Haemul bap (seafood rice bowl)

Haemul bap (seafood rice bowl) (Korean Bapsang)

Haemul bap is rice cooked with seafood and served with a sauce. This type of rice bowl is very popular in Korean homes. By throwing in a few other ingredients while cooking the rice, you can have a filling one-pot meal. The obvious benefit of cooking the other ingredients with the rice is that the rice will soak up the flavors as it cooks. Because my rice cooker locks once it’s started, I cook haemul bap on the stove so I can add the seafood later in the cooking process to avoid overcooking. 

Water is fine to cook the rice with, but flavorful liquid will add another dimension to the rice. Dashima (dried kelp) broth is commonly used. Boil a small piece of dried kelp for a few minutes to make broth. The water used to soak dried mushroom is also good. If you’re using fresh clams and/or mussels, partially cook them in a little bit of the boiling water to remove the meat, and then use the cooking liquid to cook the rice. 

A little bit of lemon juice in the sauce really brightens up the flavor of this rice bowl.

2 to 3 servings

Ingredients:
● 1 1/2 cups short grain rice (standard measuring cup not the cup that comes with a rice cooker)

● 1 1/2 cups water (or dashima broth or other flavorful liquid) 300 grams assorted seafood (shrimp, squid, mussels, oysters, clams, etc.)

● 1 small carrot, thinly sliced

● 1/3 cup frozen peas, thawed

● 2 to 3 caps shiitake mushrooms (soaked if using dried mushrooms), thinly sliced

● 80 grams Korean radish, mu, cut into short match stick

Sauce (Yangnyumjang):
● 3 tablespoons soy sauce

● 2 teaspoons lemon juice

● 1 teaspoon sesame oil

● 1 teaspoon gochugaru (Korean red chili pepper flakes)

● 1 teaspoon sesame seeds

● 1 teaspoon minced garlic

● 1 teaspoon sugar

● 2-3 scallions, finely chopped 

Rinse the rice three times by swishing the rice, draining each time. Soak the rice for 20 to 30 minutes. This soaking process is very important for fluffy rice. Drain to make sure the correct amount of water is added.

Clean the seafood, and drain well. Prepare the vegetables. 

Mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a bowl.

Place the rice in a heavy-bottom pot, and add the water (or flavorful broth). Cover, and bring the rice to a full boil over high heat. This will take 4 to 5 minutes. Then, reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 5 minutes. 

Quickly stir in the vegetables and seafood. Cover, and cook for an additional 7 to 8 minutes. Turn the heat off, and leave the pot covered for about 5 minutes.

When the rice is done, gently fluff up the rice, evenly distributing the seafood and vegetables. Serve with the sauce on the side.

Agujjim (spicy braised monkfish with soybean sprouts)

Agujjim (spicy braised monkfish with soybean sprouts) Korean Bapsang

Agujjim (also called agwijjim) is a spicy fish dish made with agu (monkfish) and kongnamul (soybean sprouts). The dish originated from the southern coastal city of Masan. In the past, this not so good-looking fish wasn’t consumed as a food item in Korea due to its appearance. The story behind the birth of this dish is that some fishermen didn’t want to waste their catches, so they brought them to an eatery and asked the cook to make a tasty dish. That was in the 1960s. The dish is now enormously popular all over the country. 

Monkfish is a firm, white fish with a texture similar to lobster meat. In America, it’s known as “poor man’s lobster.” We Koreans usually use bone-in and skin-on pieces, but fillets work as well. Agujjim typically includes mideodeok (sea squirts), but I used shrimp instead in this recipe. The soybean sprouts play an important supporting role in this dish. Cook the sprouts briefly, and plunge them into an ice bath immediately after. The crunchy bean sprouts nicely complement the tender, moist fish with bursts of spicy flavor! 

2 to 3 servings

Ingredients:
● 700 grams monkfish (agu)

● 2 tablespoons rice wine (or use dry white wine)

● 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt (less if using fine table salt)

● 6 large shrimp, unpeeled (or a few littleneck clams) ― optional

Seasoning:
● 1 tablespoon minced garlic

● 1 teaspoon finely grated ginger

● 3 tablespoons Korean red chili pepper flakes (gochugaru)

● 1 teaspoon sugar

● 1 tablespoon soy sauce

● Pepper to taste

● 2 tablespoons water 

Vegetables:
● 200 grams soybean sprouts

● 60 grams minari or watercress, cut into 3 to 4 inch lengths

● 2 scallions, cut into 5 centimeter lengths

● Starch slurry (1 tablespoon corn or potato starch in 2 tablespoons of water)

● 2 teaspoons sesame oil

● 1 teaspoon sesame seeds

Clean and cut the fish into 5-centimeter pieces. Drain, and pat dry with a paper towel. Mix well with the salt and wine. Let it stand while preparing the other ingredients.

Combine all the seasoning ingredients.

Prepare a bowl with ice water. In a medium-size pot, bring 1 cup of water to a boil. Add the soybean sprouts, and cook, covered, for 2 minutes over high heat. Drain, and immediately immerse in the ice water. Drain again.

Heat a heavy, deep skillet. Add 1/2 cup of water and the fish, and cook, covered, over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes. Flip the fish over halfway through the process.

Stir in the seasoning mix and the optional shrimp. Continue to cook, covered, for an additional 2 to 3 minutes, or until the fish is tender and the shrimp is cooked through. 

Add the vegetables. Gently toss to evenly coat the vegetables with the sauce.

Pour in the starch slurry, and stir well until the sauce thickens. Stir in the sesame oil and sesame seeds at the end. Serve with a bowl of rice.

