Gul-gukbap

A clear light soup where the oysters go in off the heat and are never boiled.

Fish, Shellfish. Not vegetarian — contains fish, fish sauce, shellfish.

Ingredients

• 600 g shelled oysters
• 1.4 litres anchovy and kelp stock, as on its own page
• 200 g Korean radish, in thin matchsticks
• steamed short-grain rice for 4, as on its own page
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• a large handful of chrysanthemum greens or watercress
• 4 spring onions, sliced
• 1 sheet gim, crumbled
• salt and white pepper

Method

1. THE OYSTERS GO IN OFF THE HEAT AND ARE NEVER BOILED. The pan comes off, the oysters go in, the lid goes on, and the residual heat cooks them in two minutes. Thirty seconds of boiling shrinks an oyster to a grey rubber button and clouds the broth with the liquor it has squeezed out -- and this is a soup you can see through, with six hundred grams of oyster in it, so there is nowhere for that to hide. They are done when the frills have just curled.
2. THEY ARE RINSED IN SALTED WATER, NOT FRESH. Fresh water makes them swell and go flabby; a bowl of water with a spoonful of salt in it rinses the grit off without changing them. Swirled gently, lifted out, and the grit left behind.
3. AND THEY ARE GONE OVER ONE BY ONE for fragments of shell, which is tedious and necessary. A chip of shell in a spoonful of soup is the thing people remember about the meal.
4. THE BROTH IS KEPT CLEAR, so it is not boiled hard, the radish is cut fine and goes in early, and nothing is stirred once the oysters are in.
5. THE RICE IS SERVED IN THE BOWL AND NOT COOKED IN THE BROTH, for the same reason: rice cooked in it sheds starch and the soup turns opaque. The ladle-and-pour-back trick from the pork gukbap page works here too and is worth doing.
6. Oysters put in a bowl of cold water with a tablespoon of salt, swirled gently, and lifted out with the fingers, leaving grit behind. Repeated once in fresh salted water.
7. Gone over one at a time and any shell fragments picked out.
8. Steamed rice made as on its own page.
9. The stock brought to a simmer with the radish, garlic, soy sauce and fish sauce. Cooked 8 minutes until the radish is translucent.
10. Tasted and seasoned with salt and white pepper. It should be light but not thin.
11. THE PAN TAKEN OFF THE HEAT.
12. The oysters tipped in and the lid put on. Left 2 MINUTES, undisturbed, until the frills have curled.
13. The greens added and left 30 seconds more in the covered pan.
14. Rice divided between bowls, a ladle of broth poured over and tipped back to warm it, then the bowls filled.
15. The oysters and greens lifted in with a slotted spoon, spring onions and gim scattered over, and served at once.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under South Korea · All recipes