I’m not reinventing the wheel here. Korean food is slowly getting the recognition it so rightly deserves across America.  Although you may not be able to find as giant a Korean menu in Des Moines as you would in Los Angeles or New York, you’d be surprised how many Korean BBQ restaurants exist. (Upon a bit of research, Des Moines did have a Korean restaurant, but, unfortunately, it closed.)  My point is, Korean food could have a mass appeal if more people were exposed to it and just gave it a try.

Ok, so maybe the sannakji or some of the tripe or cold noodle soup dishes may not appeal to everyone, but most Korean dishes are extremely delicious and extremely palatable.  Dumplings, stews, scallion pancakes, grilled calamari, soups with layered flavors, and delicious grilled meats are just a few tastes of what Korean food has to offer. Think about Thai food fifteen years ago – one may have only found it in big cities.  Now this is a cuisine you definitely can find in Des Moines (sorry to pick on you again, Iowa!).

If you are a Korean food virgin, I highly recommend you start with this dish – kalbi (also known as galbi): marinated short ribs.  LA Kalbi is called “LA” because it is cut LAterally.  You can see how ours were cut thinly on the bias across the bone. This really helps speed up the cooking time.  Talk to your butcher about slicing some short ribs this way for you.  If you can’t find short ribs, this marinade will also work wonders with thin slices of beef (one that is marbled with fat and not super-lean).  The marinade helps break down the meat so it becomes fabulous in flavor and pretty tender.  Pair with some rice, toppings and soju and you’ve got yourself a delicious Korean meal at home.  The only thing you really need is a little forward planning since for best results you should marinate the meat overnight.

So I know what you’re already thinking (if you’ve even dared to read this post at all!) – tongue?! WHA-WHA-WHAT!? I think i just threw up a little. Nasty. Or, maybe you’re thinking, “interesting… I’d give it a try… I trust these two.” And possibly you’ve been lucky enough to have tried tongue before and can honestly understand why we’re pressuring all of you out there to give this cheap cut of offal a try. Seriously, folks, trust us on this one. It’s cheap and it’s tasty. There’s one catch – as it is often with certain cuts of offal, tongue (both beef and veal) is high in saturated fat. But remember, tongue is to be eaten as a special dish – this is not a cut you’re going to eat twice a week.Many of you may have eaten beef tongue before as it is a popular cut of offal to eat in many types of cuisines such as Mexican, Jewish, German, Philippino, Vietnamese, Spanish Russian and Persian cuisine. One of the most popular ways of eating beef tongue is in beef tongue stew. But when I saw a nice piece of veal tongue for only $2 in my grocery store, I knew I had to pick it up and cook it at home. But how to do it? And then I thought about all the ways I have eaten tongue in the past and remembered my absolute favorite way to eat it – grilled like I’ve had it at my favorite Korean (Korean BBQ) and Japanese (Yakiniku) restaurant. So with that in mind, we cut the skin off our tongue, sliced it as thinly as possible, grilled it on high heat for about 15 to 25 seconds on each side ate it two ways: basted with sesame oil/sea salt and topped with a squeeze of fresh lemon and topped with the delicious Korean scallion salad (Pa Muchim) with a side of Miso dipping sauce. It was fun to eat and absolutely delicious.

Just as a note, getting the skin off of tongue seems like a daunting task to some. Often, people will buy it already cooked or smoked so the skin is already removed. Many times it is cooked in water at a very, very low temperature (UNDER a boil) as to not over-cook it and supposedly the skin comes right off. We decided to not take the amount of time it should take to make traditional Japanese grilled tongue which should be soaked in water for hours, cooked in water slowly and then salted for 24 hours before it is finally grilled or braised. We took a sharp knife and hacked that skin off ourselves. It really wasn’t as difficult to do as we thought – plus we don’t always have to go for perfect-looking food.

I hope you all won’t be scared to give some tongue a try. Tongue on tongue action is a flavor sensation.  Also, check our Nuria’s version of Veal Tongue in a Vinaigrette Sauce - she’s got an awesome picture of the tongue before it’s been cut!  We forgot to take that picture!

