The blood curd (seonji) is cut in large pieces, so every spoonful catches a soft chunk, and the broth, with ugeoji (outer napa cabbage leaves) and soybean sprouts, is earthy and spicy. Haejang refers to easing a hangover, and this is what people reach for the morning after drinking.
There is no chili anywhere in this tofu stew. Garlic and onion soften for a minute in a teaspoon of perilla oil, the stock goes in, and a tablespoon of soup soy sauce is all the seasoning it gets. Spinach is added at the very end, and the heat goes off while it is still bright green.
Country-style doenjang gives this stew a dense, earthy body, and the Cheongyang chili added at the very end cuts through it with a sharp, clean heat. Half a block of tofu is torn by hand into rough chunks and simmered gently for 3 minutes so the pieces hold together.
Dried radish greens (siraegi) sauteed in perilla oil bring a nutty, chewy base, and clams add a clean, briny broth on top of it. The clams are added near the end and release salt as they open, so final seasoning waits until after they do.
Ground perilla seed turns the rice-rinse broth beige and thick, and it eats more like a cream soup than a red jjigae. The dried radish greens (siraegi) need their tough outer skin peeled off, or they stay stringy.
Radish lines the bottom of the pot, dried radish greens go on top, and mackerel sits above both, with rice-rinse water poured slowly in at the edge. Chili flakes alone, no gochujang, keep the broth a clear red rather than a cloudy one. The mackerel is cooked on the bone, and the flesh is picked off with chopsticks at the table.
Thin bulgogi-cut beef, oyster mushrooms and shiitake simmer in a clear broth seasoned with soup soy sauce. With no chili in the pot, how well the beef browns decides the flavor, and if it is not patted dry with paper towels first, it steams instead of searing.
Thinly sliced beef brisket, not the usual anchovy stock, supplies the savoriness, giving this doenjang jjigae a meaty rather than oceanic lean. Rice-rinse water forms the base and softens the soybean paste, and the edges of the potato break down a little as they cook, thickening the broth on their own.
With no chili, the broth stays clear and tastes plainly of sweet radish and beef. Once the radish turns translucent, rice goes straight into the bowl.
Soybean sprouts give this stew its clean, light broth, and a tablespoon of chili flakes adds the heat. Pork is optional: with it, the broth picks up fat and savory depth; without it, the stew stays lighter and sharper.
The grassy bitterness of spring mugwort (ssuk) sits on top of a nutty perilla seed broth made with rice-rinse water. Tough stems are pulled off and mostly the leaves are used, cooked for just the final 2 minutes to keep their green color and scent.
Wheat dough is torn by hand into thin pieces and dropped into the clam broth. Each piece comes out a slightly different thickness, and each one chews a little differently. The clams go in once the dough floats up translucent, the lid goes on, and the stew goes to the table right away, since sujebi swells quickly.
Brisket simmered in plain water, with the foam skimmed off, makes a clear broth that a spoonful of gochugaru turns spicy. The 250 g of mung bean sprouts go in at the very end for two minutes at most, which keeps them crisp against the soft beef. It is ladled hot over rice.
Once the 400 g of sundae is in, the pot stays on low heat for six minutes and gets stirred as little as possible. A hard boil splits the sausage casings and lets the filling spill out. Cabbage is cooked in the beef bone broth beforehand, and perilla seed powder stirred in at the end thickens it.
The gochujang is stirred into the stock rather than fried in the oil, so there is no scorched edge and the broth comes out an even orange. Clams and shrimp layer their sea flavor over the anchovy stock.
Ground pork fried with chili flakes in sesame oil makes the red oil that sets the flavor, and clams add a clean, briny note. Brought to the table in its earthenware pot (ttukbaegi), it keeps bubbling for a good while.
Turnip turns translucent as it cooks and gives the kelp stock a quiet sweetness. There is no meat or anchovy; oyster mushrooms and tofu fill out the pot. Once the perilla seed powder is stirred in, it gets about two minutes over low heat.
Beans, corn and squash, the three sister crops, share one pot here and are eaten with a spoon, broth and all. The recipe follows the stew chef Loretta Barrett Oden shared on PBS, using fully cooked canned beans and leaving out the dumplings that came with it. Unlike succotash, which is cooked down in a skillet, this one keeps plenty of tomato broth, and the corn and squash go in last so the kernels stay whole and the squash holds its shape.
Ripe tomato, roughly chopped, goes into an otherwise familiar beef short rib stew and turns the broth tangy and thick. It melts into the gochujang sauce, leaving hardly a trace except a deeper red.
Taro stem that has not been boiled long enough leaves a prickly, itchy feeling in the throat. So this autumn stew uses thoroughly boiled stems, soaked in cold water and rinsed several times to take off the slippery coating before they go in. The broth is beef and doenjang, thickened with ground perilla seed.
Burdock, which stays firm, and potato, which crumbles at the edges, share the pot, but the potato goes in only after the burdock has had seven minutes on its own. Added together, the potatoes would be mush by the time the burdock softened. Oyster mushrooms join them and there is no meat; the broth is anchovy-kelp stock with perilla seed powder stirred in.
A can of tuna stands in for meat and gives the doenjang broth its savory depth, with plenty of ugeoji, blanched outer napa cabbage leaves. Use only half the oil from the can; all of it makes the broth greasy.
As it simmers, the tough stems of the ugeoji (blanched outer napa cabbage leaves) loosen and soak up the doenjang. A little gochujang tints the broth reddish, and rice-rinse water gives it more body than plain water would.
Brisket browned in perilla oil, then doenjang and chili flakes fried in the same fat, give this stew a savory, toasty base before any water goes in. The blanched cabbage leaves spend about 25 minutes in the pot, soaking the beef broth deep into their fibers, while the thinly sliced brisket cooks until it pulls apart along the grain. With only greens and beef in the pot, the flavor is simple and hearty.