Korean Soy Beans

There have been many a times when I've dined in Korean restaurants more for their side dishes than the items ordered off the menu. In fact, the highlight of one of my favourite Korean restaurants was not any of the items on the menu, but the Korean soy bean side dish served before the start of every meal.

Sadly, the restaurant is not longer running, and I have yet to find another replacement which even serves this soy bean dish at all, so I turned to the internet to find a recipe to replicate this at home.

The recipe itself is quite simple- a simple mixture of soy sauce, sugar and garlic, not unlike the sauce that I make up for Jap Chae and Korean Potato side dish, but you have to take the time to boil it down to get it right. The resultant a thick, sticky mixture is much more delicious than my description makes it sound, and pairs with the firm, almost nut-like texture of the cooked soybeans very well!

Korean Soy Beans (Kongjorim)
Recipe from Maangchi

1 cup of soy beans
½ cup of soy sauce
1 tsp of vegetable oil,
2 cloves of minced garlic
⅓ cup of sugar
½ Tbs sesame seeds

1. Rinse 1 cup of soy beans and drain it and place in a skillet
2. Add 2 cups of water in the skillet and soak the beans for 8 hours
3. Boil the beans on the stove over medium high heat for 10 minutes
   *Tip: about 5 minutes later, it may boil over, and then open the lid and turn down the heat over medium heat and cook another 5 minutes
4. Add the soy sauce, vegetable oil, minced garlic, and sugar and boil it over medium heat for 30 minutes (cover the lid)
5. Open the lid of the pot and heat it up over high heat and stir the beans occasionally with a spoon until the beans look shinny.
   *Tip: Beans will be submerged with shiny and sticky seasoning sauce
6. Turn off the heat and add 1 tbs of toasted sesame seed and cool it down.
7. Transfer it into a container and keep it in the refrigerator