GRILLED VEAL TONGUE WITH LEMON, PA MUCHIN AND MISO DIPPING SAUCE - serves 2 to 4 as a starter

Ingredients:

• 1 Veal Tongue
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1 lemon cut in segments
• 1 batch of Pa Muchim (Korean Scallion Salad)
• an indoor stovetop grill or ourdoor grill
• a very sharp knife

What to do:

1. Take the skin off your tongue and then slice into very, very thin slices – as thin as you can get them.  Heat your grill up smoking hot. 
2. Make your Pa Muchim and allow to marinate.
3. In a small bowl, combine the sesame oil and sea salt.  When grill is hot, brush one side of the thinly sliced tongue with sesame oil/salt mixture and put that side down on the grill.  Brush the other side with the mixture and after 15 to 30 seconds, flip over and grill on other side.  Do this with half of your veal tongue slices.
4. With the other slices, brush a bit of your miso sauce (see below) on each piece before if you’d like and grill for 15 to 30 seconds.  Brush a bit of miso sauce on other side and grill again.
5. Serve the first set of grilled tongue with a squeeze of lemon and the other topped with Pa Muchim.  Dip both in miso sauce if you’d like.  Enjoy!

MISO DIPPING SAUCE (Make another batch to brush on tongue before grilling if you’d like)

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon of miso paste
• 2 teaspoons of sugar
• 4 teaspoons of soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil
• 1 small clove of garlic, minced

What to do:

1. Add all ingredients together and stir all together.
2. Marvel to yourself at how freaking easy that was.

Check out some other posts you may enjoy:

• VEAL KIDNEYS WITH MUSHROOMS AND COGNAC
• GREEK-INSPIRED GRILLED LAMB SHOULDER CHOP WITH THICK HERB YOGURT
• LIDIA’S LAMB CHOPS (Lamb Chops with A Mustard Anchovy Sauce)
• CACIO E PEPE: SPAGHETTI WITH PECORINO AND BLACK PEPPER ROMAN-STYLE
• The REAL Cocido of Spain
• Pork Roll and Scrapple – The Dirty Culinary Pride of South Jersey/Philly

Lately, we’ve been making a lot of southern European dishes and we felt we needed a break, but we were also looking for a dish that wouldn’t take all night to make and require us to buy a load of ingredients we’d use for one dish and then sit and rot in our refrigerator. So, we decided to go old-school Japanese-American style and make a dish so reminiscent of the 1980s that you’d almost expect to look up from your plate and find Mr. Miyagi and Daniel-san across the table.

But instead of accompanying this dish with some studied fence-painting or the practicing of our wax-on, wax-off technique, we went for a really simple scallion salad called Pa Muchim we’ve been loving at Korean restaurants lately.

Both of these dishes are unbelievably easy and are perfect for a weeknight evening in, especially if you’re lucky enough to have the Karate Kid trilogy on hand for some post-dinner entertainment…

We’re entering this into this week’s “Weekend Herb Blogging” event hosted by Coffee and Vanilla.

Broiled Miso-Glazed Salmon with Udon Noodles

Ingredients

• 1 lb salmon fillet
• 4tbsp miso paste
• 1 x 8oz package ready to eat udon or soba noodles
• 2tbsp mirin
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
• 1tbsp ginger, crushed chopped
• 1tbsp (reduced sodium) soy sauce
• 1/2 carrot julienned
• 1/2 red bell pepper julienned
• 3oz green beans
• 1tbsp peanut oil

Recipe

• Turn on your broiler to high and place a sheet of aluminum foil over a baking sheet and oil lightly.
• Cut salmon fillet into two roughly equal portions and coat lightly on all sides with miso past, probably about half of it.Heat your wok or skillet to very high heat and add peanut oil. Then, quickly toss in the carrot and green beans. Allow to cook, moving constantly for about a minute until beans start to wrinkle a bit.
• Hit pan with ginger and garlic. When you can smell these nicely, add the mirin and soy sauce, followed after a couple of seconds by the udon noodles. Stir these together so noodles are well coated with sauce and vegetables and then remove to a plate.
• Slap salmon under broiler (skin side down first). After between 1-2 minutes or until miso starts to caramelize, turn fish over and broil for another 1-2 minutes skin side up.
• When skin is crispy and glazed-looking, remove fish and serve over the noodles and top with scallion salad (pa muchim).

Scallion Salad (Pa Muchim)

Ingredients

• 3-4 medium scallions (spring onions/chinese shallots)
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tsp white sugar
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (chili flakes)
• 1 pinch coarse/kosher salt
• 1tsp toasted sesame seeds

Recipe

• Slice scallions lengthwise into fine strips (1-2mm or 1/16inch wide) and submerge in cold water until curled – 30mins-1hr.
• Drain well and place in a bowl then dress with remaining ingredients. Serve either as a garnish, side dish or panchan (mixed korean starters) to your favorite Asian dish.

