Translated North Korean recipes

I translated some of the recipes from North Korea's recipe website. There isn't much cultural difference between the North and South, so most of these can actually be found in South Korea. If you're looking to actually make any of these, you can probably find better recipes on the web. Also, I formatted the directions exactly as they appeared on the website, so it might look a bit crowded.

If you would like me to translate a recipe, post the URL.

Raengmyŏn (S. Korean: Naengmyŏn)

A cold noodle dish originally from northern Korea, popularized in South Korea after the Korean War.

Basic Ingredients

• 700g buckwheat flour
• 300g potato starch
• 300g beef
• 300g chicken
• 300g pork
• 200g cabbage kimchi
• 200g daikon
• 200g cucumber
• 100g Asian pear
• 1 egg

Supplementary Ingredients

• 5g pine nuts
• 50g scallions
• 5g garlic
• 1g shredded red pepper
• 3g sesame seeds
• 50g salt
• 50g soy sauce
• 10g chili oil
• 300g brine from a variant of kimchi called dongchimi
• 5g sesame oil
• An unspecified amount of chili powder

Directions

1. Mix the buckwheat flour and potato starch. Knead this dough with hot water and form it into noodles. Cook in boiling water for 1~1.5 minutes, rinse it in cold water, then take the noodles out and coil it into a bundle.
2. Boil the beef, pork, and chicken. Cut the beef and pork into thin, willow leaf-shaped slices. Once the broth cools, soak the meat in it. Tear the chicken into narrow pieces to use as garnish.
3. After adding soy sauce to the broth, let it cool, and mix in the same amount of dongchimi brine (i.e. 1:1 ratio of broth and brine). Season to suit your taste, then leave it in a cool place.
4. Cut the daikon, cabbage kimchi, cucumber, and pears into thin willow leaf-shaped slices. Fry the egg and cut it into narrow slices. Mince the scallions and garlic, then add chili powder [Note: not originally mentioned in the above list of ingredients], salt, sesame oil, soy sauce, and roasted sesame seeds to make a rich seasoning mixture.
5. Soak the noodle coil in the broth and place it into a serving bowl. Garnish the noodles with shredded red pepper, fried egg, and pine nuts. Add the meat broth, then add the seasoning mixture.

Hoeguksu

Noodles with sashimi.

Basic Ingredients

• 140g buckwheat powder
• 60g potato starch

Supplementary Ingredients

• 200g cod
• 1 egg
• 50g cucumber
• 50g daikon
• 20g minari (Japanese parsley)
• 1/4 Asian pear
• 5g salt
• 3g soy sauce
• 5g sesame oil
• 5g sesame oil (Yes, they repeated it on the website)
• 3g sugar
• 20g scallion
• 10g garlic
• 2g ginger
• 2g sesame seeds
• 3g ground chili pepper
• 150g broth for noodles
• some amount of vinegar

Directions

1. Mix the buckwheat powder and potato starch and knead. Make it into noodles with boiling water. Add sesame oil and soy sauce and toss gently. Place on a plate.
2. Debone and skin the cod. Cut into thick slices, then marinate in vinegar (it doesn't mention vinegar in the original list). Afterwards, rinse it with water and season with soy sauce, salt, sugar, roasted sesame seeds, minced ginger, garlic, and ground chili pepper.
3. Cut the minari 5cm lengthwise, cut the cucumber into half-moon shapes, add salt, and then squeeze any water out. Cut the daikon into thick slices, sprinkle salt on it, then add sugar and vinegar.
4. Add half the daikon and minari to the cod and place it on top of the noodles. Put the rest of the daikon (or kimchi), cucumbers, boiled egg, Asian pear, and scallions next to the noodles, then pour the broth.
5. The broth may also be served in a separate small bowl.

Sogogi wanja pulgŭn jŭp

Literally "beef meatball red sauce". Looks like spaghetti. While South Koreans use loanwords for items of foreign origin, the official North Korean translations often use native words. For example: SK 햄버거 (haembŏgŏ, "hamburger") vs NK 고기겹빵 (kogigyŏpppang, "meat layer bread").

Basic Ingredients

• 300g beef

Supplementary Ingredients

• 50g bread
• 200g kalguksu (a style of noodles that are cut rather than stretched)
• 10g flour
• 200g pork
• 100g fat
• 1 egg
• 5g salt
• 5g soy sauce
• 30g tomato paste
• 20g cooking oil
• 20g butter
• 30g milk cream
• 5g garlic
• 20g onion
• 5g pepper
• 3g fennel seeds
• 1 bay leaf

Directions

1. Mince the beef, pork, and fat. Add the onions, bread, egg whites, soy sauce, salt, pepper, and shape it into a meatball.
2. Mince the garlic. Sauté the onions in butter, then add flour. Afterwards, add tomato paste, broth (it doesn't explain where this comes from), bay leaf, pepper, and boil to make the red sauce.
3. Coat the meatball in flour. Fry the meatball on a griddle, add the red sauce, and slowly mix in the milk cream as it boils. Put this on a plate, sprinkle fennel seeds over it, and serve alongside the kalguksu.

