[Food] Cockle Recipe (꼬막, Ggomak)

[Food]

[Food] Cockle Recipe (꼬막, Ggomak)

Winter is the season of seafood, fish and shells begin to gain fats to store energy for survival during cold winter. So you can taste rich flavor of the sea during winter of Korea. Moreover some seafood that you can only eat in winter entertains our tongue. Likewise amberjack that we talked last time, cockle (꼬막, Ggomak in Korean) is also typical winter seafood of Korea. It's chewy and firm flesh is gourmet of Korea that you don't want to miss in winter.

Cockle / Red Shell is called 'Ggomak/꼬막' in Korean

Cockle are usually cooked as seasoned spicy salad called 'Muchim (무침)'. Muchim is mixing raw ingredients (Vegetable, meat, seafood etc) with spicy and salty seasoning which includes chili powder, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame powder and etc. Cockles are usually steamed and cooked into muchim with soy sauce and chili powder seasoning on it.

Blood cockle muchim with red chili powder, soy sauce, chopped green onion on it

Cockle muchim

Cockle muchim's recipe is very simple. Steam cockle with steam cooker, make muchim seasoning and top the seasoning on steamed cockles. However making muchim seasoning is the hardest part. You have to control spiciness and saltiness to make balanced taste by putting appropriate amount of chili powder and soy sauce. Every cook in Korea has different cockle muchim recipe and secrets for the taste, so there's no best cockle muchim recipe but you have to find your best one.

Cockle muchim, cockle pancake, steamed cockle with side dishes

Most cockle in Korea caught in the West Sea where has wide and clean sea land that nurtures numerous marine animals and plants. Bulgyo-Eup of Bosung-Gun in Jeonnam province (Southern west part of South Korea) produces most cockle in South Korea. So you can taste fresh cockle dishes and other seafood if you visit Bulgyo-Eup in Winter.

Cockle muchim on top of spicy cold noodle

Cockle bibimbab, it's popular dish in South Korea now

Some people don't like winter because of its cold weather, but winter gives you more tasty food and dish on the other hands. So try cockle muchim and other cockle dishes now before winter pushed away by spring :) If you miss it now, you might have to wait for a year to taste :) Hope you can eat as many as you want to :)

Bon Appétit!