Hey everyone, still here and still fuckin' hating breakfast. I've been working with bulgur and trying to find new ways to eat it and this one utilizes Korean ingredients and flavors. This would honestly make a really nice weekday dinner too, minimal prep, hearty yet light. It's mostly Mediterranean diet compatible I think, I'm sure someone could make edits if necessary :D.
Notes on bulgur wheat: Ok so I've only been working with this grain for a few weeks now and every time I make it I'm impressed with it's flexibility. Im using the kind by Red Mill but you can find basically the same quality for a quarter of the price if you have a Middle Eastern market in your area. I developed this recipe after toasting some bulgur in a dry pan just to see what happens and the smell reminds me a lot of the toasted rice powder they use in some Thai recipes but with funky-nutty note I associate with strongly flavored sesame oil. Toasting also seems to reduce cooking time a little and may result in more toothsome final product but i need to do a side-by-side comparison to back up these observations.
OKAY SORRY HERE IS THE RECIPE
You need: Bulgur. Korean dried whole anchovies (I used like four individual chovies)+Kombu Hondashi would work great too, and you could also use nice vegetable stock or even low-sodium bullion if that's what you've got. Daikon (or parsnip or carrot). Greens or nappa cabbage and green onions. Korean chili flakes (hard to find a sub TBH, but I guess you could do kashmiri or other mild chili powder with just a pinch of cayenne). Stuff for garnish–i used raw snap peas and cilantro cuz that's what I had but go fuckin' wild. Toasted sesame oil, sesame seeds.
Mise en place: If using 'chovies, pull off the heads and guts and discard. Use kitchen shears to cut a good sized square of Kombu. Dice daikon, appx 2-4cm dice. Separate onion greens from whites; cut whites into vertical strips, slice greens at a sharp bias for garnish, keep separate. Rough chop greens unless you're a degenerate like me and just leave them whole so the stems get all stringy and stuck in your teeth. Prepare other garnish if necessary (e.g. thin slice cucumber, mandolin Brussels sprouts, blanch kale).
Cook: in a dry pan, toast bulgur. I toss mine in a wok on high heat, but I bet you could roast them in a toaster oven @300°F and it'd work great. When the color is darker and it smells like fucked up popcorn it's done. Don't burn it. Set aside. Make your broth, I used about 3 cups of water per quarter cup of bulgur. If using 'chovies and Kombu, simmer on low heat for ~5mins. Do not boil Kombu. Remove solids. Add bulgur and daikon to broth, stir. Bring to rolling boil, lower to hard simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally until 75% of liquid is gone. Taste bulgur, if pleasantly chewy Add greens, whites of green onion, cilantro and Korean chili flakes. Continue to cook until mostly dry. If not pleasantly chewy, add a bit (half cup?) more water and keep simmering hard until it's cooked, repeat as necessary before adding greens.
Plate: Add to bowl. Add garnishes, green onion greens. Sprinkle sesame seeds and drizzle everything with toasted sesame oil. Add pinch of salt if it needs it.
Tldr: toast bulgur, make broth, cook bulgur, add greens and stuff when bulgur is almost done, garnish.
Im legit not sure if this is how you're supposed to cook bulgur, but it comes out really nice. You basically use a lot of extra water and cook it hard without a lid, and it becomes al dente. additionally, adding some gochujang to the broth before the bulgur and daikon would be really dope as would some garlic and ginger–but keep in mind these flavors will def overpower the subtle anchovy and Kombu broth. Oh also, I also added a scant teaspoon of Korean brown rice syrup to add sheen and a modicum of sweetness, but this is a pretty uncommon ingredient and prolly not Mediterranean diet compliant so I didn't include it in the recipe. Plus, if you're using carrot instead of daikon it might end up overly sweet.
Anyway, stay tuned for more simple recipes I mastodonically overcomplicate.
by kidleviathan