Recipes By Eric Kim
211 recipes found
Miso Soup
In the United States, especially in Japanese American restaurants, the standard version of miso soup usually involves little more than soft tofu, seaweed and a lily-pad suspension of scallions. Think of this recipe as your blank canvas: You could add thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms at the end, or replace the katsuobushi entirely with dried shiitakes for a vegan version. Fried tofu, clams and even chicken are all fair game when cooking miso soup at home. The chef Seiji Ando, of Benkay restaurant in Portland, Maine, adds sake and mirin for balance, and says even a tiny bit of butter can be delicious.
Tteok Mandu Guk (Rice Cake Soup With Dumplings)
You can eat a bowl of tteok guk, rice cake soup, as South Koreans do on New Year’s Day (by the Gregorian or Lunar calendar) and freeze any leftover broth for multiple soul-soothing meals in the new year. The soup sometimes includes mandu, as it does here, and those dumplings also can be frozen. An aromatic gochugaru oil turns this ordinarily snow-white dish crimson, flavoring the bold, spicy-sweet kimchi dumpling filling and tingeing the final broth with its heat. The tteok, rice cakes, here come in the form of thick, cylindrical pieces rather than soggy coins, and are added at the last moment to maintain their pleasurable chewiness.
Spinach-Artichoke Lasagna
Inspired by the artichoke slice at Artichoke Basille’s Pizza in New York City, this white sauce lasagna is a dreamy multilayered dinner. Frizzling chopped canned artichoke hearts in olive oil reduces their water content, thereby concentrating their earthy, buttery flavor. What binds the dish together is a nutmeg-rich béchamel sauce that makes everything taste comforting and familiar. Cottage cheese in place of the more traditional ricotta nixes any potential for the grainy dryness that plagues so many lasagnas. Layering this creamy, saucy wonder in an 8-inch square pan leaves you with the perfect amount of leftovers for when you want some as a snack — a snacking lasagna, if you will.
Brunswick Stew
Few American dishes are more comforting than Brunswick stew, a motley mix of tomatoes, corn, beans and shredded meat. Chicken is most commonly used today, though some stew experts throw in beef chuck or pork shoulder for flavor and fat (or they prepare it in the old way, using game meat such as squirrel and rabbit). Both Brunswick County, Va., and Brunswick, Ga., lay claim to this hearty fall stew. This version borrows from the sweet and savory Virginian tradition. Thickened with potatoes, the stew tastes great on its own, alongside a hunk of cornbread or with a sleeve of saltine crackers.
Buffalo Sauce
Nutty browned butter adds a wonderful underlying note to this otherwise straightforward Buffalo sauce. The emulsion of hot sauce and that melted butter is key to this condiment’s velvety texture, so be sure to whisk well. A cayenne-based bottled sauce like Frank’s RedHot works best here, especially when balanced by brown sugar and vinegar. But be warned: You may have trouble stopping yourself from licking the whisk.
Pineapple Fried Rice
“It’s a whole balanced meal inside a tropical fruit,” writes Pepper Teigen about this pineapple fried rice recipe in her book “The Pepper Thai Cookbook” (Clarkson Potter, 2021). This is fried rice, which means in place of the bacon and chicken, you can use shrimp, beef or whatever vegetables you have languishing in your crisper drawer. The one thing you shouldn’t skip are the assertive seasonings, which merit a party: The full 2 tablespoons of curry powder and 1 teaspoon of ground white pepper are what make this dish tingle and trot with a hot, addictive savoriness.
Crispy Tofu With Sweet-and-Sour Sauce
Inspired by McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets dipped in sweet-and-sour sauce — a classic combination that debuted nationwide in 1983 — this tofu appetizer gets its inexorable crunch from potato starch. Pan-fried until shatteringly crisp, pressed tofu, cut into cute little rectangles, eats a lot like Chicken McNuggets and cooks up gorgeously every time. But the true joy of a nugget lies in the dipping, and this recipe stars a totally chill, no-cook sweet-and-sour sauce. Apricot preserves provide fruity sweetness as well as body, and rice vinegar, soy sauce and onion powder add savoriness.
Doenjang Salmon Rice Bowl
This speedy meal is for seekers of the sweet-salty, known as dan-jjan in Korean. Doenjang, a glorious Korean fermented soybean paste, anchors the sauce with funk and umami. This sauce, balanced with sweet mirin and tangy rice vinegar, both marinates and lacquers salmon, which is quick-roasted. Cutting the fish into cubes allows more surface area for the salmon fat to render quickly, while the centers cook to a medium-rare, melt-in-your-mouth tenderness, a satisfying contrast to the still-crunchy, just-charred onions. This soul-warming breakfast, lunch or dinner tastes best with white rice, kimchi and whatever other accompaniments you might enjoy.
