689 recipes. Page 24 of 29
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The broth gets its base from radish, cooked until translucent before the oysters go in. That is why the radish is sliced an even 0.3 cm thin, and no tofu or separate stock is used.
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.
Pan-fried tofu and thick-cut king oyster mushrooms share the same spicy soy and gochujang sauce but feel completely different to bite: one soft, the other springy. Browning the tofu slowly over low heat until the edges firm up gives the sauce a surface to cling to.
Hijiki toughens with long cooking. The shrimp go in first, and the seaweed joins when they are about 70 percent done and is mixed through within 2 minutes. Perilla powder is scattered over low heat so that it clings to the hijiki instead of clumping.
Pour in the egg, leave it for 30 seconds, then give one wide stir, and it opens into broad, petal-like pieces. From prep to table it takes about ten minutes.
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.
King oyster mushrooms soak up the soy broth and turn light brown, giving this quail egg braise a meaty chew alongside the soft eggs. The mushrooms braise first until they wilt and soak up plenty of seasoning, while the eggs join later and never simmer long enough to toughen. Mushrooms sliced at least 1 cm thick hold on to that chew. With no chili at all, just garlic and black pepper, it stays mild, and a spoonful of syrup at the end adds shine and rounds off the saltiness. Stored in the fridge with its remaining broth, both mushrooms and eggs stay moist, which makes it an easy side to portion into packed lunches.
Ugeoji, dried outer napa cabbage leaves, have thick ribs that stay tough unless they are boiled until a finger presses in easily. They are then simmered down in anchovy-kelp stock with doenjang and finished with perilla oil and ground perilla seeds.
When the drinking table runs short of snacks, this soup is ready almost as soon as the water boils. Pour the egg in along a chopstick while the broth is only gently bubbling, and it spreads out into fine threads.
Uijeongbu is the city where this stew took hold near US Army bases after the Korean War, and that is where the name comes from. The salt of Spam and cocktail sausages, the sourness of ripe kimchi and the sweetness of melted baked beans all end up in the same pot.
The shrimp steam on a bed of onion, green onion, and garlic, and the rising vapor carries those aromas in between the shells. Apart from a splash of rice wine and a squeeze of lemon there is no seasoning, which puts the shrimp's own sweetness at the center. The steaming stops within 8-9 minutes, before overcooking can shrink the flesh and make it stiff.
Lotus root is dense and soybean sprouts are delicate, and cooked for the same length of time one of them gives out. The lotus root gets a head start, and the sprouts go in only once the soy glaze is bubbling, for a short final toss.
Pork spine bones simmer for about two hours into a cloudy, rich stock, then blanched cabbage greens (ugeoji) rubbed with doenjang and chili join the pot for an earthy, spicy depth. Cubes of seonji, congealed blood, are added near the end and warmed by ladling broth over them rather than stirring, so they hold their shape.
Thin-sliced woosamgyeop, fatty beef brisket, is fried with garlic until its fat runs, and the chili flakes and soup soy sauce are toasted in that fat before any anchovy stock goes in. That is where the red, slick broth comes from. Two cheongyang chilies make it properly hot, and the bean sprouts go in last and come out still crunchy.
Store-bought boneless jokbal, Korean braised pig's trotters that are already cooked, gets a second short simmer in a soy, sugar, and ginger glaze, turning it into a warm, glossy dish in well under an hour. As it cools, the gelatin-rich skin sets with the glaze into a pleasantly chewy texture, which makes leftovers worth eating cold.
With no chili paste or doenjang, only salt, garlic and scallion, the broth tastes of nothing but the clams, shrimp and squid. Each bowl holds open clam shells, curled red shrimp and white rings of squid.
With no chili flakes and no doenjang, just beef stock seasoned with soup soy sauce and salt, the broth stays clear. The tofu is nudged in with a ladle and left unstirred for five minutes to soak up the stock; browning it lightly in a pan first keeps a toasty surface even in the broth.
Thick slices of Korean radish line the pot and soak up the soy broth, while the Spanish mackerel rests on top, never touching the bottom, so its soft flesh keeps its shape. A short rest in rice wine before cooking tones down the fishy smell, and the seasoning stays light with just soy sauce and garlic. Cheongyang chili added at the end gives the mild broth a clean, spicy finish, and the radish is as much a part of the meal as the fish.
Blue crabs go in shell and all, turning red as they cook and flavoring the radish broth, and with cheongyang chilies for heat the pot goes in the middle of the table for everyone to dip into.
Jijim uses far less liquid than a stew, so by the end the dried radish greens (siraegi) are coated in a glossy doenjang (Korean soybean paste) sauce with almost no broth left. Stripping the tough outer fibers matters: skipped, the stems stay stringy however long they cook.
A whole chicken simmers for over an hour, until the broth turns milky, before the abalone, small octopus and shrimp go in. Adding the abalone guts makes the broth deeper still; whether to include them is up to the cook.
Oily mackerel and earthy dried radish greens cook down together, the fish fat seeping into the greens while the greens soften the strong flavor of the fish. Radish on the bottom of the pot grows sweeter the longer it braises and takes the edge off both the chili heat and any fishiness. The sauce is left slightly loose, enough to spoon over a bowl of rice.
Cut into 0.7 cm half-moons and cooked only briefly, the zucchini keeps its shape in the clear broth and a little firmness at the center. The shrimp, added first, flavor the broth; dried shrimp make it deeper.
Seasoned radish greens (siraegi) go into hot perilla oil before any liquid, which toasts the doenjang and carries its savory smell into the plain water added afterward. Soup soy sauce (guk-ganjang, a lighter, saltier Korean soy) backs up the seasoning. Splitting the thick stems lengthwise lets them soften at the same pace as the leafy parts, and the slow, low simmer turns tough stems pliable. It finishes with just a shallow pool of liquid in the pot, good for mixing into rice.