Check out some other posts you may enjoy:

• SWEET ANISE-FLAVORED SALMON IN A POUCH (SALMON EN PAPILLOTE)
• PROVENCAL RABBIT WITH OLIVES AND CAPERS
• PASTA (PERCIATELLI/BUCATINI OR SPAGHETTI) AL’AMATRICIANA (ROMAN CLASSIC PASTA DISH)
• VEAL SAUSAGES WITH HERBED POLENTA AND ROASTED BEETS
• OKRA FRITTERS WITH LOUISIANA REMOULADE
• BREAD-CRUSTED FISH WITH LEMON-BUTTER SAUCE
• WHOLE FRIED SNAPPER WITH GARLIC AND PARSLEY SAUCE

Well, fear not, kind readers, for we are definitely not in the business of recommending high-end wine pairings, in fact, our wine recommendations, such as they are, tend to be in the $8-$12 range, where you’ll find plenty of very drinkable, but mostly forgettable, plonk, that even when corked or tasting like a wet dog, is a financial loss that most of us can live with. No, instead of suggesting wine pairings, we’re beginning a new monthly feature today that focuses on beverages that you might not be that familiar with in the hope that you’ll try them, enjoy them, perhaps even come to love them given enough time and support from your family and friends.

The first recommendation then, is the delicious, but relatively unknown, Korean beverage soju. Almost everyone knows of sake – the “wine” (properly, sake is a beer, not a wine, because it is produced through brewing) made from rice that can be found in nearly every sushi restaurant, and that many of you have tried in several forms – hot, cold, clear, and unfiltered, but just across the Sea of Japan, the Koreans have been making a different kind of clear, rice-based beverage for about 700 years.

A Little History
Around A.D 1300, the Mongols introduced the technique of distilling liquor from grain to Korea, a nifty trick they had learned from the Persians, who had taught them it some 70 years earlier. All of which was very magnanimous considering the Persians had just been slaughtered mercilessly by the Mongol hordes as they rampaged across the steppes of central Asia. The Koreans then, seeing that distillation was indeed a meritorius concept began setting up distilleries around the city of Kaesong immediately, a tradition of distilling that is still maintained in that city to this day. And the trend spread. Today, soju is produced throughout the Korean peninsular, both in the north and south, by a great number of different companies.

Traditionally, soju is distilled from rice, but from 1965 to the early 1990s the (south) Korean government forbade the use of fermented grain for soju production due to its scarcity. Because of this, many soju manufacturers began using pure ethanol derived from a variety of sources including potato, barley and tapioca mixed with water and various flavorings to make the drink, though some have since returned to more traditional methods.

Drunk in the West
Typically, soju’s alcohol content is around the 20% ABV mark, though there is a considerable range with some soju’s being as strong as a vodka, at around 40% alcohol. In terms of taste, some compare soju to vodka because of its clear color and relatively neutral taste, but to my mind, soju is considerably sweeter than vodka (often because sugar or corn syrup is added to it), though I should stress it is far from a sweet or sugary beverage. Some soju we’ve drunk has had a slightly appley kind of flavor, though most of them have barely perceptible flavors that are crisp on the tongue but without the fumes that characterize vodkas. And, it is this neutral/slightly sweet flavor, clarity and reasonably high-alcohol content that has made soju the new sake in designer cocktails. For example, in upscale Manhattan bars the sake-tini (a martini with sake instead of vodka or gin) is now the soju-tini, and the sake-rinha (a caipirinha with the cachaca replaced by sake) is now the soju-rinha.

A Traditional & Popular Tipple
Of course, this is a far cry from how soju is served in Korea. Usually taken at large social gatherings, soju is always taken unmixed and out of shot-sized glasses, and often knocked back in one go. Etiquette forbids the filling of one’s own glass as this promotes selfishness and greed. Instead, it must be filled by someone else, promoting camaraderie and thoughtfulness for others. The traditional way of pouring soju is quite a complicated ritual that requires the pourer to hold the bottle in their right hand while touching their right forearm or elbow with their left hand. The recipient of the soju should then hold out their glass in the palm of their left hand and steady it with their right hand while bowing their head towards the pourer as a sign of thanks.

