Ben Lewis

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Korean Beef Soybean Stew / Doenjang jjigae (된장찌개).

Ben Lewis

One of our favourite Korean soups is this hearty beef soybean stew. I have a personal mission to not only expand and improve my cooking in general - but also focus on Korean dishes. This was my very first attempt at making this - and I was really happy with how it turned out.

This soup is actually quite simple to make - though some of the ingredients might require a special trip to the Korean grocer to obtain.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 200g, Korean Radish (cut into thin, bite size piece - see photos)

  • 1 Zucchini, cut into thin quarters

  • 1 onion, chopped

  • 3 stalks spring onion

  • 300-400g beef (try for higher quality stew meat or other well-marbled cut) 

  • 450g pack of soft-medium tofu  (you may wish to increase this as the tofu was really good!)

  • 6 tbsp Korean soybean paste (doenjang)

  • 3 tbsp Korean chili pepper paste (gochujang) - Note: you may wish to reduce this to 2 or 1 tbsp if you were wanting to make it milder.

  • 6 cloves of minced garlic  (minced/chopped finely)

  • 1.2 L of Korean Anchovy Stock (comes in teabags, I used 2 of them). Alternatively you may be able to use water used to wash rice

  • Black pepper to taste



    Optional ingredients:

  • 1 chili pepper (green and/or red). The recipe actually called for this to be added, but gochujang provides a good base level of spice to the soup - I would only add the extra chilli if you were keen on a quite spicy soup.

  • I’ve been told that you can add mushrooms and potatoes to this dish. I think I’ll try the mushrooms next time.

  • There is also a variant that uses thinly sliced shabu shabu style beef - which I would like to try another time.

METHOD:

  1. Cut up all the veggies, and ingredients that require chopping. The photo below will help you visualise the way I cut them into “"bite-sized” pieces.

2. Preheat a large pot. Brown the meat (just sealing until it’s no longer pink).

3. Add the radish and continue to cook for a few minutes (the aim is to cook the radish a little).

4. Add the liquid base (stock/rice water), soybean paste, and chili pepper paste. Stir well to dissolve the pastes. Boil over medium high heat for 4 to 5 minutes.

5. Add the tofu, onion, zucchini and garlic. Boil for an additional 5 to 6 minutes.

6. Just before serving, add in spring onion and cook for another minute or two.

7. Serve in bowl with some rice.