Korean Potato Soup and Grilled Sole. Takes me back to my mother's cooking.
There's one thing that I really enjoy about visiting my parents. For breakfast, my mom loves to cook fish. On my last visit, she was cooking alot of sole. I remember it being so delicious. Very crispy skin. Perfectly salted. And the white meat was so tasty. You take a small nugget of it and place it on your rice... I am getting hungry just thinking about it.
In the past week, there was a big sale of fish in my local supermarket. So I picked out some sole - they are usually sold as frozen fillets at Korean markets. Sole is an easy fish to cook with for beginners. Simply pat-it-down dry and place it in the frying pan. That's it! No egg-wash, breading or other prep necessary.
One thing I should mention is that Koreans typically cook fish whole - with bone-in. Then we use our chopsticks to pick out the bones as we eat. So when you purchase sole 'fillets' - they will have bone inside of them.
A traditional Korean meal is not complete without some sort of soup or stew. Korean potato soup is an example of a home-style soup. Strangely, it is difficult to find home-style soups or stews served at Korean restaurants. Perhaps the restaurants feel that it is too 'simple'. Regardless, this Korean Potato is light and delicious. Try it out, using the anchovy-kelp broth we made earlier.
Korean Potato Soup and Grilled Sole
Ingredients
Korean Potato Soup
- Anchovy-Kelp Broth - 3 cups
- Potatoes - 2 medium-sized size of your palms
- Spring onion - 1 stalk size of your forearm
- Salt - ½ teaspoon add more to taste
- Minced garlic - ½ teaspoon add more to taste
- Black pepper - few shakes
Pan-Grilled Sole
- Sole - 1-2 frozen fillets
- Salt - few shakes
Instructions
Korean Potato Soup
- Peel the potatoes. Dice them into small, thin wedges. Also cut spring onion into small pieces.
- Take out a large pot. Pour in 3 cups of stock broth. Bring it up to a boil. Once boiling, put potatoes pieces in. Then reduce the heat to a medium-low (a gentle simmer). Let it cook until the potatoes get soft - should take about 8 minutes.
- When the potatoes turn soft, use a soup ladle and skim the foam off the top of the soup. Then add-in the minced garlic, salt and black pepper. Take a small sip and see if you want to add more minced garlic or salt. Then add the spring onion in. Turn off the heat. Let it cool down for 5 minutes.
- Place into bowl and eat with a bowl of rice.
Pan-grilled sole
- Typically, sole fillets are sold frozen at Korean markets. You can de-thaw them at room temperature. Or simply give them a rinse under water - this will melt the thin layer of ice. Then pat-them down dry with a paper towel (don't forget - or the cooking oil will splatter everywhere).
- Put a frying pan on medium-low heat. Keep the heat low so it doesn't burn. Put some oil in. Once it is hot, place the fillet in. Let it cook until it gets a nice crispy skin on the underside. Place a few shakes of salt in. Then flip the fish back over and grill it on the top-side. Once it is crispy on both sides, it is ready. Plate and serve.
- Please note that the fillets have bones in them (one in the middle, and small ones on the edges). Use your chopsticks to pick those out!
Notes
- The frozen sole fillets have bones in them. After frying them, pick them out as you eat.
- See the video below for more details
orinocowomble48 says
I came looking for the soup recipe. By definition, a "fillet" of fish has no spine nor the long central bones, though. That's what it means, they cut out the bones. What you have there is simply a cleaned, frozen sole. Book nerd, cooking nerd, teacher. Sorry. 😉