Korean Comfort Food

 every country has it;s comfort food.It's eaten in childhood that brings joy til the adult year. Koreans have theirs in the form of noodles called jjangmyeon,These are black beans noodles that are not only flavorful but a jot to eat.

Regular contributor and chef, Eric KIm wrote about his childhood favorite in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section. Jjangmyeon  came from the Chinese zha Jiang mien wen Chinese immigrants to Korea made the dish in the early Twentieth Century.Over time the flavors has become sweeter and richer matching Korean tastes.It's hard to actually describe the flavor according to Chef Kim. It's both sweet and salty and there are variations that alter the ratio. He visited another Korean chef Keechang Kim of Dong Bo Sung in Fort Lee who slow cooks onions until they're caramelized and rendering pork fat into a cooking oil.It exudes a savory sweetness exemplified by the jet black fermented soybean paste chunjang. that'sfried in the fat , then thinned into a gravy for the noodles. CHunjan has long stood in the shadows of its' more popular cousins, gochujang and doengchang, both much used ingredients in Korean cuisine. It's different than them, resembling the taste of tiammian sauce, which is more sweet than hot.

Like other comfort foods.jjangmyeon has variations, albeit slight ones. For cookbook author Sarah Ahn, author of Umma: A Korean Mom's Kitchen Wisdom and 100 Family recipes that means a splash of vinegar for acidity and a shake of gochugaru for heat, shaking up the dish's mellowness.It was a tip from her mother, Nam Soon, that surprised many Koreans  when she shared the recipe on social media. Vinegar really sin;t added to any Korean cuisine.Chef Kin's mother also has her own variation in the form of grated potato instead of the usual slurry of powdered starch and water to thicken the sauce without gloopiness.The potato's earthiness also adds to the dish's vegetal flavors.There is also charred cabbage along with the onion for flavor and substance.It also pays to get the right noodles namely the elastic and freshly made jiajang wheat noodles. Home chefs can buy these at any Asian grocery store.Regular pasta won;t work here. They;re first boiled and then rinsed off in cold water. to remove the clingy starch. They're then returned to the arm to warm up.

This is Korean comfort food.It's an easy make.It's also rich in flavor and satisfyingly good.