Yangnyeom Sauce
Yangnyeom chicken, a style of Korean fried chicken that’s been glossed with a gochujang-based sauce, is always a good time. Here, you’re getting just the sauce, which can go with just about anything. This crimson concoction delivers on its name — yangnyeom (pronounced YANG-nyum) means “seasoned” in Korean — and tastes especially wonderful with crispy fried things. Ketchup and strawberry jam add necessary sweetness and luster, while savory soy sauce and rice vinegar provide balance.
Gamja Salad With Cucumber, Carrot and Red Onion
Gamja (“potato”) salad is likely to be included among a sea of other banchan at Korean restaurants, and is typically mounded on a plate using an ice cream scoop. It’s similar to mashed potatoes in texture, mayo-laden like many potato salads, and studded with crunchy vegetables and hard-boiled egg. It’s generally a restaurant food, but when home cooks do make it, the salad might be sandwiched between two slices of soft white bread and eaten for lunch. The world is your oyster when it comes to gamja salad: It may include apples, peas, corn kernels, raisins and even nuts, and you can add whatever you like and nix whatever you don’t. But the cucumber is gibon (“standard”), and essential, because it adds a vegetal freshness that pulls this dish back from feeling heavy in any way.
Any Fish Jorim
Fish jorims, braises such as eundaegu (black cod) and godeungeo (mackerel), are staples of Korean home cooking. This easy variation highlights the aromatic flavor of soy sauce, garlic and ginger, a combination that seeps into bone-in, skin-on fish. Steaks of black cod, mackerel and salmon work best here, as they seem almost to melt into rich silkiness, but you could use whatever fatty fish and cut you like. The whole red radishes in this recipe, replacing the more typical Korean radish slabs, gently boil in the salty-sweet liquid until tender, lending their vegetal sweetness to the velvety broth. A barely steamed, basically raw relish of scallions, red onion and jalapeño adds freshness and crunch.
Creamy Broccoli Soup
This is one of the best formulas for a creamy, savory broccoli soup — and it doesn’t include any cream. Borrowing from the concept of using coconut water to provide the kind of richness that is reminiscent of bone broth in Yi Jun Loh’s ingeniously vegan Malaysian ABC soup, this simple green elixir starts with a base of umami-loaded vegetables seared in olive oil then braised in coconut water. With silken tofu providing creaminess, this verdant, vegetable-powered soup can be pleasurably contrasted, in flavor and in temperature, with an optional dollop of sweet, cool ricotta. (If you’re keeping this vegan, you’ll still have plenty of creamy richness even if you leave the ricotta out.)
Creamy Doenjang Pasta
Soybean pastes and noodles make good friends, as in Alexa Weibel’s five-ingredient creamy miso pasta. This version leans into the funkier, saltier flavor of doenjang, a Korean soybean paste whose pungency is an absolute pleasure in jjigaes, sauces and even bread made in a can. Here, doenjang is tempered by the natural sweetness of milk, which stars in many Korean takes on Italian pasta. The milk thickens as it mixes with the starchy noodles and creates a velvety sauce, one that tastes rich but measured, with a rounded cheesy quality. It will seem like a lot of liquid at first, but the milk will reduce. The finished pasta sauce will continue to thicken once it’s off the heat; add more pasta water if it starts to look dry.
Watermelon and Feta Salad
A take on the Mediterranean combination of watermelon and feta, this refreshing zinger of a salad couldn’t be more perfect. Unassumingly simple, the sweet melon, salty cheese and fragrant basil reach their peak when doused with white balsamic vinegar and dribbled with fruity olive oil. Rather than building tall, this salad builds wide — so use a large platter for the most dramatic presentation. Vinegared watermelon does not keep its crisp, juicy texture well, so be sure to dress it (and eat it) the moment the last basil leaf falls.
Cheesy Pizza Stuffing
Imagine Thanksgiving stuffing, but with the red-sauce flavors of cheese pizza. Tomato paste and dried oregano, bloomed in buttery onions, do the heavy lifting in this comforting dish, as does an ivory shower of shredded mozzarella, which melts and gets gooey in spots. Stale bread works best, so dry out the bread the night before you plan to make this, or bake the torn pieces in a 250-degree oven until they’re brittle. You can also assemble the stuffing the night before Thanksgiving; just keep it covered in the refrigerator and bake it the next day while the turkey is resting. Serve this warm, while the cheese is still molten.
Caramel Apple Pudding
Whipped cream desserts are a light and lovely affair, especially at the end of a big meal like Thanksgiving. Some people love crunch, but the particular joy of this pudding lies in its voluptuous softness, as it needs to sit in the fridge overnight for the layers to cohere: vanilla cookies, caramel-fried apples and salted cinnamon whipped cream. It’s an airy fall dream in dessert form.
