Banchan — the array of small side dishes served simultaneously with every Korean meal — is a complete system of flavour and texture management rather than a collection of individual recipes. A proper banchan spread balances: kimchi (fermented, spicy, sour), namul (seasoned cooked or raw vegetables), jorim (soy-braised preparations), jeon (pan-fried preparations), and twigim (fried preparations). No banchan repeats its primary technique — each must occupy a different position on the flavour-texture matrix.
- **The namul principle:** Vegetables cooked briefly (blanched or stir-fried) and dressed while warm with sesame oil, soy, garlic, and sesame seeds. The warm dressing allows the fat-soluble sesame compounds to penetrate the vegetable's warm cells. - **Spinach namul:** Blanched 30 seconds, shocked in cold water, squeezed, dressed while warm. The shock preserves the chlorophyll; the warm dressing allows oil absorption. - **Bean sprout namul:** Blanched 2 minutes, immediately cold-shocked, dressed. The blanching deactivates the linamarase enzyme in the bean sprouts (which produces an unpleasant fermented taste in raw sprouts). - **Braised black beans (kongjorim):** Black soybeans braised in soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil until the sauce reduces to a sticky glaze. - **The sesame oil principle:** Added last to every namul preparation — its volatile compounds are too delicate for cooking heat. The residual warmth of the dressed vegetables extracts the sesame's aromatic compounds without destroying them.
Maangchi