Banchan: 60 Korean American Recipes for Delicious, Shareable Sides

Banchan is an accessible and appealing collection of Korean American side dish (banchan) recipes collected and written by Caroline Choe. Released 8th Oct 2024 by Chronicle Books, it's 208 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. 

For readers who love Korean food but always felt somewhat intimidated and full of excuses: "It's too complicated", "the ingredients are hard to source", "it requires too much special equipment", and "is it culturally insensitive for a lily white Irish girl to even make Korean food?". This is an everyday cookbook for non-professional cooks who love delicious Korean food and are enchanted by and want a cookbook with emphasis on the huge array of side dishes, pickles, ferments, relishes, etc which accompany meals. The author's accessible and friendly writing style inspires confidence and there's a definite "you can do it" vibe about the whole book. It's a welcoming book with a friendly voice.

It starts with a short background and pictorial introduction to Korean seasonings and ingredients. Some of these can be readily sourced at any well stocked international/Asian grocery store. Some of them will probably need to be ordered online.

The book continues in a logical fashion from (ferments/preserved dishes), namul & muchim (fresh salad/veg), jorim (soy sauce marinated), stir fried & steamed, soups & stews, buchimgae (pancakes - wonderful selection), and cold & hot banchan. There are 60(ish) recipes, plus alternative tips and prep suggestions. The chapters are packed with recipes (nearly all accompanied by color photographs) which are clear and easy to follow. Each of the recipes include sidebar with ingredients listed bullet point fashion (given in imperial/US standard measurements and metric equivalents), yields, and step-by-step instructions. Nutritional info is not included.

All of the recipes and assorted other information is provided in both English (transliterated), and phonetic Hangul. The book isn't bilingual, but it is well grounded in the traditional Korean names for dishes and ingredients.

All in all, this is a beautifully written and presented Korean cookbook full of delicious food. The photography is top notch, the dishes are appealing and the recipes reflect a love and respect for culture and good food.

Five stars. Loved this one. A good choice for public library acquisition, home use and gift giving.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.