KOREAN TREATS, WESTERN-STYLE
Add a little bit of that ‘kapow’ into your diet, Laura Brehaut writes.
“Korean food is that ‘kapow’ in the mouth,” author Kim Sunée says with a laugh. “It has such bold flavours — there’s nothing subtle about it.”
In her third book, Everyday Korean, Sunée and co-author Seung Hee Lee illustrate how they incorporate Korean flavours into daily cooking. They offer original interpretations of traditional dishes and creative uses of leftovers.
Inspired by their respective travels and dishes they’ve enjoyed together, these are the foods they like to cook and eat.
Leftover kimchi fried rice becomes arancini (Sicilian fried rice balls). And scraps of roasted salmon with gochujang (fermented chili paste) mayo become a savoury Dutch baby.
“It’s a thrifty cuisine — you can reuse a lot of your banchan and make (excellent) leftovers,” Sunée says, referring to the Korean table’s trademark small side dishes and condiments.
“It’s esthetically very beautiful, but it’s also hearty and rustic.”
Fragrant notes of chili — central to “Korean mother sauce” gochujang and gochugaru (chili powder) — bring depth to dishes but not unbearable heat, Sunée emphasizes.
“It’s not necessarily always spicy. I think that’s one of the misconceptions,” she says.
Many of the recipes in the book are based on Lee’s family favourites, “but with a modern twist using fresh, seasonal ingredients.”
Lee, a cooking instructor and epidemiologist in Atlanta, Ga., was born and raised in South Korea.
A nutrition expert, she also studied Korean royal court cuisine with an emphasis on cultural preservation and adapting historic recipes for today’s kitchens.