The Basics

We like to think of this collection of recipes and tips as your Korean cooking “Starter Kit.” It contains the building blocks essential to making and serving delicious easy-to-prepare Korean meals—including plain steamed rice that accompanies most meals; delicious sauces, pastes and dressings that give Korean food its special pungent flavor; and subtle stocks that are the basis of many soups, hot pots and porridges in this book.

Sauces and pastes are some of the most important elements in Korean cuisine. They are part of every dish, whether for cooking, seasoning or dipping. You can reduce your cooking time greatly by preparing basic sauces and key ingredients such as garlic paste in advance. Taekyung spent a few hours putting together large quantities of the sauces that are used in the dishes in this book. When she was done, all we had to do was dip a measuring cup or spoon into the jar and add the sauce to the recipes.