Korean Food Cooking

[SmoothOper]

Its summer and some of these Korean cold side dishes, banchan, are tasty, has anyone tried preparing them? Any tips?

This seems like a good site:

http://www.trifood.com/banchan.asp

[Kirby]

Tips? Find a few side dishes that you like. Once you know what you like, make a lot all at once, say on Sunday. Then mix and match to eat a little bit each day. Store what you don't eat in the refrigerator.

A lot of these dishes can last for a long time, and some use similar ingredients. So you can last for awhile without cooking food.

[SmoothOper]

Tips? Find a few side dishes that you like. Once you know what you like, make a lot all at once, say on Sunday. Then mix and match to eat a little bit each day. Store what you don't eat in the refrigerator.

A lot of these dishes can last for a long time, and some use similar ingredients. So you can last for awhile without cooking food.

Yeah, that makes sense. I am wondering what the key ingredients for Korean food are though, I most of the ingredients for Chinese and southeast asian cuisine. It seems many dishes have this reddish sauce, is it gochugaru?

[hyperpape]

Tip: you will often find out if someone steals your food from the breakroom. My former boss (also my father in law) was quite surprised by some spicy marinated cucumbers I had in the fridge.

Sorry I can't tell you more: I haven't really made much in the way of banchan.

[Kirby]

Yeah, that makes sense. I am wondering what the key ingredients for Korean food are though, I most of the ingredients for Chinese and southeast asian cuisine. It seems many dishes have this reddish sauce, is it gochugaru?

"Gochugaru" is not really a sauce, but the powdery stuff you can add as a spice. It reminds me a little of red hot pepper flakes that you put on pizza, but it's more fine grained (just a random image I found online):


For sauce, you might want to try "gochujang", which is more pasty:


"Gochu" is basically like a pepper:


Anyway, it's true that there are various foods that have these ingredients, but basically you can use this stuff if you want to make something a little spicier (it's not that spicy, though). If you get gochujang, you can get some that tastes a little sweeter and less spicy.

---

While the items mentioned above seem to used in Korean cooking, I think that a lot of dishes have some ingredients common to non-Korean foods. For example, a lot of Korean foods can have ingredients like:
* Soy sauce
* Sesame oil & seeds
* Vinegar
* Sugar
* Sardines (eg. for making broth or soups)
* Various vegetables

Korean "kim" (seaweed) also sometimes tastes different from Japanese "nori". The former can have a saltier taste, which makes it somewhat flavorful to simply buy some of this stuff and wrap it around some plain rice and eat it. You can add other stuff, of course.

There's a lot of possibilities, as with any food group. Think of "American food". It's not limited to hamburgers... Maybe "American food" is a bad example, since it has a stigma of being somewhat unhealthy. In any case, there's lots of stuff you can try.

Good luck, and happy eating.

[Kirby]

...My former boss (also my father in law) ....

Eep, sounds awkward!

[SmoothOper]

Yeah, that makes sense. I am wondering what the key ingredients for Korean food are though, I most of the ingredients for Chinese and southeast asian cuisine. It seems many dishes have this reddish sauce, is it gochugaru?

"Gochugaru" is not really a sauce, but the powdery stuff you can add as a spice. It reminds me a little of red hot pepper flakes that you put on pizza, but it's more fine grained (just a random image I found online):


For sauce, you might want to try "gochujang", which is more pasty:


"Gochu" is basically like a pepper:


Anyway, it's true that there are various foods that have these ingredients, but basically you can use this stuff if you want to make something a little spicier (it's not that spicy, though). If you get gochujang, you can get some that tastes a little sweeter and less spicy.

---

While the items mentioned above seem to used in Korean cooking, I think that a lot of dishes have some ingredients common to non-Korean foods. For example, a lot of Korean foods can have ingredients like:
* Soy sauce
* Sesame oil & seeds
* Vinegar
* Sugar
* Sardines (eg. for making broth or soups)
* Various vegetables

Korean "kim" (seaweed) also sometimes tastes different from Japanese "nori". The former can have a saltier taste, which makes it somewhat flavorful to simply buy some of this stuff and wrap it around some plain rice and eat it. You can add other stuff, of course.

There's a lot of possibilities, as with any food group. Think of "American food". It's not limited to hamburgers... Maybe "American food" is a bad example, since it has a stigma of being somewhat unhealthy. In any case, there's lots of stuff you can try.

Good luck, and happy eating.

I have noticed sesame oil and sesame seeds seem to play a much more prominent role. The western concept of Japanese nori wraps sushi isn't quite the whole story either, from what I understand, there is also futomaki in Japan, which is rice, nori, and other fillings, like eggs vegetables etc. usually served family style and people role their own wrap.

[Kirby]

...The western concept of Japanese nori wraps sushi isn't quite the whole story either, from what I understand, there is also futomaki in Japan, which is rice, nori, and other fillings, like eggs vegetables etc. usually served family style and people role their own wrap.

Well, sure. There's also Korean kimbap if you want something fancy. The main point I want to make here is that, generally speaking, nori tastes different than kim.