Is Peanuts Used in Korean Cuisine?
Korean food is known for BBQ, barbecued meats, and tart sauces. Yet, while it’s not known for nut dishes, I have pondered whether Korean food has peanuts?
This is what I know from doing some scrumptious investigation:
Peanuts are never utilized in preparing Korean food. Nonetheless, some Korean cafés do utilize imported nut sauces. You may likewise track down peanuts in sure treats, yet in general, peanuts are not regularly utilized in most Korean cooking.
Yet, there’s something else to find out with regards to this!
So in this article, we will go over Korean food and how to recognize if nut sauces are being utilized. However, we’ll likewise see nut oil and which pastries may have peanuts.
How about we hop into it.
Are nuts utilized in Korean food?
Most Korean food doesn’t have or utilize peanuts in it. If they are available, it’s in a sauce or utilized as an embellishment, particularly in pastries/pastry kitchens. Singed items should be avoided as the oil they use can be polluted.
Nut hypersensitivities are not standard with Koreans, so they may not be acquainted with how extreme a sensitivity can be.
However, this typically isn’t an issue, assuming you can convey that you are susceptible to all nuts and request no nuts in the food given to you. The principal issue you may run into is that servers probably won’t know whether peanuts are contained in their sauces for dishes.
As a rule, however, if you avoid sauces and pastries while visiting, you’ll most likely never run into a nut issue.
It’s in every case best to keep an information card with the rest of your personal effects close by your EpiPen.
Here is something to compose on a card to pass on your sensitivity. It’s ideal to have pictures too.
Regardless of whether you may not pass on, the café individuals will approach it significantly in a profound way and make an honest effort to ensure you don’t come into contact with peanuts.
However, you ought to be approved in Korea to eat most food varieties.
Does kimchi have nuts?
Most kimchi doesn’t contain peanuts or different nuts except if utilized as an embellishment. Nonetheless, some plans include matured cabbage and peanuts or pine nuts blended in with red pepper, albeit this would not commonly be called kimchi or be served at Korean eateries.
Yet, there is a wide assortment of what can go into kimchi from my exploration.
The word kimchi implies salting vegetables and is exceptionally fitting for the standard form of kimchi. Generally, kimchi is made with salted and aged vegetables, frequently cabbage blended in with glue made of ginger, garlic, bean stew powder, red pepper, and sugar. This glue is the thing that gives kimchi its fiery character.
It likewise has a fish sauce to furnish it with tartness.
You can likewise trade the cabbage kimchi for radish kimchi. It’s less fiery kimchi made with radish stalks drifting in a tart cleanser.
How about we see a couple of different kinds of kimchi.
White kimchi
Cubed radish kimchi
Cucumber kimchi
These are altogether really investigating, and there are a more significant number of forms than simply this.
Keep in mind, not all kimchi is made equivalent, so some kimchi may have peanuts or nuts in it, while others don’t have a hint of it. Be meticulous and cautious when requesting this dish.
It’s normal to find eateries that consolidate diverse Asian cooking styles in the US.
I additionally have a new article about peanuts in Vietnamese food. So assuming you see Vietnamese things on the menu with Korean food, you’ll need to audit my article as that will expand the odds of cross-defilement.
Does Korean Fried Chicken have nuts?
While the chicken utilized in Korean singed chicken is protected, it’s ideal to avoid seared items because of cross-tainting in the oil used to broil the chicken. Also, chicken dishes can be covered with puffed rice, sesame seeds, or nuts once in a while.
You’d think chicken is altogether protected from nuts, correct?
You could partake in this heavenly supper in certain spots without the peanuts, but generally, you should avoid it to play it safe.
Lamentably, peanuts aren’t the prominent allergen concern individuals have with Korean food. Gluten addresses a significant concern too with Korean food.
Fortunately, I dive into every one of the subtleties in this new article about sans gluten food in Korea and Korean cafés here in the US. I even cover how to ensure the soy sauce utilized is sans wheat.
However, assuming you can’t survive without Korean seared chicken, we have you covered with an incredible formula that is sans nut!
