Royal Korean Wraps

Wrapped foods are often thought of as fast food, but in Korean cuisine, wrapped foods known as ssam were served on the tables of the kings of the Joseon dynasty. Their reign lasted for five centuries and had a major impact on modern Korean culture.

We dined on royal Korean wraps at the celebration of the new Korean Restaurant Guide, Los Angeles, written by our friend Barbara Hansen. The Korean Food Foundation, the publishers of the book, provided a description of Korean-style wraps: “Ssam refers to a dish that is accompanied by diverse leaf vegetables (lettuce, sesame leaves, pumpkin leaves, etc.); the vegetable leaves are used to wrap rice, meat and different side dishes together. This dish, boasting outstanding nutritional balance, has been traditionally believed to bring good luck.”

For one appetizer, Chef Myung Sook Lee wrapped a thin piece of seafood around pear julienne and cucumber kimchi (a Korean-style fermented pickle), topped the wrap with caviar, set it on a bed of baby lettuces and served it with a pine nut sauce. She made a more conventional wrap from small whole wheat crepes filled with herb-roasted duck strips, green onion, garlic and Korean citrus sauce. For another appetizer, she seasoned raw tuna with pear juice, soy sauce and garlic, and paired it with strips of Asian pear.

The chef made a royal court beef wrap of cooked bulgogi, or marinated beef strips, enclosed in leafy greens with fried ground beef, topped with spicy Korean red pepper paste and served with stuffed cabbage kimchi. Bulgogi, a popular Korean dish, is traditionally made by marinating beef with thin slices of onion, minced green onion, garlic, soy sauce, pear juice, sugar, honey, sesame salt and sesame oil.

Wraps are also important in Korean home cooking. When Koreans have barbecued meat at a meal, explain Taekyung Chung and Debra Samuels in The Korean Table: from Barbecue to Bibimbap, “piles of soft lettuce leaves are stacked on a plate for wrapping the grilled food.”

Vegetables prepared in a variety of ways, including raw, stir-fried, steamed, fermented and cooked in soups, play a central part in Korean meals. “In a traditional family-style Korean meal,” wrote Chung and Samuels, “the rice is accompanied by at least five side dishes (banchan), which include savory mounds of vegetables and kimchi, the famous Korean fermented vegetables.

These dishes are highly seasoned, and only small amounts are plucked with long silver or stainless steel chopsticks and added to the rice, along with small helpings of the main dish.”

Our favorite banchans are cooked soy bean sprouts dressed with sesame oil, sesame seeds and diced red pepper, and lightly cooked broccoli seasoned the same way. Another favorite Korean side dish of ours is made of potato cubes cooked in slightly sweetened soy sauce.

These tasty side dishes are easy to prepare.

To make an eggplant banchan, for example, Chung and Samuels steam eggplant strips briefly, drain them well and season them with green onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, rice vinegar, roasted sesame seeds, dark sesame oil and salt. A simple cucumber banchan is made by stir-frying cucumber slices in sesame oil and seasoning them with roasted sesame seeds and freshly ground black pepper. (See recipe.) Koreans love robust flavors, wrote Chung and Samuels. “Korean miso (soy bean paste), for example, tends to have a stronger flavor than its closest Japanese counterpart... Traditional Korean soy sauce is... stronger in flavor than the mellower Japanese soy sauce... In Korea, sesame seeds are roasted longer and are several shades darker in color than in other Asian cuisines, creating a nuttier flavor and darker-colored and more strongly flavored sesame oil.”

Korean food is perceived as a healthy, eco-friendly food choice by people around the world, said Suh Dae-won, a former Korean ambassador to the United Nations, in his speech before the dinner.

In her speech, Hansen said that during the weeks when she was reviewing the restaurants, she ate two elaborate meals a day, each including several main dishes, along with rice, soups and banchan, in order to sample as great a variety of food as possible. Yet she never felt uncomfortably stuffed. “Even more remarkable, when it was all over, I hadn’t gained a pound.”

Faye Levy is the author of the award-winning book, Faye Levy’s International Vegetable Cookbook.

