Making Banchan at Saja Korean Kitchen

I first fell in love with banchan, the little side dishes served at Korean meals, traipsing through L.A.'s Koreatown with chef Debbie Lee. These are tastes designed to be shared throughout the meal. Have a bite of bibimbap and a bit of pickled cucumber. Dig into bulgogi and then pick up a bite of scallion pancake. The variety of flavors and textures can be enormous even if the portions are deliberately petite.

At the new Saja Korean Kitchen down in the Gaslamp, executive chef Jason Velasquez (mostly recently at Katsuya), has create a menu that plays on traditional Korean food but introduces some new flavors and techniques that you probably wouldn't find at your favorite haunts on Convoy.

Hired by restaurateur Alex Thao (Rama and Lucky Liu's), Seattle-native Velasquez has trained extensively with Japanese chefs and also attended classes at Le Cordon Bleu to learn French technique. Korean cuisine wasn't in his wheelhouse, so he spent months eating Korean food here and in L.A. to develop his palate so he could then develop his menu.

Given Saja's lower 4th Ave. location near the San Diego Convention Center and consequently the need to appeal to a broader audience, Velasquez felt that his menu should be Korean inspired, but not literally locked into tradition. He's toned down some of the strong flavors. For example, he doesn't use as much fish sauce in dishes that call for it and uses a milder Japanese variety. He's also keen on cutting down on sugar in his dishes--and, in general, keeping them lighter.

But his banchan reminds me of some of my favorite places here and in L.A. Typically, he services flash boiled and marinated bean sprouts, edamame, pickled cucumbers, kimchi, cabbage with daikon in chili paste and dashi, and marinated broccoli--although he does switch out all but the cucumbers, edamame, kimchi, and bean sprouts. After visiting Saja for dinner last month, I asked Velasquez to teach me how to make a couple of his banchan dishes: his kimchee and pickled cucumbers. He agreed.

"Banchan to me is very simple--it's a way to get the palate started," he says. "It's not so much that it will fill you up but enough to start up your appetite. It's something you can enjoy eating communally."

Both of these recipes are home-cook accessible, though you'll need to make a trip to an Asian market for ingredients like fish sauce, sweet rice flour, sesame oil, konbu (dried edible kelp), and Korean red pepper powder. And you'll need to plan ahead, since these dishes thrive on time to soak in the flavors.

So, let's start with the kimchee. Done right, the salad will be crunchy where the cabbage is thickest but very pliable with the thin part of the leaves. It definitely has a nice kick to it, but the spice is full of flavor, along with the mild tangy fishiness of the shrimp fish sauce. The flavors are complex and irresistible.

Saja Cabbage Kimchee
From Jason Velasquez of Saja Korean Kitchen
(printable recipe)

Yield: 3 cups

Ingredients
1 head Napa cabbage
Sea salt
2 tablespoons salted brined shrimp
2 tablespoons grated garlic
1/2 grated yellow onion
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
1/3 Korean red pepper powder
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of sea salt
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup shredded green onions

Slice the cabbage head in half lengthwise and partially cut through each half, keeping the quarters intact. Place the cabbage in a large bowl and generously sprinkle the leaves throughout the head with sea salt. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or at least 12 hours. The cabbage will wilt and liquid will release to the bottom of the bowl. This allows the cabbage to act like a sponge to absorb the flavors you'll add.

You can make the sauce while the cabbage leaves are salting or the next day. In a food processor, puree the shrimp, garlic, onion, and fish sauce. It can be a little chunky.

In a bowl, combine the rice flour, red pepper powder, sugar, and a pinch of salt. Place it in a saucepan with enough water to make a slurry. Whisk the mixture over medium heat on a burner. As it heats up it will form a light paste. Take it off the heat and let it cool. Once cooled, add to the shrimp mixture.

Rinse the salt from the cabbage. Then wring out the water. Place the cabbage in a bowl and add the carrots and green onions. Pour the sauce over the vegetables and work it into the cabbage, including between the leaves. Fold each of the four quarters of saturated cabbage in half lengthwise and place into a container. Cover and let sit for 24 hours on the counter, unrefrigerated. Then refrigerate. It will taste fine in a day or two, but if you can, wait a week for the flavors to truly come together. Serve as chunks in a small bowl for banchan.

 

Now on to the pickled cucumber. I'm particularly partial to these flavors because I've been doing an extremely simple version of this for years that I enjoy during heat waves. With this recipe I can ratchet up the flavor with a sweet, slightly spicy, tangy profile, thanks to Valasquez's dynamite vinegar solution and the addition of very smooth, aromatic sesame oil.

Saja Pickled Cucumber

From Jason Velasquez of Saja Korean Kitchen

(printable recipe)

Ingredients

1 English cucumber (or other seedless cucumbers)

Sea salt

For vinegar solution:

2 quarts Japanese wheat rice vinegar (called suhiro)

1 cup brown sugar

pinch of sea salt

piece of konbu

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 cup sesame oil

2 cups of the vinegar solution

1 tablespoon Korean red pepper powder

1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Slice cucumbers in 1/4-inch thick slices so they retain their crunch. Toss with sea salt. Let sit 15 to 20 minutes.

