Seon (food)

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

Seon is a traditional Korean dish made from steamed vegetables such as zucchini, cucumber, eggplant or Napa cabbage and stuffed with meet. 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.

Other dishes similar to seon include gajiseon (가지선, steamed eggplant), gochuseon (고추선, steamed chili pepper), donggwaseon (동과선, steamed winter melon), museon (무선, steamed radish), baechuseon (steamed Napa cabbage) and dubuseon (steamed tofu).

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).

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.