Here’s the way to make Korean Fried Chicken at home without any peanuts:
For the chicken, all you will require is:
- 2lbs of Chicken wings
- 4-6 Cups Vegetable oil
- ½ Cup Cornstarch
- ½ Tsp Garlic powder
- ½ Tsp Baking powder
- ½ Tsp Ground dark pepper
- 1 Tbsp Grated ginger
For the sauce:
- 1 Tbsp Soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp Rice vinegar
- 1 Tbsp Minced ginger
- 2 Tbsp Ketchup
- 2 Tbsp Brown sugar
- 3 Tbsp. Margarine
- 5 Small dried red bean stews, cut
- Three cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup Gochujang
- 1/4 Cup Honey
After this is prepared, you will warm your oil to 275 degrees.
Put every one of the elements for the chicken in a bowl, except the cornstarch.
You will rub the chicken with the fixings and place the chicken into the cornstarch afterward. Crush to pack the cornstarch into the chicken.
Cautiously add the wings to your oil and cook for around 18 minutes.
Take these out and let them rest briefly while turning the oil up to 400 degrees to deep fry the chicken wings. When you place the wings back in, you will cook them for around 8 minutes.
You will take a medium pot and add spread to it to make the sauce.
Place the ginger, garlic, and dried stews into the pan and cook for around 2 minutes. Include ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, and gochujang until it bubbles.
Now, you need to mix in the desserts, for example, honey and earthy-colored sugar, until it thickens.
Presently we blend the wings and the sauce. Remember to throw your wings to ensure they are entirely covered with the sauce.
Presently you can decide to embellish the wings with onions and sesame seeds.
Do they utilize nut sauce in Korean food?
Koreans utilize nut sauce, yet it is unprecedented. Since peanuts aren’t used much in Korean cooking, it’s regularly imported from Thailand when they do utilize nut sauce. In any case, there is one special nut sauce in Korean food called nut ssamjang.
Incidentally, ssamjang isn’t constantly made with peanuts.
When peanuts are utilized, it’s produced using extra marinade from simple hamburger, peanut butter, and water. This is genuinely used to help misuse good marinade that has interacted with crude meat. The word nut will be utilized when it’s made with peanut butter.
Regularly, ssamjang is made with:
- Doenjang (matured soybean glue-like miso)
- Red pepper
- Sesame oil
- Onion
- Garlic
- Green onions
This variant is utilized more frequently than the nut ssamjang. Korea doesn’t have a tremendous history with peanuts. However, they have a long history of fiery food.
Do they utilize nut oil in Korean BBQ?
Most Korean cafés in the US don’t utilize nut oil, and nut oil is additionally not ordinarily utilized in Korea. Olive oil or sesame oil are the oils generally utilized in Korean food.
There is the chance of cross-defilement like in many spots; however, generally, you won’t see peanuts here except if it’s utilized in a sauce.
Nut oil is utilized even less so. There is a ton of assortment in oils today. However, Koreans do have their inclination.
Before 2005 Korea was exceptionally partial to utilizing olive oil. Today you see them use sesame seed oil a ton, particularly BBQ.
However, this isn’t the leading oil they use, and it broadly relies upon costs, soundness, and inclination. Peanuts are not enormous in Korean culture, and it doesn’t seem OK for them to abuse nut oil or utilize this sort of oil overall.
All things being equal, they love to utilize:
- Grapeseed oil
- Rapeseed oil (canola oil)
- Perilla oil
- Vegetable oil (frequently a mix of canola, corn, and additionally safflower oil)
Assuming you haven’t known about perilla oil previously, it’s produced using the seeds of the perilla plant. The leaves of the perilla plant are sometimes called Chinese basil to provide you with a thought of the character.
However, each family is unique, and not all eateries keep Korean guidelines. This means you can go over peanuts and nut oil in a café in the US, whether or not it’s for BBQ.
Since it’s rare doesn’t mean it’s a zero percent chance of it occurring.
Furthermore, as I referenced above, eateries in the US that mix diverse Asian foods are bound to utilize peanuts. Japanese food specifically needs additional investigation, assuming you’re attempting to stay away from peanuts.
I have a new article that discusses peanuts being in Japanese food, including the one dish that is nearly ensured to utilize them.
Did I cover all you needed to be familiar with peanuts in Korean food?
Peanuts aren’t significant in Korea, so I would prescribe beginning here, assuming you need to travel. Like consistently, however, ensure you have your clinical hardware with the rest of your personal effects and information cards.
It is in every case preferable to be protected over sorry in these circumstances. Nut oil is much more uncommon to stop by because of its cost and, generally speaking, absence of utilization.
Korea doesn’t cook much with peanuts, and it’s primarily utilized as an embellishment or in treats/cakes. Simply lookout for this and avoid singed food due to cross-defilement.