Cooking
Hot weather calls for this sweet-savory banchan and an ice-cold beer.
When it’s hot and humid, I crave Korean food. I believe this is because, back in the early 2010s, I spent several weeks in Seoul either leaning into summer’s mugginess with scorched bowls of bibimbap and hissing domes of K.B.B.Q. or avoiding it with order after order of naengmyeon. If the temps are high and the cicadas are screaming, my body wants gochugaru, gochujang and frosty mugs of Hite.
I want, in particular, Korean corn cheese, a sweet-savory banchan that pairs very well with the aforementioned beer. Corn cheese is exactly what it sounds like: sweet, crunchy corn (mixed with a little mayo for extra creaminess) blanketed in mild, satisfyingly stretchy cheese. Darun Kwak’s recipe calls for canned corn, but in the summer I use fresh and, for a little extra kick, throw in some sliced long hots (I also spent many summers in Philly).
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Korean Corn Cheese
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Speaking of naengmyeon — Eric Kim’s cold noodles with tomatoes are currently on repeat in my home, the broth a thirst-quenching mix of vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, mustard, sesame oil and leached tomato juices made cold with ice cubes. As Eric notes, his dish is also inspired by oi naengguk, a hydrating cold cucumber soup, so some julienned cucumber would be a welcome addition.
I also want fried chicken when it’s hot. Korean fried chicken, of course, but also karaage, mochiko chicken, Nashville hot fried chicken. (To be fair, there is not a time or season when I don’t want fried chicken.) This buttermilk ranch fried chicken from Vaughn Vreeland looks incredible; I can’t wait to hold a shatteringly crisp drumstick in one hand while fanning myself with the other. You can watch Vaughn make his chicken here — be sure to stay until the end for a special guest appearance!
Melissa Clark’s easy pork bulgogi with spring vegetables can in fact be made with summer vegetables instead; nice swaps could be cherry tomatoes, zucchini or green beans. This whole roast fish with lemongrass and ginger from Yewande Komolafe is not Korean, but it is a gorgeous dinner with bright, zingy flavors. Serve either dish with plenty of rice for catching those sauces.
To wrap things up, here’s the latest episode of Eric’s Recipe Quest YouTube series, on his childhood chocolate birthday cake. It’s an ode to a specific Chuck E. Cheese cake from the early 1990s. A bite of that will send me back to the birthday parties of my youth, running across sticky floors in the air-conditioning, pumping the Skee-Ball machine for all the tickets it’s worth. Ah, summer.