Bossam (boiled pork wraps)

Bossam (boiled pork wraps). (Korean Bapsang)

Bossam is a boiled pork dish. The meat is boiled in a flavorful brine until tender and served thinly sliced. At the table, each person wraps the meat in salted napa cabbage leaves along with radish salad (musaengchae, or muchae) and saewujeot (salted shrimp). Sometimes, fresh garlic slices, chili pepper slices or fresh oysters are added. Salted napa cabbage is traditional, but you can also use lettuce or perilla leaves to make wraps. Or, enjoy it simply wrapped in a piece of well-fermented kimchi with some saewujeot.

Pork belly (samgyupsal) and Boston butt (moksal) are the most commonly used cuts for this dish. You can also use picnic shoulder (apdarisal). Korean cooks add a variety of ingredients to the boiling liquid to eliminate the smell of pork and flavor the meat. The addition of doenjang is not surprising because pork and doenjang go very well together in dishes like doenjang jjigae. Coffee is commonly used as well. You will hardly taste the doenjang or coffee when you try the boiled meat. They simply enhance the natural flavor of the pork. The result is a rich, but subtly flavored, deliciously moist meat! 

Ingredients:
● For the wraps:

● Tender inner parts of 1 napa cabbage, salted (or red or green leaf lettuce)

● Musaengchae (radish salad) ― see recipe below.

● Saeujeot (salted shrimp) 

For the meat:
● 1 kg whole fresh pork belly, cut about 8 centimeters in width

● 10 cups water

● 1/2 medium onion

● 2-3 white parts of large scallions

● 7-8 plump garlic cloves

● 1 inch piece of ginger, sliced

● 1 teaspoon whole black peppers

● 1 1/2 tablespoons doenjang (fermented soybean paste)

● 1 teaspoon instant coffee (or a cup of brewed coffee)

● 1 teaspoon salt

● 2 bay leaves

Dissolve 1/2 cup of coarse salt in 4 cups of water, and soak the cabbage leaves until softened, for 2 to 4 hours. Rinse, and drain well.

Bring the water and all the remaining ingredients, except the pork belly, to a boil over medium-high heat, and continue to boil for 5 minutes. 

Add the pork belly and boil for 20 minutes, uncovered. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook, covered, until the meat is very tender, 40 to 50 minutes. Turn the heat off, and cool the meat in the cooking liquid. This will keep the meat moist.

Thinly slice the meat and serve with the salted cabbage (or lettuce), saewujeot and musaengchae.

Keep any leftover meat in the cooking liquid. Boil the meat in the liquid to reheat. This prevents the meat from drying out.

Musaengchae (radish salad)

Ingredients:
● 400 grams mu (Korean radish)

● 1 teaspoon salt

● 2 scallions, finely chopped

● 2-3 tablespoons gochugaru (Korean red chili pepper flakes) ― add to taste

● 2 teaspoons minced garlic 

● 1 teaspoon myulchiaekjeot (fish sauce)

● 1 teaspoon saeu jeot (salted shrimp) 

● 1 teaspoon sesame seeds

● 1/2 teaspoon sugar ― add to taste


Clean the radish, and cut into matchstick size. Sprinkle the salt over the radish and toss well. Let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes until the radish sticks have softened and released some liquid. Drain (or gently squeeze out) excess liquid. Do not rinse. Add all the remaining ingredients. Mix well by hand. Taste and add more salted shrimp or fish sauce if necessary.

Kimchi jjigae

Kimchi jjigae (Korean Bapsang)

When kimchi gets old, it becomes an excellent ingredient for various other dishes! The most common dish made with aged kimchi is kimchi jjigae. It’s a go-to stew in Korean homes. Growing up in Korea, we had a lot of meals just with kimchi jjigae and a bowl of rice. I don’t remember ever getting tired of it. 

There are many ways to make it. The popular version, which is also my favorite, is made with fatty pork. Kimchi and fatty pork is a match made in heaven. To add extra flavor, cook the kimchi and pork together before adding the liquid. If you’d like, use beef or canned tuna instead. It’s also good simply made in anchovy broth, without any meat, for a cleaner taste. 

Use the juice from the kimchi if available because it will add lots of flavor to the broth. Whether you make it to use up old kimchi or to satisfy a craving, this small pot of comfort food is all you need for a satisfying meal. 

Ingredients:
● 2 cups bite-size kimchi (fully fermented) 

● 120 grams fresh pork belly (or other pork meat with some fat)

● 2 to 3 teaspoons gochugaru (Korean red chili pepper flakes) 

● 1 teaspoon minced garlic

● 1/2 teaspoon minced ginger

● 1/2 cup juice from kimchi (if available)

● 2 cups of water (1/2 cup more if not using kimchi juice)

● 200 grams tofu 

● 2 scallions

● Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the meat and kimchi into bite-size pieces. Slice the tofu (about 1.5-centimeters thick), and roughly chop the scallions. 

In a pot, cook the kimchi and pork with the chili pepper flakes, garlic and ginger over medium high heat until the kimchi is softened and the pork cooks through, about 10 minutes. Add the kimchi juice and water. Reduce the heat to medium and boil for about 20 minutes. Add more water if necessary. 

Add the tofu and scallions. Add salt and pepper to taste. (Salt is usually not necessary, unless kimchi was lightly seasoned and/or kimchi juice is not available.) Continue to boil until the tofu is cooked through. Should be about 5 minutes. Serve while bubbling over from the heat.

By Ro Hyo-sun