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Korean Namul and Banchan


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I tried to make the dish last night.....tasted good...but completely different from what we had in the restaurant. Maybe the broth is not dashi after all.

I googled the names of dishes that various posters have given; there's one dish that has similar ingredients but it uses "dweng jang" (Korean bean paste) Would this give you a clear broth when cooked? thanks!!

doenjang is basically a miso and will give you a miso like broth.

Is is possible it was a broth based on beef, instead of dashi, in Korea beef broth is quite popular.

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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  • 1 month later...
  • 5 months later...

Years ago at a Korean restaurant I was served a black soybean dish with all those lovely little pickled things at the beginning of a meal. :wub: Since that time, I've tried to find a recipe, and I've asked every Korean person I know how to make it. I almost always hear, "Oh yeah, those are great. My Mom/Grandmother makes them. I don't know how to make them."

I recently saw bags of black soybeans at a Korean grocery in Jacksonville, and I asked a few customers and the guy at the checkout about preparing this dish. Again, everybody knew about it, but nobody knew how to make it.

Does someone have a recipe? Or is it just one of those simple cook the beans and toss with salt and vinegar sorts of things?

Thanks -

Linda

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Cook or soak the beans until they're just barely softened; then add plenty of soy sauce and a little sugar or mirin and cook till they're wrinkled. The way my mom makes them, they're just barely tender with a little "bite" in the center. She garnishes with sesame seeds.

YUM!

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you mean kong jang? eunny jang is spot on.

Honestly, I hate to admit this, but I'm one of lazy people that goes to the deli and buys it, or eats it if someone else makes it. I didn't realize this was for black soybeans. Actually, I never thought about what bean goes in there, but it's definitely a small roundish black bean, that you can find in any Korean market. If you have seen adzuki beans, I think they're about the same size.

the lone english recipe for kong jang (soy sauce marinated black beans)

there's a lot of subtle variations in the Korean recipes but I don't have the time to translate them.

one with pics (korean though)

Edited by jschyun (log)

I love cold Dinty Moore beef stew. It is like dog food! And I am like a dog.

--NeroW

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This is interesting.  I have never heard of a "drop lid."  I assume this is to promote even cooking?  Also, what's up with the old nail? :huh:

The old nail is to blacken the color of the beans, as for teh drop lid I actually have never thought about it, but it is used in the majority of simmered dishes, I have just started a new thread just on the drop lid:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=51996

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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Oh geez, I just read that English recipe and realized it called for a pound of beans. That's a lot of kong jang! Obviously you don't want to make that much on your first try.

Here's a quick and somewhat crappy translation of the korean recipe. Not as nice as melonpan's but oh well.

Kong Jang Recipe 2(Soy Sauce Marinated Beans)

Ingredients: 1 cup black soy beans, 2 Tblspns raw sesame seeds, 2 cups water.

Sauce Ingredients: 5 Tblspns soy sauce, 2 Tblspn rice wine (aka mirin), 1 Tblspn sugar, 1 Tblspn corn syrup, a little sesame oil (I will guess 1/4 tsp)

1. Soak the black beans for about 5 hrs.

2. When the skins have started to split, rinse the beans a bunch of times. You don't necessarily want to get the skins off though. You want chewy beans with nice dark brown, shiny yet wrinkly skins.

3. In a pan (the pic has a cute aluminum pan) put the 2 cups water, beans and boil until about halfway done. (As mentioned, the eventual product is supposed to be chewy, not cooked through like baked beans.)

4. Okay then you mix together the sauce stuff: soy sauce, cooking wine, sugar, malt syrup.

5. When the beans are about half cooked, throw in the sauce you just mixed in #4 and cook for about 15 minutes and make sure a lot of steam comes out of the beans and the liquid in the pan reduces down as much as possible. The eventual beans are pretty dry, so I would reduce down a lot. However, you also want to make sure the beans don't overcook and get mushy.

6. once steam is coming off and the liquid is pretty much reduced, splash in a little sesame oil. and throw in the sesame seeds.

Cool the beans down in the fridge. I guess you could eat them hot, but I never have. (Can you tell I have never made these? I'm telling you, I'm LAZY) Personally, I don't like to eat these cold, but you definitely have to cool them down so that sauce coats the beans and you get that sticky quality. I think the malt syrup is what makes the beans shiny and so nicely sticky. No need for an old nail. Very addictive.

