
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 medium red chilli
  • 1 tbsp cumin seeds
  • 2 tbsp gochujang paste
  • 1 red onion
  • 3 celery sticks
  • 500g carton tomato passata
  • 100g red lentils

Method

  1. Switch on a fan oven to 180C.
  2. Chop the root veg and red pepper into chunks and spread out in the roasting pan. Drizzle with oil and place in the oven when it’s up to temp. Leave for 30 mins.
  3. Crush the garlic and place in a wok with a drizzle of oil, over a medium heat. Finely chop the chilli and add to the wok with the cumin seeds. Give it all a gentle stir and leave to sizzle for a few moments.
  4. Add the onion and celery, chopped, and stir again, and add in the gochujang paste. Stir once more so the veg is coated in the lovely smokey red paste.
  5. Tip in the passata. Fill the empty carton with tap water and add this also, then sprinkle in the lentils. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer and leave to reduce and thicken.
  6. When the roasting veg have had their 30 mins, remove the tray from the oven and scrape them into the wok. The veg should be softened and a little charred at the edges. Stir so all the veg is coated, then serve. I served mine with steamed fresh kale, as shown in my photo at the top of the post.

Customise It!

Feel free to swap in whatever roasting veg you have to hand – swede, potato, celeriac can all be contenders, so can mushroom or aubergine.

Dance classic season continues here on A Different Kitchen. Next up is the legendary Teddy Pendergrass, in the form of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, with Don’t Leave Me This Way.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Korean Salmon Noodles

Here’s another tasty dish using the Korean Sauce recipe you can find in my Korean Pulled Pork Sandwich post. The Sauce is really is versatile and, once made up and in a jug in the fridge, it can spice up and make more interesting a variety of other dishes.

In today’s offering, it serves both as a topping for baked salmon, and as a stir fry sauce for veg, served over noodles as shown in my photo above.

Servings

A main meal for 2.

Timings

With a batch of the Sauce already made up, this dish takes a further 15 – 20 mins.

You Will Need

  • a jug of Korean Sauce – follow here for the recipe
  • 2 salmon fillets
  • 1 onion
  • a few mushrooms, chopped
  • half a green pepper, and half a red pepper, cut into strips
  • 1 pack of fresh beansprouts
  • 1 pad of dried noodles
  • a few scallions, chopped

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 180C. Grease a roasting tray and place the salmon fillets in it. With a basting brush, spread a few spoonfuls of the Korean sauce over the top of the fillets and place in the oven for 15 – 20 mins.
  2. Heat some oil in a wok and chuck in the onions, mushrooms and peppers. Stir fry until the veg is all nicely charred. Add in the beansprouts and a few spoonfuls of the Korean sauce. Stir again so that all the veg is coated in the sauce.
  3. Place the noodles in a pan of boiling water for about 2 mins, then drain.
  4. Serve the stir fried veg over a bed of noodles, topped with the salmon fillet. Garnish with chopped scallions.

Customise It!

Mix up the stir fried veg as you wish – bok choi, mange tout or carrot sticks would all be excellent. Sprinkle sesame seeds over if you like – they go really well with the Korean Sauce.

Next track for the ADK Playlist is from a band whose music I have been exploring recently. I always thought PSB stood for Purple Sprouting Broccoli, but now I know it also stands for Public Service Broadcasting. They make an interesting sound, incorporating samples from classic, archived audio files, with clear influences including David Bowie and Kraftwerk. Here’s a track to introduce them by, using Mission Control’s commentary on the moon landing. This is Public Service Broadcasting with Go!

Categories
Recipes Sides

Korean Cauli Roast

Here’s a delicious side dish that is built for sharing as part of a spicy banquet or feast, ideally with some cold drinks. Give everyone a fork each and let them tuck in, choosing a roasted floret or two and twirling it round to become coated in the spicy Korean Sauce.

The recipe for the Korean Sauce can be found in my Korean Pulled Pork Sandwich post. Although I made the Sauce originally to pour over pulled pork, I found it goes equally well with other dishes, as shown here with roasted cauliflower florets. If you’re not making the pulled pork, or if you want the Sauce to be vegetarian or vegan, just add water in place of the pork juices.

Servings

Served alongside other sides and mains, this will feed 4.

Timings

5 mins to steam the cauli, then 20 mins to roast.

