Seon (food)

	Seon
	Oiseon, made with cucumber and meat.
Korean name
Hangul	선
Hanja	膳
Revised Romanization	Seon
McCune–Reischauer	Son

Last updated February 21, 2019

Seon is a traditional Korean dish made from steamed vegetables such as zucchini, cucumber, eggplant or Napa cabbage and stuffed with meat. Although the term is a counterpart of jjim — a category of dishes that are made by steaming meat or seafood — the concept is not clearly settled.^[1]

Zucchini Edible summer squash, typically green in color

The zucchini or courgette is a summer squash which can reach nearly 1 metre in length, but is usually harvested when still immature at about 15 to 25 cm. A zucchini is a thin-skinned cultivar of what in Britain and Ireland is referred to as a marrow. In South Africa, a zucchini is known as a baby marrow.

Cucumber is a widely cultivated plant in the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae. It is a creeping vine that bears cucumiform fruits that are used as vegetables. There are three main varieties of cucumber: slicing, pickling, and seedless. Within these varieties, several cultivars have been created. In North America, the term "wild cucumber" refers to plants in the genera Echinocystis and Marah, but these are not closely related. The cucumber is originally from South Asia, but now grows on most continents. Many different types of cucumber are traded on the global market.

Eggplant (US), aubergine (UK), or brinjal is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae, Solanum melongena, grown for its often purple edible fruit.

The chili pepper from Nahuatl chīlli is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum which are members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Chili peppers are widely used in many cuisines as a spice to add heat to dishes. The substances that give chili peppers their intensity when ingested or applied topically are capsaicin and related compounds known as capsaicinoids.

The radish is an edible root vegetable of the Brassicaceae family that was domesticated in Europe in pre-Roman times

Napa or nappa cabbage is a type of Chinese cabbage originating near the Beijing region of China, and is widely used in East Asian cuisine. Since the 20th century, it has also become a widespread crop in Europe, the Americas and Australia. In much of the world, this is the vegetable referred to as "Chinese cabbage". In Australia it is referred to as "wombok".

Preparation

To make a hobakseon (호박선) or oiseon (오이선), a cucumber (or zucchini) is cut into pieces about 4 to 5 cm. in length and then quartered. The pieces are lightly salted and then slightly squeezed to drain water from them. Beef or chicken, along with onion, is chopped and mixed with seasonings to make the stuffing. Then, prepared pieces of the cucumber are stuffed with the meat and placed in a pot. After that, pour the vegetable broth on the ingredients until they are partially covered with liquid. Soaked and stuffed cucumber boiled or steamed with the sauce for about 5-10 minutes. The dish is served with slices of seogi (석이, umbilicaria esculenta ), chili threads and egg garnish place on top of the cucumber, similarly to gomyeong (고명, garnishes).^[2]^[3]

Umbilicaria esculenta is a lichen of the genus Umbilicaria that grows on rocks, also known as rock tripe. It can be found in East Asia including in China, Japan, and Korea. It is edible when properly prepared and has been used as a food source and medicine. It is called iwatake in Japanese and seogi or seogi beoseot in Korean. The species name is based on the earlier basionym Gyrophora esculenta.

Sil-gochu (실고추), often translated as chili threads, chilli threads, or chili pepper threads, is a traditional Korean food garnish made with chili peppers.

Egg garnish, called al-gomyeong (알고명) in Korean, is a common topping in Korean cuisine, made with egg whites and egg yolks. Egg yolks and egg whites are separated, beaten without creating foam, pan-fried with little oil into thin sheets without browning, then cut into thin strips, diamonds, or rectangles. The white and yellow egg sheets before being cut are called jidan (지단).

In historical cookbooks

According to Eumsik dimibang , a Korean cookbook written during mid-Joseon Dynasty, the historical recipe of the donggwaseon (동과선, a variety of seon made with dongga (winter melon)) is very different from today's version.

The Eumsik dimibang or Gyugon siuibang is a Korean cookbook written around 1670 by Lady Jang from Andong Clan, Gyeongsang Province during the Joseon Dynasty. The author was in the noble yangban class and the book is a manuscript written in hangul.

A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes.

Thick slices of winter melon are lightly parboiled in the water and put into a bowl with the boiled mixture of ganjang , water and oil. In a new bowl boiled ganjang is mixed with minced ginger and then, poured over the vegetables. Donggwaseon is served with vinegar which is spread over the dish.^[1]

Ginger is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems about a meter tall bearing narrow leaf blades. The inflorescences bear pale yellow with purple flowers and arise directly from the rhizome on separate shoots.

In Siui jeonseo , a cookbook written in the late 19th century, a recipe of hobakseon (호박선, a zucchini seon) is similar to the modern one. A zucchini is hollowed out, filled with various condiments and then steamed. A sauce made with vinegar, ganjang and honey is poured over the ready dish. The dish is served with sliced chili pepper, seogi (석이 Umbilicaria esculenta) and jidan (fried eggs) that are placed on the zucchini and sprinkled with pine nuts.^[1]

Honey is a sweet, viscous food substance produced by bees and some related insects. Bees produce honey from the sugary secretions of plants or from secretions of other insects, by regurgitation, enzymatic activity, and water evaporation. Bees store honey in wax structures called honeycombs. The variety of honey produced by honey bees is the best-known, due to its worldwide commercial production and human consumption. Honey is collected from wild bee colonies, or from hives of domesticated bees, a practice known as beekeeping.

Pine nuts, also called piñón or pinoli, are the edible seeds of pines. About 20 species of pine produce seeds large enough to be worth harvesting; in other pines the seeds are also edible, but are too small to be of notable value as a human food.

However, the term did not reach its modern meaning until the late 1930s. Cookbooks that were written before that time use the term very differently. They refer to cheongeoseon (청어선, steamed and stuffed herring), yangseon (양선, steamed and stuffed beef intestine), or dalgyalseon (달걀선, steamed eggs).

Today, the term "seon" refers to dish made from stuffed vegetables.^[1]

Gallery

Oi-seon (stuffed cucumber)
Eoseon (fish rolls)
Another type of oi-seon
Baechu-seon (stuffed napa cabbage rolls)
Hobak-seon (stuffed Korean zucchini)

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References

1 2 3 4 5 "Seon (선 膳)" (in Korean). EncyKorea . Retrieved 2008-05-27.
↑ "Oiseon". triptokorea.com.
↑ "Hobakseon". triptokorea.com.

External links

Oiseon recipe at the Seattle Times
(in Korean) Dobuseon recipe at casa.co.kr

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[encyKorea-1] 1 2 3 4 5 "Seon (선 膳)" (in Korean). EncyKorea . Retrieved 2008-05-27.

[2] "Oiseon". triptokorea.com.

[3] "Hobakseon". triptokorea.com.