Uh-ung Jo-Rim or Burdock

Jorim is a kind of dish which is cooked in seasonings till seasoning is condensed, which usually soy sauce based. It is quite popular method of cooking in Japan also. Oil was very expensive commodity and also it was not for everyday cooking method since it is heavy. Most of food in Korea uses oil as seasoning rather than way of cooking.
Various hard vegetables, fish or meat are cooked in low heat with soy sauce base seasoning. It is good method to develop new flavor and to tenderize the food items otherwise to tough to eat. Not to mention, good method to stretch the ingredient and also to preserve them. By using simple, plane taste steamed grain as main dish, the meal can be –and should be- built up with various side dishes.
Making side dish in every single meal was something next to impossible for house wives with a ton of household and agricultural chores. Jorim is salty and many of them is preserved well without refrigeration.
Jorim Ghanjang – the soy sauce used in Jorim - is also attractive benefit of making jorim. It is now totally new sauce. Soy sauce has complicated taste to begin with but sweetness of cooked garlic, taste of various main Jorim ingredients such as meat or burdock, mild kick of chillie are added. Using this sauce in other dishes give you new flavor experience than just using Soy sauce.

Burdock looks like a mudded tree trunk or root. When it is not cooked, the texture doesn’t betray its looks; a tree pulp with bitter taste! When it is cooked as Jorim, however, it turns into something delightful to eat. The texture is soft but still crunch. It takes the flavor of ginger and shines with sugar used in cooking.
Either used in Kim-Bab (Korean style seaweed roll) or served with hot steamed rice, this humble vegetable works quite well.
Burdock has anticancer effect and lots of fiber. It looks scary but it is certainly good for you.

Uh-ung Jo-Rim (Ginger and soy sauce glazed burdock)
1/4 pound Burdock, half cup of water (for sauce), 1 or 1/2 T grated ginger, 1T soy sauce, 1 1/2 T honey, 3 T white vinegar

1. Peel burdock and cut into thin strips and soak it in water with vinegar or lemon juice
2. Mix water, ginger, soy sauce, and honey well
3. Drain burdock and put it in the sauce pan add mixture from 2.
4. Put it on high till boil and reduce it into medium.
5. Cover it and cook for 20 minute.
6. Check the texture; cook till it is soften (but even when it is fully cooked, it will be harder than cooked potatoes )
7. Serve with steamed rice or use in Nori-roll.