RHS Journals
The Garden
October 2007
Wrap it up!
To borrow ideas from a range of cuisines – known as fusion cooking – can inject extra flair into everyday dishes. Sally Charrett discovers Korean vegetable wraps, which could change the way we use our salad leaves.
Images: Tim Sandall
The aromatic flavours of Chinese cooking have seduced the British palate for decades, yet the cuisine of nearby Korea remains something of a mystery to many of us. The Koreans also desire a balance of salty, sweet, sour, spicy and bitter taste sensations akin to their neighbour, but it is their cooking techniques and love of pungent flavours that sets Korean cuisine apart.
Vegetables form an important part of their daily diet and are not merely treated as side dishes or accompaniments. Some of the ways in which they consume them are inspirational and can be fused into British cuisine to dramatic effect, as I recently discovered
For example, much as we take pleasure in barbecuing meat, Koreans enjoy something similar called bulgogi whereby grilled, paper-thin meat is wrapped in leaves. Wrapping food in leaves is widespread in Korea, and may have originated as a convenient way for housewives to take food to farmers in faraway fields. Leaves can be used singly or mixed – combining two or three either to wrap food or within the wrap itself as additional filling. Fresh leaves offer a refreshing balance to rich meat and spicy flavours, and provide a low-calorie alternative to bread.
Using leaves as wraps the Korean way – with their marinades and distinctive flavours, can easily be adapted to compliment our cuisine. Barbecued chicken, pork and beef (cut into bite-sized pieces) are the most conspicuous of British foods to wrap, but I have found this technique to be successful with all manner of ingredients – from smoked salmon with cream cheese and chives to fried halloumi cheese with basil and cherry tomatoes.
Leafy cases
Many of the leaves favoured by Koreans such as cos, round butterhead and little gem lettuces, endive, Chinese cabbage and pak choi are well known and available to us, but others will be less familiar: sesame, perilla, pumpkin and chrysanthemum.
Sourcing authentic ingredients can prove rather tricky as much of what Korean cooks use is either indigenous (wild-collected and cultivated) or not easily translated into latin or British common names. Other Asian or even Western equivalents can make fine substitutes, though. For example, our spring onions are virtually identical to the Korean variant; garlic chives (Allium tuberosum, A. ramosum) are the most similar to Korean chives; fresh red cayenne peppers are a great substitute for Korean fresh red pepper; and watercress – widely available here – replaces Korean minari. Asian supermarkets can be treasure troves for must-have Korean seasonings, herbs and spice-pastes such as doenjang (fermented soy bean paste) and red pepper powder.
Korean perspective
As many of these ingredients – or their close substitutes – are widely available in Britain, it is relatively easily to grow your own ‘Korean’ kitchen garden.
Dong Shin Choi, who came over to the UK from Korea with his family three years ago, is a keen gardener and grows many of the fresh ingredients used in Korean cooking on his allotment near New Malden in Surrey. As well as the immense personal satisfaction he gains from growing vegetables and salads, Choi says, his family can continue to enjoy traditional foods from their mother country.
He generally grows his plants from seed, frequently brought back from home or donations from friends and relatives. Where this is not possible, Choi uses European substitutes and creatively propagates material found in local ethnic supermarkets.
Among the usual Korean plants, Choi grows less-common plants such as chop-suey greens (Chrysanthemum) and sesame (Sesamum indicum). Sesame he sows under glass as early as possible to plant out in a warm, sheltered spot in April. The leaves are picked in summer when big and tender to use in vegetable wraps and the seeds, harvested in autumn, can be dried out and beaten for their oil.
Various gourds are grown for foliage as well as their fruit – the leaves are gently steamed, then filled with rice and bean paste. Choi recommends, however, that you should pack the leaf upside-down so that the spiky hairs do not aggravate your tongue.
As well as being great for wrapping food, Chinese cabbage (the closest to Korean cabbage) is also the main ingredient for Korea’s most famous export, kimchi (which is akin to German sauerkraut). Choi says that Chinese cabbage can be difficult to grow in the damp British climate, which encourages so many fungal attacks, so growing types of lettuce may be a better bet. Red and green chillies Choi has growing in abundance and he enthuses about their cancer-fighting properties and the pleasant feeling one gets from a hot meal through endorphin release. He reckons that a Korean family of four will easily get through a sweetshop-sized jar of red chillies per year.
Korean radish, simply known in Korea as mu, is another staple of which there are many cultivars. Chinese or mooli radish is widely available here and Choi plants this out in July. Its long, thick, peppery-tasting root is quick growing and should be lifted, he says, before the first British frosts arrive – these are harsh in comparison to Korea’s and can wipe everything out. In fact, Choi regards mooli as something of a ‘superveg’, with its excellent mineral and vitamin content – notably vitamin B. He often kickstarts the day with the tangy vegetable mixed with mayonnaise.
In an old water tank he grows landcress that he harvests and blanches, mixing with steamed swede, garlic, spring onion, fish sauce, sugar and vinegar, and chilli paste (namul).
Revitalising our cuisine
Korea’s diverse vegetable-preparation methods, particularly the way they wrap seasoned meat and rice with fresh leaves, is inspirational. Such diversity is also reflected at the Korean dining table where many small dishes are served at once, tapas-style. Pungent Korean flavours and seasonings offer a balance to the often simpler taste of vegetables too.
The fascinating thing about the cuisine of other cultures (new species and cultivar introductions aside) is the fact that the vegetables and salads we use in our everyday diet can suddenly be seen in a brand new light. This ‘revitalisation’ of food-preparation techniques is generally welcomed and nowadays many Europeans do not think twice about chopping up veg for a home-made curry or stir-fry.
Korean cuisine is by and large an untapped resource in this sense, and while many of the authentic vegetable seeds and plants may be currently unavailable to gardeners, there are plenty of Asian and British substitutes.
For purists, Korean cooking is a interesting cuisine in its own right. However, there is much to ‘borrow’ from the Korean way that can be adapted into our own ways of cooking. Next time you are chopping salad leaves to be put into a bowl and drizzled with dressing, consider using them to wrap food with instead – it certainly gave me food for thought.
Find out how to make a Korean wrap