Transform your Thanksgiving with Korean flavors: Try kimchi mac and cheese & more banchan sides
A new cookbook about banchan, or Korean side dishes, features dishes like smoky gochujang chicken salad.
This Thanksgiving, try replacing the usual stuffing and cranberries with these banchan, or Korean side dishes.
Caroline Choe, a Korean American chef and the author of a new cookbook, “Banchan: 60 Korean American Recipes for Delicious, Shareable Sides,” shares ideas for bringing Korean flavors to a Thanksgiving meal.
The New York City-based chef said that initially, when her parents moved to the United States in 1973, they didn’t know how to roast a turkey. “But they wanted their kids to have it so that they could tell their friends at school that they had turkey, too,” she said.
Her family gradually learned to cook a Korean American Thanksgiving spread with whatever ingredients they could find. Two of Choe’s dishes they love the most are kimchi mashed potatoes and her kimchi mac and cheese. “It’s a huge hodgepodge of a lot of Korean food, but also a lot of American food,” she said.
The book contains traditional banchan recipes from Choe’s family members and a few of her own inventions.
Rating: 5