Make the vinegar solution. Heat one quart of the Japanese wheat rice vinegar until it reduces by half. Combine with a second quart of vinegar, 1 cup brown sugar, a pinch of sea salt, and a piece of konbu. Heat the mixture until it's combined. Note: keep the konbu in the mixture. (Velasquez also uses this mixture in his sushi rice.)

Rinse the salted cucumber slices, then place in a kitchen towel and squeeze to remove the liquid.

Empty the cucumber slices into a bowl. In another bowl whisk together the brown sugar, sesame oil, 2 cups of the vinegar solution, the Korean red pepper powder, and the sesame seeds. Pour over the cucumber and let marinate at least six hours but preferably overnight. Serve in small bowls for banchan. 

The marinade can also be used as a base for vinaigrette. Add grapeseed oil, Chinese plum sauce, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger.

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Beyond Kimchee: Exploring K-town's Galleria Market

I was up in L.A. last weekend on assignment for Sunset Magazine to take in Koreatown's restaurant scene with chef Debbie Lee of Next Food Network Star, Season 5 fame and owner of the Glendale pub grub eatery Ahn-Joo. Before meeting her Saturday night I tooled around the neighborhood on my own, stopping at the large Galleria Plaza on Olympic and Western. This plaza, along with the Koreatown Plaza on Western at 9th, is known for its splendid food court. And the Galleria Plaza is home to the expansive Galleria Market on the ground floor. Well, I'm not about to skip a market opportunity...

In San Diego, I've been a regular shopper at two Korean markets, Zion and First Korean. But having read Lee's cookbook, Seoultown Kitchen, and gotten more familiar with ingredients, I was more directed than aimless with this market visit. And, it didn't hurt that on a Saturday afternoon, there are free samples galore. So, let me point out several highlights of the market that can translate (to some extent) to our local Korean markets, understanding that I'm just skimming the surface.

One of the ingredients I was looking for was Korean peppers. This is most certainly a staple of Korean cuisine and while they are longer (about four inches), thicker, and smooth, not wrinkled--like a shishito or padron--they have a similar flavor. So, we're not talking crazy heat but great flavor. While you could certainly grill them, my experience with them that day at lunch was raw, sliced, and mixed with a sweetish chile sauce.

In the produce section, there was a lady surrounded by customers getting free samples of half-dried persimmons. Sweet and chewy, they are a wonderful snack even if they're a bit odd looking. And, according to the customers I spoke with, that's all they're meant for.

Around the corner from the produce was a display of bags filled with two kind of unusual crackers. One was peanut rice crackers, which were sweet and crunchy with a touch of salt from the slivers of peanuts, and the other darker crackers were made with beans, and also sweet and crunchy. Again, these are just meant for snacking, perhaps with a cup of coffee.

The seafood section is one of those fabulously classic Asian displays, filled with live crabs, a variety of unusual whole fish, shrimp, and, something I hadn't seen in a supermarket, a case of live abalone. They also had refrigerated packages filled with seafood and other ingredients to make different kinds of stews. So, for instance, if you wanted a no-brainer spicy crab stew, you could pick up this package which not only has crab, but clams, shrimp, sliced peppers, onions, green onions, jalapeños, squash, enoki mushrooms, soy bean paste, and hot pepper paste.

Behind me as I was eying the seafood counter was the scent of something fragrant cooking. I turned around to find a woman working over a saute pan, creating a seafood pancake made with shrimp, mussels, squid, and clams. Also there for tasting were plates filled with cooked mackerel and razor clams with peppers.

That sight eased me into an aisle filled like a cafeteria with banchan--a row of at least 30 prepared side dishes ranging from stir-fried radish stalk and marinated sand lances to fried fishcake, salted octopus, various kimchees, pickled perillar leaves, and seasoned fresh cucumber. This is when I wished I still lived in L.A. and could buy an assortment of these to take home.

I love condiments and the aisles devoted to condiments at Galleria Market were stunning. Sea salt is big in Korean cooking and there were a variety of brands and sizes, up to five pound bags, of sea salt--fine, coarse, roasted, flavored. Something I'll be picking up at a local Korean market to have on hand is a package of red pepper powder. Spicier than paprika, it turns dishes like those cukes above a vibrant red. It's also used with glutinous rice, flour, corn syrup, and salt to make hot pepper paste, which is added to meats, soups, stews, marinades or used on its own as a spicy dip or relish.

Then there are the toasted sesame seeds, both white and black. Put them in marinades, sauces, and add to vegetable sides. They are plentiful on Galleria Market's shelves.

I'll end with dessert. The bakery here has a crazy array of savory and sweet breads and pastries. Lee tells me there's heavy competition for the donuts on a Sunday morning. What I saw, though, led me to believe that there's heavy competition for everything there. The Korean white bread, which reminds me of Japanese white bread, is square and smooth and would be terrific for French toast.

I was charmed by the displays of cakes and these cupcakes. Like Japanese-style French pastries, Korean-style French pastries are less sweet, making it much easier to over-indulge. These are adorable.

Then there are the croissants and other more adult pastries. I was put off by the prepackaging, but in the back of the retail part of the bakery you can see that baked goods are made on site. So, I'm hoping these are fresh. With all the planned dining ahead of me, I didn't buy any to try; you go, and tell me what you think.

I am looking forward to Lee's visiting San Diego so we can hit not just the Korean restaurants along Convoy, but Zion Market. I wonder how it will compare.

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