Panchan Made Easy

Even in these busy times, an everyday Korean meal often resembles a miniature buffet since it features scores of small bowls and plates of side dishes, ranging from grilled meat to chili-soaked cucumbers. The mainstay of the table, of course, is rice, and usually there’s a soup, but the panchan , the accompanying dishes, are what give the meal life. The more panchan , the more opulent the meal.

At Korean meals, most dishes come to the table at about the same time, and everyone helps himself to a little of this and that. Since panchan are consumed in tiny morsels and their spiciness is tempered with lots of rice, many are highly seasoned.

Few people these days have the time or service staff to prepare a wide assortment of panchan , so they supplement their home-cooked dishes with these ready-made ones. Suk Jae Cho and her workers prepare about a dozen panchan packed in covered, clear-plastic (recyclable) dishes. Look for:

* Tiny oysters in hot chile sauce.

* Salted baby clams with slices of green onion, flecked with bits of fresh red chile and sesame seeds.

* Fresh squid with finely cut radish and green onion in a garlic and ginger-laced chili sauce.

* Kongjaban , or black soy beans, simmered in a sweet soy-ginger sauce flecked with roasted sesame seeds.

* Seasoned dried squid, a panchan with an almost candy-like quality, made from long, thin strips of softened dry squid enrobed in a slightly sticky sweet syrup flavored with soy sauce, hot red pepper and garlic.

* Roasted (actually deep-fried) anchovies, seasoned, like the squid above, with spicy ingredients in a sweet coating.

* Sliced European-style leeks in hot bean paste, with a touch of sesame oil and sugar.

* Two sorts of pickled cucumbers: hotter, with slices of fresh green pepper blended into the dried pepper-garlic seasoning, and milder (still plenty spicy), marinated in sweetened soy sauce with garlic and hot pepper.

* Seasoned peppers--fresh whole green Korean hot peppers in a dried red pepper-laced sauce spiked with garlic. The ultimate in hotness, no kidding.