Oh, and a drop lid just seems like a generic pot lid. I'm sure you can use a regular pot lid with exactly the same results.

------------------EDIT-------------------------

--#2 changed line from "when skins are sort of coming off" to "when skins have started to split"

--also I don't think you should use a lid for this recipe. As you can see in the pic, no lid is used, and also you want to rapidly reduce the liquid in the pot.

--edited sauce ingred list to make more clear

--the moolyut is corn syrup not the malt syrup I was thinking of. it's corn syrup

Edited by jschyun (log)

I love cold Dinty Moore beef stew. It is like dog food! And I am like a dog.

--NeroW

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do you think they could be made with out the malt sryup?

I don't think I will be able to get that without a trip to a the very far away Korean market.

Any substitutes?

I really want to try the Korean version......

I have never added a nail by the way... :biggrin:

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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I suspect any thick syrup product would work. I would be surprised if there was no thick syrup product in Japan that would do the trick.

I don't think you need it, I've seen plenty of times where the sauce is kind of watery, but I like it more viscous and sticky.

Because I feel guilty about everyone trying to make this, I think I too will make kong jang sometime this week. The things I do for you guys.

Edited by jschyun (log)

I love cold Dinty Moore beef stew. It is like dog food! And I am like a dog.

--NeroW

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actually some Japanese recipes call for mizu-ame which is a thick sweet sryup, thicker and sweeter than corn sryup. a quick look on the internet says that traditionaly it was a malt sryup but now is made with potatoes or sweet potatoes.

I have some on hand and I will give it a try, need to get the beans first though....

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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Because I feel guilty about everyone trying to make this, I think I too will make kong jang sometime this week.  The things I do for you guys.

I buy them at the store too

Note: I was talking to my mom tonight, and she mentioned that you should NEVER cover the pot - doing so will make the beans "puh-juh", which in this context, I gather she means kind of loose and mushy.

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i just would like to point out that earlier jschyun mentioned a recipe of mine but i dont think i have ever posted anything. ive made it before and ive been posting for like forever so it is possible, but...

I suspect any thick syrup product would work.
ive never cooked it with any kind of syrup. but it doesnt mean that i wont try! still, i lots of people make it without. go for it however way you wish torakris!
make the beans "puh-juh", which in this context, I gather she means kind of loose and mushy.
yeap. puhjuh means overcooked, and in any context, that means mushy beans. you do want them chewey.
"Bibimbap shappdy wappdy wap." - Jinmyo
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Guess what guys:

the matsul that I didn't really know about is the exact same thing as mirin. I asked at the store today and they rolled their eyes at me.

the yut (malt syrup) I was thinking of is actually corn syrup. There is another syrup that is actually malt syrup, and brown like what I was thinking of, but this recipe asks for corn syrup.

I suspect if you put in enough sugar, that would do the same thing.

And since I was at the store, I measured the black beans against the other ones and they're actually slightly bigger than adzuki beans.

see this is why melonpan does all the translations... she's more careful. :laugh:

I'll look around for other recipes.

--sugar and corn syrup do have slightly different properties sometimes. I don't know that it will make a difference here, but I bought enough beans to try both. Also, cane and beet sugar can make a difference, cane generally being superior. At least that's what I read somewhere.

Edited by jschyun (log)

I love cold Dinty Moore beef stew. It is like dog food! And I am like a dog.

--NeroW

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The people at the Korean grocery were really helpful. I went in with notes from you all (thanks) and they found the yut and gave me a bottle of mirin for the matsul. So I made it with the "right" ingredients.

I cooked the beans uncovered, although I do think a drop lid would have made them cook a little more evenly before the soy sauce mixture went in. This would mean less stirring = less loss of wrinkly bean skins.

The dish that I originally had in the restaurant was not so sweet and didn't have the sesame seeds. I like this one with the sticky syrup and seeds better.

