U.S.A.
Page 8 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
August 3, 2015
Korean foods making inroads in America via pantry staples
HOT TREND. Everywhere you look, Korean food
is screaming off the trend charts. Kimchi has become
a household condiment. Korean barbecue is univer-
sally loved. Gochujang — a thick, Korean chili paste
— is about to have its heyday. Pictured is Korean
gochujang corn on the cob. (AP Photo/Matthew
Mead)
By Edward Lee
The Associated Press
E
verywhere you look, Korean food is
screaming off the trend charts.
Kimchi has become a household
condiment. Korean barbecue is univer-
sally loved. Gochujang is about to have its
heyday.
And we’ve seen this sort of thing before.
Japanese cuisine was all the rage once,
then Thai and Vietnamese, and regional
Chinese is making a comeback, too. Except
in the case of Korean food, it is playing out
a bit differently. In the decade that Korean
food has been inching its way into the
spotlight, we haven’t seen a proliferation
of Korean restaurants as we did with other
Asian cuisines. I’d even argue that the
mystery of Korean cuisine hasn’t even
begun to be unpacked for mainstream
America.
Rather, the rise of Korean food in
America is driven by its pantry ingre-
dients, not traditional restaurants. This is
a different path from the other Asian
cuisines that have been popularized in the
west. One of the main reasons for this is
because even though the cuisine of the
homeland is complex and ritualistic, the
ingredients are not. They made the leap
pretty quickly into the American taste
vernacular. In fact, the assimilation of
Korean food happened so fast, we found
our way to kimchi tacos faster than we did
kimchi ji-gae (a traditional Korean stew).
It’s that same versatility that will define
the future of Korean food in the U.S. The
ingredients are already adapting to
everything from burgers to poutine. And
it’s not just here. In Seoul, where I have
travelled frequently in recent years, the
cuisine is rapidly morphing, too. The line
between
western
influences
and
traditional flavors is becoming less and
less rigid. We don’t need to wait a
generation anymore to discover the next
incarnation of Korean food.
And that’s good — and delicious — for
us. What is popular in Korea now is
instantly translatable to the American
table. The expanding Korean pantry is
already here to entice an audience hungry
for more umami and spice.
Now, I’ll grant you that sea squirt
sashimi may never gain traction here. But
jeotgal is something that can easily become
an American staple. It is a category that
denotes any fermented seafood. It can be
anything from 40-day-old fish guts to a
lighter, almost ceviche-like cold dish of
oysters with chili and fish sauce. It is
delicious as a condiment, added to a rice
dish, or served with fatty pork. And there
are as many varieties as there are fish in
the sea. My recipe is an introduction to the
category: oysters in a lettuce wrap
tempered by the richness of fatty pork
sausage.
When we think of Korean ingredients,
we think of fermented products. But there
are also many fresh herbs and vegetables
that are becoming more widely available.
Teardrop
or
hachiya
persimmons,
chrysanthemum leaves, and Asian pears
are staples I see all the time now. One that
is still rare but growing in popularity is
perilla (sometimes called shiso). They are
leaves from the sesame tree, and they are
pungent, slightly minty, and bitter all at
the same time. Traditionally used as a
wrap or fermented into kimchi, the
leaves also make a delicious addition to
salads.
Meanwhile, gochujang is the Korean
ingredient Americans are most likely to
encounter first. It is a fermented chili
paste that is essential to many Korean
dishes. It has yet to penetrate the typical
household, but chefs have been using it for
years to add depth to stews, glazes, and
marinades. Ssamjang is its more complex
(and less spicy) brother. It is a seasoned
dipping sauce made from gochujang,
garlic, sesame oil, and soybean paste.
Typically it is used only as a condiment to
barbecue, but it has so much more
potential. I use it in gravy, in hummus, or
just eat it with raw vegetables. And that is
exactly why this sauce will gain in
popularity here. Without the limiting
blinders of tradition, American chefs will
see it as a limitless pantry item.
And that’s the exciting part — watching
these ingredients take on new roles. That’s
when American cuisine is at its best. The
misinterpretation of tradition can be a
good thing, even essential. Because it often
leads to new ones, those we can claim as
our own.
Edward Lee is the chef/owner of multiple Louisville,
Kentucky restaurants, including 610 Magnolia and
MilkWood. His first cookbook is Smoke and Pickles.
10 fresh, fast ideas for using Korean gochujang chili paste
TASTY PASTE. A Bloody Mary with Korean gochujang — which is
made from chili peppers, rice, fermented soy beans, and salt — is seen
in Concord, New Hampshire. (AP Photo/Matthew Mead)
By J.M. Hirsch
AP Food Editor
I
f you haven’t already seen gochujang — a thick,
Korean chili paste — you very likely will. And very
soon.
