The “Warming Chicken and Potato Stew” did it. The minute I saw the recipe, featured in The Guardian, I knew I had to cook the dish. It pushed a button that was more pathological than culinary, or simply curious. Something about “Warming Chicken and Potato Stew” screamed at me, and what it screamed was: you need this in your life, so go get the gochujang.
So I did, and I cooked it, and it was stunning, and I have been slowly and steadily cooking my way through Our Korean Kitchen ever since.
This is a ground-breaking book, a text that does for Korean food what Ken Hom did for Chinese cooking, or Claudia Roden did for Middle Eastern Cooking or Marcella Hazan did for Italian cooking. It gives you a skill set and a culinary template that is easy to interpret, and it's a friendly book, full of dishes that are approachable precisely because they are as awesomely fab and elemental as “Warming Chicken and Potato Stew”. Mr Bourke and Ms Pyo wear their learning lightly, and the book is pretty as all get out.
And tonight?
Tonight is bulgogi jeongol...
Our Korean Kitchen, by Jordan Bourke and Rejina Pyo (Weidenfeld & Nicholson)
Jason will be giving a cookery demo in the Ballymaloe Cookery School, this Saturday, 10th October. More details here...
Listen to our podcast with Jason Bourke...
