Monday, February 24, 2014

sundubu jjigae - korean hot and spicy toufu stew

It has been a while since I made a Korean stew.

I love Korean food, but because the LAM is not too keen on it, we rarely go to Korean restaurants. Since I like quite a few Korean dishes, I knew I had to figure out how to cook them for myself.


Today, I made Sundubu Jjigae. This is a hot and spicy stew made with tofu, meat and/or seafood and vegetables.

It is DELICIOUS!!!!

Before I made the stew, I first made the stock by boiling together seaweed and dried anchovies for 20 minutes and then straining the mixture and reserving the stock.



To make the stew, I first prepared the ingredients I was going to use: sliced pork - not pictured (or beef or chicken), shitake mushroom, zucchini, onions, clams and spring onion.


In a saucepan, I heated some olive oil. Into this, I added the pork and stir-fried the pork until it had mostly turned white. If I were to cook a single portion, I would make use of  my earthenware pot but since I was cooking enough for 4 to 6 people, I used a saucepan instead.


Into this, I added the mushrooms and continued stirring.


Once the mushrooms had wilted a little, I added onions.


Then in went the hot pepper flakes. Here, I added 3 tablespoons of hot pepper flakes. If you are prefer the stew to be less spicy, add less pepper flakes.


I really love the vibrant red of the pepper flakes. :)

Everything was stirred to combine before I added the stock. There will be quite a bit of hissing and bubbling. Just be careful and don't get scalded!

You would want to just cover the ingredients in the saucepan.


The clams (or your choice of seafood), zucchini (or your choice of vegetables) and minced garlic were added.




I also added the toufu - I simply squeezed the toufu into the stew and used my spoon to break it up into smaller pieces.



Finally, I added fish sauce, spring onions, eggs and sesame oil, gave everything a good stir, and served the dish immediately, with some rice.




This is pretty authentic Korean cooking, and as you can see, it really is not very difficult at all!!


This tastes as good as any of the sundubu jjigae you taste in restaurants but cost a fraction of the price.

All is good, I'd say!

RECIPE
Sundubu Jjigae - Korean Hot and Spicy Toufu Stew (Serves 4-6)
Adapted from Maangchi

Ingredients:
For the stock:
15 anchovies, heads and guts removed
1 small handful of seaweed

1.5 litre of water (more if necessary)

For the stew:
100g pork (or beef or chicken), sliced
6-8 shitake mushrooms, stems removed and sliced
1/2 zucchini, quartered and thinly sliced
1 small onion, thinly sliced
5-6 stalks spring onion, trimmed and cut
1 cup clams, cleaned
2 tubes toufu - I used egg toufu
1 to 5 tablespoons hot pepper flakes
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon fish sauce
2 eggs

Method:
For the stock:
1. Boil anchovies and seaweed for 20 minutes.
2. Retain stock and discard anchovies and seaweed.

For the stew:
2. Heat olive oil in saucepan. Add pork and cook until most of the pork has turned white. Add mushroom.
3. Once mushroom has wilted a little, add onions. Stir to combine.
4. Add hot pepper flakes. Stir to thoroughly combine. Add enough stock to just cover. (Be careful not to get scalded.)
5. Once stock starts to boil, add clams, zucchini and minced garlic. Stir.
6. Add toufu, and use spoon to cut toufu into smaller pieces.
7. Add fish sauce, spring onion and sesame oil.
8. Serve immediately, with rice.

If you like this, you will definitely like this recipe for beef doenjang jjigae (된장 찌개) - korean soy bean paste stew!




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