By Leslie Brenner
My Korea: Traditional Flavors, Modern Recipes, by Hooni Kim with Aki Kamozawa; photographs by Kristin Teig; 2020, W. W. Norton & Company, $40.
A serious craving for Korean flavors — that’s what bit me on the flight home from a recent trip to France. Tangy-spicy, hot, cold and pickly, packed with umami, sometimes a little sweet. I needed those flavors in my life, and fast.
Immediately I thought of My Korea. The highly regarded chef Hooni Kim published the cookbook two years ago; it’s the first book I reached for when I landed. Covid time-warp is my official excuse for taking so long to get to it.
Backgrounder
Kim, who was born in South Korea, is chef and owner of Danji in New York City; he opened the tiny place (named for the small clay jars that hold traditional foods for daily use in Korea) in 2010. A year later, it became the first Korean restaurant anywhere to earn a Michelin star. He opened a second restaurant, Hanjan, the following year, and recently Meju, a fermentation studio. He’s now preparing to open Little Banchan Shop, featuring Korea’s beloved small plates.
Raised in London and the U.S., Kim took a hiatus halfway through medical school to study at the French Culinary Institute in New York (now the International Culinary Center), did a couple of stages, graduated from FCI and then interned at Daniel, which he considered to be “the best restaurant in New York City.” He thought he’d return to med school, but when Daniel Boulud’s legendary French restaurant offered him a permanent position, he bit. After that, desiring to learn to cook the food of his own culture at a lofty level, he sought a respected Korean chef to train with at an excellent Korean restaurant, couldn’t find one in the U.S., and so went to work at the closest thing he could find: Masa, the superlative Japanese restaurant from chef Masa Takayama. Kim made an impression on Masa’s famous chef-owner with the Korean dishes he prepared for family (staff) meals. Several of them are included in My Korea — which Kim reportedly worked on for eight years.
Kim sums up his own cooking like this:
“My food is what you might get from a Korean grandmother if she went to culinary school, interned at high-end Michelin restaurants, and settled in New York City (and perhaps had an addition to White Castle sliders).”
Why we love ‘My Korea’
It’s a rare chef cookbook that’s filled with recipes that are approachable and practical enough for home cooks, and My Korea is all that and then some. Especially if you’re new (or newish) to Korean cooking, I’d recommend starting at the beginning and reading the whole intro. Kim’s taste-memories of visiting his relatives in South Korea when he was a small child speak volumes about the heart and soul of Korean food; reading about them is a gorgeous immersive education in itself.
Don’t be tempted to skip “The Korean Pantry” chapter. It’s filled with immensely useful information, including what brands of ganjang (Korean soy sauce), sesame oil and dangmyeon (sweet potato noodles) to look for, how to shop for gochugaru (Korean red chile flakes) or rice cakes, and what a difference a great doenjang (fermented soybean paste) or gochujang (fermented red chile paste) makes. Kim offers an invaluable paragraph about cleaning, long-rinsing and slicing scallions — and then squeezing them dry in a kitchen towel and letting them air-dry 10 minutes. That way you can store them, covered, in the fridge, and they’ll be “fluffy and light” when you’re ready to use them.
The book’s 90 recipes are extremely well chosen — so many scream “cook me, cook me!" — and the seven I tested worked beautifully. The authors hold your hand more than is usual in cookbooks; it’s probably not a great leap of faith to guess that co-author Aki Kamozawa has more than a little to do with their general excellence.
So, where to start?
Marinated Spicy Cucumbers, or Oee Muchim, hits the spot for that tangy, spicy, cold and pickly wish. Easy to make, it’s Kim’s “favorite summer muchim” — muchim are quick-pickled vegetable dishes that can be served as banchan. As Kim explains it, “Muchim are more convenient than kimchi because you do not have to wait for them to ferment — they can be eaten the same day they are prepared.” Nevertheless, some have similar flavor profiles to kimchi — that spicy, salty, sour thing.
You’ve gotta try this
Dangmyeon — stretchy, clear noodles made from sweet potato starch — are the stars of japchae, a beloved traditional dish. Those noodles are dressed with a salty and lightly sweet sauce kissed with sesame oil, and lots of julienned vegetables, including red and green bell peppers, fresh shiitake mushrooms, plus spinach.
Kim says it’s best served warm — and it is — but I’m here to tell you I ate the leftovers cold the next days, and it was nearly as fabulous. It’s a dish I could probably eat once a week for the rest of my life, and I’d die happy. Oh, and it’s vegan if you use the water option instead of dashi, or use dashi made with kombu and shiitakes. Swap gluten-free tamari for soy sauce and it’s gluten-free.
Bar food extraordinaire
“Kimchi and pork are the ultimate classic combination in Korean cuisine,” writes Kim in the headnote to his recipe for Warm Tofu with Kimchi and Pork Belly Stir-Fry. The stir-fry part — dubu kimchi — is the classic anju (a dish to eat with soju), served at pojang machas in Korea. Pojang machas are street-side tent restaurants that are open only at nighttime, “where locals go to drink close to home or work while munching on anju.” Traditionally dubu kimchi is served with rice; Kim loves it with tofu.
RECIPE: Hooni Kim’s Dubu Kimchi
Still wanna make . . .
A gazillion things, starting with Napa Cabbage Kimchi. After that, I’ll just rattle ‘em off: Soy-Marinated Perilla Leaves; Simmered Fish Cakes; Spicy Garlic Chives; Spicy Brussels Sprouts; Soy-Marinated BBQ Beef Short Ribs (Yangnyeom Galbi); Braised Beef Short Ribs (Galbi Jjim); Rice Cake Soup; Marinated Rice with Sashimi Salad.
I did try Spicy Bean Sprouts and Steamed Egg Custard with Shrimp (both very good), and Soy-Poached Black Cod with Daikon. That last dish, which Kim describes as a favorite at family meal at Masa, worked gorgeously, but it’s too sweet for my taste (there’s three-quarters of a cup of sugar in the sauce for a dish that serves four). I’ll make it again and decrease the sugar.
Oh, I also made a cocktail — one Kim calls “Makgeolli Made Easy.” Makgeolli is the name for the lightly sweet rice beer that’s popular in Korea; you can find it easily at Korean supermarkets such as H Mart. The drink, which blends makgeolli with gin, cucumber purée, ginger syrup and lime juice, is absolutely delicious.
Obviously this book is a keeper — it’s one of the best primers among the hundreds of volumes on my shelves.
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