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  • 3 weeks later...

jangajji (장아찌)... vinegar/soy sauce pickles.

im a complete dope when it comes to kimchi. like a spoiled prince i know the good shit when i eat it, but i couldnt make any to save my life.

but jangajji i can manage. and so can you. yes, YOU.

typically, jangajji contains onions and cukes and daikon (muu), but you can stick whatever you want in there. what have i seen? eggplant, nappa cabbage, various roots (like doraji and deodeok), garlic sprouts, perilla leaves, korean put (poot) chiles... mom loves her garlic jalapeno jangajji...

since i last drove down with moms schtuff last april, we have run low again at the apt. ive been eating ochazuke like theres no tomorrow lately and that certainly hasnt helped. time to make some more...

the raw ingredients. i ended up adding one more onion to what is pictured here.

about twenty jalapenos, an onion, a daikon root, about 8 pickling cukes, some stalks of leftover celery and two pounds of garlic cloves :wub: gotta have tons of garlic to eat!

<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga.jpg"></center>

heres chopping up the jalapenos:

<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga02.jpg"> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga03.jpg"></center>

<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga04.jpg"></center>

i dont get rid of the seeds. i like the heat. and pickled, its not so hot.

some people slice the cukes lengthwise, or even leave them whole. but i like them in nice banchan sized pieces. thick chunky chunks.

<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga05.jpg"></center>

these garlic cloves were large. i tended to cut them up. mom leaves them whole. some people pickle the whole head which makes for pretty presentations, but i hate digging in and cutting up the stuff when i want to eat. slicing off the tops of the cloves is also optional.

<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga06.jpg"></center>

my muu (daikon) also gets the chunk treatment:

<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga07.jpg"> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga08.jpg"></center>

the onions, i like in smaller bits. they tend to be saltier, more vinegarier so i make them smaller than the other veggies.

<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga09.jpg"> <img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga10.jpg"></center>

didnt take pics of the celery, but i think you get the picture.

ive dumped the veggies into whatever jars i had available. i came up short so i chopped up one more small onion...

<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga11.jpg"></center>

now the boring prep crap is over and done with and the fun pouring begins... pour in vinegar to cover all the veggies completely.

<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga12.jpg"></center>

some of the veggies float, so my mom puts a large smooth rock she found on some beach years ago on top. it looks really cool. i havent found any yet. so i usually put a plastic lid from another kimchi jar inside the other jars (which you can just make out). you dont actually need to do this, but i sleep better knowing that all the bits are definitely drowned and beyond saving.

<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga13.jpg"></center>

two days after starting i saw some really great carrots and decided to add them to two of the pots.

<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga14.jpg"></center>

its now about a week and a half since i started and heres what the large pot looks like today...

<center><img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041015janga15.jpg"></center>

i had some time tonight so i decided to post this... but we are still not done. maybe another two, three weeks before they are ready.

perusing online and looking at other jangajji recipes, i see that soaking orders and durations vary greatly. some people salt their veggies with salt (i do not. i use soy sauce). some people soak only for 3 days... lotsa different things. some people keep their jangajjis pure in the sense that they keep veggies separate. a cucumber jangajji in this small jar, a garlic only on there and a perilla leaf one here...

its like kimchi, a wild country. youre free to do what you like. as long as it works, no one will complain.

this is basically my moms recipe.

"Bibimbap shappdy wappdy wap." - Jinmyo
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oh yeah, i wanted to add that sometimes the garlic turns green or blue. theres some chemical reason for this, but it doesnt always happen. its not such a big deal with this recipe because you end up soaking this stuff in soy sauce and then you cant see the blue or the greens.

but in other western pickles, i guess it can be unappetizing and ive read that people blanch their garlic to help prevent this.

this time, the garlic did not change color, so shoot, i couldnt take any freaky photos.. oh well. im sure you can imagine anyway....

"Bibimbap shappdy wappdy wap." - Jinmyo
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a couple of questions

what kind of vinegar did you use?

do you add the soy sauce  after removing?

i use the plain vinegar, not cider or rice. but you can actually use any kind of vinegar. looking at other recipes online, there are people who use rice and cider.

the soy sauce my mom adds in this fashion:

after the veggies have soaked for two weeks in vinegar, you dump out all the vinegar, then you soak the veggies in soy sauce for two weeks. then youre done. you take small amounts (a small jarful) and mix in sugar to taste for that small batch. the soy sauce mixture thats left behind is excelent for dipping in meats (from gomtang, seolleongtang, etc)...

i should have posted the recipe from the first posting. i wasnt really thinking. anyway, better late than never.

"Bibimbap shappdy wappdy wap." - Jinmyo
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