How hard it is to get past Korean salads!
Stunning vegetable-based appetizers stimulate appetite and tease with their unique aroma.
Well, the queen among this grandeur is Korean carrots.
A simple but very juicy and aromatic appetizer that will decorate any table. And it’s not necessary to buy it.
Korean carrots are very easy to make at home!
Korean carrots - general cooking principles
To cook real carrots in Korean, you will need large, juicy and bright root vegetables. It is undesirable to use vegetables with large cores of light color. The salad will turn out tasteless, grassy. Before use, the carrots are washed, peeled and turned into a thin and long straw.
How can you make straws:
• a special knife resembling a peeler;
• a grater for straws;
• cut with an ordinary knife, as many Koreans do.
Spices for homemade Korean carrots can be used ready-made, they are sold in packs. But for a real snack, it's best to mix the ingredients yourself. Different types of pepper, coriander seeds, sugar, salt and vinegar are commonly used. Onions and garlic are common ingredients in Korean snacks, but greens are rarely added in small quantities, as salads require long pickling and the leaves are simply wilted. Serve snacks with hot oil in a pan. It can be pure or with the addition of various vegetables.
Recipe 1: Real Korean Classic Carrots
In order to cook real carrots in Korean in the classic version, it is better not to use the ready-made spice mix, which is sold in the store. An appetizer will turn out to be much more aromatic and tastier if you cook the spices yourself.
Ingredients
• 1 kg of carrots;
• 3 cloves of garlic;
• 1 onion;
• 80 grams of oil;
• 0.3 tablespoons of red pepper;
• 0.25 tablespoons of coriander;
• 1 tablespoon of sugar;
• 5 peas of allspice;
• a pinch of black pepper;
• 1 tsp salts;
• vinegar.
Cooking
1. Rinse and peel the carrots. Rub in straws, put in a saucepan or bowl.
2. Peel the garlic, chop finely and put on top of the carrots.
3. Pour all the peppers, salt, sugar on top.
4. Put coriander, peppercorns in a mortar and grind with a pestle to a powder state. Also pour on top of carrots.
5. Pour oil into the pan, put on fire.
6. Peel the onion, chop and fry until golden.
7. Then, with a slotted spoon, we catch pieces of onion, leaving only oil in the pan.
8. Sprinkle carrots with vinegar.
9. Pour the onion oil and vinegar over the carrots with spices. Pour evenly over the entire area and cover the bowl (saucepan) with a lid. Give stand for half an hour.
10. Open the carrots, mix well, tamp and send to the refrigerator for 10 hours.
Recipe 2: Real Korean Carrots with Onions
For real Korean carrots, you need a good, juicy onion. It is better to use white and purple varieties, with them the appetizer is tastier. It is advisable to stand the salad for at least an hour, but it is better to leave it overnight.
Ingredients
• 0.5 kg of carrots;
• 0.25 kg of onions;
• 70 grams of oil;
• vinegar;
• 4 cloves of garlic;
• 0.5 tsp salts;
• a spoonful of sugar;
• black and red pepper.
Cooking
1. Dilute in 300 ml of water 2 tablespoons of vinegar. The solution should be acidic, add 0.5 tablespoons of sugar, dissolve.
2. Cut the peeled onions into thin, almost transparent half rings and send to the marinade. Set aside while we prepare the rest of the ingredients.
3. Shred or chop the carrots into strips, put in a bowl. Top with black and red peppers, approximately 1/3 teaspoon of each kind. Add salt, sugar, mix.
4. Three or pass through the press peeled garlic cloves, put on top of carrots.
5. We heat the vegetable oil in a pan until a haze appears and immediately pour onto the carrots, mix.
6. Squeeze the onion from the vinegar marinade, combine with carrots, stir. Let the salad stand for an hour, try. If there is not enough acid, then you can add a little marinade from onion, if spicy, then add more pepper.
Recipe 3: Real Korean Chicken Carrots
A great salad with a great taste of chicken. For real Korean carrots, it is best to use breast. Ideally, it is not cooked and simply pickled. But we will not take that risk and fry the product in a pan.
Ingredients
• 400 grams of carrots;
• 300 grams of chicken;
• 1 onion;
• 50-70 grams of oil;
• 2 cloves of garlic;
• salt, sugar, vinegar;
• 2 branches of basil;
• 0.5 tablespoons of coriander;
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce;
• hot pepper.
Cooking
1. Rub the carrots, sprinkle with vinegar, mix.
2. Put chopped garlic on a carrot, sprinkle with salt, sugar, add the grated coriander grains and hot pepper. The amount of pepper is arbitrary, to your taste.
3. Cut the chicken into strips, mix with soy sauce, you can add any seasoning for the bird. If there is time, then leave to pickle. If not, then fry in a pan until golden brown.
4. We take out the chicken, put it on the carrots. Add chopped basil.
5. In the oil after the chicken, fry the finely chopped onion until light golden and immediately pour over the carrots with chicken. Mix well, cover and send the salad to infuse in the cold.