You Will Need

  • 1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
  • a saucepan of Korean Sauce (vegetarian version)
  • 3 – 4 scallions
  • half a carrot
  • a handful of sesame seeds

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 180C.
  2. Put the cauli florets in a steamer basket over a pan of boiling water for 5 mins (I find this helps the cauli become tender and succulent in the roasting process).
  3. Warm the Korean Sauce on the hob or in the microwave.
  4. Remove the cauli from the steamer and lay out on a roasting tray.
  5. Brush all over with the Korean Sauce, and put in the oven for 20 mins.
  6. Remove the roasted cauli and place in a serving bowl. Drizzle over some generous spoonfuls of the Korean Sauce, and garnish with chopped scallions, carrot sticks and sesame seeds.

Customise It!

There will already be chopped chilli in the Korean Sauce, but you can add a bit more as a topping if you want an extra fiery kick. Matchsticks of cucumber also work well as a topping, and give a kind of antidote to the heat!

Here’s an old track I heard in a friend’s car the other day, and which I hadn’t heard in years. It has a really catchy chorus, so you may find yourself humming it, as I have been this week. This is Dr. Feelgood with Don’t You Just Know It.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Korean Pulled Pork Sandwich

I ordered this for lunch recently in a hipster cafe-bar that had a very tempting variety of dishes on the menu. I thought it was amazing so decided I would try to recreate it myself.

I’ve roasted pulled pork before in my electric slow cooker, but hadn’t really created anything I could call a Korean sauce.

After a bit of reading up, I treated myself to a couple of specialist ingredients I hadn’t bought before, but which seemed to be quite key to the whole concept: rice vinegar and Gojuchang paste. The rest of the ingredients, such as dark soy sauce, honey, garlic, ginger and so on, are things that I tend to have in usually.

I’m glad I invested in the specialist foods – particularly the Gojuchang paste, which has a distinctive dark and smoky taste with a chilli kick. I found both in the Asian aisle of my local Sainsbury’s.

Servings

A meal for 4 with some left over for lunch the next day.

Timings

20 mins to prepare the pulled pork, then 6 hours in a slow cooker. It took me about 25 mins to make the sauce while the pork was finishing off.

You Will Need

For the Pulled Pork

  • Joint of shoulder of pork between 1kg – 1.4kg
  • sea salt and black pepper
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • 1 500g carton of tomato passata
  • 60ml cider vinegar
  • 1tsp paprika
  • 1tsp ground cumin

For the Korean Sauce

  • oil
  • 1 small red onion, finely chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • 2cm piece of root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 red chilli, chopped into fine rings with seeds removed
  • 60ml dark soy sauce
  • 2tbsp rice vinegar
  • 50ml runny honey
  • 1tbsp Gojuchang paste
  • cornflour
  • water

To Serve

  • Brioche rolls
  • spring onions
  • half a carrot

Method

  1. Switch on the slow cooker and turn to a high setting.
  2. Heat a little oil in a wok or large frying pan and sear the pork on all sides. When nicely browned, transfer to the slow cooker bowl and season with a few twists of sea salt and black pepper.
  3. Put the other ingredients into the wok or pan, and stir to combine in the heat. When warmed, pour over the joint of pork. Put the lid on the slow cooker and leave on a high heat for 30 mins. Then reduce to medium setting and leave for 5 and a half hours more.
  4. Start making the sauce about 40 mins before the pork is due to finish.
  5. Heat some oil in a saucepan and add the onions, garlic, ginger and chilli. Leave until sizzling and softened.
  6. In a jug, combine the soy, rice vinegar, honey and Gojuchang paste, then pour into the saucepan. Give it all a stir and leave to simmer.
  7. When the pork has completed its 6 hours, remove it from the slow cooker and leave to rest in a rectangular serving dish.
  8. Tip the juices from the slow cooker into the saucepan and stir.
  9. Add a paste of 2 tbsp cornflour and 1 tbsp water, stirred so it forms a creamy liquid. Stir it in and watch the sauce thicken. Do this again until the sauce has a thickish consistency so it will cling to the pork when poured over.
  10. Using 2 forks, dive into the pork joint and pull it apart from the centre. You should have lovely soft, flaky fibres of tender meat. Pop one in your mouth to appreciate how good it tastes.
  11. Pour the sauce into a jug and serve alongside the dish of pulled pork.
  12. Serve with the rolls, halved and lightly toasted on the inside, with a garnish of chopped scallions and carrot sticks.

Customise It!

I will be posting other recipes that use the Korean Sauce, but which will be vegetarian or vegan. For these, don’t add the pork juices, and use water instead.

Here’s a track for the Playlist from The Wedding Present. I’ve seen them live a few times and they are always worth the ticket price. Their sound is a cross between Buzzcocks and Orange Juice, so no surprise that I’m a fan. This is My Favourite Dress.