Norugogi kkochigui

Roast skewered Siberian roe deer.

Basic Ingredients

• 500g Siberian roe deer meat

Supplementary Ingredients

• 50g onions
• 50g chili peppers
• 20g scallions
• 10g garlic
• 20g soy sauce
• 20g sesame oil
• 10g apple dansul
• 5g ginger
• 1g sesame seeds
• 0.5g ground black pepper

Directions

1. Put minced scallions and garlic, ground ginger, sesame oil, apple dansul, roasted sesame seeds, and ground black pepper into the soy sauce to make a marinade.
2. Cut the deer meat into thin slices. Cut the onion and chili pepper a bit smaller than the meat. Put these in the marinade.
3. Skewer the deer meat, onion, and chili pepper and roast on a charcoal fire.

Gomsundae

Boiled or steamed cow or pig's intestines stuffed with various ingredients. This variant uses bear meat.

Basic Ingredients

• 1kg bear intestines
• 1kg bear blood
• 1kg bear meat
• 500g bear fat
• 400g white rice
• 400g glutinous rice
• 100g millet

Supplementary Ingredients

• 150g pickles
• 150g radish
• 300g dried radish greens
• 25g sesame salt
• 50g soy sauce
• 100g doenjang
• 10g vinegar
• 10g granulated sugar
• 50g scallions
• 50g garlic
• 10g black pepper
• 40g spicy soy sauce

Directions

1. Grind the bear meat, and add bear blood, bear fat, macerated rice and millet, finely sliced radish greens, diced scallions, diced garlic, soy sauce, doenjang, sesame salt, and black pepper to make the filling.
2. Cut the desired length of bear intestine. Stuff it with the filling and cook it in boiling water.
3. Boil for about 40 minutes and let it settle in its heat for about 10 minutes. Slice it at an angle and garnish with pickles and radish chochim (soaked in vinegar). Serve on a plate with the spicy soy sauce.

There is no mention of the granulated sugar in the directions.

Haeju bibimbap

Warm white rice topped with namul (sautéed and seasoned vegetables), gochujang (chili pepper paste), soy sauce, or doenjang (fermented soybean paste). This is a variant of bibimbap from Haeju, North Korea, known for its use of pan-fried pork. This is from the 지방료리 (regional foods) section of the website, which contains recipes from provinces of both North and South Korea.

Basic Ingredients

• 600g white rice
• 100g beef
• 100g pork belly
• 100g chicken
• 1 egg
• 200g tofu
• 100g minari (Japanese parsley)
• 100g gosari (bracken)
• 100g doraji (Korean bellflower)
• 60g mushrooms

Supplementary Ingredients

• 10g salt
• 20g soy sauce
• 20g sesame oil
• 30g scallion
• 20g garlic
• 0.5g black pepper powder
• 5g gim (laver)
• A little bit of frying oil

Directions

1. Boil the pork belly, beef, and chicken and thinly slice it. Dress it in seasoning and add salt and soy sauce to the broth. Lay the tofu flat, fry it in oil, and slice it thinly.
2. Cook the white rice and put it into a bowl. Arrange the seasoned meat, tofu, sautéed mushrooms, sautéed doraji, sautéed gosari on top so it looks nice. Sprinkle roasted and crumbled laver on top.
3. Garnish with fried egg sliced into threads and serve with hot broth.

Pickled venus clam

Basic Ingredients

• 300g venus clam

Supplementary Ingredients

• 100g daikon
• 5g scallion
• 10g garlic
• 6g salt
• 5g sesame oil
• 10g sugar
• 2g coarse red pepper
• 1g sesame seeds

Directions

1. Season the venus clam with julienned daikon, salt, minced scallion and garlic, coarse red pepper, sugar, and sesame oil. Put it in a jar and let it ferment.
2. When it ferments, put it on a plate and sprinkle roasted sesame seeds on top.

Other recipes I didn't translate

• Roast chicken
• Steamed dog meat with Job's tears and goji berries
• Strawberry jelly
• Steamed tofu bags
• "Sweet fried butter layer", i.e. pancakes
• "Chocolate ice cream". It's actually a direct transliteration of the English term.

bon appetit