Salt-and-Pepper Roast Turkey Breast
A bone-in turkey breast is significantly easier to cook than a whole bird, it takes a fraction of the time, and it still feeds a group comfortably. To ensure succulence, you could apply a dry brine the night before, but when you’re cooking just a breast, the greatest insurance against dryness is pulling it out of the oven the moment it’s done, and no later. (For that, rely on an electric instant-read meat thermometer; it’s the only way to get a truly accurate read on the internal temperature of your meat.) I like to roast turkey the way I roast chicken: unbrined but slathered in butter, showered with salt and pepper and popped into a moderately hot oven to get crispy skin. Once the slices are fanned out on a platter tumbled with lemon wedges, it looks like a veritable feast.
Gochugaru Salmon With Crispy Rice
Gochugaru, a mild, fragrant red-pepper powder, bedazzles this quick salmon dinner. As a key ingredient in Korean home cooking, gochugaru proves that some chiles provide not only heat but fruity sweetness as well. Here, that’s especially true once it’s bloomed in maple syrup, vinegar and butter. If you like shiny things, you may find great pleasure in watching this pan sauce transform into a mirrored, crimson glaze. Try to get long center-cut salmon fillets for uniform thickness and even cooking. Their crispy skin tastes wonderful with white rice, which toasts in the rendered salmon fat. To balance the richness of the fish, serve it with fresh, crunchy things, like cucumbers or pickles, or a big green salad.
Sweet Corn Pudding
This is corn pudding if it were a creamy dessert (versus the wonderful savory Southern casserole dish by the same name). Those who love majarete — a pudding of fresh corn, milk and cinnamon enjoyed in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, among other parts of Latin America — may recognize this simple, elegant treat, here flavored with vanilla. A good amount of salt accentuates the corn’s natural essence, which you can draw out very easily by simmering corn on the cob in milk. With this recipe, you get two goodies in one: the sweet, golden pudding, plus a heap of milk-poached corn on the cob for snacking later. You can eat this as is, warm or chilled, or topped with a dollop of whipped cream.
Affogato
L’affogato al caffè, a dessert of gelato drowned in espresso, is “one of Italy’s most delectable modern dishes,” writes Anna Del Conte in her “Gastronomy of Italy.” The ice cream can be fior di latte, vanilla or chocolate, or whatever you like. Dulce de leche, with its caramelized milkiness, would be wonderful, as would cherry amaretto. The magic of affogato is that you get two pleasures in one: a spoonable dessert sauced with coffee, and a cream-blushed drink to chase it. The sweet ice cream and bitter coffee should enhance, not overtake each other. Like the best partners, they should meet in the middle.
Chamomile Tea Cake With Strawberry Icing
This buttery, chamomile tea-scented loaf is a sweet pop symphony, the Abba of cakes. A pot of flowery, just-brewed chamomile isn’t required for drinking with slices of this tender loaf but is strongly recommended. In life and in food, you always need balance: A sip or two of the grassy, herbal tea between bites of this cake counters the sweetness, as do freeze-dried strawberries, which lend tartness and a naturally pink hue to the lemony glaze. This everyday loaf will keep on the counter for 3 to 4 days; be sure the cut side is always well wrapped.
Kimchi Jjigae With Ribs
The world of bubbling jjigaes, or stews, is vast and varied. The most beloved might be kimchi jjigae, a pot of extra-fermented kimchi boiled in its own juices until mellowed and yielding. Pork belly, Spam and tofu are common protein additions, as are tuna and mackerel pike. In this version, baby back ribs lend both flavor and body to the broth and are fun to eat with your hands. In case your kimchi is less than ripe (it should taste sharp and funky), a couple of seasonings help fortify this jjigae’s flavor: Fish sauce adds savory depth, and maesil cheong (green plum syrup) lends rounded sweetness. And though watercress is not a traditional ingredient in kimchi jjigae, it is a favorite addition to this family recipe.
Jalapeño Grilled Pork Chops
Juicy jalapeños offer discernible heat, but they have a higher purpose beyond that: They provide welcome freshness with their distinct vegetal flavor. When blitzed with aromatic cilantro stems and plenty of garlic, jalapeños transform into a punchy marinade that flavors and tenderizes pork chops gloriously, and tinges them a bright Reptar-Bar green, too. That brilliant color, evidence of the chlorophyll in the peppers and herbs, stays vibrant even after a fiery kiss on the grill.
Cookies-and-Cream Pavlova
The story goes that Pavlova, a dessert which both Australia and New Zealand lay claim to, is named after the prima ballerina Anna Pavlova, who performed in both countries in the 1920s. Ms. Pavlova’s tutu, billowing round with layers of lace, is the inspiration for the creamy meringue dessert. This simple version combines a crackled, speckled meringue disk — crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside — and a swoopy crown of salted whipped cream. Fans of the marshmallows in Lucky Charms cereal will delight in this four-ingredient Pavlova, whose flavor is reminiscent of those hearts, stars and horseshoes. Here, the “cookies” in cookies-and-cream are, as ever, Oreos, which lend that dreamy teeter-totter of milky white and bittersweet black.