Seasoned Cucumbers with Sesame Seeds

This recipe is from The Korean Table. Authors Taekyung Chung and Debra Samuels note that these stir-fried cucumbers are also good cold, tossed with mixed lettuces as a simple salad. The cucumbers keep for 2 days in the refrigerator.

Makes 4 servings

4 mini cucumbers, cut into 6-mm (1⁄4-inch) rounds 1 tsp. fine-grain sea salt 1 Tbsp. dark sesame oil 1 Tbsp. roasted sesame seeds (see note below) Freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a large bowl, combine the cucumbers and salt. Mix well.

Set aside for 5 minutes. Gently squeeze the liquid from the cucumbers.

In a medium skillet, heat the sesame oil over medium heat.

Add the cucumbers and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl. Add the roasted sesame seeds and the black pepper. Mix well.

Note: To roast 1 cup sesame seeds, place a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the sesame seeds. Reduce the heat to low and let the sesame seeds roast for about 1 minute, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon.

Continue toasting and stirring the sesame seeds until the seeds begin to pop. You will begin to smell the aroma of the seeds.

Watch them carefully as they can easily burn. When they have turned light brown, turn off the heat and pour onto a baking sheet to cool. When they have cooled, store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

They will keep for 2 to 3 months.

Korean Zucchini and Carrots with Sesame Seeds

Serve this quick vegetable saute, which is flavored with soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, garlic and pepper flakes, hot as a side dish. It’s also good tossed with lettuce and served cold or at room temperature as a salad.

Makes 4 servings

350 gr. (3⁄4 pound) carrots, cut in thin matchsticks 2 Tbsp. plus 2 tsp. soy sauce 1 Tbsp. plus 2 tsp. Asian (toasted) sesame oil 1 Tbsp. rice vinegar, or to taste 2 medium garlic cloves, minced 1⁄2 tsp. hot red pepper flakes, or to taste 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil 550 gr. (1 1⁄4 pounds) zucchini or pale-skinned squash (kishuim), cut in thin sticks 1 Tbsp. finely chopped green onion 1 Tbsp. sesame seeds, toasted (see note following recipe above) Put carrots in a saucepan with water to cover, bring to a boil and cook for 2 minutes. Drain carrots.

In a small bowl combine soy sauce, 2 tsp. sesame oil, rice vinegar, garlic and pepper flakes. Mix well.

Heat vegetable oil and remaining 1 Tbsp. sesame oil in a large skillet. Add zucchini and saute over medium heat for 1 1⁄2 minutes.

Add carrots and sprinkle with salt.

Toss briefly over heat until vegetables are just tender. Add soy sauce mixture and toss well. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve sprinkled with green onions and toasted sesame seeds.

Korean Marinade for Beef

This recipe is from The Korean Table.

The marinade is used for steaks or small pieces of beef ribs. When preparing steak for dishes like bulgogi, authors Chung and Samuels advise putting the meat in the freezer until it is semi-frozen to make it easy to cut in thin slices across the grain. They recommend combining the beef and the marinade in a large plastic zippered bag and refrigerating it on a baking sheet for one hour. Before being served, the meat is grilled briefly.

To tenderize meat naturally, Chung and Samuels recommend adding one of the following to any marinade: grated kiwi, cored grated pineapple, grated unpeeled pear or grated unpeeled apple.

Makes enough for 750 grams (1 1⁄2 pounds) beef 2⁄3 cup sweet soy base sauce (see note below) 1 small apple, grated (skin on) 1 Tbsp. minced garlic 1⁄2 cup minced green onion 2 Tbsp. dark sesame oil 1⁄4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Combine the marinade ingredients in a bowl.

Note: Simple sweet soy base sauce: In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, combine 1 cup soy sauce, preferably low sodium, 1⁄2 cup light brown sugar, 1⁄4 cup red or white wine and 2 Tbsp. water. Bring to a boil and remove from the heat.

Let the sauce cool and keep it in a jar in the refrigerator. It will keep for 2 or 3 months.

Makes about 1 3⁄4 cups.

Some dishes are traditionally believed to bring good luck.