Maangchi’s Big Book of Korean Cooking: From Everyday Meals to Celebration Cuisine

Maangchi’s magnificent latest (after Maangchi’s Real Korean) makes it clear why she’s attracted nearly four million subscribers to her YouTube channel: she has an easy style that makes even challenging recipes seem doable. Her popular Korean fried chicken comes with precise instructions, including a method for testing oil temperature without a thermometer. Korean food has become better known in the U.S. recently—the author points out that hardly anyone asks what kimchi is anymore, and expands the classic repertoire with four types of bibimbap and seven kinds of kimchi, including a crisp version with pear, cucumber, and radish. She also brings in family stories—a spicy sesame spinach side dish hails from her father’s hometown; her grandmother made chicken and soy sauce with margarine for her to take on a blind-date picnic. Thematic chapters focus on street food, soups and stews, and vegan Buddhist temple cuisine (including oyster and enoki mushrooms tied with blanched cilantro stems). Desserts tend to the simple: rice cakes for the harvest moon festival steamed on a bed of pine needles. A photographic guide to equipment and ingredients is a thoughtful touch in this openhearted volume. This will be a go-to Korean cookbook.[em] (Oct.) [/em]