With a good variety of recipes, Korean Home Cooking is a delightful addition to the kitchen library.
Feature image credit: Rod Lewis
Cook and caterer Jina Jung believes Korean cuisine is much simpler to cook than most people realise, and she sets out to prove it with 100 recipes ranging from mains to drinks and teaching skills in homemade fermentation.
She offers a list of recommended kitchen utensils, noting that no special equipment is needed, and a breakdown of the basic ingredients. These include items like soy sauce, sesame oil, tofu, and chilli pastes, all which should be readily available in store or online.
Jung’s very brief introduction talks about her own history of learning from her mother and grandmother, through to the tradition of meals comprising several small dishes. The importance of the history and culture embedded in cultural cuisines is also acknowledged.
Akiko Ida’s photography is full-paged and plentiful, adding the vibrancy needed to compensate for the small text in the book. The images complement the recipes, which are divided into Rice, Noodles Pancakes and Fritters, Vegetables, Kimchi & Pickles, Meat & Poultry, Fish & Seafood, and Desserts & Drinks.
Skimming through the pages, there are lots of familiar foods like Korean fried chicken, pancakes, stir fries and homemade lemonade, with even more new treats to explore as your confidence builds.
The recipes themselves are presented in a small font and big paragraphs, neither of which are conducive to working in the kitchen, but the instructions are clear enough, supporting Jung’s claim that most dishes aren’t that hard to make. The average prep time seems to be around 20 minutes, although some ingredients need to be prepared and then “rested” for hours, if not overnight. It would be prudent to pick your recipe days in advance to avoid any such surprises.
With a good variety of recipes, Korean Home Cooking is a delightful addition to the kitchen library, even though the text layout leaves much to be desired.
Omelette, Tuna and Mayonnaise Rice Bowl (page 20)
This early recipe was a fortuitous find given that I had an abundance of eggs that I needed to use up. It is a recipe for one but easy to expand upon to feed more. This is one of those IKEA recipes where all the parts are put together to assemble the final meal. First comes the scrambled eggs, then you create the tuna mix, prep the other ingredients, and then layer it piece by piece with a final squeeze of mayonnaise on top.
The tuna mix is the highlight of this healthy bowl, with the rice offering an ideal counterbalance to the bigger taste. Unfortunately, the recommended amount of mayonnaise was a little too overpowering for my taste. I will make this again, but use half or less of the mayo. The rest was spot on for a quick healthy dish that was ready to eat in about 20 minutes.
Korean Fried Chicken (page 56) with Korean Fritter Batter (page 50)
How could I resist? If you are not a fan of the real KFC, then we can never be friends. The first step to cooking KFC (in this case, Korean Fried Chicken) is to clear away everything. You’re about to make a mess. No, really. It’s not just me. Is it? The batter is sticky and gooey and more fun to play with than to eat, but once the chicken goes in, it’s time to adult again. Jung’s secret herbs and spices coat the chicken before the batter, and there’s a Yangnyeom serving sauce to make too — unless you’re lazy and want to just serve it up with some aioli.
Allow 10 minutes to make the batter, 35 minutes prep and resting time, and another 20-30 minutes for cooking in batches. It’s straight forward and very satisfying, other than taking a similar amount of time to clean up my the mess afterwards.
The batter was perhaps a tad too thick for my taste, but that would come more from my own inexperience in making battered foods, than from the recipe itself. Bonus tips for dunces like me would be useful but their absence won’t stop me deep-frying my own KFC in the future again. It was finger-licking good!
Reviewed by Rod Lewis
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The views expressed in this review belong to the author and not Glam Adelaide, its affiliates, or employees.
Distributed by: Murdoch Books
Released: August 2023
RRP: $49.99 hardcover