First of all, I have to explain what this salad has to do with Korea because you wouldn't find this dish in Korean restaurants either here or in South Korea. Only in Russia or the countries that once were USSR republics.
I was born and grew up in the Russian Far East, in a city called Khabarovsk, about 20 miles from the border with China. My city was founded in 1858. Around that time lots of Koreans started to migrate to Siberia and the Russian Far East territories in search of a better life. There were times when there were more Koreans than Russians and other small native groups there. However, in 1937 Stalin forced the majority of the Far Eastern Koreans to move to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, now the former Soviet republics.
According to the last census, Korean population constitutes less than one percent of the whole ethnic population of Khabarovsk. I believe that this number has been pretty stable for quite a while. What is 1%? In my elementary school, I had a Korean classmate. One of my close friends in college was a Korean young man. One of my dad’s best friends is a Korean. Not that much, huh? But despite a relatively small number of Koreans in my hometown, absolutely everybody there knows Korean food.
In my youth, our downtown farmer market used to have an isle where Korean women sold homemade delicacies. They would have large containers of kimchi, pickled young fern, cooked seasoned squids, chicken hearts, and their famous julienned spicy carrots that they would pack for you in small, long and narrow plastic bags which they would tie with a thread. They would ask you if you would prefer your food spicy and would add a generous pinch of ground hot pepper to whatever you chose.
Of course, it was not the same Korean food as they cook in South Korea, except for things like kimchi; and probably even kimchi was done a bit differently. Like the food of American Chinese or Malaysian Chinese differs from that of China, Russian Korean cuisine deviated quite a bit from the cuisine of its old country. Partially, because of the new geographical conditions; partially due to the USSR centrally planned economy (which resulted in a quite a narrow scope of products available in stores) and isolation of the country from the rest of the world.
Still, the little that I know about the authentic cuisine of Korea tells me that Soviet Koreans managed to keep its soul. It shows up in the spiciness of their dishes and their love for pickled and fermented foods. I wonder whether nowadays, with the borders being open and a greater product supply and diversity available, Koreans in Russia and former Soviet republics turned toward the cuisine of their old country. And if they do, I hope they will be able to successfully combine the national cooking traditions with the uniqueness of Soviet Korean cuisine.
With time, Soviet Korean food and recipes spread around the country, but only the carrots happened to win nation-wide popularity. Almost every deli department in supermarkets offers Korean-style carrots. Even here, in Seattle, I came across these carrots in several Russian stores. And now you can make these carrots yourself.
You will need:
- 2 large carrots or 3-4 medium (the thicker, the easier to grate)
- 2 large garlic cloves
- About a quarter of a medium sized sweet onion
- 2-3 Tbsp neutral tasting oil like peanut, canola or grape seed
- 2 tsp – 1 Tbsp table or rice vinegar
- A generous pinch or two of ground coriander
- A generous pinch or two of cayenne pepper
- Salt, to taste
Over a large wide bowl, grate carrots in long julienne on a Boerner grater, Mandoline or julienne peeler. You will almost inevitably have leftover pieces of carrots, which you can use later for a stock, soup or stew.
If you don't have any of the above devices to julienne carrots, buy a package or two of shredded carrots, the fresher the better.
Put finely chopped garlic in a heap on top of the carrots and start heating the oil in a small pan. The oil should be quite hot, but not smoking. Take a spoon or a small ladle and use it to pour the oil on top of the garlic. The garlic will fizzle as it gets slightly cooked and partially lose its sharpness. Thinly slice sweet onions lengthwise and add to the carrots. Sprinkle carrots with salt, coriander and cayenne and stir. Add rice vinegar and stir again. Put the salad into a refrigerator and let it sit there for several hours. The carrots will lose their rigidity while retaining their crunch and all the flavors will blend together. Serve them as a side to rice, meat, fish, or rolled in a flatbread.
Sometimes, meats or seafood are added to this recipe. My favorites are chicken hearts or gizzards and squids. Simmer chicken hearts or gizzards in water seasoned with salt, black pepper and bay leaves until they get very tender, about 1-1.5 hours for hearts and about 2-2.5 for gizzards. After they cool down, slice them and add to the carrots. Alternatively, take large squid tubes, which you can find frozen in Asian stores like Ranch 99 or HT Market, and simmer them for about an hour until very tender. Then slice them and add to the carrots.
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