Seon is a traditional Korean dish made from

steamed Steaming is a method of cooking using steam. This is often done with a food steamer, a kitchen appliance made specifically to cook food with steam, but food can also be steamed in a wok. In the American southwest, steam pits used for cooking have ...

vegetables such as

zucchini The zucchini (; plural: zucchini or zucchinis), courgette (; plural: courgettes) or baby marrow (''Cucurbita pepo'') is a summer squash, a vining herbaceous plant whose fruit are harvested when their immature seeds and epicarp (rind) are stil ...

cucumber Cucumber (''Cucumis sativus'') is a widely-cultivated Vine#Horticultural climbing plants, creeping vine plant in the Cucurbitaceae family that bears usually cylindrical Fruit, fruits, which are used as culinary vegetables.

eggplant Eggplant ( US, Canada), aubergine ( UK, Ireland) or brinjal (Indian subcontinent, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa) is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. ''Solanum melongena'' is grown worldwide for its edible fruit. Mos ...

Napa cabbage Napa cabbage (''Brassica rapa'' subsp. ''pekinensis'' or ''Brassica rapa'' Pekinensis Group) is a type of Chinese cabbage originating near the Beijing region of China that is widely used in Asian cuisine#East Asia, East Asian cuisine. Since the ...

and stuffed with meat. Although the term is a counterpart of ''

jjim ''Jjim'' (찜; ) is a Korean cuisine term referring to dishes made by steaming or boiling meat, chicken, fish, or shellfish which have been marinated in a sauce or soup. The cooking technique originally referred to dishes cooked in a ''siru'' ( ...

—'' a category of dishes that are made by steaming

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

seafood Seafood is any form of sea life regarded as food by humans, prominently including fish and shellfish. Shellfish include various species of molluscs (e.g. bivalve molluscs such as clams, oysters and mussels, and cephalopods such as octopus an ...

— the concept is not clearly settled. Other dishes similar to seon include ''gajiseon'' (가지선, steamed eggplant), ''gochuseon'' (고추선, steamed

chili pepper Chili peppers (also chile, chile pepper, chilli pepper, or chilli), from Nahuatl '' chīlli'' (), are varieties of the berry-fruit of plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for ...

), ''donggwaseon'' (동과선, steamed

winter melon ''Benincasa hispida'', the wax gourd, also called ash gourd, white gourd, winter gourd, winter melon, tallow gourd, ash pumpkin, Chinese preserving melon is a vine grown for its very large fruit, eaten as a vegetable when mature. It is the o ...

), ''museon'' (무선, steamed

radish The radish (''Raphanus raphanistrum'' subsp. ''sativus'') is an Eating, edible root vegetable of the family Brassicaceae that was domesticated in Asia prior to Roman Empire, Roman times. Radishes are grown and consumed throughout the world, be ...

), ''baechuseon'' (steamed

) and ''dubuseon'' (steamed

tofu Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super firm ...

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 ''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 fo ...

''),

chili thread ''Sil-gochu'' (), often translated as chili threads, chilli threads, or chili pepper threads, is a traditional Korean food garnish made with chili peppers. Gallery Gyeran-jang-jorim.jpg, ''Gyeran-jang-jorim'' (soy-sauce-simmered eggs) topped ...

s and

egg garnish Egg garnish, called ''al-gomyeong'' () 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 withou ...

place on top of the cucumber, similarly to ''gomyeong'' (고명, garnishes).

In historical cookbooks

According to ''

Eumsik dimibang The ''Eumsik dimibang'' or ''Gyugon siuibang'' is a Korean cookbook written around 1670 by Lady Jang (張氏, 1598~1680) from Andong Clan, Gyeongsang Province during the Joseon Dynasty. The author was in the noble ''yangban'' class and the book ...

'', a Korean

cookbook A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (appetizer, first cour ...

written during mid-

Joseon Dynasty Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and re ...

, the historical recipe of the ''donggwaseon'' (동과선, a variety of seon made with ''dongga'' (

)) is very different from today's version. Thick slices of winter melon are lightly

parboil Parboiling (or leaching) is the partial or semi boiling of food as the first step in cooking. The word is from the Old French 'parboillir' (to boil thoroughly) but by mistaken association with 'part' it has acquired its current meaning. The wo ...

ed in the water and put into a bowl with the boiled mixture of ''

ganjang Soy sauce (also called simply soy in American English and soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and ''Aspergillus oryzae'' or '' Asp ...

'', water and oil. In a new bowl boiled ''ganjang'' is mixed with minced

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices ...

and then, poured over the vegetables. ''Donggwaseon'' is served with vinegar which is spread over the dish. In ''

Siui jeonseo ''Siuijeonseo'' () is a Korean cookbook compiled in the late 19th century. The author is unknown but is assumed to be a lady of the yangban (nobility during the Joseon dynasty) class in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province. In 1919, as Sim Hwanjin ...

'', 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,

and

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

is poured over the ready dish. The dish is served with sliced

, ''seogi'' (석이

) and ''jidan'' (fried eggs) that are placed on the zucchini and sprinkled with

pine nut Pine nuts, also called piñón (), pinoli (), pignoli or chilgoza (), are the edible seeds of pines (family Pinaceae, genus ''Pinus''). According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, only 29 species provide edible nuts, while 20 are trade ...

s. 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 Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

), ''yangseon'' (양선, steamed and stuffed beef intestine), or ''dalgyalseon'' (달걀선, steamed eggs). Today, the term "seon" refers to dish made from stuffed vegetables.

Gallery

Korean cuisine-Oiseon-02.jpg, ''Oi-seon'' (stuffed cucumber) Eoseon.jpg, ''Eoseon'' (fish rolls) File:Korean cuisine-Oiseon-01.jpg, Another type of ''oi-seon'' File:Korean cuisine-Baechuseon-01.jpg, ''Baechu-seon'' (stuffed napa cabbage rolls) Hobak-seon.jpg, ''Hobak-seon'' (stuffed

Korean zucchini Aehobak ( ko, 애호박), also called Korean zucchini or Korean courgette, is an edible, green to yellow-green summer squash. Although nearly all summer squashes are varieties of ''Cucurbita pepo'', aehobak belongs to the species ''Cucurbita mos ...

)

References

External links

Oiseon recipe
at the Seattle Times *{{in lang, ko}
Dobuseon recipe
at casa.co.kr Korean cuisine Stuffed vegetable dishes Steamed foods

Preparation

In historical cookbooks

Gallery

See also

References

External links