Lotus Kang shares her two-part recipe for gosari namul, or stir-fried fernbrake.
Lotus Kang is a connector of mediums. The Canadian-born artist repurposes traditional media in grand, corporeal installations that recall the memories and textures of her Korean heritage. Kang uses material, texture, environment, and nostalgia, to articulate the mutability of the human body. Her installation, In Cascades, 2023, displayed at the recent 2024 Whitney Biennial, features large, hanging strips of photographic film. These sheets, which Kang calls “skins,” change in their reaction to the light around them and pulse with somatic autumnal colors. For Family Style, Kang taps into texture and her heritage again, offering the recipe for her favorite Korean side dish. The stem of fiddlehead fern, or fernbrake, “is chewy and known as ‘the beef of the mountain’ because of its savory quality,” explains the artist. Much like her artwork, Kang’s recipe is rooted in the transition of forms and ingredients, through which something delicious is created.
Ingredients
- 11 ounces softened gosari or 1 ounce dried gosari (“fernbrake”)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon perilla seed oil (or toasted sesame oil)
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds, ground
Instructions
To soften the gosari:
- Rinse 1 ounce dried gosari in cold water a few times and add to a large heavy pot.
- Add 16 cups of water. Cover and cook for 1 hour over medium high heat.
- Open and stir the cooked gosari a few times with a wooden spoon and cover.
- Turn off the heat and let it sit in the hot water for 3 hours with the lid closed.
- Drain and rinse in cold water, changing water a few times. The gosari will expand to 11 ounces.
- Soak in a bowl of cold water for at least 1 hour, up to overnight, and drain.
To make gosari namul:
- Bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Blanch the softened gosari for 30 seconds, stirring with a wooden spoon to remove any fishy smell. Drain and cut the gosari into bite size pieces.
- Transfer the gosari to a bowl and mix with the soy sauce and perilla seed oil.
- Heat a frying pan or a skillet. Add the vegetable oil and swirl to coat evenly.
- Add the marinated gosari.
- Gently stir it with a wooden spoon or long chopsticks for about 5 to 6 minutes until almost all of the liquid has evaporated. Stir it gently and be sure not to damage the stems or break them apart.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the sesame oil and ground sesame seeds.
- Transfer to a plate and sprinkle more sesame seeds over top.
- Serve with rice and enjoy!