Siraegi: The flavor of winter in Korea

Siraegi (시래기 - dried radish greens/dried radish leaves), which is made by drying the outer leaves of Korean radish or cabbage, is a food that tastes sweeter after enduring the cold weather of late autumn and winter. Eating siraegi in spring feels like a gift from the season. It isn't easy to get used to, but once you know the taste, it is hard to get out of its charm.

Radish is one of the most widely used vegetables in Korea, not only for kimchi, but also for various dishes such as namul, soup, and braised dishes. It has different uses depending on the part, and it has different tastes depending on the season, making it an attractive ingredient. Especially, siraegi made by drying the blue radish leaves harvested by open-field cultivation in winter has a savory taste and a soft texture, making the spring table rich. Siraegi must be frozen and thawed at least three times to become delicious. The dietary fiber of siraegi, which has increased more than twice during the drying process, gives a feeling of fullness and helps to remove waste from the body.

Even if it's considered a delicacy now, its origin may sometimes look insignificant. Siraegi made by drying the outer leaves of Korean radish or cabbage in the sun and wind is like that.

In the Korean Peninsula, people have been making kimchi for winter since ancient times. It is the 'kimjang culture' that is on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list. When kimchi is made by mixing various seasonings such as green onion, garlic, red pepper powder, etc. with cabbage and radish, radish leaves and cabbage outer leaves are left. If you dry them raw or boil them and dry them, they become siraegi. 

The Standard Korean Dictionary defines the outer leaves that are picked out when trimming the radish as ugeoji, and the dried leaves of radish or cabbage as siraegi. Ugeoji, which sometimes looks shabby and is compared to 'a wrinkled face', also becomes a good ingredient when dried carefully.

The outer leaves of vegetables such as cabbage are exposed to rain and wind while growing. They tend to look rough and damaged compared to the inner leaves. They may wilt or die. But in the days when people lived on grass roots and bark, they could not even throw them away. They picked up the vegetable peels and dried them in the shade, then chopped them finely and boiled them with a handful of rice, tofu residue, or wheat flour. Even that was not enough for three meals. Many people barely survived by eating one or two meals. In spring, farmers' appeals that they wanted to eat siraegi porridge were often reported in newspapers.

A food that requires adaptation (적응이 필요한 음식)

Siraegii is a food that you have to eat several times to know the taste. The smell of boiling siraegi in the cold winter countryside isn't very fragrant. It feels good that the hot steam warms up the house, but the smell is's good. It's because of the sulfur compounds that are produced when cabbage or radish leaves are boiled. But in the process of boiling, the spicy taste becomes less and the taste becomes soft and mild. 

Cabbage contains a lot of free glutamic acid, which gives a savory taste. Radish leaves contain more glutamic acid than the root of radish. Sulfur compounds and glutamic acid are originally found in meat and are ingredients that give meat flavor. Siraegi made by drying cabbage and radish leaves goes well with meat unexpectedly thanks to these flavor substances. 

If you boil siraegi stew or soup with red pepper paste, soybean paste, and garlic, it tastes like meat even without meat. Adding anchovy broth makes it more flavorful. In Tongyeong, a port city famous for its food, there is a siraegi soup that is made with eel bones instead of anchovies. In fact, it's not a taste that everyone likes from the beginning.

A young child needs to experience a food at least 8 to 15 imes to accept and like it. Siraegi soup is a food that fits this description. I don't remember when I first tasted siraegi soup, but I clearly remember that it was a food that I didn't care about for a while. But strangely enough, I started to like siraegi one day. Once I liked it, I could enjoy most of the dishes made with siraegi. I liked siraegi salad with perilla seeds, siraegi jijim with soybean paste and various seasonings, and siraegi soup with beef broth.

The 15th day of the first lunar month is a lunar holiday. In 2022, it was February 15th in the solar calendar. On this day, people eat a lot of multigrain rice with muknamul. Muknamul is 'aged vegetables' that are dried and stored in winter, such as gourd, cucumber, mushroom, pumpkin, radish, fern, mugwort, cucumber tips, eggplant peel, etc. They are boiled and seasoned. Muknamul also includes siraegi.

Siraegi is suitable for places where the temperature difference is large, as it often freezes and melts and must be completely dried. Siraegi produced in Punch Bowl, a coastal plain in Yanggu, Gangwon-do, where the temperature difference is more than 20 degrees in the mountainous area at an altitude of 300-500m, is famous for this reason. 'Punch Bowl' is a name that was coined by an American military journalist who said that the terrain of this place, where fierce battles took place during the Korean War, resembled a fruit punch bowl. 

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Hong Seok-mo (洪錫謨 1781-1857), a scholar of the late Joseon Dynasty, wrote in his book <Dongguk Sesigi> (東國歲時記 1849) that eating muknamul on the first full moon of the lunar year would prevent heat in the coming summer. It is hard to see scientific evidence in his explanation, but the nutritional value of muknamul, including siraegi, is sufficient. 

When vegetables are boiled and dried, the color of chlorophyll changes from green to yellow-green, but chlorophyll itself isn't a nutrient that is absorbed and used by the human body. Water-soluble vitamins such as vitamin B group and vitamin C are partially lost, but fat-soluble vitamins and minerals remain mostly intact. According to the Food Composition Table of the Rural Development Administration, 100g of boiled radish siraegi contains 4g of protein, 9.8g of carbohydrate, 0.3g of fat, and 10.3g of dietary fiber. Eating two plates of siraegi alone will eat more than half of the recommended dietary fiber intake of 25g. It may not last until summer, but it is definitely effective to have siraegi on the spring table of people with constipation.

