Side Dishes
3 vegetarian side dishes: caramelized onion, lotus roots, and sauteed carrot and broccoli
Sides for rice.
Ban-chan in Korean means “side dish.” Many of my American friends have seen the traditional table setting at popular tofu soup joints, where servers bring out about a dozen ban-chans and lay them on the table before the main dish comes out.
Perhaps the most interesting from the above is the lotus root.
I personally was fascinated by the shape of this root, and by the fact that I was slicing and cooking a root of a flower.
Well, preparing the lotus root is similar to peeling a carrot – you scrub off any dirt from the surface, and, using a peeler, get rid of the outer skin. Inside is a very bright ivory-colored root.
Slice the root into 1/3-inch thick disks, and leave them submerged in water mixed with a table spoon of vinegar. This supposedly keeps the texture crisp, and gets rid of any bitter flavor in the root.
Meanwhile, boil some water, so that the disks can be blanched (or, dunk in the boiling water) until the roots are half cooked.
After blanching, drain and transfer the pieces to a different pot. Prepare a sauce by mixing soy sauce with water. (extra things such as seaweed can go in here to give flavor to the broth). Pour the sauce over the lotus root pieces, and reduce. The soy sauce dyes the root into a brown color.
When the sauce is reduced to barely cover the pieces, add some corn syrup or honey to coat the root, and give shine to the ban-chan.
Voila, this ban-chan is done and I’m packing my lunch to work.
