Bubbling, creamy and delicious, the combination of sweetcorn and cheese is to die for, especially when delicately spiced up with fresh chillies. Corn cheese is the classic Korean drinking snack.
Eat when you drink
Korean corn cheese, konchijeu, is an anju. Anju in Korean means a dish served alongside an alcoholic drink.
The variety of such dishes is wide, including kimchi and bulgogi, more exotic foods like gopchang (beef tripe) but also pizza and fried chicken. The type of dish is usually determined by the kind of drink, with the more indigenous foods served with soju, Korean vodka-style liquor and western snacks consumed with beer.
It's a time-honoured tradition to serve small portions of food alongside tipple in the watering holes worldwide. And it’s one of those traditions that adds to the fun of going out drinking, but also makes sense health wise. Food tempers the impact of alcohol on our bodies by slowing down its absorption, while also helping to get it out of the blood stream faster. Never drink on empty stomach!
Drinking nibbles
Wherever you go in the world, with the obvious exception of places where alcohol is banned, you’re likely to encounter different snacks served with drinks.
Tapas in Spain, the term nowadays stretched to describe a type of restaurant, is traditionally a small portion of food served on a lid (tapa) of a glass. And since those little plates have become tremendously popular, we have a good idea of what foods they might be.
In Italy you’ll get breadsticks and olives. In Germany, an enormous pretzel with your enormous stein of beer. In Poland the tradition has a pickled herring accompanying shots of vodka, and fried cheese with beer in Czechia.
France is sophisticated, with cheese and charcuterie. In the US you might see nachos or popcorn and in Canada – poutine, cheesy chips with gravy. In Japan it’s deep fried meats and seafood and in Denmark, smørrebrød: cold cuts or pâté on rye.
And in the UK we invariably toss mini packs of crisps, pork scratchings and dry roasted peanuts onto the table to go with the third or fourth round of drinks.
Konchijeu is not just anju
Although the Koreans have my full respect for picking the perfect, high-fat, high-calorie drinking snack in the form of corn cheese (the best to soak away booze), it is more than just a drinking snack. I am happy to scoff it without a bevvy, for lunch or brunch, or as a side dish.
In fact it is so brilliant piled on fresh or toasted bread, I’m amazed it hasn’t set up camp in western countries as a high-power savoury breakfast, especially by the TikTok cortisol obsessives (not an endorsement!).
I could happily swap my occasional lunchtime cheese on toast for corn cheese on toast, especially when making it the easy way, with tinned sweetcorn.
Tinned or fresh sweetcorn?
Traditionally and speedily it is a tin, opened and drained, grilled with cheese and spices. But if corn is in season, it is a real shame not to use it.
So I suggest slicing kernels off a couple of ears, because they will cook with the cheese and mayo in no time at all.
What cheese for Korean corn cheese?
Mozzarella is most often used in this dish, but any other good melting cheese, like fontina, or a mix of several, with work just as well.
Monterey Jack, Gruyere, any Swiss cheese and even Cheddar: if it melts and bubbles, it’s fine.
What seasoning for corn cheese?
Korean recipes generally recommend adding finely chopped peppers of various colours and heat levels. I like it to be colourful and spicy, so one milder red chilli pepper and one a little hotter, like a green jalapeño, is perfect in my view. You can add onion but I don’t like the oniony smell in cheesy dishes. Garlic powder and a pinch of sugar though – yes please.
Ready in minutes
Mayonnaise joins it all together. You can mix the cheese in with the corn, reserve it only for the topping or do both, half and half.
Bake it for ten minutes in a hot oven in order to cook the sweetcorn, then switch to oven grill to brown the top. But you can leave the dish in the conventional heating and it will bubble and brown up anyway.
If you use tinned sweetcorn, drain it and rinse off. Since it is already cooked, the grill will be enough to bubble up the cheese and it won’t take longer than 5 minutes.
More Korean recipes
Basic kimchi is made with Napa cabbage, called Chinese leaf in the UK. To make kimchi, you salt the cabbage, then add spice paste made from gochugaru, the Korean chili powder, fish and soy sauces and leave to ferment for up to a week.
Korean cheese buldak, chicken chunks in a spicy sauce covered with a layer of cheese melted under the grill, is just as tasty as it sounds. I add mushrooms to the chicken, to bump up my plant intake, and they go deliciously with the dish.
Bulgogi, Korean grilled beef can be served traditionally wrapped in lettuce, or as a bulgogi kebab. Beef sirloin or fillet is marinated in sweet marinade and not too spicy so kids might enjoy it too.
More corn recipes
Mexican street sweetcorn salad, esquites, with sweetcorn off the cob cooked in the frying pan, mixed with a salty, herby, spicy, cheesy dressing, is the second best thing after a holiday to Cancun!
Corn on the cob with tahini butter: steamed to perfection in the microwave for only 2 minutes, slathered with the topping of tahini butter, that’s the easiest and the tastiest ear of sweetcorn you’ll ever have tried!
Cheesy sweetcorn tart on a crusty base of pizza dough. It's vegetarian and gorgeous as a snack, for lunch or dinner. Use leftover frozen pizza dough or a shop bought dough portion or base.