Fall, the season of harvest is here. Fresh seasonal food ingredients are delicious no matter how you cook them, but there are ways to make them even tastier. Here are some easy-to-follow recipes by master chefs from two upscale restaurants Soowoon and Jungsim, which specialize in Korean and Chinese food respectively.

Recipes from Soowon, a Korean restaurant with modern flavor and style

Octopus Samhap, a dish with the taste of the sea and the deep flavor of boiled pork

Octopus is the perfect restorative food for those suffering from fall fatigue.

Octopus, rich in taurine and omega-3 fatty acids, is the perfect ingredient to restore energy in fall. It can become too tough if cooked wrong, but with rice wine and radish, you can make it soft and chewy. Well-boiled octopus, aged kimchi and boiled pork belly meat make the perfect Samhap dish, which means a combination of the three. Well-brewed Korean traditional liquor such as Hansan Sogokju, made with sweet rice, yeast, chrysanthemums and ginger is the perfect drink that goes with the dish for special occasions.

Ingredients

1/3 octopus, 300 g pork belly, 1/4 radish, 200 ml rice wine, 100 g dried radish, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 green pepper, 1 tablespoon refined salt, salted shrimp, and Ssamjang paste.

Instructions

① Rub octopus with salt and wash it thoroughly, put radish in a pot and bring to a boil.
② Add rice wine to the pot then lightly boil octopus for 7 to 8 minutes.
③ Cool off boiled octopus and prepare it by slicing it thinly.
④ Boil the pork belly meat in water with radish, refined salt, and spices.
⑤ While boiling the pork belly meat, slice the garlic and chop the green pepper into bite size pieces.
⑥ Place the sliced pork belly meat, octopus, dried radish, aged kimchi, green pepper and garlic on a dish, then serve with salted shrimp sauce and Ssamjang.

TIP. Radishes are high in digestive enzymes such as diastase, protease, and lipase which make the octopus meat tender. In addition, when you boil the octopus, put it in boiling water little by little from the end of the legs to make it look neat.

Eel stew with green onion kimchi featured by its wonderfully spicy and thick soup

Typical stamina food ingredient, eels are more nutritious during fall, the spawning season.

Eels are well-known high energy food ingredient. In fall, they build nutrients in their body, which make them even more nutritious and tasty. You can simply grill them or put them in a thick-soup stew with tangy green onion kimchi to enjoy the good taste. The spicy green onion kimchi neutralizes the unique greasy taste of eels. This spicy thick soup can warm up your body in no time at all.

Ingredients

2 freshwater eels, 120 g green onion kimchi, 1 eel bone, 1 dried pollack head, 250 g onion, 80 g chives, 2 stalks scallion, 2 whole garlic, 2 tablespoons perilla seed powder, a small amount of Japanese pepper powder and ginger.

Instructions

① Place 1L of water, eel bone, dried pollack head, scallions, garlic, and ginger in a pot and boil them for more than 30 minutes to make a broth.
② Trim and grill eels until golden brown.
③ Place sliced onion, green onion kimchi, grilled eels and 1L of the broth from ① into a stew pot and boil.
④ Place the chives on top when done boiling. You can also add perilla and Chinese pepper powder according to taste. Serve as is in a hot pot.

TIP. Well-aged green onion kimchi should be used to get a rich flavor.
The seasoning of kimchi varies by household, so make sure that the broth is not overly salty.

Recipes from Jungsim, a go-to Chinese restaurant for Cantonese cuisine

Eggplant with fish sauce, an easy-to-make stylish vegetable dish

Eggplant with fish sauce is fried eggplant with spicy fish sauce.

Eggplants are cheap and a delicious seasonal ingredient that can be quickly fried with a spicy fish sauce. It is easy to cook and a highly recommended side dish with rice or as a snack with an alcoholic beverage. In particular, it’s perfect for light wheat beer such as Haevichi Wheat Beer. Refrigerate any leftover sauce and try it with a warm bowl of white rice or crab meat fried rice.

Ingredients

2 Eggplants, 200 g minced beef, 1/2 stalks scallion, 200 mL chicken stock, cooking oil

Seasoning

1 tablespoon Hoisin sauce, 1 tablespoon chili bean sauce, 1 tablespoon Black Bean Sauce, 1 tablespoon oyster sauce, 2 red peppers (minced), small amount of black pepper powder and refined rice wine (Mirim)

Instructions

① Cut the eggplants in half, slice them diagonally, and pat them dry with a kitchen towel.
② Gently pat dry the minced beef and remove any blood with kitchen towel. Season it with black pepper powder and refined rice wine.
③ Pour cooking oil into a deep pan, heat it up to about 180°C and fry the eggplants quickly.
④ Place the chopped green onion and cooking oil in a heated frying pan and then add the minced beef and stir-fry.
⑤ When the beef is browned, add the prepared seasoning, chicken broth and the fried eggplant from ③ and simmer until a thick broth is formed.

TIP. Adjust the amount of chili bean sauce and red peppers accordingly if you don’t like spicy food.

Garlic shrimp, a fantastic combination of crispy garlic chips and savory shrimp

Garlic shrimp is one of the most well-known Cantonese-style dishes.

Garlic shrimp is one of the most well-known Cantonese-style dishes, made of plump shrimps and fresh whole garlic fried together. The spicy and savory scent boosts appetite, and the crunchy garlic chips and the chewy texture of the shrimp double the pleasure in your mouth. Fried garlic chips are not greasy, are rich in flavor, and delicious and also go well with plain rice.

Ingredients

10 Black Tiger Shrimp, 10 cloves garlic, 5 dried peppers, 1/2 stalk green onion, cooking oil

Seasoning

1 tablespoon seasoned chicken powder, a pinch of salt and pepper

Instructions

① Remove the intestines of the shrimp then tap dry. Chop garlic into small pieces.
② Pour cooking oil into a deep pan and quickly fry shrimp and garlic separately.
③ Stir-fry thin-sliced green onion, dried peppers and fried garlic then season them with salt, pepper and chicken powder.
④ Put the fried shrimp in a bowl and add the ingredients prepared in ③ on top.

TIP. Thin-sliced garlic can taste bitter if fried for too long. Fry quickly to prevent them from burning.

Edit by. Byeol-nim Jung
Photo by. Bum-gi Kim, Prism Studio
Advisor by. Supervisor Su-Hye Choi, Marketing Team at Haevichi Hotel & Resort