Sauces and Sweets
Korean Cookery
Chapter 9 · Sauces, Pastes and Sweet Things
Shopping list for this chapter
The basics
The table sauces so far
Three sauces have appeared already, each from an article that named its ingredients but not the amounts.
| Sauce | What the sources say | Chapter |
|---|---|---|
| Ssamjang | Doenjang mixed with garlic, sesame oil, "and sometimes gochujang", for leaf wraps | 1 |
| Cho ganjang | A "slightly sweet dipping sauce", typically soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil and other seasonings, for pajeon | 8 |
| Bibim-guksu sauce | Chilli powder, gochujang, minced garlic, vinegar, sugar and a little sesame oil | 7 |
Each sauce is a few pastes and seasonings balanced for salty, sweet, sour and hot. That is the skill this chapter practises before the sweets.
Hotteok
The hotteok article calls it a filled pancake and a popular street food in South Korea, "sometimes called hoeddeok". The dough is wheat flour, water, milk, sugar and yeast, and the article says it rises "for several hours" and is stiff. The filling is a sweet mixture that "may include" brown sugar, honey, chopped peanuts, walnuts and cinnamon. Handful-sized balls of dough are filled and put on a greased griddle, and a stainless steel circle with a wooden handle presses each into a large circle as it cooks. It says the dish originated in Qing dynasty China and was spread in Korea by Chinese merchants in the late 19th century, "generally believed", and that during Japanese rule the Japanese called such snacks Shina pan. An anecdote in the history section has no citation in the text I read, so I leave it out. It says hotteok is usually eaten in winter and may contain as many as 230 calories because of the sugar.
Sikhye
The sikhye article describes it as "a drink made by fermenting rice with malt to give it a sweet taste", served as a dessert, with cooked rice grains and sometimes pine nuts. In the main method, malt water (sprouted, ground, filtered barley) is poured onto cooked rice and steeped at about 62 °C until the rice grains float, then the liquid is filtered and boiled until sweet, with "no sugar" added. The pumpkin version (hobak-sikhye) has sugar added to taste and is fermented for several days, as is Andong sikhye. The article gives no steeping time or quantities, notes some sentences in its preparation section look garbled, and says there is "not yet a solid literary basis" for its name. Health claims (aiding digestion, helping hangovers) are all "believed". Canned versions are sold and often have rice at the bottom. I give no recipe because the method needs a steady 62 °C for an unstated time, which I cannot specify safely.
Hangwa and yakgwa
The hangwa article says hangwa is the general term for traditional Korean confections, which with tteok form the sweet category of Korean cuisine. Its eight main categories include yumil-gwa (deep-fried wheat dough), yugwa (deep-fried glutinous rice dough), dasik (bite-size sweets pressed from honeyed powder in a mould, usually eaten with tea), jeonggwa (candied fruits, roots or seeds), yeot (a sweet from saccharified grains), gwapyeon, suksil-gwa and candies. Honey appears in suksil-gwa and yumil-gwa, rice flour in dasik, sesame in dasik and yeot-gangjeong.
The yakgwa article says it is "a type of yumil-gwa", the infobox lists wheat flour, honey and sesame oil, and the lead adds rice wine and ginger juice. The only frying figure is from a 2019 lab study: dough pieces "deep fried in soybean oil at 90 to 150 °C", then soaked in syrup, which the article calls jupcheong. That is a study condition, not a home method, and I give no recipe. The claim that yakgwa is popular at Seollal and Chuseok is tagged "citation needed".
Pressing: a pancake turner or flat spatula can stand in for the article's pressing circle; keep your fingers clear and do not use a thin plastic tool on a hot griddle.
Nuts: peanuts and walnuts are allergens; milk, wheat and (for sauces) soy, sesame and fish are too.
Deep frying: I give no deep-fried recipe in this chapter (yakgwa) because a home deep fryer needs careful oil handling and the articles give no method.
Try it
A three-sauce tasting
Make small amounts of three sauces and taste each with the same plain food: rice and cucumber or a plain pancake. Write down which tastes saltiest, sweetest, sourest and hottest. Amounts are mine.
Ingredients (2 portions)
- 2 tbsp ssamjang (Chapter 1 recipe)
- 2 tbsp cho ganjang (Chapter 8: soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, a little sugar)
- 1 tbsp gochujang
- 2 tsp rice vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 cup cooked rice and some cucumber sticks
- Make the ssamjang and the cho ganjang as in Chapters 1 and 8.
- For the third, mix the gochujang, vinegar, sugar and sesame oil (this follows the ingredient list of the bibim-guksu sauce in Chapter 7; the proportions are mine).
- Taste each with a bite of plain rice or cucumber. Rinse with water between them.
- Write down one change for each: more sweet, more sour, less salt, more heat.
Hotteok: sweet filled pancakes
The article lists the dough ingredients and says the dough rises for several hours; the amounts, the rising time I use and the cooking time are mine. Dried yeast and a warm kitchen help.
Ingredients (4 pancakes)
- 200 g plain or strong bread flour
- 1 tsp fast-action dried yeast
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 60 ml warm milk
- 50 ml warm water
- 3 tbsp brown sugar, for the filling
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp chopped walnuts or peanuts (optional)
- 1 tbsp cooking oil for the pan
- Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Add the warm milk and water and mix to a stiff, slightly sticky dough. Knead for about 5 minutes.
- Cover and leave in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours, until puffy and nearly doubled (the article says several hours; watch the dough, not the clock).
- Mix the brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts for the filling.
- Oil your hands. Divide the dough into 4. Flatten each into a disc, put a quarter of the filling in the middle, and pinch the edges closed into a ball.
- Heat the oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat. Place the balls seam-side down and cook for 1 minute, then press each flat with a spatula to about 1.5 cm thick.
- Cook 2 to 3 minutes a side over medium-low heat until golden and the filling has melted (mine). If it browns too fast, lower the heat.
- Rest for a few minutes before eating: the filling is very hot.
Experiments
Challenges
Name the three table sauces from earlier chapters, with their ingredients, and say which source each came from. Which one would you use with a pancake?
Describe hotteok, sikhye and yakgwa in a sentence each from the articles, and say which hedged claims you left out.
Make the hotteok and write a note on rise, texture, filling and what you would change. Include the time the dough took to rise and how long each side cooked.
Quick Reference
- Sauces: ssamjang, cho ganjang, gochujang-vinegar-sugar-sesame oil; balance salty, sweet, sour, hot
- Hotteok: yeast dough of wheat flour, water, milk, sugar; rises several hours; brown sugar and nut filling; pressed on a griddle
- Sikhye: rice and malt drink; malt water on cooked rice at about 62 °C (described, not given as a recipe)
- Hangwa: traditional confections; yakgwa is a deep-fried wheat and honey type (described, not given as a recipe)
- Mine, untested: all amounts and times
Next chapter: Capstone: A Korean Meal at Home, which plans and cooks a whole meal from the earlier chapters.