167 recipes. Page 4 of 7
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In early spring, February to April, when wild chives are around, a handful goes on top of this clam and gochujang stew. Their sharp scent takes the edge off any fishiness from the clams.
Bok choy turns up more often in Chinese cooking, yet it suits doenjang soup well. It sits in supermarkets all year, which makes it a handy replacement when there is no napa cabbage, and zucchini and tofu fill out the bowl alongside it.
The wild chives keep their bulbs: only the papery skin is peeled off, and they are cut, roots and all, into 4 cm pieces. The bulb end is where the scent is strongest. They go into the doenjang broth after the heat is turned down, and the burner is off within a minute.
Dallae, wild chives with small white bulbs, are around for only a short stretch of spring. The bulbs, sharper than the leaves, are minced fine, and the chives are added to the doenjang broth just one minute before the heat goes off. A few raw stalks set aside before cooking make a sharp garnish at the table.
The deodeok root is peeled, tapped lightly to open the grain, then sliced on the diagonal about 5 mm thick; cut thinner, it loses its scent. The broth is rice-rinsing water with a tablespoon of gochujang and half a tablespoon of doenjang stirred in.
Frozen pollock gets just ten minutes in the red, gochugaru-spiked broth. Any longer and the flesh falls apart while the bones leach a bitter, fishy taste. Tofu, green onion and cheongyang chilies join for the final five minutes.
With no meat or seafood, the broth depends almost entirely on the doenjang itself. Every brand is salted differently, so the paste goes in a little at a time, tasting as you go.
Donko, a Miyagi name for ezo isoaine and chigo cod, firms up and develops a rich liver from autumn into winter, and this soup uses the whole fish: flesh, head, bones and liver. The fish's wide mouth and tapering tail made it a lucky symbol, money flowing in and not slipping out, so around Kesennuma families hung donko at the household altar for Ebisu observances before turning it into soup. It is still served to warm winter guests.
Wait until the clams are cooked to check the seasoning. As they open they release briny liquid into the broth, and a broth salted to taste with doenjang alone can end up too salty. Throw out any clams that stay shut.
Radish and shiitake simmer first, and the broth is seasoned only with soup soy sauce, so it stays clear and mild with no chili at all. Scoop the tofu in with a spoon instead of cutting it, and the rough edges soak up more of the broth.
This stew starts from plain water instead of stock: donggeurang-ttaeng, small pan-fried patties of meat, tofu, and vegetables, already carry enough seasoning to flavor the pot. Frozen patties work fine as long as they lie in a single layer under the broth and heat right through to the middle.
Napa cabbage lines the bottom of a wide hot pot, and tofu, shiitake and marinated beef are laid in a ring around the edge, giving the pot its finished look before it ever heats. The kelp broth, seasoned with soup soy sauce and no chili, stays clear, and the pot is served bubbling for everyone to ladle from.
A tablespoon of doenjang is stirred into the red chili broth to tame the fishiness. The frozen pollock is thawed only partly, just enough for a knife to get through the bone, and cut while still firm; fully thawed, the flesh crumbles.
Zucchini, onion and tofu simmer in anchovy broth, and the shredded perilla leaves get only the last thirty seconds. Any longer and the leaves darken and their aroma goes dull. The tofu is scooped in with a spoon instead of cut, leaving rough surfaces for the broth to soak into.
Tofu, kimchi, chili flakes, green onion and anchovy stock: that is the whole list, so the broth tastes mostly of however sour the kimchi has become.
Pacific saury is pounded in a mortar until sticky, mixed with miso, egg and sake, and shaped into balls that go into plain water first. The miso and fish in the balls turn that water into broth, and daikon, carrot and tofu follow.
The tough, bark-like base of each dureup (aralia shoot) is trimmed off, and thick stems are split lengthwise or scored with a cross at the bottom. That way three or four minutes in the pot cooks them through while they stay crisp. Gochujang goes in at a third of the amount of doenjang, just enough for a low heat.
Swiss chard has more chew than spinach and a slight bitterness in the leaf, which sits well in a nutty doenjang broth. Korean families make it most in spring and autumn when chard is around; out of season, frozen chard gives much the same broth.
As the clams open they release their briny liquor into the rice-water doenjang broth, and the zucchini stew tastes cleaner and brighter for it. Give the clams about an hour to purge their sand.
With oysters and big cubes of tofu in a clear kelp broth, the salt from the oysters seasons the soup more than you might expect. So the salt goes in only after the oysters, a taste at a time.
Plenty of eolgari, young napa cabbage, goes in, and as it wilts its sweetness softens the doenjang. A good amount of tofu keeps the salt in check too.
The heat in this soup comes from white pepper rather than chili, building slowly at the back of the throat after each spoonful. Vinegar layers sourness on top, and the broth, thickened with starch only until it turns glossy and translucent, holds wood ear mushrooms, tofu and thin ribbons of egg.
There is no meat, just eggplant, tofu and perilla seed powder, but the broth is anchovy-kelp stock; for a vegetarian pot, change the stock first. The eggplant simmers for about six minutes until soft enough to collapse, while the tofu, cut small at 1.5 cm, stays firm.
Salmon fillet with skin and bony parts, milt, and loosened roe all go into one pot of kelp stock seasoned with miso in this Hokkaido-style nabe. It is said to come from fishermen near the mouth of the Ishikari River, who dropped fresh salmon pieces and bones straight into miso soup to celebrate a big catch. Root vegetables, konnyaku, tofu, and rolls of blanched spinach wrapped in napa cabbage are arranged in sections around a mound of miso in the center. A final dusting of sansho pepper over the whole pot adds a tingling lift to the miso broth.