Now let’s cook
Morkovcha. A grater, hot oil and five hours of patience.
Ingredients
- 1000 g carrotpeeled and grated into long thin strips on a Korean-carrot grater
- 120 g onionyellow onion, cut into half-rings
- 1 tsp fine saltordinary table salt
- 2 tsp sugarwhite granulated sugar
- 80 ml sunflower oila neutral-tasting oil
- 1 tsp ground coriandera powder of coriander seed, not the fresh leaf herb
- ½ tsp ground red peppera powder of dried hot red pepper
- 2 tbsp table vinegar (9%)acetic acid in water, at 9% strength
- 18 g garlicfresh garlic (one clove weighs about 3 g)
Method
Peel the carrots and grate them on a Korean-carrot grater so the strips come out long and thin. Put them in a large bowl.
Sprinkle the carrot with salt, toss it and rub it gently with your hands. Cover the bowl and leave it for 40 minutes so the carrot gives up its juice.
Pour off all the juice and squeeze the carrot lightly: the salad should not turn out watery.
Chop the garlic finely. Heap the garlic, coriander, red pepper and sugar on top of the carrot.
Cut the onion into half-rings. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onion for 10 minutes, until it is translucent and golden. Move the onion to a separate bowl: it does not go into the salad. Carefully pour the hot oil left in the pan over the heap of garlic and spices.
Pour in the vinegar and toss well. Cover the bowl with a lid or cling film and chill it in the fridge for 5 hours. Serve cold.
Where this dish comes from
Korean cuisine of Kazakhstan (Koryo-saram)
Morkovcha is a dish of the Koryo-saram, the Soviet Koreans who were deported in 1937 to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Where they settled there were none of the ingredients for their usual Korean appetisers, and this carrot salad appeared.
