Chef Jeong-sun
Amjuk (Dried-Grain Weaning Porridge)
Powdered rice or dried baekseolgi cooked thin in cloudy rice water, an old Korean first-spoon porridge that asks for patience at the sieve and gentleness at the stove.
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Kkae-juk (Sesame Porridge)
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A pale Korean sesame porridge made from fragrant toasted seeds and soaked rice, cooked slowly until smooth, nutty, and gentle enough for breakfast or convalescence.
Breakfast & Brunch
Korean
Comfort Food
40 min
Active Time
25 min cook•1 hr 5 min total
Yield3 servings
Kkae-juk lives or dies in the grinding. If the sesame is scorched, the whole pot tastes bitter. If the rice is left coarse, the porridge sits heavy on the tongue. My teacher made us toast the seeds until they smelled awake, then stop. Not brown. Not proud. Awake.
This is juk (porridge), the food Koreans give to someone who is tired, recovering, elderly, young, or simply in need of a quiet bowl. It can sit on a careful banquet table, but I know it best as food brought close to the bed, or eaten at breakfast before the house has started making demands. It asks for patience more than strength: soak the rice, grind it fine, stir without wandering away.
Use hulled white sesame for a pale bowl. Black sesame makes a different juk, deeper and darker, and that one deserves its own page. Here the sesame should taste clean and nutty, with the rice carrying it gently. Season at the end with salt, not sugar first. Let it taste like itself.
손맛 is real; I measure it anyway. For this pot, 70 grams of sesame, 90 grams of rice, and 5 cups of water give a spoonable porridge that thickens as it rests. Write that down. Memory is a borrowed bowl.
Juk has been recorded in Korean food culture for centuries as both everyday nourishment and restorative food, with grain porridges appearing in Joseon-era household and medical food writing. Sesame porridge belongs to that same juk family: richer than plain rice porridge because sesame was a valued oil seed, but still built on the home method of soaking, grinding, and slow cooking grain. White sesame kkae-juk and black sesame heugimja-juk are related dishes, but their color, flavor, and table feeling are distinct.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
short-grain white rice
Quantity
1/2 cup (about 90g)
hulled white sesame seeds
Quantity
1/2 cup (about 70g)
water
Quantity
5 cups
divided
fine sea salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste
toasted sesame oil (optional)
Quantity
1 teaspoon
toasted sesame seeds (optional)
Quantity
1 teaspoon
for garnish
pine nuts (optional)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
for garnish
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| short-grain white rice | 1/2 cup (about 90g) |
| hulled white sesame seeds | 1/2 cup (about 70g) |
| waterdivided | 5 cups |
| fine sea salt | 1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| toasted sesame oil (optional) | 1 teaspoon |
| toasted sesame seeds (optional)for garnish | 1 teaspoon |
| pine nuts (optional)for garnish | 1 tablespoon |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 2 to 3 quart pot
- •Blender
- •Fine sieve, optional
- •Wooden spoon or heatproof spatula
Instructions
- 1
Soak the rice
Rinse the rice in several changes of water until the water runs mostly clear. Soak it in fresh water for 30 minutes, then drain well. Soaking is not decoration here; it lets the rice grind fine and cook evenly, so the finished juk is smooth instead of gritty.
- 2
Toast the sesame
Put the sesame seeds in a dry skillet over medium-low heat and stir for 3 to 5 minutes, until they smell fragrant and a few seeds begin to jump. Pull them off the heat before they darken. Dark sesame belongs to another flavor; in this juk it turns bitter and muddy.
If your sesame seeds are already toasted, warm them only 1 minute in the dry pan to wake the oil. Do not toast them twice into bitterness. - 3
Grind the sesame
Blend the toasted sesame seeds with 2 cups of the water until very fine, 1 to 2 minutes in a strong blender. For the smoothest old-style bowl, strain this through a fine sieve and press hard on the solids. For a home breakfast with more body, leave it unstrained. Both are honest, but choose on purpose.
- 4
Grind the rice
Blend the soaked, drained rice with 1 cup of the water until it looks like thin rice milk with tiny grains suspended in it. Do not leave whole rice grains. Kkae-juk should thicken from ground rice, not from boiled rice breaking apart by accident.
- 5
Start the porridge
Pour the ground rice mixture into a heavy pot and add the remaining 2 cups water. Set it over medium heat and stir from the bottom with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula. When it begins to thicken, lower the heat. Rice starch catches quickly at the bottom, and once it scorches, the pot keeps the memory.
- 6
Add sesame milk
Stir in the ground sesame mixture and keep the heat low. Cook 15 to 18 minutes, stirring often, until the porridge is smooth, glossy, and thick enough to coat the spoon but still pour slowly. If it tightens too much, add hot water 2 tablespoons at a time. Juk keeps thickening even after the fire is off.
- 7
Season and serve
Stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt and taste. Add the sesame oil only if your sesame seeds were mild; if they were fragrant, leave it out. Ladle into warm bowls and finish with a few sesame seeds or pine nuts if you like. Serve plain, with baechu-kimchi or a small dish of dongchimi on the side for contrast.
Chef Tips
- •Buy hulled white sesame seeds for this pale version. Unhulled seeds taste stronger and can make the porridge rougher; black sesame makes heugimja-juk, a different bowl with its own dark, deep flavor.
- •A blender is the safe modern vessel. A stone mill gives finer texture, but I will not ask a tired cook to find one on a Tuesday morning. What you cannot skip is the soaking and the careful low heat.
- •Do not sweeten the whole pot. If someone wants it sweeter, put a little honey or sugar at the table. The base porridge should be salted lightly so the sesame still speaks clearly.
- •If serving someone recovering from illness, strain the sesame mixture and cook the porridge a little looser. Gentle food should still be well made.
Advance Preparation
- •The rice can be rinsed and soaked overnight in the refrigerator. Drain it before blending, and use fresh measured water for the recipe.
- •Toast the sesame seeds up to 3 days ahead and keep them airtight. Grind them just before cooking, because ground sesame loses fragrance quickly.
- •Leftover kkae-juk can be refrigerated for 2 days. Reheat gently with splashes of water, stirring from the bottom until smooth again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 390g)
Calories
295 calories
Total Fat
19 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
16 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
400 mg
Total Carbohydrates
27 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
0 g
Protein
7 g
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