Anju and Banju: Korean Tapas/Seoul Mum's Recipes

This collaboration between a Korean chef and a British publishing collective offers an unusual collection of small plate dishes adapted from traditional Korean fare, accompanied by suggested natural wine pairings.

Seoul-born chef Jungwook Woo assumes a certain familiarity with Korean cooking and ingredients, taking it for granted you know words such as hansik and banchan. Her recipes range from grilled kimchi rice balls, savory vegetable pancakes, and braised beef to a kimchi tuna roll, spare rib fries, and black bean mascarpone spread. More traditional dishes predominate, however.

The chef’s notes on the recipes can be detailed and chatty or enthusiastically curt, but where she incorporates an unusual technique, she’s careful to explain its importance to the final results.

Most of the suggested pairings are French wines, though we spotted at least one Slovakian, a Belgian, and an Italian offering. The recipes are arranged to highlight the pairing possibilities, grouped into chapters for bubbly, white, orange, and red and rose wines.

Pink plastic spiral binding. Watercolor illustrations throughout.