Gaori-hoe-muchim (Spicy Stingray Salad)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Very sharp slicing knife
• •Large stainless mixing bowl
• •Fine colander
• •Clean kitchen towel or several layers of paper towel
• •Wide serving plate

Instructions

1. 1

   Check the fish

   Smell the skate or ray before you cut it. It should smell clean and faintly of the sea, not sharp with ammonia. Ray spoils loudly, and no amount of gochujang will make a tired fish respectable. If you are serving it raw, buy from a fishmonger who can confirm it was handled for raw consumption or frozen for parasite control. Keep it cold the whole time.

2. 2

   Slice the ray

   Pat the ray dry and slice it across the grain into pieces about 5cm long, 1.5cm wide, and 3mm thick. This is the step the dish lives or dies by. Cut with the grain and it chews like rope; cut thin across the grain and the fish keeps its proper spring.

3. 3

   Firm the fish

   Toss the sliced ray with 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt and let it stand in a stainless bowl for 10 minutes. Rinse quickly under very cold water, drain well, then toss with 3 tablespoons rice vinegar and rest 15 minutes in the refrigerator. The salt draws out excess moisture, and the vinegar tightens the flesh so it stays chewy instead of slack. Drain again and squeeze gently in a clean towel.

4. 4

   Salt the radish

   Toss the julienned radish with 1 teaspoon fine sea salt and leave it 15 minutes, just until it bends. Squeeze out the liquid firmly. If you skip this, the radish waters down the sauce and the whole plate turns loose at the bottom.

5. 5

   Cut the vegetables

   Seed the cucumber and slice it thin, then cut the onion, minari, scallions, and perilla leaves. Keep the vegetables cold and dry. Muchim is not a stew; every piece should stay crisp enough to answer the chew of the ray.

6. 6

   Mix the sauce

   In a large bowl, stir together the gochujang, gochugaru, 3 tablespoons rice vinegar, maesil-cheong, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, and sesame seeds. Taste it before it touches the fish. It should be bright, sour first, then sweet, then hot. Add the extra 1 teaspoon sugar only if your vinegar is very sharp. Do not bury the ray under sweetness.

7. 7

   Toss by hand

   Add the drained ray to the sauce and fold it through with your hand or chopsticks until every slice is coated. Add the radish, cucumber, onion, minari, scallions, and perilla last, then toss only 20 to 30 seconds. The vegetables go in last because salt and vinegar pull water from them quickly. 손맛 is real; I measure it anyway, so you know what your hand is trying to do.

8. 8

   Serve at once

   Mound the salad on a wide plate, scatter a little more sesame over the top, and serve immediately with rice, makgeolli, or a table of banchan. If it must wait, hold the dressed ray and cut vegetables separately, then toss at the table. This dish rewards the cook who waits until the last minute.

Chef Tips

• •For raw serving, ask specifically for skate or ray wing suitable for raw preparation, or use product frozen according to parasite-control standards. If your fishmonger hesitates, make a cooked gaori-muchim instead: blanch the sliced ray in barely simmering water for 20 to 30 seconds, chill it immediately, drain hard, then season the same way.
• •Do not buy ray with a strong ammonia smell. Skate and ray naturally contain urea, but a sharp smell means the fish is old or badly handled. My teacher would have sent it back without a word.
• •Minari gives this dish its clean green snap. If you cannot find it, use a small handful of watercress stems or Korean chives, but do not replace it with a mountain of lettuce. Lettuce collapses and waters the plate.
• •The sauce should taste a little too strong before tossing, because the fish and vegetables dilute it. Still, keep restraint. If all you taste is gochujang and sugar, you have made red sauce with seafood in it, not gaori-hoe-muchim.

Advance Preparation

• •The sauce can be mixed up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated. Let it stand 10 minutes at room temperature before tossing so it loosens enough to coat the fish evenly.
• •The radish can be julienned and salted up to 4 hours ahead, then squeezed dry and refrigerated. Keep it separate from the sauce.
• •Slice and firm the ray no more than 2 hours before serving, and keep it covered in the coldest part of the refrigerator. Toss the salad only at the last minute.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 245g)