Korean Recipe Blog

Korean radish salad is spicy, sour and sweet at the same time. It is a good side dish when you serve a meat dish as main. Very simple to make. All you need is little patience in thin-slicing radish. I like it when it is sweet and sour, but if you want less sweet, more spicy radish salad, put less vinegar and more chili powder.

Radish 1/2
Salt 1T
Sugar 1T
Korean red chili powder 1T
Vinegar 5T
Chopped green onion 1T
Minced garlic 2t

1. Mix thin-sliced radish with salt and leave it for 10 minutes
2. Add the rest of ingredients to 1.
3. You can eat it right after you mix everything well, but I like to keep it in the fridge for half a day before I eat it.

Japchae (잡채) is a stir-fried noodle dish mixed with slightly cooked vegetables. The noodle is made with yam starch and it looks similar to vermicelli.  It is one of most served party foods. You can serve it as a side dish or a main dish. Also you can make Japchae rice by simply putting Japchat on the top of rice.

8 oz Dangmyeon (yam starch noodles)
thinly sliced mushrooms
1/2 thinly sliced carrot
1/2 thinly sliced onion
1/2 thinly sliced bell pepper
1/2 thinly sliced sesame leaves
soy sauce 3T
minced garlic 1T
sugar 1T
sesame oil 1/2T
pepper little bit
salt little bit

1. Soak Dangmyeon (noodles) in cold water for 1 hour until the noodles get softened. Drain water.
2. Stir fry sliced mushrooms and other vegetables separately except sesame leaf.
3. Stir fry the noodles and all cooked vegetables quickly.
4. Put them in a big bowl and add sesame leaves.
5. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, sugar and pepper and mix them well. If it is too blend, add salt.

Sesame Leaf Kimchi (kenip kimchi, 깻잎 김치) is a good side dish in summer. If you like fresh flavor of sesame leaves, you definitely should try this.
Fresh sesame leaves
Minced garlic 1T
thinly sliced Korean green pepper 1T
Soy sauce 1T
Chili powder 1T
Anchovy sauce 4T (You can get a bottle of anchovy sauce from any Korean grocery store)
Sesame oil1t
Sugar 1t

1. Wash sesame leaves and drain water
2. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and make a sauce
3. Spread the sauce on a sesame leave
4. Place one leave by one and spread the sauce between.
5. Put them in a container and keep it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
7. Serve them with rice.

Bean paste soup is very commonly served soup in Korean dining. Bean paste has protein and spinach has lots of vitamins. So it represents healthy diet of Korean food.
Soup Base Anchovies 5
Korean Bean Paste (Dwanjang) 2 T
Minced Garlic 1t
Spinach

1. Boil 3 cups of water and add anchovy in a pot for 10 minutes and make anchovy soup
2. Take anchovies out of the pot.
3. Add 2 T of Bean Paste in to the soup and boil it for 5 minutes.
4. Add minced garlic and spinach to the soup and boil it for another 3 minutes.

Cucumber kimchi is one of favorite summer side dish. You can enjoy fresh cucumber flavour as well as hot & sour kimchi flavour.

3 Cucumbers
1/2 Bundle of Chives
1T Minced Garlic
1t Minced Ginger
1T Chopped Green Onion
2/3 Cup Korean Chili Powder
1t Salt
1T Sugar

1. Cut the cucumbers into 4cm lengths.
2. Slit-cut the cucumber sections lengthwise, leaving about 1cm on end and make 4 slits.
3. Add salt to water and boil water.
4. Put the cucumbers in a bowl and pour hot salty water in it.
5. Drain water after 30 mins.
6. Chop chives into 1cm length.
7. Add minced garlic, minced ginger, chilly powder, sugar, and salt to chives and mix them well.
8. Fill the slit-cut cucumbers with the mix and stack the stuffed cucumbers in a container.
9. Keep the cucumber container outside in a room temperature for a day.
10. Move it to the refrigerator and serve it cold.