FamilyFood

Crunchy Korean Cucumber Salad

This salad is so easy to prepare it's stoopid.  The key, though, it making sure you serve it immediately after you toss it so that the salt doesn't have a chance to wilt the cukes. I like it when the cucumbers are still icy-cold from the fridge and you get the pleasant crunch of sea salt with every bite. The recipe calls for ground toasted sesame seeds (You can find sesame seed grinders at any Japanese market.), but if you can't find a grinder a mortar and pestle will work.  Or just sprinkle them on without grinding.

KOREAN CUCUMBER SALAD

• 2 medium-sized cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and chopped into chunks
• half a thinly-sliced small yellow onion, or 1-2 green onions, thinly-sliced
• a drizzle of toasted sesame oil (maybe a teaspoon or two)
• a hefty grinding of toasted sesame seeds (see photo)
• sea salt to taste (large flakes are great, but avoid large the coarse rocks usu. found in salt grinders)
• optional: shaved garlic is great in this, so are a few very thinly-sliced green chilis.

Toss everything together and serve immediately. Serves 4 as a side dish (or two of my children--they love this).  We had this along-side kalbi (Korean BBQ ribs) last night.

Korean Beef Stew (Jang Jolim)

This simple beef stew is one of the first things I ask my mom to cook whenever she visits or when I visit her. The beef is fork-tender because it's braised in a sweet (but not too sweet) soy sauce. It's a comforting crowd pleaser and, because it's better the next day, you can cook a batch on the weekend and serve it during the week.

Don't be put off by the amount of chili peppers in the stew—it needs that many to give it its special flavor. Despite the abundance of chilis, it never gets beyond mildly spicy.

Try this the next time you want to make beef stew but don't want to make the same ol' recipe.

KOREAN BEEF STEW

• 2 pounds chuck steak cut into 2 inch chunks (Whole Foods has chuck steaks)
• 10 green jalapeño peppers, leave whole
• 1 cup of soy sauce (Korean preferred)
• 1 cup of light brown sugar (not packed)
• 1/2 cup of water (if needed)

Place all ingredients into a heavy-bottomed pot (Staub or Le Creuset enameled cast iron Dutch ovens also work well for this).

Just whack it all into a pot.

Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for at least an hour, preferably longer, until beef is tender but not falling apart. Even better the next day. And the sauce is delicious on rice. Serves 4-6.

Accompaniments: steamed rice, kimchi, vegetables.