Siraegi, which has been softened by boiling for a long time and then soaked in cold water, is used in various dishes. Siraegi-namul, which is stir-fried with finely chopped beef or pork and various seasonings, is a special dish that can't be missed on the first full moon of the lunar year table.

A gift left by the cold (추위가 남기고 간 선물)

Siraegi these days is different from the old siraegi. In the past, they dried the radish leaves left after making kimchi with radish and made siraegi. Now they develop varieties suitable for siraegi and plant them separately. 

Siraegi obtained by cultivating siraegi-specific radish seeds has the characteristic of having softer and lighter leaves than siraegi harvested with ordinary radish. The advantage is that people who find it cumbersome to peel and cook can cook and eat it right away because the texture is soft. They plant the varieties with more leaves and grow well at a sufficient distance from each other, cut off the radish leaves when they grow enough, make siraegi, and leave the radish. They harvest between 45 and 60 days after sowing and sometimes leave small radishes in the field. 

As the title of the article <Senior Daily> on November 29, 2021, the Korean radish left in the field might scream "I hate siraegi". According to the article, siraegi-specific radish is slightly spicy and less watery than ordinary radish, so it is not suitable for making kimchi. So they make dongchimi, dry and roast it after slicing it and then make tea, or make pickled radish.

Siraegi is harvested and eaten everywhere in the country, but Yanggu, Gangwon-do is the most famous mountainous area. Yanggu-gun, a mountainous area, is also called 'Punch Bowl', which is a name given by an American military journalist during the Korean War. The fact that the English word that refers to the terrain of the eroded plain that is sunken like a round bowl that holds drinks is still the name of the region means that this place was a fierce battlefield. The Punch Bowl battle was fierce until the end of the war. 

But recently, more people have thought of siraegi when they hear Yanggu Punch Bowl. The siraegi of this place, which is as bright as the name Yanggu, is famous for its good taste, partly because the cold weather makes the radish taste sweet and mild. To prevent the vegetables from freezing in the cold, the moisture in the leaves, stems, and roots decreases, and the content of sugar and free amino acids increases.

In the fall and winter, when it is cold and the sunlight is dim, the flavor compounds that produce spiciness are less produced. This is why kimchi made with winter cabbage and radish tastes good. Nowadays, you can eat Korean radish greens all year round, but you also feel that radish greens taste best when it is cold for the same reason.

The fragrant radish greens go well with aglio e olio or cream pasta. If you add a spoonful of perilla oil, which matches well with Korean radish greens, you can enjoy it more deliciously. Finely chopped radish greens add a crunchy bite.

Soft texture and taste (부드러운 식감과 맛)

Once you know the unique taste, you will also realize that no food doesn't go well with siraegi. In addition to common home-cooked dishes such as vegetables, porridge, stew, and soybean paste soup, it becomes a great delicacy when added to rice. Cut the Korean radish greens into 2-3cm lengths, soak them in perilla oil, and put them on top of the rice. Then add green onions, garlic, red pepper powder, and make a seasoning sauce and mix it. You will feel the savory aroma filling your mouth.

As low-carb and ketogenic diets become popular, there are quite a few people who misunderstand that a grain-based diet is like a villain that threatens health. But it's unfair for humans who have cultivated crops and built civilization on grains to ignore and disparage grains now. 

In various regions of the world, the food culture of eating complex carbohydrates such as wheat, rice, potatoes, and cassava as staples and adding side dishes to make the bland taste of staples more edible is a common feature of agricultural society. There is no need to explain long. As soon as you eat a bite of siraegi rice, you will exclaim. The taste and flavor of siraegi seems to have been hidden in the rice. The contrasting texture of the Korean radish greens that are chewed with the soft rice grains is fun to deliver to the tip of the tongue. Every time you swallow a spoonful, you will feel a long aftertaste. The rice, which had a bland taste, turns into a food that gives a subtle flavor with siraegi. If you taste a simple meal with siraegi rice, you will want to stop the wrong attack on grain foods right away.

How about steamed mackerel with siraegi on the bottom? Naturally, ingredients that share similar flavor components go well together when cooked together. But the flavor combination that siraegi and radish, which had parted, meet again and create. It can't help but taste good. 

They also add siraegi to pork kimchi stew and make siraegi kimchi stew. It tastes better than regular kimchi stew. Unlike raw vegetable salads, warm siraegi are comfortable for your stomach even if you eat a lot.

Not only Koreans can eat this delicious siraegi. Italians in Puglia also put turnip stems and leaves in ear-shaped pasta (orecchiette) and fry them in oil. They also wash the stems and leaves of the turnip well and grind them with Parmesan cheese, garlic, olive oil, and pine nuts to make turnip pesto. Because they use turnip greens raw without cooking, they have a tangy taste. If you add a little more nuts, the taste becomes slightly softer.

It must have been a common law of the world since ancient times to cherish and use every edible ingredient without wasting it. Siraegi, which used to be the food of poor people in the past, has now become a delicacy that everyone enjoys and has been reborn with a softer texture and taste than before. It's similar to the corn porridge polenta, which was made and eaten by poor Italian farmers in the 16th century, becoming a dish that gourmets enjoy in modern times. Now that siraegi has become softer and tastier, we should enjoy them more while not forgetting the past of this unique ingredient.

(Source / 정재훈(Jeong Jae-hoon 鄭載勳) 약사, 푸드 라이터)