This might be the first cookbook I’ve preordered; I’m pretty sure that I actually ordered it months ago, and forgot when it was supposed to come out. Then came the shipping notice, and then The Korean Vegan Cookbook. This is actually almost a coffee table book give that it’s a glossy hard cover with lots of pretty pictures.
That said, it also looks like it will be a lot of interesting fun to work through. Not only are the recipes pretty doable in terms of what to get and what to do, the personal anecdotes prefacing many recipes that have become the butt of jokes, scorn, and complaints at other recent cookbooks actually work out well here. For example, in a recipe for Perilla Leaf Focaccia, the note between the title and instructions talks about the author being sent to the backyard by grandma to gather perilla which can be nearly as tall as a small child. Then follows the idea that this ingredient, common in the book, is actually pretty easy to grow in a variety of scenarios, and looks rather like big mint leaves, although they taste a bit of sesame (all according to the author, not me). In what is otherwise a pretty standard-looking bread recipe, this combination of story and practical advice actually gives a little more meaning to the recipe that someone other than the author or someone she knows can really appreciate. I do question the difficulty rating of “medium” though; on a scale of “easy” to “practice makes perfect” (I love this idea), a basic-bread like focaccia would really be mid-level on account of the time it takes, not so much for anything involved in the preparing or making. I realize that making bread can be intimidating, but given that other bread recipes like a filled braid (phat bbang aka read bean paste bread) which would be higher on the difficulty scale are ranked the same, while another, dolsot bbang ie ‘stone pot bread’ is an easy; the only real factor that seems that different in terms of possible divisions in difficulty is the amount of time it takes from mixing to rising to shaping to baking.
I’m looking forward to trying that perilla bread, as well as maybe attempting kimchee; there are several recipes for this, as well as pretty much everything else. The one big problem I have with the book in general, is that it assumes I can just go to the nearest Asian grocer for some key ingredients, some of which are frequently used such as perilla, seaweeds, and sweet potato noodles. The nearest grocer to me that’s likely to carry all of those and several even less common ingredients is nearly two hours away. The internet is an option for some things, but not really the fresh herbs like perilla or fresh mung bean sprouts, and even so, it would have been nice to have some ideas about what the better online sources for these kinds of things are. Here’s an example from what looks like it could be my favorite section, side dishes dotori muk, aka acorn jelly, with blackberry dressing requires me to get ground acorn and fresh perilla, and stir-fried mung bean sprouts require actual fresh sprouts. Similarly, a rice cake soup with dumplings, which is 80% ingredients common in any grocer in the US still requires garraetteok (fresh or frozen rice cakes- no recipe for homemade) and mandoo (dumpling which even made by me would require a specific kimchee, a specific type of soy sauce not available in a non-Asian market, sweet potato noodles, and dumpling wrappers).
Even if I have to wait until I have time to do a massive plan and shop so I get most everything to try most every recipe and use fresh things before they go bad, at least I can try what’s basically aa Pocky recipe and about half of the recipes in the book. I’m excited and hopeful about this one. It looks really good on paper, so I’m hoping it turns out that way in actual food too.