A fantastic Korean dinner menu

And two great cookbooks

May 21, 2024

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I love being at a stage in life where it’s easy to make meals off the top of my head and I was reminded over the weekend that it’s fun and important to get out of one’s own comfort zone (or rut) by trying new recipes.

And hey, given that: 1) it’s AAPI month, 2) these two cookbooks brought me joy over the weekend, 3) people on Instagram were asking me for recipe details as I shared photos in Stories, I thought it would be fitting to share a proper recap post with resource information.

This past weekend we moved Laurel home following her sophomore year of college (she stayed an extra week to work Commencement as part of the emergency medical service team). It turned out that one of her closest friends + family were visiting Boston so we invited them over to dinner. I asked Laurel what they might like to eat and she suggested Korean food.

Now here’s the thing. Yes, I am Korean. And no, I don’t make Korean food that often—not because I don’t love it but because I think at some level my brain remains incapacitated by the prospect of all the banchan (side dishes) my mom lays out. Or perhaps by the feeling that I just can’t make Korean food as well as my mom. Many years ago I went through a phase of experimentation with Korean recipes where the results were, well, MEH.

Related sidebar: In case you’re wondering why I haven’t just asked my mom for her recipes, my mom is the kind of cook who: A) doesn’t measure anything, B) I suspect leaves out a key step or ingredient so any loosely translated recipe will never mirror the original. LOL.

I have had two cookbooks on my shelf for a while and have not done much with them, though I couldn’t bring myself to part with them when I did my 30-50% declutter target project. I suppose I felt that these cookbooks still had a journey. And on Sunday, I finally set them on their path. I am late to this party but welcome to my life, Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home by Eric Kim, and Koreatown by Deuki Hong & Matt Rodbard.

I made a charcuterie board for people to pick at because, YAY SNACK BOARDS, but beyond that, here is how the Korean menu went down.

Marinated steak tips + chicken breast

I decided to anchor the meal with a tried and true marinade I have been using for so long that I cannot remember its origins. I use:

1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1-2 tablespoons sesame oil
1-2 inches of ginger, roughly chopped
1/2 cup chopped scallions
2 pounds meat of your choice

I doubled the above and prepared steak tips and chicken breast. I started marinating in the late morning and Jon grilled the meat at dinnertime. So yummy.

Dubu jorim (soy-braised tofu)

Laurel is a vegetarian so I wanted to make tofu and was eager to try something beyond my everyday tofu recipe (which just includes a quick soy sauce/balsamic vinegar glaze). This recipe is from Koreatown and I have never in my life braised something and now I want to make this soy-braised tofu all the time. It is absolute perfection. Definitely double the recipe!

Raw Brussels sprout muchim

In Eric Kim’s “One dressing, a thousand fruit muchims” recipe in Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home, he recommends trying the marinade recipe with Brussels sprouts, going so far as to claim that with this recipe, there’s no longer a need for roasted Brussels sprouts in his life. I don’t think I will ever give up crispy Brussels sprouts, but when I’m prepping for a dinner party I love when I can advance prep a recipe and no heat is involved. This was, indeed, fantastic.

Muchim pickles

For years I have made cucumber namul (salad) that involves the pain in the ass step of wilting the cucumbers with salt and letting them drain for a long time. So I was keen on finding a replacement. Koreatown includes a recipe for “Crispy tofu sandwiches with muchim pickles and grape-jelly doenjang dressing” and I just made the side pickles and they were easy and delicious.

Roasted cauliflower + potatoes with magic gochugaru dust

Since I didn’t know in advance how spice tolerant our guests would be, and if they even liked Korean food, I wanted to offer a loving out, so I roasted a tray each of cauliflower and potatoes. In case people did want to season their veggies in Korean fashion, I offered these platters with a bowl of magic gochugaru dust from Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home.

And OK, some banchan! And rice.

I also put out (store bought) kimchi (sorry, mom) and homemade carrot and daikon pickles I made with the spoils of my CSA last summer. We also put on a pot of brown rice and I added nori snacking sheets to the table.

It’s unusual for me to try three new recipes for a dinner party with people I’m meeting for the first time but I had confidence in these cookbook authors and the ingredient combinations and was thrilled with how well it all turned out. I’m looking forward to exploring more in these cookbooks, and I am thrilled to have some new items in my cooking repertoire! I hope you will consider supporting these authors by buying their cookbooks.