Recipe 4: Real Korean Carrot with Mushrooms
To prepare this appetizer you will need pickled oyster mushrooms, they are the best combination with real Korean carrots. But with a deficiency, you can take any other mushrooms, for example, more affordable champignons.
Ingredients
• 300 grams of carrots;
• 250 grams of oyster mushroom;
• 1 tsp finished Korean seasoning;
• 3 tablespoons of oil;
• clove of garlic;
• 1 tsp vinegar
• salt, sugar.
Cooking
1. Cut marinated oyster mushrooms into strips, pre-decanting all the liquid. If the mushrooms are slimy from the marinade, then it is better to rinse them under running water and allow to drain well. Send prepared mushrooms to a bowl.
2. Rub the carrots into strips. Lay on top of the mushrooms, level the layer with your hands.
3. Put chopped garlic, sprinkle with Korean spices, salt, put a pinch of sugar. For a more spicy salad, you can additionally sprinkle red pepper.
4. We heat the oil in a pan, pour over the carrots and mix well.
5. Ram the salad with a spoon, cover and cool for 2-3 hours.
Recipe 5: Real Korean Carrots
Korean carrot recipe with funchose. The appetizer turns out to be unusually appetizing, satisfying, aromatic. In this recipe, the main ingredients are used in equal amounts. But if desired, you can add more funchose or carrots.
Ingredients
• 250 grams of carrots;
• 250 grams of funchose;
• onion;
• vinegar;
• coriander, hot pepper, black;
• sugar, a little salt;
• soy sauce;
• 50 grams of oil.
Cooking
1. Funchoza for this snack is better not to boil. Just pour rice noodles with boiling water and leave for 10 minutes, covered with a lid. Then drain the liquid, rinse funchose with running water.
2. Grate carrots, combine with spices, sprinkle with vinegar.
3. Cut the onion into cubes, fry in oil until a good golden brown. Then we catch the pieces, and pour the oil into the carrots.
4. Add funchose, pour in a spoonful of soy sauce, mix, insist 2 hours and can be served. You can also add sweet pepper sliced in thin strips to this appetizer. It also turns out delicious.
Recipe 6: Real Korean Carrots with Eggplant
The recipe for stunning Korean carrots with the unmatched aroma of fried eggplant. For the preparation of snacks, it is advisable to use small vegetables so that the seeds are small and immature.
Ingredients
• 200 grams of eggplant;
• 400 grams of carrots;
• 0.5 cups of oil;
• sugar, salt;
• coriander, a mixture of peppers;
• clove of garlic (you can put more);
• a little vinegar.
Cooking
1. Remove the tips from the eggplant, cut first into strips along, then across to pieces. Sprinkle with salt, leave for an hour to get bitterness. Then we wash the pieces of vegetables, wring out and leave for a while.
2. Chop the peeled carrots, put in a bowl.
3. Add garlic, spices to the carrots, pour with a solution of vinegar. Salt this appetizer carefully, as the eggplant has already been saturated with enough salt.
4. We heat the oil in a pan, fry the eggplant slices. We do it over high heat, the vegetables should not become soft, 2 minutes are enough to cook.
5. We spread the heated eggplant on the carrots and immediately cover with a lid. Keep it until cool, then mix and leave the snack in the cold for another 3 hours.
Recipe 7: Real Korean Squid Carrots
Another great recipe, this time with squid. For the preparation of real Korean carrots, it is best to use a fresh product. Canned squid will not work.
Ingredients
• 2 carcasses of squid;
• 400 grams of carrots;
• a spoon of sesame;
• onion;
• 100 grams of oil;
• salt, pepper, sugar, vinegar;
• 1 tsp coriander;
• 2 pcs. garlic.
Cooking
1. We clean squid. To do this, lower the thawed carcasses for a minute in boiling water, then remove, put in cold water and remove the film. Cut into rings.
2. Shred the peeled carrots with straws, mix with prepared squids.
3. Add chopped garlic, crushed coriander, salt, pepper, sprinkle with vinegar.
4. Pour the oil in a pan, add the onion, cut into half rings, fry until transparent and pour the sesame seeds. We cook together for another minute, focus on the seeds, they should lightly brown.
5. Remove the pan and fill the mass of squid with carrots with a hot mixture, mix well, cover. After cooling off the snacks, remove the container for 6 hours in the refrigerator for pickling.
Korean-style real carrots - tips and tricks
• If carrots are not juicy enough, then you can resort to one trick. Rub the product into strips, put in a colander and pour boiling water from the kettle. Water a few seconds. Then put it in a cup, cool and prepare a snack according to any recipe.
• Coffee grinder - a great helper to quickly grind any spices. But for Korean carrots, it is better to use a mortar with a pestle. When grinding the ingredients are not crushed into flour, more esters are released, the spices are much more aromatic and tastier.
• Graters for Korean carrots are different and the straw differs not only in thickness but also in shape. It can be square, flat, polygonal. The more accurate and even the edges of the straw are, the more beautiful the snack will turn out.
• Korean carrots will have a special aroma if red pepper is added to the hot oil, and then poured into a snack.