Korean food has been enjoying an upswing in the U.S. in
recent years, and one of the most popular ingredients to
catch on has been gochujang. Think of it as a blend of miso
(Japanese fermented soy bean paste) and Sriracha (that
increasingly ubiquitous hot sauce), except gochujang is
way more complex and (usually) not nearly as spicy as
straight up hot sauce.
Made from chili peppers, rice, fermented soy beans, and
salt, gochujang has a savory spicy-sweet flavor that’s
particularly agreeable with meats and grilled or roasted
vegetables. Though often used as a condiment in its own
right, gochujang also frequently is used as a base of
marinades, sauces, and soups. Thinned with a bit of rice
vinegar, for example, it makes a great sauce for cooked
vegetables.
Because specific recipes for gochujang can vary widely,
it’s good to try several brands to find one you prefer. Once
you have, of course you can delve into classic Korean
cooking. But it’s also fun to take gochujang outside its
cultural context and put it to use in all sorts of cooking.
Here are 10 of my favorites:
10 fresh ways to
use Korean gochujang
Bloody Mary
Whisk a teaspoon or so of gochujang into tomato juice,
then use in your favorite bloody mary cocktail.
Corn on the cob
Smear a liberal amount of gochujang over corn fresh off
the grill. Or even better, mix together equal amounts of
gochujang and softened butter, then use that.
Rub
Smear a generous amount of gochujang over flank steak
and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before
grilling. Serve thinly sliced against the grain with
additional gochujang thinned with rice vinegar.
Vinaigrette
Whisk together equal parts gochujang, cider or rice
vinegar, and apricot jam. Use on robust salads or grilled
vegetables, such as broccoli and zucchini.
Grilled cheese
Smear gochujang thickly on a slice of bread. Top with
slices of blue cheese, then top with a second slice of bread.
Butter the outsides of the bread, then toast in a skillet
until the cheese is melted.
Hot dogs
Mix together equal amounts of ketchup and gochujang,
then use to top hot dogs. For the full experience, lay down
a heap of kimchi in the bun first.
Burgers
Mix several tablespoons of gochujang into whatever
ground meat (or blend of meats) you use for burgers,
meatballs, and meatloaf.
Falafel
Stir gochujang and diced cucumber into plain Greek
yogurt, then use as a condiment for falafel or lamb
burgers.
Pulled pork
Thin gochujang with water, cider vinegar, and a bit of
honey, then toss with shredded or pulled pork and serve
on slider buns.
Sloppy Joes
Brown one pound ground beef and one diced onion in a
splash of olive oil. Mix in a 15-ounce can tomato sauce
blended with two tablespoons gochujang. Simmer. If
desired, sprinkle in a bit of brown sugar.
Appeals court upholds California’s shark-fin ban
By Sudhin Thanawala
The Associated Press
AN FRANCISCO — A federal
appeals court has dismissed a legal
challenge to a California law
banning the sale, distribution, and
possession of shark fins.
The legislation does not conflict with a
19th-century law that gives federal
officials authority to manage shark fishing
off the California coast or significantly
interfere with interstate commerce, the
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.
The 2-1 ruling upheld a lower court
decision tossing the lawsuit brought by the
S
Chinatown Neighborhood Association
and Asian Americans for Political
Advancement, a political action commit-
tee.
The groups had argued that the ban —
passed in 2011 — unfairly targeted the
Chinese community, which considers
shark-fin soup a delicacy. Shark finning is
the practice of removing the fins from a
living shark, leaving the animal to die.
Joseph Breall, an attorney for the
groups, said they were reviewing their
options and had not yet decided whether to
appeal. He said he was heartened by the
dissenting opinion by judge Stephen
Reinhardt, who said the plaintiffs should
have been allowed to amend their lawsuit.
The plaintiffs had argued on appeal that
the shark-fin law conflicted with the
federal law intended to manage shark
fishing off the California coast.
The majority in the 9th Circuit ruling,
however, said the federal law has no
requirement that a certain number of
sharks be harvested, and even if it did, the
California law still allowed sharks to be
taken for purposes other than obtaining
their fins.
The federal law, additionally, envisions
a broad role for states in crafting fishery
management plans, and, like California’s
ban, makes conservation paramount, the
court said.
The 9th Circuit also rejected the
plaintiffs’ claims that the ban illegally
interfered with trade in shark fins
between California and other states and
the flow of shark fins between states
through California.
“The Shark Fin Law does not interfere
with activity that is inherently national or
that requires a uniform system of
regulation,” judge Andrew Hurwitz wrote.
“The purpose of the Shark Fin Law is to
conserve state resources, prevent animal
cruelty, and protect wildlife and public
health. These are legitimate matters of
local concern.”