Barley-aged Dried Yellow Croaker(Borigulbi)
…. One day, I served Borigulbi on my table for a family dinner. Last holiday my friends sent borigulbi to me. Thank you my friends!! Gulbi is one of DJ’s favorite ingredients. I prepared it -soaking with rice water, steaming, and grilling. Since it is a precious ingredient, the process is elaborate. My grandson SIWOO was curious about the Borigulbi that has a whole fish with a head. He has never seen a whole fish on the table before with a head. He started to ask his mom(LACEY) a lot of questions. The fish has an eye, is it a real fish? How did you get it? Can you eat the eyes?…….LACEY who explained in detail satisfied SIWOO’s curiosity. I was proud to see how many times he ate it, wondering how it tasted. ANNE wanted to eat Borigulbi with cold green tea and rice. She really liked that refreshing taste even when she was young. DJ ate two whole Borigulbi today!!!
Serving: 2–3
Time: 30 minutes plus 3–4 hours soaking Borigulbi with rice water
Ingredients:
- 2 Borigulbi, soaked with rice water and cleaned
- 1/4 onion, sliced
- 5 -6 cups rice water
- fresh ginger to taste
- 2 bay leaves
Cooking Instructions:
- Put the rice water onto a tray.
2. Soak the borigulbi into the rice water to soak for 4 hours until the dried borigulbi is softened(can help to remove some scent).
3. After 4 hours, when you touch the boligulbi, it should be a little soft. Clean the borigulbi, remove scales, fins, and gill. Place them onto a tray.
4. Heat a steam pot with medium high heat and add 4 cups water into the steam pot to boil.
5. Add the bay leaves into the water and put the steam pot shelf onto the pot.
6. Put the ginger and onion onto the shelf.
7. Put 2 skewers onto the shelf.
8. Put the cleaned borigulbi onto the shelf and steam them for 15–20 minutes with a lid.
9. After 15–20 minutes, turn off the heat and leave it for 10 minutes without the lid.
10. Place the steamed borigulbi onto a baking tray and put into broiler with low heat for 10 minutes until golden.
11. Turn off the broiler and remove the tray onto a counter.
12. Serve the whole boligulbi or serve just the meat with a cold green tea.
You can also view this recipe on instagram.
