Kimchi Jjigae (Kimchi Stew)

Kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew) is one of my family's favorite dishes, and a prototypical Korean dish -- flavorful, bold, and craveable. There are variants of recipes of aged kimchi (the main ingredient of this dish) that are also delicious and I'll post some recipes for those soon -- kimchi bbokeum (as a side dish, something you can eat with rice and geim a fried salted seaweed and other things) or kimchi bbokeumbap (kimchi fried rice), but kimchi jjigae might take the cake on all the aged kimchi dishes for me!

Ingredients:

1 bowl of kimchi (aged)

1 1/2 bowls of water

2 Tbsp of corn oil (or vegetable oil)

1/2 Tbsp of dashida (beef broth granules)

1 Tbsp of sugar

1 Tbsp of gochujang (red pepper paste)

1 Tbsp of gochuggaru (red pepper flakes)

1 Tbsp of gook ganjang (soup soy sauce)

1 Tbsp minced garlic

1 Tbsp sesame oil

Soft Tofu

Spam (or bulgogi or pork; see below)

Directions:
1. Mix aged kimchi, water, corn oil, dashida, sugar, gochujang, gochuggaru, gook ganjang, garlic, and sesame oil in pot and bring to a boil.

2. On the side, boil spam in a pot of water for 5-10 minutes then drain.

3. After boiling soup for 5-10 minutes, add soft tofu and spam.

4. If desired, salt to taste (but probably won't need it.. if anything, I added more sugar to taste!).

Serve with a side of rice (pretty much like anything else haha). Instead of spam, you can use bulgogi (marinated beef) or more traditionally, pork (or of course, no meat and no dashida to make it vegetarian). You can also add other veggies such as onions for even more flavor! Also, sometimes, you find this dish with some type of noodle in it (glass noodles or ramen noodles), which can be a good addition. You can also top with chopped green onions, mmm.

Dwenjang jjigae (Soybean Paste Stew)

Probably one of the most traditional dishes in Korea, is dwenjang jjigae. A lot of times you get it for free on the side of things (like if you order Korean BBQ, they sometimes give you a bowl of this on the side)! It is delicious and yummy and I can't yet fully do it justice. BUT I did have real pictures this time (I remembered to take one on my phone) so I decided to post the recipe as is and make it better at some other point in time. Also, sorry that I've pretty much only posted soups and stews, but that's what I felt like eating and the ones that weren't soups and stews haven't turned out well enough for me to post yet.. they're coming though! Anyway, on with the recipe.



Ingredients:
1 1/2 Tbsp of Dwenjang (soybean paste-- looks dark brown, kinda smells, and can be found in Korean grocery shops)
1-2 garlic, minced
1/2 Tbsp of dashida (beef broth granules -- optional)
2 Tbsp of water
2 cups of water
1-2 peppers (gochu; I think they're jalapeno?)
1/2 onion, sliced
Soft tofu (not extra soft like the soondubu)
Any other veggies (I added sliced mushrooms and sliced zucchini; potatoes could be good too)
Black pepper and salt

Directions:
1. Mix the following: dwenjang, dashida, 2 Tbsp of water, and garlic.
2. Boil 2 cups of water, then add mix from step 1.
3. Add peppers, onions, any other veggies, and bring back to a boil.
4. After 1-2 minutes, add tofu.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Eat with a bowl of rice and tada! One complete and delicious Korean meal. You can probably tell by the picture but I added way too many veggies for the amount of stew there was.. but I also had a lot to get rid of since I planned to make this multiple times and I hadn't and the veggies were just sitting in my fridge and I was worried about them going bad :\. Horrible run-on sentence. In any case, enjoy!

Miyuk Gook (Seawood Soup)

I'm turning older soon and so to be traditional, I thought I'd make myself some Miyuk Gook (Seaweed Soup). Korean people have this on their birthday.. I'm sure there's a reason why, but I have no idea what that is haha.

Anyway, I think I've come to the conclusion that the following recipe might be good, but I made mine a little differently so I'm not 100% sure how good it is. I'll try making it again sometime to make sure (or if any of you make it, let me know if it turns out well this way!). The reason being that after I made the soup stuff, but before I added the seaweed part, I added more soy sauce etc. into the mix because it didn't taste seasoned enough. Then I added the seaweed and it turned waaaaay too salty. Note: don't mess with the soup stock until after the seaweed is added!


Ingredients:
1 bowl of Miyuk (seaweed); get the kind that says on the package something about the soup, it'll give you directions on how to prepare it for the soup -- mine said to rinse and put in water for 5-10 minutes before draining and then putting in whatever soup.. some prefer dry, mine was more pre-prepared I think

1/4 lb Chuck beef, cut into small pieces
2 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp of gook ganjang (soup soy sauce)
1-2 tsp of minced garlic
1 tsp dashida (beef stock granules)
4 cups of water
Black pepper

Directions:
1. Put sesame oil, gook ganjang, black pepper, pinch of sugar (optional), dashida, and garlic in with the small pieces of beef.
2. Saute beef until browned.
3. Add water.
4. Once boiling, add miyuk and boil for 5 minutes.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.
(About 4 servings)

Usually eaten with rice and kimchi on the side. Bon appetit!

a non-real post

I tried making pahjun (the green onion pancake, or better known as the seafood pancake), but it didn't turn out very well so I'm gonna try again before posting a recipe for that. One thing was that I used flour (something suggested online) rather than this frying mix (tweegeem ggarru) that my mom suggested because I was too lazy to go out and buy it. BUT my mom says that makes it taste bad, so I'm gonna have to invest in some of that (although it's only like $1-2). I also didn't put in very many things in it. I put in mushrooms and green onion (of course).. once again, this was because I didn't wanna go out to buy anything. Next time will be legit and I'll post!

Soondubu jjigae (Spicy Soft Tofu Stew)

Soondubu is really popular at Korean restaurants in America and so when other people ask me to make something, this is one of the main dishes they ask about. I've attempted making soondubu once before and it tasted a lot like mapo tofu (good mapo tofu, but still not a success :\). My mom said that she also had difficulty making this dish, so this time I looked up a bunch of recipes and combined the parts that seemed good. This time it turned out really well!



Ingredients:
1 1/2 Tbsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp gochuggaru (red pepper flakes)
1/2 onion sliced into strips
1/2 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp gook ganjang (soup soy sauce)
1/2 cup of beef (bulgogi) -- can be replaced with seafood or pork belly or kimchi for a vegetarian version (obviously use vegetable stock instead of beef broth stuff if you want that)
2 containers of soondubu (extra soft tofu)
1 1/2 cups of water -- can be replaced with beef stock or water boiled with seaweed for awhile
1/4 tsp dashida (beef broth granules)
1 Tbsp gochujjang (red pepper paste)
4 or so mushrooms sliced
2 green onions sliced
salt

Directions:

1. Lightly fry sesame oil, sliced onion, gochuggaru, garlic, soy sauce, and beef over medium heat.
2. Add water and dashida and bring to a boil.
3. Add in tofu, gochujjang, mushrooms, and bring to a boil again.
4. Add in egg and green onions and boil until egg is cooked. Salt to taste.

This makes a medium spicy tofu stew (if you'd like less spicy, put less gochuggaru and/or gochujjang in it). Only thing I would change from my version is that I used marinated bulgogi (beef) and it makes it taste a bit more like bulgogi than I'd like. Next time I would use non-marinated. Eat with rice on the side (I like rice with everything haha) and you're good to go! Yum, soondubu!