In spite of this ritual and the availability of western alcoholic drinks like whiskey and vodka, soju remains one of the most popular drinks in Korea with around 3 billion bottles consumed annually, or 90 bottles per adult per year. Containing around 7 shots per 350 ml bottle, this means that every Korean adult drinks a bottle of soju themselves every four days. Fair play to them for really enjoying their national drink!

Soju in America
So, now that you’re clued-up on what soju is, I suspect you’ll be wanting to know where you can get your hands on some. Well, your local Korean restaurant is the best place to start, of course, and it’s quite likely that they will have several different kinds – some better, some worse – on their menu for you to sample. Korean-owned grocery stores are also likely spots because, perhaps curiously, in California and New York, soju is classed under the same liquor licensing laws as beer.

We definitely encourage you to give soju a try. Don’t be scared. It’s not going to blow your head off, unless you’ve never had a drink before, that is, but just because it’s classed the same as beer at the store, doesn’t mean that you can have a bottle of it to yourself and then get in your car and drive home. Not only is drinking and driving dangerous and illegal, but you’d also be behaving selfishly and greedily, and that is not in the spirit of drinking soju!

***Just noticed the lovely chip in our expensive Target plate that you’ll often see on this blog showcasing our creations. Nuthin’ but the best for our readers!!***

Thanks to We Are Never Full reader/commenter Valerie (see Under Pressure), we decided to check out Epicurious.com’s recipe for Asian Beef Short Ribs. This inspired me to use our pressure cooker again, using the Epicurious recipe as a backbone for our own creation using Pork Ribs. Months ago we ate in Little Korea in NYC (YUM! That’s a whole other post!) and after our gut-busting meal, shopped at a local Korean market where we picked up a beef marinade. Although it’s not necessary to use for our recipe, I think it added a little bit more body (and maybe saltiness?) to the dish. The end result was a very rich and satisfying meal. If your butcher can’t cut up your pork ribs to 2-2.5 inch pieces, hopefully you have a super sharp knife/cleaver to try out your hacking skills! I hacked my own up – it gave me a real burst of adreneline and helped me get out some aggression! Also, remember to hack up your ribs BEFORE you marinate them. I was an idiot and looked like I honestly hacked something to death with all the marinade splattered on my shirt!

KOREAN-STYLE PORK RIBS WITH BOK CHOI

Ingredients:

• 1-2 lb. pork spare ribs, chopped into 3 inch pieces (use cleaver, sharp knife or ask your butcher to cut it for you)
• 1 cup of korean kalbi marinade (could substitute w/hoison sauce with a bit of soy sauce mixed in)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 large onion chopped
• 1 cup beef or chicken broth (or a mix of both) – low sodium so you can measure the level of salt in the dish (there’s alot!)
• 3 tablespoons soy
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 red chiles, chopped, seeds and all
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-2 inch pieces
• 1 large carrot, chopped
• 2 inch piece of ginger, chopped
• 1 scallion, thinly sliced for garnish

What to do:

1. Marinate your pork rib pieces for a few hours (if you have time) in the Korean BBQ marinade or the hoison sauce.
2. Heat up pressure cooker and add a bit of olive oil on medium-high heat. Add pieces of pork ribs and brown on all sides. Remove ribs and reserve on the side.
3. Deglaze the bottom of the pressure cooker with your stock. Make sure you pick up all the browned bits on the bottom with a wooden spoon!
4. Add back your ribs and ALL the other ingredients (including any extra Korean Kalbi/hoison sauce that was used for the marinade.
5. Cook in your pressure cooker for 30 minutes. Remove lid and reduce sauce even more, simmering for about 20-30 minutes. Add some cornstarch to thicken if necessary.
6. Serve with white rice/stick rice and some bok choi sauteed with garlic, chiles a bit of soy and a bit of sesame oil. Sprinkle thin slices of scallion on top and enjoy!

Super easy! The added potatoes and carrots make for a really hearty sauce. You’ll love how the pork falls off the bone. Thanks, Valerie for the inspiration! Happy Columbus Day!

CHECK OUT SOME OTHER POSTS YOU MAY ENJOY:

•  WINE-BRAISED LAMB SHANKS WITH ROSEMARY AND THYME IN PRESSURE COOKER
• LEBANESE-SPICED LAMB OVER CRISPY PITA WITH CHICKPEAS, PINENUTS, POMEGRANATE SEEDS SMOTHERED IN GARLIC YOGURT SAUCE
• LEMONGRASS BEEF SHORTRIBS